The difficult economic situation that the southernmost country in the world is going through is also present in the world of video games and digital subscriptions with increasingly worrying edges. Microsoft, along with Steam and other digital platforms, has always been an ally of the player and of the Argentine consumer, in general, with your firm bet on the local currencywhich allowed people to legally access services and games and significantly reduced piracy of their products.
With these practices, The Argentinians came to have the “cheapest games in the world” In international comparison, although of course, on other platforms, the dollar has always been used as currency, which today is almost prohibitive in the world champion football country. Without intending to mention the conflicting local politics, any native of Argentina or casual tourist knows the difficult task of procuring dollars in a market full of different changes between official and unofficial organizations which, in turn, oscillate daily and which now They are already beginning to affect other daily activities, such as subscriptions to services such as Xbox Game Pass and Office 365
The odyssey of paying for an Xbox Game Pass subscription with a card in Argentina
One of our readers alerted us to the blocking of accounts suffered by some Microsoft users in the country for alleged violations of the Terms of Service, and this is due, again, to international payments, which I will detail below.
Already last November, some resellers had started sending their customers e-mails indicating that they were unable to place new orders due to problems with foreign transfers. This particular has become commonplace with companies such as Microsoft, Apple, HPE, IBM and Lenovo, causing the Argentine Chamber of Software Industry (Cessi) to issue a statement stating that the greater barriers to imports had begun with communication “A” 7532 from the country’s Central Bank and that could cripple the activity of all companies that use external software in their production processes
From bad to worse
Despite all these realities, subscriptions to Microsoft services from Argentina have continued to work with some regularity, but earlier this month many received a notification from the Redmond company informing them that there was no was not possible to use the current payment method (even if they had been using it for months or years) and try a new one. Although this started out as a problem almost exclusively for Visa cards, the problem now seems to be for any card, based on feedback from multiple users.
In the month of April, the situation worsened, since several banks, unable to carry out the international transaction, decided to reimburse their customers, which Microsoft’s automated systems understand as a violation of the current terms and conditions, for what is not uncommon user accounts that have been blocked in a scenario where anyone who pays and requests a service is doubly punished by the country’s local policies and by the company that doesn’t seem to understand what’s going on.
This news is in development because the change is constant, but if you have been a victim of this problem, I would like you to leave your experience in the comments. From this house we will do everything possible to collaborate in the rapid resolution of this delicate situation, although for now we only recommend the use of an international account such as Paypal for payment, or the use of Microsoft gift cards that can be purchased from official sites and physical stores.
