That's the only conclusion I made after reading the OP. Of course the customer service guys aren't always informed about issues, but that's because they weren't trained properly and just thrown there to answer angry customers.

Unfortunately in customer service you get calls like Puggsly's all day long. People do not realize that the customer rep isn't at fault, so no reason to be a total dick to them. The caller thinks their day is hard because their console can't download or their phone randomly closes apps, but those customer reps day is worse. They have to deal with assholes who yell or act like sarcastics twits all day long.

I have never once had an issue with customer service for anything, but of course I am also very polite on the phone. My most recent customer service call was to Apple and they were a total delight to work with and very polite as well.

I understand you were frustrated.  I know the feeling well.  It's not going to do any good insulting customer service reps, though, as they're just low wage workers with little training and limited tools.  They're trained to deal with billing, accounts, and hardware, or sometimes just one or two of those.  With game problems, they run through a standard check-list and that's it.  They can look in the KB to see if an issue has been written about but there is probably nothing there, or it's hidden under mounds of obsolete data.

The guy got the developer wrong, probably just by searching for "halo" instead of the full title.  It was a mistake but kind of understandable.  Xbox support isn't Microsoft Studios, though.  They're as far removed from 343i as they are from Square Enix, virtually speaking.  You probably were even talking to a Microsoft employee.

If you want to be angry at anyone, be angry at Microsoft.  Their training program has almost nothing to do with the game themselves.  It's more about accounts and billing (understandable), how to show Microsoft in a positive light (ALWAYS plug Xbox.com and NEVER say things like "red ring of death"), and how to use on-screen check-lists and read prompts.

Tried to type in the code with my xbox and via website  both didnt work gave me some error codes I cant remember.

Called the support they also tried the code and the conclusion was "its expired we deactivated the codes".

I can somewhat understand the shop not wanting to help me because their argument is "we have no proof whether or not the code worked so you could have bought the game used the code and now want to return the game so you basically got a code for free" (even tho it says Expires XX/XX/2013)

But MS not wanting to help me is pretty shitty.

These guys have to be polite with the customer even if they are being total dicks or they will lose their jobs. This kind of behavior, forcefully acting as a nice guy when you actually want to say way less educate words is really stressful.

I've actually worked customer service.

When the customers told me they already did certain steps with someone from the company we didn't force them to do it again.

This was my second time contacting MS at this point and it was the same useless advice from a new person. Bearing in mind that I already called about this specific issue, they should have just wrapped it up and told me to send the console. Not make me spend over an hour doing the same basic trouble shooting AGAIN.

That's bad customer service and being rude ultimately got me where we should have started.

Or you could have just said "I called already and we did these steps. They do not work. What would be the next step after this?"

That way you bypass all that stuff you already did, but instead you went along with it and decided to be a sarcastic jerk throughout. Even going so far as making a stink about who develops Halo and making him out to be incompetant.

It could have been avoided. Plus I doubt he was the same person you talked to the other time, so no shit he tried the same steps.

To be fair, I didn't get rude until I was being jerked for over an hour and this was the second time I contacted MS about this same issue.

Bad customer service leads to a bad experience for everyone involved.

Had to do this with my PlayStation once and it well.

There is never a time when you need to be rude when seeking support.  I can tell you once you cross that bridge if you thought you were not getting help, you just killed it.  Instead you have to do the opposite.  Be very polite implore the person to do everything he or she can and ask them to go the extra mile.  You will find out tech reps are more than willing to help somone like that out and will go the extra mile to help out.

Having worked in tech support and even doing time as a MS tech support way back in the day, I have some insight for you.  They were not making you do useless stuff.  Most support cannot rely on the customer to actually have performed the basic troubleshooting steps needed to resolve issues, even if they are technical.  If MS support is like I remember, each call is logged and all steps are traked within the call.  If the issue get esculated, the person who gets the issue will review those notes so they know they do not need to cover those steps again.  The problem I see is that the issue did not get esculated.  

Were you just calling in and getting different people or did you get a issue number so that you can have the person on the other end reference your issue so that you would not have to go through the basics steps each time.  Hopfully you were civil thoughout the whole process.