Hey fellow vgchartzians (yes, that's an actual word). Some of you know me, it doesn't really matter. I'm having huge issues with Microsoft support; namely that they're impossible to get a hold of. I've been trying to resolve an issue since October of last year. Short description of the issue:

I work with care and treatment of young boys with neuropsychiatric disorders - mostly autism and various comorbidities. We each have two kids over which we own a number of responsibilities and insights. One of my kids loves Minecraft (like most 14-year olds, it seems), and wanted to subscribe to a realm. I used my own debit card to try to purchase one, but it didn't work. I couldn't get Paypal to function either. After some time, and the kid's growing frustrations, we called his mother, who made the purchase on her Paypal. He received the subscription and played for a couple of months, before canceling it.
Here's the kicker; as it turns out, the transaction on my card did go through, in spite of all the error messages indicating it hadn't succeeded. And now, a third-party banking service (Klarna) is charging me a recurring sum monthly, on behalf of Microsoft. Klarna can't stop the subscription, only halt the payment temporarily until I settle the issue with MS.
MS, on their end, have proven to be downright impossible to reach on any channel. They no longer have a phone-based customer service here (Sweden), the one e-mail address I've been given doesn't function for some reason (I get an error message from gmail after about 24 hours), and I'm currently waiting for the chat to respond (my 5th attempt at this). The chat gives me an estimate on where in the queue I am currently, but nothing ever happens. It always ends with the widget shutting down due to technical issues, or the service closing for the day. As for the general FAQ and tips; there's nothing subscription-based to see or cancel on my MS account, nor on that of the above-mentioned kid. For all intents and purposes, the product doesn't exist, only the monthly payment.

TLDR; Microsoft are charging me for a product that is invisible on my own account, as well as the account of the person I bought/didn't ever buy the product for, so I can't manually shut it down. 3rd party bank have their hands tied, and MS themselves are some sort of ethereal entity that I can't seem to connect with.

What the hell do I do?

Edit; this is my first thread in many years, I hate how it's so boring!

can't your bank just stop them from charging your card? or did they say need a new card.

Bank is unable to help, they refer me to the service-provider, and I'm stuck in a loop. Essentially, the bank would at the very least require the service-provider to affirm that my complaint is legitimate.

Can you get a new debit card issued?  It will not get your money back but it would stop the bleeding. With a new CVC number and expiration date your bank should automatically decline any future transactions.  Perhaps that will trigger the originator of the transactions to reach out to you to see why they aren't getting your money....

Had a similar issue with Office 365 subscription (10 years ago?). I subscribed voluntarily but it never showed up on my account and I couldn’t cancel the sub when I decided it wasn't for me anymore.

MS support couldn’t help, I was being charged month after month (small amounts) and eventually, I gave up and deactivated the card and got a new one issued. I was looking into changing banks back then as well so it motivated me to get it done shortly after

Hats off to what you do, it’s a difficult job.

Their service has always sucked.

Damn, I guess I'll have to try that if this latest attempt doesn't pan out. Which sucks, mine was issued only last September, I hate doing the rounds and updating it for all apps and stores all over again. I've never been in this particular situation before, and it shouldn't even be possible with all the various traces and fail-safes of modern tech and services. Software companies should generally be able to solve software issues with their own software.

@Random_Matt: Yeah, it's quite a disaster for MS. They're literally the world's biggest company, you'd think that some of that 3 trillion dollars could be spent on customer service. This is exactly why I don't want companies to grow too big to care.

Can you claim fraud at your bank? I had a similar issue with my Dutch bank account (kept it after moving to Canada) where I noticed that someone was using my bank account for a Netflix type service, monthly payments were deducted. My bank shut it down and even got me some money back without ever having to deal with the service provider.

I closed my Dutch bank account a few years ago (That was the hard part lol, had to do it in person at the bank while I was visiting the Netherlands. The fraud problem was easily handled over the phone)

I usually have no issues getting chat support from Microsoft, but only when I go to the main support site and start it as a Windows Account issue. The gaming division never answers. But the main support will route you through.

Apple support is great.

I tried the main support chat today, I was number 1 in the queue for 40 minutes, then it was my turn for 45 minutes, and then the chat crapped out (like it did all the time before). I sent another e-mail, we'll see if it comes back with the same error message as before. If it does, I'll have to speak to my main bank. It's not a huge sum (about 7$ or so), but it's not right.