1st off 360 fans don't defend the rrod and stick with it only because they still prefer it over other consoles. You make it sound like MS is the only company that screws people over or something lol. We get screwed over so many times in different ways, and all you can do is complain about MS like a little wussy. Why don't you get out there and complain about bigger issues rather than being a complete idiotic fanboy who blames MS for freaking everything. I think it's screwed for them if they take the money back, but then again if it was to much then it was to much. This whole give everything away free because you have the money mentality is just retarded.

"1st off 360 fans don't defend the rrod and stick with it only because they still prefer it over other consoles."

I never said they defend the RROD. I said they defend Microsoft after having the RROD, even if they had it more than once. If I bought a product from any company and the product was faulty and the company knowingly sold the faulty product, I would never buy a product from that company again. Yea, they extended their warranty but not because they were considerate or because they wanted to. They had to! otherwise they would of had to deal with tons of lawsuits.

"You make it sound like MS is the only company that screws people over or something lol. We get screwed over so many times in different ways, and all you can do is complain about MS like a little wussy."

Yes, I know Microsoft isn't the only company that screws people over. So I'm not "acting" like they're the only ones. When did I say they were the only ones?

"Why don't you get out there and complain about bigger issues rather than being a complete idiotic fanboy who blames MS for freaking everything."

I'm not complaining about anything. I just said it was messed up and that it's sad that people still defend Microsoft after the sh*t they do. It's like those women that get beaten by a man in a relationship. They get physically abused all the time, but they never do anything to put a stop to it. And I'm not not an idiotic fan boy. You're the one that's coming off as one since you're getting mad because I said it was sad what Microsoft did. You're probably one of those 360 fan boys I was talking about.

"This whole give everything away free because you have the money mentality is just retarded."

Yup, it's only retarded cause Microsoft is the one asking for money back. Had this been Sony you would have been saying how bad Sony is.

yet another plus for capitalism... god bless america

But do you know the average CEO of an American company makes more than 100 times his average blue collar employee does, yet the average Japanese CEO only makes 10 times more? I am sure the numbers have widened in both cases since the time I learned of those astonishing facts. Something to really think about isn't it?

I bet you stay in America too you freaking douche. Don't hate on my country because you think yours or others can do it better.

Edit spy: Instead of worrying about what ceo's in the USA make why don't you ask yourself why others don't try and make there own money sheesh.

If Microsoft takes these people to court (which they will lose), I wonder how they are going to spin this to the media to avoid backlash

with what? sorry I miscalculate doesnt work in court.

knowing MS probally yes if they are doing this already

Oh DJ, your hate for Microsoft runs as deep as the great blue ocean, I'm sure you love this article.

Imagine you got laid off, handed some severance pay, used it to pay off bills, and were relying on it to survive when suddenly a month later you get a letter from your former employer saying "Pay us this amount, or else."

wtf? I commented not that far down saying this was bullsh*t. I was joking around with you. Dude, people on this site need a fuc*ing chillaxative.

Excel fecked up my business's payroll too...

I'd be like ''HEEEEEEECK NO''

Or how about you were a sales person with 5 mouths to feed and sold an item for thousands less on accident. Now your job is unwilling to pay you for a year because you refused to call the customer back and correct the issue. If you were short changed then I gauruntee you would try and get that money back.

My point is that they're not actually providing an actual proof with specific details concerning the severance payout error.

shut the fvck up. Stop blindly defending this, it's not just cuz it's MS. If any corporation did that people would throw a b!tch fit. It's underhanded and cruel. Corporate bigwigs should have THEIR salaries slashed because their company is under performing, but they get 6 figure raises every year, even during a recession, and their workers keep getting laid off.

What if you had 5 mouths to feed and you got laid off from your job expecting the severance pay to help you feed your family til you can get back on your feet? If your old company sent you a letter demanding you give them some of that money back I'd bet you'd be pissed.

Get back in the sewer you crawled out of.

Thats what the letter would have said if the lay offs were in the Gaming division. Damn I hope they didnt spend all that money.

Blacklisting. That's something you don't want to happen.
It happens a lot to whistle blowers and it can easily happen to these former employee. Another company will be skeptical about hiring those ex-employees who kept the money, since any company can make a mistake, and wouldn't want these same people to keep those money.

MS should give refunds to 360 owners who have had multiple problems with their 360's. They should also refund the money they made off of charging for an online service that is free on other platforms. MS as a brand is becoming a consumer eyesore.

Supporting M$ is a CRIME! Time is changing Shadow Man.

Even if they can't legally do that, they can legally blacklist these people. I've seen companies do that and have heard stories about how some people are blacklisted in working for big companies.

Where's the proof to back that up? 85%? really? Wow, your delusional fan boy mind wants you to believe that. Sorry to burst your bubble but that's horse crap. If 85% of Bill Gates money was going toward charity, he wouldn't really have money for 50 million dollar DLC.

Gates backs population control in africa!! You think hes giving 85% of his money for nothing yea right.

uh Right. I heard Bill Gates bought an Island with all that money too.

WTF were did that come from?!?

He ran his (deceased) father's company into the ground, filed for bankruptcy, and still made a huge profit off the facility that we subsequently had to move off of. Our VP was able to salvage the company, but the fact that the former President was also charging us 12,000 a month in rent was just crazy.

Thank god we got out of there.

Has it tougher than anyone else out there. I don't know how you can sugarcoat something like this. Steve Ballmer should've just accepted his Accounting Department's mistake and kept the situation quiet.

People's true colors show in a recession.

OMG, he's giving money to the third world instead of US! OMG, what an a-hole!!!

:( No matter what your situation is, it's not as bad as people who have their money deteriorating enough that the government slashes three zeros off the end of it every week while people starve to death, or people who have AIDS in Africa without even a little government support to fall back on (yeah, the US doesn't have much, but they've got something), or, to pick a cause BG supports in his insane way, people who have malaria and no access to health care or clean water or mosquito nets. Yeah, he gets tax breaks because he donates, that doesn't make the donations bad.

Even in a recession like this one, America is one of the wealthiest countries in the world.

Good point friend. They should also hit up human resources. There is a chain of approvals a severance package must go thru. If there was a problem someone should have caught it before the documents were signed.

That's just how it is.

I can tell you, most CEOs would rather sack employees than take a personal paycut (not matter what their Net worth is) because it's an inconvience to them. Sadly, because the people on money are also the decision makers, they often don't choose to cut themselves.

Then you have a company like Apple, and while I don't particularly like their products, their CEO works for $1 a year, and they seem to be dealing with the recession with no problems.

It's not always the lowest level of employee that gets laid off, because they are the least compensated. Often it's midlevel, skilled employees, and long term employees that get axed due to their higher compensation packages. Then companies split those responsibilities among lower level, lower skilled employees, and the workplace becomes hell for everyone.

A question for everyone hating on MS. If they underpaid, would you expect them to do the right thing, and properly compensate people? Works both ways. What if you and a friend were both laid off at MS, and your friend got $10,000 more than you, even though you both were supposed to receive the same compensation? You would harbor no ill will? No jealousy? Not likely.

This is not a question of who has more money, it's a matter of right and wrong. Do people not even know what their severance package consists of? If I am overpaid it's NOT MY MONEY TO BEGIN WITH. If I am knowingly overpaid, and I choose to cash the check, I am just as culpable.

Now clearly, MS should've thought of the negative publicity involved, and weighed that against the amount of over-compensation. I personally wouldn't have the heart to ask for the money back, unless the amounts were so high, it would cripple the company (likely NOT the case with MS), as I have the well-being of my retained employees to consider.

Lastly, why would anyone not expect this from a company whose business model is ship now patch later? They do it with software, they do it with hardware, and apparently they do it with severance compensation.

Umm the news was everywhere(on some other sites, probably on here too) that Microsoft was laying off workers because the SDF were going "HA! Microsofts going down!", ignoring the fact that Sony were laying off workers.

yeah sony may be leting people go but i dont think they are asking for money back after they fire them what your saying is something totaly diffrent.

umm doesnt seem to be cause every Market Share data comes out MS continues to Slip and Mac continues to gain buddy so try another excuse fanboy.

Look I feel bad for those laid off from every company. As an employee who is more highly compensated (because of my skill and dedication) than my counterparts, I am fully aware that I may be on the chopping block, if my company needs to downsize. Companies often discard higher compensations, in favor of retaining lower ones.

But ethics, come on? Do you know what the word means? It's a system of principles, of right and wrong, of values. Under what circumstances would you consider keeping something that doesn't rightfully belong to you as ethical?

Certainly MS could try to be more generous and benelovent, but asking for the money back is not a breach of ethics.

To ask money back from being that just lost their jobs in disgusting. I don't see how it was vital for them to ask for the money back since they are still making some profits.

Tbh, defending MS over this article isn't standing anyone in good stead.

As I stated elsewhere in this thread:

'Now clearly, MS should've thought of the negative publicity involved, and weighed that against the amount of over-compensation. I personally wouldn't have the heart to ask for the money back, unless the amounts were so high, it would cripple the company (likely NOT the case with MS), as I have the well-being of my retained employees to consider.'

I'm not defending MS. I've stated only dire circumstances could force me to do a thing like this, and it was unlikely that MS was facing those circumstances. I also imply that it's a poor business move in light of the publicity, and that the company has a responsibility to the well-being of their retained employees. What I didn't do was call them the Anti-Christ or Satan himself. By not damning them to the eternal flame of hell, I was in no way defending them.

In the broader sense of ethics, of which you speak, you would also have to take into account motivation, not just end result. Does anyone truly believe MS's sole reason for doing this is to break it off in the ass of former employees? To use the greed angle just doesn't work in my opinion. Since the purpose of business is to profit, all companies in good times and bad could be seen as greedy, therefore making that too broad and weak an argument.

Ethics can deal in shades of grey, rather than absolutes. While you may not consider their actions ethical, I don't believe they can be clearly defined as unethical.

I don't agree, I don't defend, and I would not have the heart to do this myself. I am however, trying to take a logical and unemotional look at the situation.

Bubbles for the thoughtful exchange.

But I don't think even they can handle this.

Besides, they probably got letters like this themselves when MS laid them off.