Its probably a bad thing to reveal which company I work for here :).
The right people at MSFT are on the case (on a Sunday morning during Memorial Day weekend no less) and are trying to sort things out. I left a comment on the Consumerist post asking Bill to send me an email so that we can speed things along.
There's no excuse for billing mistakes like this. But everyone needs to be aware that using a debit card for purchases like these (any large dollar amount) can cause problems like this. If the gentleman in question had used a credit card a solution would be one chargeback away. Debit cards are convenient but their great weakness is that if there is a mistake with your account you are locked away from your money until it is resolved. With credit it is the card issuer's money which is under contention. Protect yourself. Use a credit card for purchases, then pay off the balance. It's safer than giving a merchant direct access to your bank account.
The right people at MSFT are on the case (on a Sunday morning during Memorial Day weekend no less) and are trying to sort things out. I left a comment on the Consumerist post asking Bill to send me an email so that we can speed things along.