I just delt with this on last Friday. I had an old card on my account, they tried to bill me for a month straight (which I still had Gold access on my account). I had a 12 month card but figured I would keep rolling with this as long as I could. Then I wanted to buy Braid, so I went to type in my 12 month card to get it up-to-date and it would not accept it because I did not have a valid credit card on my account.
I called up M$ and spoke to someone who was able to cancel my account and hold with me on the phone while I typed in my 12 month card and activated it. No charges, no problems. I then added my up-to-date credit card and downloaded Braid
No fuss, no BS.
No fuss? no bs? kinda sounds like it was a fuss and bs to me anyway.
This has not happened to me so I guess I can't speak too much.. but if it did happen to me I would definently get a detailed reason as to why the weird charges. Of Course there are a hell of alot more people that do not have any issues at all and we hear about the 1 or 2 people that get screwed and those for some reason stick out over what hundred thousands? millions?