A trick with Xbox Game Pass and Fortnite ends badly: some players lose 1,000 V-Bucks for requesting a refund

The 1 € offer was working, but a misstep has left several users without rewards.

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Over the past few days, many players have taken advantage of a Christmas offer of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for just 1 €, a particularly attractive promotion because the service includes Fortnite Crew as an additional benefit. The move was clear: activate the trial, receive the rewards, and if you’re not interested in continuing, cancel the subscription before the next charge.

The problem arose later, when some users took it a step further and requested a refund of the euro, instead of just canceling the automatic renewal. That’s where the trick went wrong.

What exactly happened with the 1,000 V-Bucks

By activating Xbox Game Pass Ultimate with the 1 € offer, players received the full benefits of Fortnite Crew, even if they already had the subscription active from another platform. Among these benefits were 1,000 V-Bucks, which were automatically added to the Fortnite account.

The recommendation was simple: cancel the subscription to avoid future charges. However, some users opted to request a refund of the payment, something very different from canceling. By doing so, Microsoft revokes access to all benefits associated with the subscription… including the V-Bucks obtained.

In practice, this has meant that several players have lost the 1,000 V-Bucks, as the system considers that they never had the right to them after the purchase was canceled.

Canceling is not the same as refunding

• Canceling the subscription: you keep the benefits until the active period ends.

• Requesting a refund: you immediately lose access to everything included in the subscription.

In the context of Fortnite Crew and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, this difference is key. The 1 € offer is still very advantageous if managed correctly, but requesting a refund automatically invalidates all rewards.