I suppose I have to explain the full story for this to make sense. At one time I had a gamertag that matched my online presence, "zefie". As you know all gamertags are attached to a Windows Live ID, but it is not a seamless marriage. Without thinking, while I didn't have a working XBox 360, I deleted the Windows Live ID that the xbox live profile was attached to. Deleting the Windows Live ID while not having a copy of the profile on an XBox = "corrupt" (in Microsoft terminology). "Lost" in real world terminology This made it impossible to recover. After a few weeks of research and verification on Microsoft's side, they granted me 12 months of XBox Live Gold as well as about 22800 points (everything I spent on my old gamertag) to compensate. However, the old gamertag still exists, in limbo, without an owner. The way I see it the 12m Gold is for the loss of the gamerscore, the points (which I had to ask for seperately, mind you) were for all the DLC, but nothing for the loss of the name. I was wondering if there would be some way to convince MS to delete the old gamertag completely and grant a free rename so I can reclaim my original name? Or if someone here has some trickery to get the old one back?
I don't think there is anything you can do to get MS to delete "corrupt" gamertags, I have tried in the past. My gamertag from the original Xbox days still exists on Xbox Live, I even have the account information for it on my original Xbox... I never used live back then so let it expire. When I got a 360 there was no way for me to re activate that account and transfer it over, Microsoft will not delete it either so its basically lost in cyber space as you say. If you contact Xbox support after applying a 12month live sub you should be able to get a free rename, of course that doesn't really help as ive not heard of anyone been successful in getting a gamertag deleted.