Trouble linking Xbox (microsoft) account to stand-alone PC account

I would like to play back and forth on my PC/Xbox. This would mean I would purchase early access on Xbox separately. However, the problem is that I can't get the accounts to link. I get the message "cannot link accounts with the same login method".

If I purchase EA on the xbox, I'm assuming I won't be able to access the characters I've started on my PC account, which defeats the purpose of me purchasing the Xbox access.

I've tried:
Changing email on both accounts
Contacting support (sent a request on Nov 19)
Looking for a way to delete my XB account (no way to do this without support)

Anybody have any ideas? I would happily just let CS help me, but they've taken over a month and I've gotten two separate replies. One reply says they're looking into it. The other says there's nothing they can do (this one was sent first). So it really doesn't make sense at this point. If there is nothing that they can do, it would mean that I'd never be able to use the cross-save feature, essentially. In which case I just won't buy EA/mtx on Xbox. I'd think they'd want to find a solution since they're losing money here.

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Jacob_GGG wrote:

Hey there, we appreciate the feedback, and apologise for any confusion.

You can find more information on how sub-accounts between platforms work in our Account System Update thread.

Normally, if a player has linked their Path of Exile account on PC with their Xbox/Microsoft account to ensure that the purchase of the Xbox version of a Path of Exile 2 early access supporter pack is correctly added to the account in question, then the characters, progress, and microtransactions should be accessible between platforms so long as the account is eligible to participate in early access on both.

If two seperate unlinked accounts or a Path of Exile account with one sub-account on PC and one sub-account on Console are involved, then I'm afraid you'll need to contact us so that we might try to sort things out with you.

As you've already contacted us via email at support@grindinggear.com then I'm afraid you'll need to wait for the appropriate team member to get back to you.

I have contacted support yes (starting on Nov 19). I provided all information necessary, but I have two separate reply chains from different reps giving me conflicting information. One says they're working on it (haven't heard back for over a week). The other says I'm just out of luck, as there will never be a way to properly link these accounts. They're offering to delete one of the accounts (the XB one), but my issue is that I'm assuming when I go to create another account after purchasing EA, I'll run into the same issue since my e-mail is tied to my microsoft account. This seems like something that should be solvable at some level, and would be beneficial to both me and GGG to solve (as you'd be getting another purchase). The alternative is that my account is just forever restricted from using cross-progression/account merging, which seems unreasonable. And communication back and forth with support is taking 1-2 weeks each way, so this is a really difficult concept to communicate via this channel.

I have a secondary issue now. I purchased EA on my Xbox with intent to try to log into my main account. It automatically used my old Xbox account and I have no way of switching accounts or linkng my Xbox account.

GGG plz...