My Xbox 360 Support Story

kevinpars · Post by **kevinpars** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 5:15 pm

I bought a 360 in December 2005. I got the 2 year MS extended warranty at that time.

My first 360 died in March. I called support and got a replacement (refurbished unit) in April 2006.

Today my second unit died. Same problem as the first one - the "checkboard" screen freeze followed by the red lights. I called 360 support and got some bad news. The service department at MS had never transferred my warranty from my original 360 to my replacement 360.

What does this mean? After talking to the 360 support person and his supervisor, I am going to have to write a letter to the Service Contract Department and ask them to help me resolve the problem that they caused in the first place. Once this problem is resolved and my extended warranty is transferred to my replacement Xbox 360, I can then contact MS support and get them to send me a box to replace my second broken 360.

In other words, MS 360 support won't even send me a box (coffin) to send back my broken 360 until I resolve the problem by sending a letter to the Service Contract Department. At least a week has been added to my waiting period due to a mistake that was made by Microsoft.

If you have a replacement 360 and received a letter with your replacement console stating the following, consider yourself forewarned. The following is quoted from the letter from Microsoft:

"We will handle these administrative functions for you.

1. - We will perform the warranty registration of the replacement console for you. If you had already registered your old unit, we will cancel the old registration.

2. - If you purchased a Microsoft Extended Service Contract, we will establish a new contract to cover the replacement unit an cancel the Microsoft Extended Service Contract forf the old unit."

If you have this letter, don't trust it. Call Microsoft and make sure that the warranty you paid for was transferred. Otherwise you could end up like me.

DivotMaker · Post by **DivotMaker** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 5:20 pm

Sorry to hear of your frustrations. This is why I purchased my 360 at CompUSA and paid for a 2 year TAP replacement warranty. Bring the defective unit in, walk out with a new one. Good luck getting your situation resolved.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 7:07 pm

Yeah, I bought a one year warranty through Gamestop and the manager assured me that if mine broke, "Simply bring it in and will give you a brand new one."

Hopefully, you can get your issue resolved fast.

seanmac31 · Post by **seanmac31** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 7:30 pm

Wow, that's odd. I didn't have the best of experiences with Microsoft's tech support myself- I sent in my first 360, waited roughly 12 days for a replacement (I'm spoiled by Apple, who has a 3-4 day turnaround), and then found that the unit they sent me froze after about thirty seconds of gameplay. I called and complained, and MS went ahead and sent me another new 360 along with a copy of PGR3. So technically I'm on my third unit.

Jason · Post by **Jason** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 7:36 pm

BBB.org

I've had so much luck with the Better Business Bureau and never hesitate to use them when I have problems with a company.

K_Mosley · Post by **K_Mosley** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 9:37 pm

Hey Jason,

If you don't mind, would you care to elaborate on what kind of results you got with the BBB? I've often thought of trying that, but I thought they just kind of recorded complaints; not gotten results...

Thanks,

Kevin

Jason · Post by **Jason** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 9:54 pm

K_Mosley wrote:Hey Jason,

If you don't mind, would you care to elaborate on what kind of results you got with the BBB? I've often thought of trying that, but I thought they just kind of recorded complaints; not gotten results...

Thanks,

Kevin

These are the following companies I remember off the top of my head that I've reported and gotten results from:

1. Fisher Price: The baby monitor I had purchased had stopped working and Fisher Price wouldn't ship me a new one until they received the broken one. I couldn't go 2 weeks without a baby monitor and would have had to buy a new one. I filed my complaint online and Fisher Price sent me a new one and I never had to return the broken one.

2. Ethan Allen: We had some complaints about the quality of some over-priced furniture we purchased from them and got no results from the store manager. I filed a complaint with the BBB and Ethan Allen then replaced all the furniture.

3. Wachovia Bank: I opened an account with Wachovia and nothing but problems with my account. I complained to the BBB and Wachovia agreed to waive the early termination fee from my account.

4. HSBC Mastercard: I had a complaint about a finance charge and was getting nowhere with the customer service dept. After filing a complaint with the BBB, I had $80 in fees refunded to my card.

5. Munchkin: We had bought sippy cups for my daughter that leaked. The company would only replace the cups with the same item. We had purchased two sets of the cups and both sets leaked so I didn't want replacement cups. Plus, we had also bought Playtex replacement cups already. After complaining to the BBB, Munchkin let us choose anything of equal value from their online store and sent us some extra stuff too.

There are others that I can't remember off of the top of my head too.

The moral of the story - it's worth it to complain.

K_Mosley · Post by **K_Mosley** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 10:01 pm

Thanks! It's good to hear that it actually works... Next time we get screwed over, I'm going to the BBB!

Kevin

Jason · Post by **Jason** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 10:23 pm

K_Mosley wrote:Thanks! It's good to hear that it actually works... Next time we get screwed over, I'm going to the BBB!

Kevin

That sounds like a line from a comercial

bdunn13 · Post by **bdunn13** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 1:25 am

You would think the MS service department would be better than they are, I mean they are getting a ton of practice. Likewise, the last thing they should want you to do is go buy a new 360(since they lose money on them).

F308GTB · Post by **F308GTB** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 6:55 am

bdunn13 wrote:You would think the MS service department would be better than they are, I mean they are getting a ton of practice. Likewise, the last thing they should want you to do is go buy a new 360(since they lose money on them).

Uh, say it costs them X to make them. Net loss on a bought one is then Y1=399-X. If you didn't buy another one the net loss if they gave a free replacement would be Y2=0-X. Sure you're taking a loss on the sale, but the loss is even greater if you give the stuff away.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 8:45 am

F308GTB wrote:Uh, say it costs them X to make them. Net loss on a bought one is then Y1=399-X. If you didn't buy another one the net loss if they gave a free replacement would be Y2=0-X. Sure you're taking a loss on the sale, but the loss is even greater if you give the stuff away.

It sounds like they are giving refurbished units out though so the replacement formula could be Y2=0-Z (the cost of refurbishing). Z may be less than Y1.

This is way too much math for DSP.

kevinpars · Post by **kevinpars** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 3:19 pm

What I have done so far is write the letter I had to write (to MS Warranty people to fix my problem) and I also sent a letter to MS corporate (I made the support people supply me with an address where to send it). I also did what I told the support supervisor I would do (post at sports websites like here and at OS, over at a few xbox fan sites and at Xbox.com boards. I also sent an email to Major Nelson.)

The support person suggested that if I raised a fuss that I might get some satisfaction, but I don't want a copy of PGR2 or some other MS game, I simply want them to get me a damn working Xbox 360. This is the second unit of mine that has gone the way of the checkerboard issue. It does the same thing a video card does when you overclock it too much. And I am extra careful about heat issues.

I am sure that some of you have seen the same thing. No warning. One day it works, the next it freezes. I can live with that, but not the fact that I have to sit on a dead 360 until I hear back from the warranty people to let me know they fixed their mistake. That pisses me off.

bdunn13 · Post by **bdunn13** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 3:45 pm

Leebo33 wrote:
F308GTB wrote:Uh, say it costs them X to make them. Net loss on a bought one is then Y1=399-X. If you didn't buy another one the net loss if they gave a free replacement would be Y2=0-X. Sure you're taking a loss on the sale, but the loss is even greater if you give the stuff away.
It sounds like they are giving refurbished units out though so the replacement formula could be Y2=0-Z (the cost of refurbishing). Z may be less than Y1.

This is way too much math for DSP.

Exactly.. if you go out and buy a new one, then they have nothing to refurbish and it costs them more.