One Response

1. Adam Peters

   30|May|2007

   So after not playing the Xbox 360 all weekend, we get back in town and fire it up. Mind you, it’s a launch console that has had only the occassional freeze up. Nothing to write home about. We boot up Halo3 Beta and she comes to a halt. Freezes completely and a bottom right red light starts flashing. No error code. Okay, we restart – and can’t even get past the launch screen without it freezing and blinking the same bottom right red light. I call Customer Support and they have me plug the Xbox powersource straight into a wall jack (I guess it has a built in power surge? That’s what CSR said) – no luck. Okay, disconnect the hard drive and boot it up – still freezing, same right light and no error message. They tell me it’s a hardware failure but can’t explain nothing else. They tell me because it’s out of warranty (December 2006) that it’ll be $139 to have them repair it (that includes shipping and 1 month of Xbox Live). I ask to speak to a supervisor – obviously not happy about this – but I refrain from yelling and screaming at them – after all they didn’t create the problem – they just need to help solve it. Well I get “Sean” – the CSR manager. What a total jerk this guy is. No sympathy, no explanation, nothing. He just says basically, “too bad, so sad”. Now I’m at the point of “what can I do?” which is basically eat the cost, buy a new one or lose out on the $1000s of dollars I’ve poured into games and accessories. So he hangs up on me after I keep telling them they should at least split half the cost.

   Well, knowing darn well that I have to eat this $140 price I call back, get a different CSR girl, she offers me a paltry 25% discount, that one lousy month of Xbox Live and then puts me on hold for 10 minutes to tell me she can offer me Kameo or Project Gotham Racing 3. In total I get that for $104 plus they pay for shipping and a year warranty. Fair deal or not?

   NO WAY! I’ve been a gamer since the Atari days and I’ve never, EVER had a hardware failure on ANY of my game consoles. It’s not like we play it a lot, it’s in a well ventilated area, lays on it’s side, has never been moved or touched since we bought it on launch (unlike what the CSR rep. kept INSISTING that the hardware failure was caused because of one of these issues).

   Hindsight, I should have claimed foul on my Xbox 360 launch console in December just to get a new one. Instead, 5 months after the crap out (oh, they claim Xbox failure is rare – yeah, don’t read the forums or any of the gaming sites do you?) I have to pay $100 more bucks and miss out on the majority of the only reason I own an X360 – the Halo 3 beta.

   Microsoft, I’m very disappointed in your treatment of a loyal customer. I would never buy a PS3 but perhaps I’ll just keep investing in my Wii. After all, 5 solid systems later and I know Nintendo won’t crash on me.

   I will keep contacting Microsoft customer service until I am satisfied that I have spent $100 of their time talking to me. It’s grassroots and really the only choice I have to reclaim my money. After all, the only choice you have left me is to pay the repair costs of a console you obviously do not stand behind. I plan on doing this June 1st. I proclaim is “CALL YOUR MICROSOFT CSR DAY”. It’s one little thing we can do to show our displeasure on how everything is being handled. I implore you to embrace June 1st as CALL YOUR MICROSOFT CSR DAY. Maybe the overwhelming calls will get their attention. Just tell them that what they are doing is releasing an inferior product and not supporting it.

   Thank you,

   theasp18