A Tale of 11 Broken Xbox 360s

[Flack]

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3160603

Now that's a string of bad luck.

[hezeuschrist]

As much as I'm a 360 fanboy whore, 11 dead systems (for a bizzare number of reasons at that) would really put a damper on my experience. I'm pretty suprised he's still behind the console and the company that makes it... that must speak volumes about the type of customer service he's recieved.

[nate1749]

They bring up the point that the systems being sent back to consumers are other broken units that have been "fixed." I had the same problem with my Infiniti G35 6 Disc CD Changer in my car. Once it broke, I went through a cd-changer every 30-90 days until I sold the car (for a total of about 5-7 changers).

I requested numerous times for "new" units, rather than refurbished, but they couldn't (wouldn't) do it. What's worse is the units would get shuffled back to other customers. So the unit they installed in my car could have been in a few other vehicles before mine and when it goes back it would simply (after being "fixed") go into another vehicle. So a "refurbished" unit could have broken multiple times and placed in multiple vehicles (or this guys case, the same 360 in multiple houses).

I think this is a common practice for manuf. to save $, but I'm sure if they did an extensive study to track the units they might find out that it's not as cost-effective as they might think. Also it doesn't please the consumer when they have to constantly return the products for repair. The line about what counts is how we treated them, not that it broke, is kind of BS. My dealership was amazing, but it didn't detract from how annoying it was to deal with or that it was a complete waste of my time.

I also like the new corporate key phrase "vocal minority," that's funny.

Nate

[Kejoriv]

Im expecting #5 this week back from MS.

1st - bought on a launch. red rings.
2nd - red rings
3rd - came back with a huge crack in the case
4th - wouldn't read any 360 discs only dvds and original xbox games

[chicnstu]

You would think the companies would have focused more on console quality after seeing all of the problems people had with their PS2s.

Sony and Nintendo seem to have (their systems haven't been out very long) so what happened to Microsoft?

[Skelix]

#1 launch, bought from a user here for big $$$ -> freezing issues sent back ~2 weeks of owning.

#2 refurbished unit, broke on me few months into it, rings of death in warranty sent back -> customer service awesome, people spoke clear English and were friendly. Good experience. (other than second unit breaking)

#3 refurbished unit, broke. ~15 days outside warranty. People were assholes. Nothing they could do about it. So sorry. Nothing they could do about the price either. Absolutely nothing, after complaining long enough was allowed to talk to a supervisor. That "nothing we can do about the price" became a % off, I think I paid 10-15% off the fix it price. Ultimately some time later M$ increased the warranty time and I got a refund check. -> lost out on Texas Hold 'Ems free arcade download (you know the one that was always supposed to be free) (rings of death again btw)

#4 Broke 4 DAYS outside of warranty. People were absolutely ridiculous. Barely spoke English. I think I was talking to someone in China. She actually said "I hold you now", then laughed and apologized and say she meant to put me on hold. I responded that after all this bullshit I need to be held. I think the bill was $140. I told her that was shit, she said if I cursed again that she would hang up on me. I called her a cunt and you can guess what happened next. (rings of death btw + broken CD tray) Gotta use the old butterknife.

So with #4 I tried every trick to get it working, I read stuff on the internet. Hung the power cord in the air, plugged in directly in to the wall (no power strip). What seemed to work the best was to not play it for 2-3 days then shake the hell out of it before turning it on. Finally I gave up.

#5 Brand new CORE system from Best Buy with extended warranty. Stripped everything from Premium system. I figure this works out great as now I'll get a brand new one, and warranty for core is cheaper.

Currently I'm getting many more disc read errors than I believe I should be (some are rentals but something isn't right) I might be on #6 soon!

So overall hardware wise this system has sucked for me. I also really hate supoorting a company that would do this to consumers. But I really really like the games, the achievment points, the arcade etc.

[s1lence]

I'm only on number 2 and given how much I play it I guess thats pretty good.