Headline :: HEXUS reader reveals the great Xbox 360 repair debacle

[Steven W]

HEXUS reader Parm Mann lets off some steam. He's been waiting so long for the Xbox 360 he sent in for repair that he's grown a beard.

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[Raz316]

2500 sent in for repair a day?! Blimey.

Im glad we paid 20 something quid for Game to cover our Xbox.

[Lee H]

Mine's died the same death as well on Friday

Just... and I mean just ( 13 months ) out of warranty so I'm not really going to be happy about ringing MS tonight and being asked to pay for what I reckon is a common fault across the xbox360 range when it was first launched.

[Smokebeast]

I can relate to this.

I got my 1st on on the day of the UK release. That one lasted till May this year so just over 18 months. It then died with the red rings. I got a replacement after paying £80. This one had the same serial numbers and D.O.B as my previous one but there was a slight mark on the front which would make me question that.

That one laster for 2 weeks then i sent that one back under the new warranty. Its been 12 days and i rang them up and was told exactly the same thing...That it might now take up to 25 days to repair. I've been with out my 360 for over a month now.

Sad thing is I just got a HD DVD drive for it and have yet to try it out due to my 360 dying the night before it arrived

I just hope with all this extra time i get one back which will last again.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

i sent mine two weeks ago and had just bought rainbow six and never got a chance to play it, now the game is just gathereing dust.

i was gunna buy forza 2 but i will wait till i get my 360 back. could this massive delay be the fact that they are installing new heatsinks ?

[PenguinJim]

2500 sent in for repair a day?! Blimey.

The problem with that figure is that, even assuming a 50% failure rate, that's 75,000 consoles returned from, say, 150,000 distributed in a month. The 360 sold 150,000 units in the US last month. I don't think the UK shifts as many consoles as the US.

Unless they take in 2,500 consoles in one day, but only accept them one day a week, perhaps?

[ybbor]

Ring of death – nightmare mostly because of Microsoft warrantee


Now don’t get me wrong, I love my 360… but the reliability SUCKS!


360 Number 1:

I originally got my 360 on day1. It lasted about 5 months before I got the red ring-o-death. I call Microsoft (they go through there rehearsed troubleshooting script…) and they tell me that since they only have a 90 day warrantee, it will costs me ~$150 to have it ‘repaired’. Having no choice, I pay up. They say that for my $150, they will send me a box that pre-paid shipping to return my 360 in… the next week, and box shows up. And I send my 360 off

360 Number 2:

Ok, so after waiting almost 2 weeks, I get my ‘new’ 360 in the mail. I Plug it in, it turns on for about 10 seconds, and then the fan starts making a strange sound… then another 10 seconds and the ring-o-death again! They basically sent me back a ‘bricked’ 360. So now I call Microsoft back up and tell them what happened (they still go through there rehearsed troubleshooting script…). They say they will re-send out a box with shipping, so I can re-return it. The next week a box shows up.

360 Number 3:

Ok, so now I get my 3’rd 360 after another 2 weeks of waiting. This time I plug it in, and turn it on and everything works fine (the dvd-rom is even substantially quieter).

Fast forward another 6 months.


So I go out and buy the 360 hd-dvd player add on. I put in my first movie… I get through about half way and it freezes! Then starts displaying the ring-o-death. The next day I try again and same thing… so I call Microsoft again. They again go through the generic debugging script. They tell me that they have changed there warrantee program. Apparently they extended the warrantee of 360’s purchased in 2005, so my previous warrantee experience was under warrantee so they were going to send me a $150 refund for my previous experience… so I’m pretty happy about that… but then they inform me that the xboxs they shipped me, because they were from 2006 were not covered by the new warrantee so I would need to pay them $150 to have my current problem fixed!!!! Having no choice, I pay them. This time, they say they no longer send me a box with pre-paid postage… so I need to buy a box, pack the 360 and ship it ($25).

360 Number 4:

So now I get another referb. This one seems to work fine.


Fast forward another 6 months (NOW). Once in a while when I try to start my 360 (1 in 3 times), the thing will just not start and display the ring-o-death. If I turn it off, and back on, it will start. No idea why… but I am expecting a complete system failure pretty soon. I have completely lost faith in the hardware reliability of the 360!


I’m really considering pawning the thing at game-spot to save myself the aggravation of another return cycle, where they will most likely send me another partially defective xbox… and also no doubt being charged another $150 for my trouble… If I did not love Forza so much, I would have pawned it a long time ago.

Another frustrating thing… I read about people who have had a ring-o-death, and MS gives them a free game or SOMETHING for there trouble. They have NEVER OFFERED ME ANYTHING… and I am on console number 4! And potentially number 5 very soon!

Thanks for giving the opportunity to vent my frustration.

-Robby

Game tag (ybbor)

[vinnyT]

Bad story ybbor, I always had the impression that one of the benefits of console gaming, was that there was no upgrading you had to do to play your games, just pop it in and play.

As opposed to pc gaming, where there is a cycle of upgrading needed if you want to play the latest and greatest games, this costs money.

But, now I read your story (and others), if you have to pay $150 (~£75) everytime the xbox borks to get it fixed, it's not so different, and MS are still making $$$ from you.

[Merlin4458]

the accuracy of the figure is quite irrelevant. Even if its 1 in 100 consoles are being sent back. Thats awful. Imagine if that was a car manufacturer or seomthing. No consoles should be being sent back if the company built properly. Was so close to buying a 360, def go wii/ps3 route now

[Stoo]

You know those console you have to pay for repair on?

Those are counted as new sales too.. Which wouldn't be so bad if you were actually getting a new console, but evidently people aren't, and in many cases are getting an older/less well kept/2nd hand one..