New 360 warranty: is it enough?
by Richard Mitchell 
{ Jul 5th 2007 at 5:30PM }
We asked just last week if the seemingly escalating Red Ring of Death issue was coming to a head. Now that Microsoft has changed the Xbox 360 warranty policy and even offered a public apology, it appears that the answer is a resounding yes. The timing for the announcement couldn't be better, as Microsoft would have undoubtedly been barraged with questions about the issue during next week's E3 media event. Such questions are likely still to be asked, but this act gives Microsoft some ammunition. Whether the act will be seen as an act of generosity or an outright admission of faulty hardware (or both) remains to be seen. Rather than put up a standard poll about the new policy, we're just going to open up the comment threads for discussion. What do you think of all this? For those of you that have shelled out for repairs, will refunds affect your opinion of Microsoft or the Xbox 360? If you've been sitting on the fence about an Xbox 360, will a three-year warranty convince you to buy with confidence? What else can MS do to improve the image of the Xbox?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
SITO @ Jul 5th 2007 5:36PM
It's about time - you'd think a company like Microsoft would head off an issue like this much earlier.
The damage that has been done will take time to heal, but at least it's been addressed.
Gemini Ace @ Jul 5th 2007 5:38PM
I'm glad I will be getting my money back. I had a launch console and had to pay for repairs. This is the best way to fix the problem, I think. They can't go in there and just re-design the box. That would piss off more people than the Elite did. I personally love my 360 and was happy even when I had to pay to have it repaired. I bitched a lot about it, but I still love my beautiful white box.
machrc @ Jul 5th 2007 5:38PM
they care.. they need us.. and move forth with their master plan of console domination..
docaquatic @ Jul 5th 2007 5:41PM
I'm already on my 2nd, but it was covered; even S&H, but i know 7 out of the 10 360 owners who I'm friends with, have had issues requiring repair...at least they are finally trying to make amends...
Tony @ Jul 5th 2007 5:40PM
You know, overall I'm happy with it. I was wondering what they could do. They've more or less denied it forever, it's becoming more of an issue as more people buy the things... but how can you recall 10,000,000 systems without ruining your company? Just like how can you continue to deny a growing problem?
It's not going to make every one happy, but it's probably the best thing they can do without completely destroying their market presence.
I feel that at least the problem has been addressed properly. They have admitted (surprisingly humbly, at that) that this is an issue and are doing reasonable things to take care of it. I actually am waiting for the box to send mine in and I can't tell you what a load it is off my mind to know I'll be getting that $140 back.
And even then, I'm only a year and a half into my warranty. That's nice to know. In the letter, Moore claims they've narrowed down the potential issues and newer systems are having this taken care of... I hope he's right and that eventually this warranty won't even really be necessary.
Greg @ Jul 5th 2007 5:40PM
Still having a launch console and never had it serviced, it's a good thing that the warranty was extended for those that have experienced it. Was it due to E3, no.
Rasta4eye @ Jul 5th 2007 5:43PM
MY CD DRIVE DON'T OPEN!! should I send it in and say that I have the red ring??
Ben @ Jul 5th 2007 5:47PM
Ever since I had my console repaired a couple of months ago, I havnt been playing as often. When i do play i try to keep my gaming time down to as short as possible for fear that it would break again. My warranty expires this week i think so knowing this i can go back to gaming like i used too. Im very happy about this.
digiguru @ Jul 5th 2007 5:47PM
Put it this way, after pay £300 for a console, another couple of hundered for a few games, more for 4 controllers... I've paid out so much already I was forced to pay for the repairs £80 repairs after it popped. This announcement came just at the right time for me.
Now if only they could start rolling out a video marketplace to non-US citizens...
THA1icarus @ Jul 5th 2007 5:49PM
And I just send in my 360 cause of disk read failures. I'm happy cuzz my 360 was actually already older than a year. But I hope now all my problems will be fix and I will not get it back and get the 3 redl lights......
Scotty2Hotty @ Jul 5th 2007 5:53PM
Outstanding! I didn't think MS would do this. This is costing them quite a bit of $$$, and I think it is pretty generous.
MS is my best big buddy.
LimeyHoya @ Jul 5th 2007 5:55PM
I guess I've been lucky with my system. However, that said, MS should really address the underlying HW weaknesses in the system. The noise and heat put out by the 360 is way beyond excessive; and it's not like it's a secret as we've been complaining long enough!
Cool it down, shut it up and this truly could be their Trojan Horse into the living room.
Brian @ Jul 5th 2007 6:09PM
Well done. Competition is good for us all
jslakes @ Jul 5th 2007 6:17PM
This is certainly great news for folks like me who have had to pay the $140 out-of-warranty repair cost. Now, MS needs to get on the ball and fix the Marketplace content DRM problem so that people like me who are on replacement boxes can reauthorize their Arcade games and other content on the new box so it will work offline on the replacement console.
Peff @ Jul 5th 2007 6:16PM
very very nice MS. i applaud you for doing this for us. i just got mine back from them. with a 1 month gold card, which was very generous. and now i have three more years to send it back if i need to. very very nice.
KC @ Jul 5th 2007 6:17PM
Take note that Peter Moore says the extended warranty is only for the 3 red rings of death. If you have other problems I think you will still be SOL.
Aj Collins @ Jul 5th 2007 6:18PM
@Comment number 7
I was having the same problem. Just lightly hit your 360 where the drive is and it will open. After awhile, the problem will go away.
blamecanada @ Jul 5th 2007 6:24PM
I have a friend who's DVD drive just went kaput right out of the 1 year warranty, he's still screwed?
Pixelantes Anonymous @ Jul 5th 2007 6:26PM
It's better than nothing, but the XBox 360s will still continue bricking at the same rate than before until they fix the problems causing the failures.
When that happens, then I'll accept Moore's apology.
Tony @ Jul 5th 2007 6:53PM
"I have a friend who's DVD drive just went kaput right out of the 1 year warranty, he's still screwed?"
If he's not getting the 3 red lights, yeah. After a year that's it.
tobin92 @ Jul 5th 2007 9:22PM
My Xbox 360 is currently in for repair. So I called MS to find out more about this.
It is ONLY 3 years for the 3 red ring of death.
It cover no other problem.
It is 3 years since purchase as well, not repair. Meaning launch console owners have a little will November 22nd, 2008 under repair from 3 red rings of light.
malren @ Jul 5th 2007 7:14PM
I hope that eventually they just extend ALL warranty (three red ring or any other problem) to three years. It would show they have faith in the console and are going to stand behind it.
I might buy a second for upstairs if I wasn't so afraid of getting one of a dozen problems that might not be covered past a year.
DeadPlasmaCell @ Jul 5th 2007 7:19PM
I don't get why people are saying "It's about time" and such.. They've extended the warranty before, so it's not like this is the first time they've addressed it.
Mister2zx3 @ Jul 5th 2007 7:46PM
They still need to address the resigning/unlocking of content to move purchased games to a new 360. Going offline and losing your access to the games you buy is pathetic. They need to get their act together and smooth things out, pronto!
EdgeofBlade @ Jul 5th 2007 11:57PM
Yes yes yes. A resounding yes. This is Moore admitting the problem and Microsoft backing him with a BILLION in the hole to make it stick. If ever someone had justifiable distrust of Microsoft, this should go a LONG way to winning them over.
Seriously, if people STILL gripe about MS, it's not really their opinion of the situation... they just have it in for MS and nothing you can say will change that.
"You can't please everyone" but this should make everyone happy.
Tebok 10000 @ Jul 5th 2007 7:43PM
I was really excited to hear the news about this. This is a huge gesture by MS to it's loyal customers worldwide. Unfortunately it's still not enough. Even if it costs them a billion dollars.
I got the other common issue of the video disappearing and just had sound back in Feb/Mar while I was beta testing Shadowrun. The colors got disorted and I tried reseting the system. When I rebooted I noticed I had lost all video. I forked up the $140 for repairs since I was out of warranty and two day fedexed it becasue MS stopped giving out boxes at that point. Plus I wanted to speed up the process. All they did was send me a replacement (probably refurbised) console and ship it back snail mail. The one they sent me has a glich where the lights keep flickering back and forth between the 1st and 2nd lights when it's trying to ientify the controllers when it's in the vertical posistion It seems to go away when laid horizontal. I never complained about it til now becasue I was just happy to have a working system again.
With this announcement today I decided to call Xbox to see if my problem was covered under this new warranty and to find out if I would be reimbursed for my repairs I had done earlier this year. Unfortunately I found out that just becasue I didn't get the f'ing red lights of death I get shafted and get nothing.
That's total BS MS and uncool. Way to half ass it. It makes sense why Peter kept say the 3 red rings.
When are people with my problem going to get our due.
Congrats to all the lucky red light winners winners.
Anonymous @ Jul 5th 2007 7:43PM
I just arranged to get my coffin :)
Good call, MS, good call.
Hoffer @ Jul 5th 2007 7:52PM
I got my first 360 a month after launch. I've had to send it in twice since. Both times happened after they extended the warranty to one year. I've been out of that one year warranty for about 7 months now. I will say I've been very nervous about my 360 dying on me and having to get a new one.
I will say that today's news is very good. It doesn't cover everything that can go wrong, but it does cover the thing I'm worried about most. I had planned to buy a new 360 with the cooler chip when it came to market. Now, I'm not in as big a hurry to get one.
snsr @ Jul 5th 2007 8:28PM
This is a great solution to the problem, in my opinion. Standing by one's product is the hallmark of customer service.
Mr BoomStck XL @ Jul 5th 2007 8:27PM
For anyone who has not read the story, I'm the guy's that Joystiq.com did a story on about MS not having enough Boxes to sent out for Red Ringed systems!! I had paid for the 2 warranty and am glad to be getting the $60.00 back!! I for one appluad this move from MS, I think that the Xbox 360 (When working!!) is still the best system going!! It has all the games I want to play and the LIVE service is second to none. I LOVE the achivement system and think that this move will let people know that MS does in fact care about the consumer!!
T Ghost @ Jul 5th 2007 8:38PM
I've got my 360 on US launch day. Never had 3RL but had the DVD player diying on my original 360 and Microsoft replaced my console within 18 days with no cost to me on october 2006.
This change wouldn't help me if the DVD unit dies again.
I'm not afraid of the 3RL as I never saw it happening on me but I'm afraid that my DVD player would die again and I would have to pay US$140 to get my 360 fixed...
Spitkicker @ Jul 5th 2007 8:48PM
@Mister2zx3
Actually they just did address this. I bought an Elite (my premium was away for repairs)and couldn't play my content offline. They had me create a silver account and totalled up my points (just over 79,000). They called me 4 days later (they called me!) sent me an E-mail with codes for points. Everything works offline now...everything!! I even ended up with an extra 20,000 points. You just have to call them. They really went above and beyond. I was getting annoyed with that problem. Seriously, I have bought so much more shit then I had before. They have one extremely satisfied customer here.
Daryl @ Jul 5th 2007 8:57PM
It's a great move. I'm very happy with the services and products I've bought from Microsoft.
jay luv @ Jul 5th 2007 9:03PM
A little bit too late if you ask me...
If there is 1.5 million bad units out there, half of them has been opened by there owners trying to repair them and telling M$ to go to hell with asking for $140. Of course the owners could'nt fix it and they voided the waranty by removing the void sticker. So now you can't send it in for repair under the waranty.
How do you void the waranty of something if the waranty does not exist yet?
This is good news for some(mostly future buyers), most fustrated people were the ones who felt M$ did them wrong and decided to find alternative methods(cheaper) to repair there systems, that still don't work. Way to go M$!
Spartan_agr @ Jul 6th 2007 12:10AM
I guess im lucky, the only problem ive had is that i cant download the newest Halo 2 maps, oh well
Hoffer @ Jul 5th 2007 10:29PM
@jay luv
You honestly think 750,000 people have tried to open their 360 to fix a red ring problem?
Xtor @ Jul 5th 2007 10:47PM
My 360 had a red ring on a thursday, and by tuesday I already had a new one in my house, along with a 1 month xbox live gold card :)
RogueStorm @ Jul 5th 2007 10:57PM
Another keen way to stave off modders for longer. Think about it for a second. By the time the modding community breaks the security, most people will still have their systems under warranty. I know Microsoft is confident in their security measures on the system, but a lot of modders start modding their system as soon as its out of warranty.
CJ @ Jul 5th 2007 11:04PM
http://money.cnn.com/2007/07/05/technology/microsoft_charge.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes
Interesting article. I hate CNN but when I saw it I had to read it. How do you send emails to the xbox360fanboy staff?
OmegaDraco @ Jul 5th 2007 11:37PM
I'd say it's about time, thanks to a little oblivion abuse i'm on my third xbox, but i was lucky enough to buying extendent warrenty's from eb, so i guess my question is do i get my money back(about $140)
coderkev @ Jul 6th 2007 1:24AM
RROD is not the only problem the consoles have suffered. What about lockups w/o RROD, Disc Read Errors. Returned consoles that won't sync controllers. The 3 year warranty should have covered ALL consoles for ALL problems. Not just the ones they can find diagnostic codes for. My dead console would not be covered. Works for 5 mins, then freezes. No RROD. 4 weeks out of warranty. No coverage. But that's just me. What's one person's story.
I still think that http://www.theconsoletracker.com is a good idea. Let the community show the failure rates for themselves. Let us show how many would still be affected.
WarriorDyke @ Jul 6th 2007 1:46AM
This is a good thing, but for those of us who are suffering from Disc Drive issues, it frackin' sucks! I demand that MS ammend the statement for RROD ONLY, to 'RROD & Disc Drive Failures'. There have been just as many drive failures as rrod's.
I already have my doubts about UPS being able to deliver a broken console to TX, and deliver a fixed or new console back to me w/o being damaged in the shipping process; AFTER my first coffin was 'dropped off a truck' in Richmond, VA.
Long story short...MS, AMEND the statement to Include Disc Drive Failures.
xyz @ Jul 6th 2007 2:47AM
Great move from Microsoft. The likelihood of me actually buying an Xbox 360 increased greatly.
Could this announcement mean that they've actually fixed the RROD problem and recently manufactured and future consoles do not suffer from it anymore?
At least the repair centres have been fitting RROD boxes with some new cooling stuff, maybe that "fix" is applied to all new boxes?
Anyone want to crack their new Xbox open and check it out? It might be difficult to know which console is from the latest patch, though, as retailers have had plenty of stock for a good while now.
dramamoose @ Jul 6th 2007 2:50AM
"I have a friend who's DVD drive just went kaput right out of the 1 year warranty, he's still screwed?"
Well, he could always turn his 360 on and cover all of the heat vents. That should give you the three red lights in a snap.
Stellarpimp @ Jul 6th 2007 4:13AM
This is a step in the right direction. But like many others have said this isn't the only problem with the console. What happens after the 3 years are up? Will MS extend again because they aren't truly fixing the problem...
Once MS fixes 99% of the problems I'm sold. For those of you with the system...now you can finally play your system without worry. If it breaks...1 week ain't to long to be without. I'll wait patiently until the Xbox is redesigned or they announce the problem has been rectified.
Nonetheless, this is step 2(step one was increasing it to 1 year). Lets hope step 3 is less than 1% returns.
mike @ Jul 6th 2007 4:47AM
PS# PRICE DROP JULY 12th. Its droping $150 Cdn ($100 USD). This puts it at the SAME price as an elite here in canada. This means microsoft will be forced to lower their price as well. Good news for me cause im about to buy an elite.
pawn @ Jul 6th 2007 7:26AM
you know what i think im done with this bullshit when my box number six breaks on me im not im not getting another 360 till they fix this shit and the warranty dont solve a god dam thing because the fucking thing breaks for all different reason's i cant beleave this shit all this time and M$ couldnt give to shits about us
then E3 rolls around now we get a three year warranty snd apology from peter moore who is full of shit wooooooooooo thats just peachy keen aint it any one find that funny that almost 2 years go by and the same shit keeps happening but all it took was E3 huh......
well keep up the great work M$ fucking boneheads
Graham @ Jul 6th 2007 7:33AM
It's a relief all right. You no longer have to worry about it.
However, to be honest I don't buy the 30% failure rate. At least over here, maybe the US is different (high current power? :), but the stores I've talked to suggest the failure rate *is* actually more like 5%. It's certainly anecdotally no where near 1 in 3.
A few months ago, one store even told me they'd only had one returned system - and that was due to a faulty power cord. This wasn't a small store either, it was the local equivalent of walmart.
Only one of my friends has had to return his unit, and that was due to a damaged video port (4 red lights!).
Joshua @ Jul 6th 2007 8:25AM
As glad as I am to see Microsoft doing the right thing even if it is a little bit late, I can't help but wonder if this is at all connected to the rumored PS3 price drop.
It makes me wonder if the warranty extension will be their answer to the Sony price drop since I doubt they are really all that ready to drop the prices of the system until next year.
As a consumer it would be great to see a drop (and 65nm) prior to Halo 3's release but as someone that works in sales and marketing that wouldn't be the best business idea. If you know you are about to move a ton of units because you have 'the game' everyone wants, why on Earth would you drop the price on the system that you are just now starting to turn a profit on?
Again, this makes me think that the warranty has less to do with consumer outcry and more to do with avoiding a price drop until at least 6 months after Halo 3's release.
ccc @ Jul 6th 2007 8:25AM
First of all, That pic of that 360's scary.
A 3 year warrenty! Now thats backing up your product in full force. Suddenly,, Im not so worried if the red ring of death Dose pay me a visit. Just last night on live I had 2 friends on my list that dont know each other get a visit from the circle of doom. Its been getting scary with all the death in the air, nice to have this 3 year warrenty.
Thank you Microsoft, very decisive.