Need a new 360? Email Bill Gates
by Richard Mitchell 
{ Jan 30th 2008 at 4:30PM }
Let's face it, the Xbox 360 is hardly the most reliable console on the block. Seemingly destroyed by so much as a stiff breeze, older models weren't exactly made to last. Thus, 360 owners everywhere are intimately familiar with the replacement process that begins with a call to Xbox customer service. The Consumerist is reporting a new twist on that process: emailing Bill Gates directly. When the 360 originally launched, a Consumerist reader named Jon spent weeks dealing with Microsoft customer service before finally being handed to the escalation department which finally fixed his problem. Two years later (i.e now) Jon is experiencing 360 problems again. However, instead of calling customer service, Jon dug up Bill Gates' email address and wrote him an email. Within a day he was called by the escalation department and informed that his new console had been shipped. We'd like to know exactly what Jon's problem was though. After all, Microsoft replaces Red Ring of Death consoles with no questions asked these days. Still, Jon's story is impressive, but it would have be even more impressive if he had gotten Bill to throw in a free Surface.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
xenocidic @ Jan 30th 2008 4:33PM
eh I thought bill had a team of people to filter through spam for him.
UNSCleric @ Jan 30th 2008 4:34PM
Why is it that every time some outdated article about the Xbox 360 being 'the least reliable console of all-time' or similar garbage is posted, it's always Richard's name at the top of it?
Do you think this makes the site more fair and balanced or professional or something? People come here to hear about the latest Xbox 360 news, not listen to whining about a console that has the best warranty of all-time and is fixed for free.
Richard Mitchell @ Jan 30th 2008 4:43PM
The "outdated" article in question is five days old. Besides, I don't think anyone could argue that the 360 is a reliable piece of hardware. It's not. Period. I love the 360 but that doesn't free Microsoft from deserved criticism.
Do you think we would even have that wonderful warranty if it wasn't for all the whining? I don't.
Richard Mitchell @ Jan 30th 2008 4:45PM
Oh, and I might add that we have two writers here at X3F. If you're reading anything here, there's a 50/50 shot my name is at the top.
xenocidic @ Jan 30th 2008 4:53PM
that's a lie, we all know Dustin is a lazy sack. more like 60/40
xenocidic @ Jan 30th 2008 4:56PM
actually on the last 3 pages, dustin has something like 13-15 articles more than you! step it up sir!
Larry *not allowed to say cheevo* @ Jan 30th 2008 4:58PM
OMG! Somebody get some water over here! YOU JUST BURNED! DAAAAYUM!
hahaha, j/k ;)
James @ Jan 30th 2008 4:59PM
I agree with Rich. The 360 is unbelievably unreliable; the reason Microsoft won't publish failure rates is that giving out concrete evidence would cement forever their place as a hardware laughingstock. Everybody seems to settle around 30%; that's 1 in 3 launch units that crap out within a couple of years. Which, I shouldn't have to tell you, is simply not acceptable. You can try to make up for it with an extended warranty; you can streamline the return process to make it as painless as possible. That does not negate that fact that I have paid a large sum of perfectly good money for a system that was rushed to market and suffers massive, systemic failures as a result.
Before you ask: yes, I've had 2 red rings to date (just got the latest one back Monday -- if you're keeping track, that's the day after the free Undertow offer ended), and yes, I'm kind of pissed about that. With a failure rate this high, MS might have done better to just recall the damn fool things and give everybody a new one in shifts, but they didn't, so a third of their customers get to spend a month not playing games (and not *buying* games) on their console, which is just flat-out terrible.
So I don't want to hear about "excessive" stories involving failures of these consoles. When more than 1/3 of the stories involve failures, get back to me.
P.S.: I got my 360 after my Wii, but before my PS3. I think it's a great system aside from the failure issues, and probably has the best "new-gen" library at this point. But since you brought up the failure rates, I wanted to give my more narrow opinion on that, specifically.
Richard Mitchell @ Jan 30th 2008 5:07PM
"actually on the last 3 pages, dustin has something like 13-15 articles more than you! step it up sir!"
Quality, quality. The ratio for early in the week is screwed up because of the Fancast and Ask X3F, which are worth more than your average post :)
Anticrawl @ Jan 30th 2008 5:09PM
I'm on my 4th or 5th console depending on how you count it. Only console that ever gave me this much trouble was the PS2(My first console scratched discs, the second two actually had plastic wrap and other wierd shit that wasn't removed during production in it that caused it to fail and then one just stopped working for some reason) and the Sega Nomad(though honestly my problem was it eating through 8 AAs in 1 and a half hours).
DemonGSides @ Jan 30th 2008 5:46PM
Any Job openings?
mike @ Jan 30th 2008 6:36PM
really? I always skip the ask 3xf and fancast posts because they share no new information ever and seem to be a waste of time (To the reader who reads every post anyway).
So I dont count those on quality. I consider posts like DLC or a patch for x game high quality because those are small bits of information that usualy go by un-announced. I know there are several paid content for many games that became free and no1 at joystiq or 3xf informed me. When I see a post saying GTA 4 release date I care little for it because theres bound to be posts all over the net like this, and more to come int he coming months.
so yeah, quality = small bits of useful information.
Kicks @ Jan 30th 2008 6:36PM
I will add to the wonderful failure rate stories by saying that I'm on my 4th console after receiving my replacement from Microsoft yesterday. The first two consoles I had in-store warranties so I didn't have to deal with this mess. The first console red-ringed on me, the second stopped reading discs consistently and then red-ringed, and the third console stopped reading discs. I bought the elite in April and it died 1/6/08 after it stopped displaying colors at first then video altogether. The sad part about how long it took me to get my console back was that it was the so-called expedited service and still took almost a month.
Phil J W @ Jan 30th 2008 4:39PM
dude, this is an XBOX 360 news related website. Good or bad i'm sure they will post it. Becasue it involves the xbox 360, if you want to hear nothing but good things about the 360 then go to www.xbox.com or soemthing good or bad its on here. There honnest, as is major nelson, xbox live goes down hes the first to repoert how shitty that is and unaceptable....well before the lawsuites anyways....
Larry *not allowed to say cheevo* @ Jan 30th 2008 4:44PM
billg@microsoft.com
UNSCleric @ Jan 30th 2008 4:54PM
You could make it three writers if you want. ;)
Arnie @ Jan 30th 2008 4:54PM
Richard I thought you hated bad grammar so why do we have a sentence such as
"Jon is experience 360 problems again" . I think you mean "experiencing" , however since the whole event is in the past we would have --"Jon's xbox360 experienced problems" and also your sentence could mean Jon has 360 problems rather than Jon's device(the Xbox360).
P.S--:I am normally not a grammar person and would be the last person to correct someone since English is not my native language. However, I remember Richard pointing out someones horrible grammar in a comment or an email and just thought would like to point out the "Mr. Editor" on his. Sorry if this sounds rude. That is not my intention.
Disco Ball @ Jan 30th 2008 5:03PM
rofl
Richard Mitchell @ Jan 30th 2008 5:08PM
And now I am forced to hate myself. More than usual I mean.
Error fixed.
Royale @ Jan 30th 2008 5:03PM
I don't understand how emailing Bill Gates would make any difference in the warranty process.
kat @ Jan 30th 2008 6:58PM
Wonder if Gates has dealt with an ethernet port blowing out. It's stone cold dead useless. I now have to buy a wireless adapter, or let MS "repair" my xbox 360 for a few months.
Anyone else lose an ethernet port? Anyone want to help me get MS to fix this shit?
ccc @ Jan 30th 2008 7:05PM
Without reading other comments here, I'd be willing to bet the issue was with DMR.
Drew @ Jan 30th 2008 7:35PM
well i did get bill email and got help too from him but not for free xbox lol.But it was for another issue with microsoft.Its kinda of weird when you email or phone the top person they usally listen and go out of there way as customer service people dont.
ushman @ Jan 30th 2008 7:53PM
@ James - I don't recall any of the companies realeasing failure rate numbers. So what makes Microsof any different?
I think the point a lot of people are trying to make is, Its been 2 plus years now of reading something every week about the RRoD.
Im a 360 fanboy and if I wanted to read about RRoD and failure rates I would go to n4g.com
xbox360fanboy.com staff better lock it up
ushman @ Jan 30th 2008 7:57PM
I meant to say 360 failures in general*... sorry
EMOruffino @ Jan 30th 2008 8:34PM
hell bill gates, give me the elite.... my current one is looking like its going to die..
on the 2nd now....
Volmarr @ Jan 30th 2008 9:03PM
I just got the RROD maybe I should e-mail him
Who let the dogs out? @ Jan 30th 2008 11:15PM
Do you want to email Bill Gates?
billg@microsoft.com is actually his email address.
No joke.
jaferris @ Jan 31st 2008 7:38AM
hey well i had to go through process 5 times
had 3 red light problems and 2 disk tray problems
on the 5th time i sent Major Nelson an e-mail and he got back asking what my reference number was
the next day got e-mail from higher up person and i got sent a new console
this one seems to working fine for the moment lol touch wood :)
Ninegauger @ Jan 31st 2008 12:45AM
The main problem is that the Xboxes still have problems two years out and people are still having problems with crappy customer service. I think if you're still failing two years out that that's news worthy.
Lazarusmac @ Jan 31st 2008 2:24AM
I haven't been able to download the full version of an arcade game i purchased December 21st. Is there any way i could get Gates' email to see if he could help solve my problem. The tech support doesn't live up to the name.
Kevin D @ Jan 31st 2008 5:46AM
can any1 tell me how to download movies from the internet and watch them on my tv using the 360.
Just to add i've had my 360 since the second launch and it's still doing me fine so i guess i got lucky so far
Chris Szarek @ Jan 31st 2008 7:44AM
MS thinks that just because they extended everyone's warranty that the problem was solved but it wasn't. The problem they keep ignoring is the HORRIBLE customer service when you call the 1-800 number. Luckily, I have a direct line and email to an Escalation Lead after my experiences and I give the front-line reps one chance to deal with issues when I call. After that I go right to the top. After my customer service experience involving Peter Moore a few years back I can safely say that the people at the top will help you. They get angry when the people that work for them do such a bad job that the issue makes it all the way to the top. Leapfrogging right to the top may not be the preferred, orthodox way of going about getting customer service but it definitely works. I would encourage everyone that experiences poor customer service at MS (or anywhere) to take it to the top. If more people did that then maybe we would all be taken seriously as consumers!
jaybird1905 @ Jan 31st 2008 10:16AM
You guys have to be joking.
I really doubt Bill Gates has the time to read through his daily barrage of email, let alone hand out free Xbox's or bypass customer service for a multitude of customers.
Sure, you may get lucky and he'll listen to one out of a million people ... but with a gazillion 13 year olds crying about not being able to play their HALOWZZ ... Going to the top is POINTLESS.
It's funny, a lot of people here leaving comments act like buying an Xbox360 entitles you to speak to the CEO or head of the company, it doesn't work like that.
AT @ Jan 31st 2008 3:09PM
I just emailed them and this story is more relevant then ever. More then 2 years later and this is still an issue. I got my first unit in spring of 2006 and am now going to be on my 6th unit. The first replacement had the 3 red rings right out of the box. It was a slap in my face and I felt as if they did not even care at that point or were in denial about the problem. Obviously someone had not even checked the unit that as sent to me. The next replacement only lasted about 2 weeks. Again, another slap in my face. The next few consoles lasted a little longer but no more then a year for sure. Even with the 3 year warranty for the Xbox360 red rings of death that would give my console a maximum lifetime of 3 years and 90 days from the original date of purchase and after that point I am on my own. Keep in mind Microsoft will have had my Xbox360 for a good 4-8 of those months due to downtime for repairs. There needs to be a recall or law suite for the red ring of death issue.
Austin Overton @ Jan 31st 2008 11:48AM
That is so awesome... If I was ever the CEO of a company and someone was able to dig up my personal contact information I would lavish him.
But on a side note it's really weird, I have the first version of the 360, bought in November when it came out, and I haven't ever had any problems with it. I guess I'm just lucky!