Even more problems with MS customer service

by Terrence Stasse { Apr 6th 2008 at 4:45PM }

Microsoft just can't seem to do much right on the customer support front. So much so that we're rather tired of hearing about it. This time however, the story has more than a few new wrinkles that made it insightful enough to take a second look. The story begins with a review of the whole crazy situation and in it the author remains relatively fair and calm. Then comes the fifth paragraph, and specifics about repeat failures begin to surface.

Things like the fact that the 3-year warranty won't extend to any problem other than the RROD for any replacement console that you are sent by Microsoft. Things like the fact that if Microsoft sends you a replacement console that does not function, you're then stuck with the original 1-year warranty that came with your first 360. Basically, if your 360 RROD'd between 366 and 1095 days after purchase (just over one year to three years) then Microsoft will send you a replacement console. But if that one has something wrong with it other than the RROD, then it'll cost you $100 to send it back to Microsoft to get it fixed. Remember kids, it's wrong to screw people over if you're not a multinational corporation.

Tags: microsoft, repair, rrod, warranty

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Lance M @ Apr 6th 2008 4:53PM

just wrap it up and leave it in a towel till it gets the red rings...

Tom @ Apr 6th 2008 7:36PM

Yeah, if it red rings, it's not OUR fault that the console also happened to have a non-functional disk drive. ;)

vanhelsingh @ Apr 6th 2008 8:55PM

is it not possible to just lie, and claim you have RROD?

bubba pants @ Apr 10th 2008 5:47PM

I did! And it worked!!

vidGuy @ Apr 6th 2008 4:57PM

So the warranty service that they extended to cover RROD only covers RROD? **Shocked** /sarcasm

Um, duh?

Terrence Stasse @ Apr 6th 2008 5:22PM

Your reading comprehension needs work.

You're supposed to be "shocked" about the fact that MS can send you a defective console and then charge you $100 to fix something that they should have sent to you in full working order.

vidGuy @ Apr 6th 2008 6:26PM

I comprehend fine. What I find shocking is the fact that a bunch of whiny gamers think that a RROD Warranty means "you will always receive a magical replacement console with no hardware problems."

Yeah, it sucks. But it's not surprising considering the language of the warranty. Talk about a RTFM moment.

xenocidic @ Apr 7th 2008 11:16AM

I could understand if they were sending out brand new consoles, but they're sending out refurbs -- which are going to have a higher rate of failure due to having more mileage on them.

fragilefilter27 @ Apr 6th 2008 5:05PM

I'm glad I sent them money for the extended warranty and that doesn't expire untill April of next year. I learned my lesson with consoles; pay extra for the manufactures extended warranty and don't have to worry about crap like mentioned in the article.

Sean @ Apr 7th 2008 11:19AM

Actually I just sent my xbox back for the fourth time on Thursday. I purchased the extended warranty. Unfortunatly, they told me that the extended warranty does not cover the replacement system I received. It only covers the original xbox I bought.

I said that was a bunch of bull and they told me I needed to call the warranty department there was nothing they (service) could do about it. Warranty said it was my fault for not following up when I received my replacement to transfer the warranty over to the new xbox. Nowhere in the documentation I received or anywhere on the warranty contract states I needed to do this.
I shouldn't have to work this hard for them to do the right thing.
I love my xbox I just want it to not break and when it does I want them to fix it and STFU.

kcandfamily @ Apr 6th 2008 5:05PM

you want to hear a freakin MS customer service problem. I ordered my transfer cable to transfer the data from my Pro to my elite back in DECEMBER 2007 and now...april 2008 I still don't have it

Three freakin times i spoke with non-english capable customer service reps...and still no cable

CrimsonOkie @ Apr 6th 2008 10:21PM

Get an order form from Xbox.com and fax it in. You'll get a cable in about a week. Painless. Good Luck.

Jean @ Apr 6th 2008 5:14PM

Anyone have any advice on how to spur Microsoft customer support to some action?

It took me 3 months of phone calls to get them to pick up my 360 with RROD. When I finally got it back it lasted 3 days before RROD again. The best they could offer me? Sticking it back in the same lengthy repair process yet again. By the time I got it back 6 months had passed. I had bought a new generation 360 in the meantime since I really wanted to play all the cool games i'd shelled out for. I promised the one in repair to my brother in law after an assurance from MS customer service management in the UK that they would actually replace rather than repair the dud unit. Got the 3rd replacement over to his house, plugged it in and it was RROD straight out of the box.

I would have been annoyed if the thing had failed right in the beginning and Microsoft had offered me a route to pay to have it fixed. But to offer to fix it for free and then put me through six months and literally more than 40 phone calls to customer service, broken promises, having to arrange to be home when the UPS guy comes to pick up or drop of the box - not to mention the embarrasment of giving my brother in law a dud machine... Now i'm really pissed. I sent letters to various managers as well as a family friend in a director position at MS head office in Seattle. I demanded that they replace the box with a brand new retail one (not some refurbished piece of garbage like the last time)

Still waiting for a reply. What they hell can one do?

Bryan @ Apr 6th 2008 5:24PM

That's an interesting and sad story. There are a bunch of stories just like it, and I'm wondering how lucky I have been. The RROD has happened to me twice. I purchased a box the day after it was released, and it lasted until Aug of 2006. The second RROD happened Sep of last year. Each time, I had a box to ship out within 3 days, and then a new 360 within the next week. Total time total? Maybe 15 - 20 days.

Jean @ Apr 6th 2008 5:48PM

I'm not usually critical of Microsoft - I think their products are pretty cool - never had a problem with Windows (blasphemy) and actually think Vista isn't bad at all (heresy!)

But in this case I see all the negative traits of a monolithic company. The customer service reps forced to read out the same boring scripts to every call and have no power to take any initiative to solve a particular problem. The customer service managers who themselves are trying to make the best of a bad situation but have their hands tied by corporate.

I'm always amazed by the sense of cameraderie and desire to help one sees in online communities. It reminds me that human beings are actually generally pretty compassionate and wanting to help each other out. Its in stark contrast to the feeling one gets from dealing with the public facing arm of a company like Microsoft. I'm virtually forced to buy their products since there isn't really a great alternative (Sony...??) but it just leaves a bad taste in one's mouth. That these people who are providing me with entertainment in my home just couldn't give a ___.

Even that guy who got all the Halo goodies... I had this image of MS corporate carefully weighing up the cost of negative publicity and making a special offer - not out of some human value but out of pure hard nosed pragmatism.

I think this soulessness is really what hurts them as they try to cross over into the entertainment arena.

Bryan @ Apr 6th 2008 5:19PM

Okay, so I am supposed to be shocked that when Microsoft said they were extending a warranty for RROD issues, they meant only RROD issues?

Or is it that I am supposed to be upset that Microsoft charges $100 for other issues? Looking at the information that I received with my Xbox 360, it says that I will be charged a fee on non-warranty repairs.

Okay, so there are a whole bunch of things that could go wrong with my xbox. There are a bunch of things that won't cost $100 on my box. Will I be happy to pay $100? No. But suppose that the repair is to replace the motherboard, or another expensive repair, that way, at the end of the process, if everything goes well, I will be happy to pay the $100 fee.

Swamp Donkey @ Apr 6th 2008 6:33PM

Please reread the article and you will see that they are sending out broken units with no warranty. That sucks period.

Roto13 @ Apr 6th 2008 5:28PM

Repaired consoles are automatically given a three-month (if I recall correctly) if the remaining time on the actual warranty is less than 3 months.

Roto13 @ Apr 6th 2008 5:34PM

Then it's three months.

prence @ Apr 7th 2008 7:56AM

Yeah, you're right. I had my 5th 360 replaced a few months ago and they give you a 90 day any-problem warranty on it.

mark @ Apr 6th 2008 5:28PM

when my console got a disc drive error and replaced it for $100 they explicitly told me that if i get a new console then that is covered with a 1 year warranty and the 3 years of RROD. i asked several times "so if i get this new console and it has the same error...which it is going to because you put a cheap $20 disc drive in, it's covered?" response..."YES"

mark @ Apr 6th 2008 5:42PM

it was a store bought 360 1 year and 3 months old that got a disc error and when i called they said the new box is covered again for 1 year and 3 years of RROD dating from when they send the 360.

I'd fight it saying "it shouldn't matter what i sent it in for...It's not working and you sent it to me...YOU fucked up NOT me. YOU fix it!"

with customer service agents i just start flipping a shit until they give me something...usually works (learned it from my mom)

eugene @ Apr 6th 2008 5:59PM

The 360 reminds me of a girlfriend who cheated on you but then you take her back because you love what she can do in bed... but in the back of your head you know she'll eventually step out on you again.

Brandon @ Apr 6th 2008 9:12PM

Well, that's lovely, my disc drive is failing constantly so I'll gladly pay $100 to Microsoft so they can send me another faulty-in-another-manner 360. This, coupled with the ridiculous rip-off from Wal-Mart for the $30 "2-Year" crap Service Plan, I'm just losing money for fun! Weee!

Stupid Service Plan, supposedly allowing me to replace the console after the first year of owning it, doesn't allow me to do so. That's cool, thanks Wal-Mart! I bet you and Microsoft have worked this whole thing out before the 360 was even released. Very smart, won't fall for that again! Put her there on a job well done!

R0B3RT @ Apr 6th 2008 6:15PM

I hate to brake it to you have worked in many retail chains those in store warranties are a scam designed to make money.

EmptyEnergy @ Apr 6th 2008 6:02PM

Kind of an eye opening story here. Had only my first replacement since May of last year and it's working just fine. Now to know if, by some means, I get a non-RROD error, I have to pay $100. Fair enough. But, I will probably use it towards the purchase of a PS3 (if I don't have one by then). M$ customer service at its best.

ericdrum @ Apr 6th 2008 6:08PM

In related news, water is wet.

Davis @ Apr 6th 2008 6:20PM

Microsoft... fuck you.

Squirrels @ Apr 6th 2008 6:23PM

this is actually my piece...the part about the whole affair that frustrated me the most was the fact that they wanted $100 up front for repairs they wouldn't list before or after the work was completed...poor business practice.

Taco Truckz! @ Apr 6th 2008 6:27PM

Are you upset about the customer service you've had to deal with regarding your Xbox 360? Have you had multiple consoles go the RROD?

Has you disc drive stopped working for no reason?

Then contact Bill Gates directly at:

billg@microsoft.com

That's Bill's email address. Contact him, and tell him what's happened with you and your 360....

Gabriel @ Apr 6th 2008 6:32PM

I don't know if this is the case for everybody, but I got exceptional service on my first repair. You see, I let my XBOX 360 get really dusty. Not dusty like that one PS3, but dusty enough to make my discs stop reading. I sent it into Microsoft and paid the fee and assumed that I would never see that money again. Two months later, I open my mail box to find a full-refund check from Microsoft - a refund for a problem I caused. I finally got the RROD in February and din't have to pay at all and had back in just over a week. Does Microsoft just love me or is it luck that my repair experience is more exceptional?

On a side note, both times I had to send my XBOX in, I had just started thinking I was playing too much and needed to take a break. (God, did you break my XBOX?) So, I really didn't feel bad about either malfunction, since it gave me time to focus on more important things.

fragilefilter27 @ Apr 6th 2008 6:35PM

When you buy a new 360 there's a card offering you to buy a extended warranty (2years) after the one year runs out. IT covers RROD, disc read errors and a bunch of other crap. The only ppl that complain are the ones who toss that crap aside and not think to themselves about, "instead of blowing $60 for a game maybe I should send MS that $60 dollars just in case shit happens with the console."

Doing that saved my ass $100 when my 2 year old daughter decided to whack my 360 with a 3 lbs flashlight. It's safe to say that I got ALOT of disc read errors and the drive was making a grinding noise when it slowed down and guess what happened after I called MS; they replaced the console free of charge (and there was no rrod).

So instead of bitching about spending a $100 for a repair maybe ppl should take the time and look and read over all the crap that's stuffed into the box of 360 and consider spending $60 for a piece of mind instead of buying another game and getting screwed for a possible $100 down the road.

James @ Apr 7th 2008 3:39PM

...or, uh, treat your stuff better. I have a 2-year-old daughter as well (so I feel your pain!), but when she breaks stuff, I consider it my own fault (usually). I might start getting those "for any reason" warrantys now that I have her adventurous spirit to worry about, but I'm more likely to just put the sensitive electronics up where she can't reach them.

People are not bitching about the original warranty's failure to cover bludgeonings by a toddler -- they're bitching that Microsoft sends them a RROD replacement with a dodgy disc drive, and when it finally craps out 91 days later, they're stuck with the bill. That's bullshit.

Frankly, I guess you get what you pay for -- if I had bought a $200 top-of-the-line server-grade optical drive for my home PC, and it just "wore out" after a year or two of modest use, I'd be hell of pissed. But you got a game console as powerful as a $500-600 PC for a third that much money, and sometimes they are able to do that by using sub-par components or otherwise cutting corners on design. It's like when I get the ultra-bargain TV at Wal-Mart for 1/4 the price of an equivalent e.g. Sony unit. I know I'm gambling on quality to save on price. I used to do a lot of that, but after having a few PDAs, laptops, and other assorted gizmos die out on me because I bought the absolute cheapest I could find, I'm starting to be more willing to shell out for quality in the first place.

Adam B @ Apr 6th 2008 6:36PM

This isn't entirely true. I apparently had a problem with the GPI or GPU, not sure which, but I didn't get the RROD. I called them anyways and they said they were going to send me a new one, even though my xbox is 14 months old.

zzebedee @ Apr 6th 2008 6:50PM

I sent my console off for a RROD fault, MS sent me it back 2 weeks later, that one went kaput after just 1 evening's use with a non-RROD fault (locked up during the splash animation whn turned on).
I called MS and they had me send it back for a free replacement, 2 weeks later a "new" console arrived which has worked fine ever since so this situation is certainly not a set in stone policy

Jeff Tronti @ Apr 6th 2008 7:15PM

I had to pay 100 for my repair even though the issues cause of my problem was the same cause of the RRD.

Tony @ Apr 6th 2008 8:38PM

I'm not sure what you mean exactly, but if you paid for fixing the RROD you should call them and tell them so. They're not supposed to charge for that.

Anticrawl @ Apr 6th 2008 7:20PM

Hrm, this reminds me of my 5th console I just got back in February. It arrived as a replacement rather than a repair and after 15 minutes of playing the xbox gave me an error, froze and later found out that the drive was faulty. They wanted to charge me for it but I raised enough hell to a point where I got the damn thing for free because they console the repaired that broke was sent to the wrong address and I had to have a replacement sent initially. Bah if it wasn't for the 360 having a fantastic library I wouldn't put up with this bullshit.

The Master of Truth and Justice @ Apr 6th 2008 7:36PM

Buying a better warranty is NOT the answer.
Microsoft is making a machine that doesn't die IS.

Why the hell do people defend this, instead of violently attacking Microsoft with words?

bruce @ Apr 6th 2008 8:03PM

I am currently waiting on my 5th 360 to be replaced with yet another crappy refurb. I have also contacted corp office and have been chatting back and forth with some dude named Mike in Customer service. He left me a message a few weeks ago stating that Microsoft will NOT be replacing consoles with new ones for their customers.. that is something they do not do.. I had asked for a new system due to the fact that I have have 4 replacements withing 2 years and not much luck. if you want to hear the actual call check out my site. bruce.white.googlepages.com.... has the recording there.. Its a great system when it works.. the problem is out of the 19 months i have owned it i have been without it for 5 of them... That just sux...

Bravelionheart @ Apr 6th 2008 8:40PM

What makes me annoyed is that my console has been plagued by a myriad of problems -- but not the RROD. The disc drive has undergone epic failure (it makes grinding noises and it can take upwards of 10 tries to get a disc to read), the console overheats, etc. It's very frustrating.

Vcize @ Apr 6th 2008 8:40PM

What's the problem here? They don't even check to see if a console has RROD or not so long as you say it does, they just send you another one.

So, if you get a RROD after day 365 and your replacement 360 has a broken disk drive or the video out problem then just call them up and say the replacement has a RROD too.

Whoopdee-do, that was so difficult.

alliekins @ Apr 6th 2008 8:46PM

My console RROD'd on me after about a year. So I sent it in, got a new console... which had the disc-eating problem. Either their policy's changed since last summer or this blogger is flat out lying because even though my original 360's 1-year warranty ran out, the new console they shipped me came with a 90-day warranty. So I sent that one back, and now I've got a refurbished one that hasn't had any problems yet.

Glenn @ Apr 6th 2008 9:16PM

Umm, this article isn't true, at least not for me. In October of '07, my original 360 RRoD. I sent it in, and for no charge, it was evaluated, and replaced with another console.

2 weeks ago, I started experiencing a lockup where the screen would freeze and pixelate. I contacted Customer Support, and they sent out another box to have it repaired/replaced. It showed "under warranty" and the cost of this repair is $0.00.

I'm more than willing to show documentation for all of this if you want it.

THE RPG NERD @ Apr 6th 2008 9:15PM

I'm not confident that they've found a solution to the RROD. My replacement console red ringed too and they sent me another refurb unit. For some reason it says that my warranty expires soon even though it's been less than 2 years since I bought my original 360..

morgue @ Apr 6th 2008 9:19PM

I'm so tired of hearing all this but when mine died ( 2 years to the day I bought it ), the guy in India was not wanting to accept the fact that my system red ringed. He said that it was going too cost me $100 if, it was something other than RRoD. I told he can F OFF because it ringed red and I was taping the conversation via filming and if I sent it and they charged me, I had proof. Then he changed his story and was all nice. I told him I heard that when you send your system in, you don't get it back you get a refurbished or new one. He said " no you get yours back", I told him I took a picture of the serial #'s. To make this story end, I never had too pay and I didn't get my original back. Also they will still charge you 49.99 even though you are not online for the time your 360 is gone, all they do is send you a free month which is B.S. I fought with no avail to have them only charge me 39.99 and they said no. If it wasn't for Ninja Gaiden 2 M$ can eat SH*T

Brandon @ Apr 6th 2008 10:17PM

Well, thanks for the official statement, but I kinda figured that out when the Wal-Mart support site kept on getting an error (which was obviously supposed to happen) and the agent on the phone stuttered (hung up on him before he got to finish the word on which he was stuttering). I hate business.

doh23 @ Apr 6th 2008 9:32PM

well if he was smart he would call them and say he has 3 red lights, I did that. I got 1 red light, called them and told them I got 3, they even told me that if it doesnt have 3 red lights then they would call me and tell me I have to pay to get it fixed or they'll send it back. Well in the end I got a new xbox (well refurb)

MattP @ Apr 6th 2008 9:57PM

This article doesn't match my experience at all. Towards the end of '07 I got RROD and initiated a repair request. The materials sent to me included a list of potential problems which I was supposed to check off. In addition to RROD, I noted that I had frequent disk read errors and that my disk tray would often fail to open. I was already 6 months past my warranty expiration, but I didn't see any harm in noting these problems.

A bit more than a week later I got back a unit with the same serial number as the one that I sent in, so presumably they repaired it rather than sending me a new one. They did, however, replace the DVD drive with a new unit despite the fact that I was well outside the warranty period for non-RROD issues.

In addition, the warranty status for my Xbox 360 has changed from "out of warranty" to "in warranty" with a three-month term.

It would be nice to have a brand new 1-year warranty on a replaced device, but a 3-month warranty is not uncommon for warranty repairs. This is less than optimal, but the suggestion of the original article is just not true. If you get back a device that is broken from the get-go, it'll be covered by that three-month warranty covering any issues that may come up.