My Xbox 360 developed the dreaded Red Ring of Death the other week, and after trying the various troubleshooting tips it was pretty obvious that the ‘box was broken. So with a sinking feeling I called tech support to try and arrange a repair.

What I expected was this:

• Hours on the phone being passed from pillar to post
• Days and days before my console was picked up
• A couple of months without an Xbox while it sat in Germany gathering dust
• A returned Xbox with “there’s bugger-all wrong with it” written in biro on it

What I got was this:

• Talking to a real person within a few minutes
• An emailed shipping label that arrived during the phone call
• Pickup of the console within three hours
• An email update telling me it was fixed a week and a half later
• Delivery a few days after that, on the promised date
• A note explaining that my motherboard and DVD drive were buggered, so they’d been replaced
• A complimentary month’s membership of Xbox Live

Credit where credit’s due, that’s made me feel very positive about Microsoft.