A happy Xbox experience
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.
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Comments
Good point about the DVD. Hopefully the new one is a bit quieter - last one sounded like a washing machine full of spanners.
I’m assuming a like for like mobo replacement. HDMI one would have an extra port next to the AV connector, wouldn’t it?
Aye, just above or below it, depending on which way you’re looking.
The next update, apparently, allows you to install games to the HDD which will allow it to run almost silently. Probably good for you since you play late on.
Yeah, I’m looking forward to that.
There’s definitely no HDMI, but the new DVD is almost silent compared to the last one. Everything seems to be doing what it should be doing, which is nice.
Oh, I bought Mass Effect btw - haven’t had the chance to play it, but it only cost me £9 so I won’t be too upset if it’s shite.
Isn’t it nice when things go smoothly? I had similarly low expectations when my laptop died but that was dealt with really efficiently, too: http://www.getmonkey.co.uk/blog/2008/07/fujitsu-siemens-brilliant.html
Isn’t it nice when things go so smoothly? I had a similar experience when my laptop died: http://www.getmonkey.co.uk/blog/2008/07/fujitsu-siemens-brilliant.html
Was it this one?
Blog thought you were a spammer, so I’ve de-spammed your comments. And now they’ve appeared, you look like a link spammer instead. Hahah!
Credit where credit’s due, that’s made me feel very positive about Microsoft.
Just clasp your MacBook to your chest and repeat the mantra “Steve is Lord” until the feeling passes!
Still and all, it’s good that Microsoft fix the thing quickly but it would be better if it hadn’t broken in the first place. Hold onto that anger!
> now they’ve appeared, you look like a link spammer instead.
I thought it looked like he was posting from his laptop and it had screwed up.
> it would be better if it hadn’t broken in the first place.
Oh, absolutely. Imagine selling a cutting-edge device that wasn’t entirely perfect, that was probably rushed out, and saying - initially at least - that user problems were just isolated cases of bad luck!
Sarcasm aside, they’ve done a good job with the repair programme IMO. They’ve taken a potentially disastrous situation - a fundamental design flaw on a fairly pricey bit of kit - and in my experience at least, turned it into something that actually makes you feel that the manufacturer gives a shit. It’s a tough one to pull off, and in this case I think Microsoft has pulled it off.
> Oops. I was meant to send that too you, wasn’t I?
No worries. First impressions: I really like it. Then again, I’ve only played it for just under an hour, so it may be that I just haven’t found reasons to hate it yet :)
On a similar note, I’ve just had to return a DVD player to Amazon. Can’t fault the returns system - it’s much easier than dealing with endless phone calls - and the policy of dispatching a replacement immediately is a nice touch.
I’ve not heard very many negative comments about the microsoft replacement thing, at least in the UK. It looks like you had two problems though. The red-ring will be the motherboard heatsink issue. The DVD problem is probably the one that I had in that the DVD drive starts to fail but is not covered by the newly extended microsoft warranty. If you hadn’t had the red-ring of death, you would soon have had a failed xbox not covered by warranty, so the RRoD has actually saved you from having to buy a new xbox.
Did you get the same motherboard back or a hmdi-enabled one?