Wednesday, Mar 5, 2008
Actually not the red rings of death, but just as useless. After spending two weeks in San Francisco working from our US office, I was looking forward to some quality time with my console and some of the games that had come out recently but I hadn't had time to play.
Alas, last night at around 3am (jetlag is a ******) my console decided it wasn't to be, and started freezing everytime I turned it on. Sometimes it would even get as far as loading the game, and enticingly let me play for a couple of seconds before throwing a wobbly. Mainly it would just freeze on the opening logo.
Tried turning it off for a while, unplugging the hard drive, unplugging live, and all those useless things you do to try to prove that there's actually nothing wrong before giving up and calling their support line.
Me: My 360 broke. It keeps freezing.
Helpline guy: What's the serial number, your name, and your address?
I tell him.
Helpline guy: Ok, so you need to get a plain box and package up the 360, no cables or hard drive or anything.
Me: I still have the original box. Can I put it in that?
Helpline guy: No.
Me: Why not? I don't have a plain box.
Helpline guy: Then you'd better buy one. They won't take it in the original box.
Me: Why not?
Helpline guy: Because they won't.
Me: Hmmm.... Ok, so can they pick it up today?
Helpline guy: It'll be two or three working days.
Me: Oh, in that case, can you put down my work address if they come tomorrow or Friday and my home address if they come Saturday?
Helpline guy: No.
Me: Uh, why not? Most people are at work Monday to Friday and at home at weekends, are they not? I don't think that's a particularly strange request.
Helpline guy: There's only room on the system for one address. If they come earlier, just phone them and tell them to come on a Saturday.
Me: And presuming I ever manage to get hold of 'them', when can I expect my console back?
Helpline guy: Two to three weeks.
Me: (heavy sarcasm) That's great, thanks.
Helpline guy: (conspiratorially) Mine died last Friday too, so I'm in the same boat.
Absolutely brilliant.
[EDIT--I've had my 360 just over 2 months.]
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Posted Mar 5, 2008 5:29 am PT
How long have you been using the 360 before it died?
Posted Mar 5, 2008 5:33 am PT
That sucks 
I've had three failures, and none of them have been red ring failures. The first one I sent back in my original box; they returned it in a nice big box which I keep as my "360 failure box" in case I need it in future 
I've had three failures, and none of them have been red ring failures. The first one I sent back in my original box; they returned it in a nice big box which I keep as my "360 failure box" in case I need it in future
Posted Mar 5, 2008 5:38 am PT
Do you think if I covered the original 360 box with plain white paper that'd count?
Posted Mar 5, 2008 5:43 am PT
My condolences on your recent loss! I'm pretty sure it was Dannyodwyer (though I cannot find the entry, so maybe it was another user) who packaged some potato chips in with his X360 when he sent it in for repairs and got it back very quickly. So I'm thinking bribing might help.
Posted Mar 5, 2008 5:59 am PT
I went to my local post office and bought a box. However, it has the words 'post box' written on the side in red ink. Do you think that will be alright?
Posted Mar 5, 2008 6:19 am PT
Sorry to read this, hope you get it fix soon. Do as everyone do and send some cookies or something inside the box.
Posted Mar 5, 2008 6:54 am PT
Unlucky about your Xbox, I hate customer service lines! Hope it all works out for you.
Posted Mar 5, 2008 6:54 am PT
Microsoft's Customer Service is the most incompetent set of employees I've ever spoken to. They are ignorant and deaf. They hear but they don't listen. My last 360 repair took 8 weeks! one thing I don't get is why do you have to get the box? On both of my incidents, the shipping box was sent to me.
Posted Mar 5, 2008 7:22 am PT
If you're worried about them rejecting it because of any writing on the box, just tape over it. Every time I've shipped mine off, I've taped the new shipping label over the old one. Kills two birds in one stone because I need to have the new label on and it hides the old one.
Posted Mar 5, 2008 7:47 am PT
That sounded so bureaucratic, I'm surprised he didn't ask you for your 27B/6... Here's to hoping it will be fixed quickly and effectively.
Here's to hoping it will be fixed quickly and effectively.
Posted Mar 5, 2008 8:00 am PT
"Customer Service" = "Dodo Bird" I think Dell's "support" is actually worse, but MS is pretty bad. It's not just Xbox division, either. They're all stupid. It's like they purposefully hire people who get canned from Walmart. I am so sorry for you. Jet lag (and I've had the TransAtlantic blues myself, ouch) and a dead console? After two lousy months, most of which you weren't using it? Brutal. I thought these new GPU chips were supposed to fix that. Oh, right, PR. Hope you've gotten some sleep, at least.
Posted Mar 5, 2008 8:21 am PT
MS Customer service makes me angry they just hung up on me last time my 360 got RRoD 
Posted Mar 5, 2008 8:28 am PT
The 360 repair system is a joke. Extended warranties are fine but they need to significantly reduce the failure rate of the hardware and improve the repair turnaround time.
Posted Mar 5, 2008 9:09 am PT
I don't think they even try. "Just put it in a box and send it off!" I wonder if thats all you need to be able to say to get a job there. I'm sure that guy has been saying that a lot.
Posted Mar 5, 2008 9:41 am PT
sad news...
on the HD console war i would be leaning to buy a 360 but all these reports of broken 360, along with the numerous "funny" CRM lines that fly from Help Centers, can make one oh so frightened!! So far my only console, a weewee, has managed to do allright! Aren't these high failure rates hurting 360 sales?!?
on the HD console war i would be leaning to buy a 360 but all these reports of broken 360, along with the numerous "funny" CRM lines that fly from Help Centers, can make one oh so frightened!! So far my only console, a weewee, has managed to do allright! Aren't these high failure rates hurting 360 sales?!?
Posted Mar 5, 2008 9:54 am PT
EmmaUK:
They only tell you you cant send it in the original box because they cant gaurentee that you'll get that same box back. In fact, you wont. The returns come in special boxes. I sent my console back in the original box (just wrapped it up in brown post paper).
Boz:
Yea I packed the rest of the box with sweets and crisps and had it back within 17 days. A friend of a friend sent his off 2 days after mine and it took 6 weeks for his console to arrive back. And this was early december, 360 Death Season!
Another interested experience (in the loosest sence of the word) was my power adaptor died 2 weeks ago. After much tearing open plugs and cutting plastic i rang 360 support and told them the light on the transformer wasnt lighting at all (this is imporant, as a red light means its just the cable). The tech lady then said shed send out another one to me (after just 1 question) and low and behold 3 days later a brand new adaptor (cable, transformer, the works!) arrived in my door. Very handy if you move your console around and could use an extra adaptor!
They only tell you you cant send it in the original box because they cant gaurentee that you'll get that same box back. In fact, you wont. The returns come in special boxes. I sent my console back in the original box (just wrapped it up in brown post paper).
Boz:
Yea I packed the rest of the box with sweets and crisps and had it back within 17 days. A friend of a friend sent his off 2 days after mine and it took 6 weeks for his console to arrive back. And this was early december, 360 Death Season!
Another interested experience (in the loosest sence of the word) was my power adaptor died 2 weeks ago. After much tearing open plugs and cutting plastic i rang 360 support and told them the light on the transformer wasnt lighting at all (this is imporant, as a red light means its just the cable). The tech lady then said shed send out another one to me (after just 1 question) and low and behold 3 days later a brand new adaptor (cable, transformer, the works!) arrived in my door. Very handy if you move your console around and could use an extra adaptor!
Posted Mar 5, 2008 10:05 am PT
I just got mine back after a two week wait. I've had "ok" experience's with xbox customer suppport. The women I spoke was quite nice, couldn't understand a word she was saying though. The guy however when i rang to find out where my 360 was wasn't so nice.
Posted Mar 5, 2008 10:13 am PT
When I sent mine back they didn't advise me to take the harddrive out or not send it in the original box. the result was that they formatted my harddrive and threw away my box.
Posted Mar 5, 2008 10:55 am PT
My experience with them was OK except the woman couldn't understand my accent (she was clearly foreign as i could hardly understand her's) but other than that they were OK. I hope it all goes well. 
Posted Mar 5, 2008 11:06 am PT
Well this is what you should expect from Xbox 360's. I've never heard of a PS3 failing like that, and mine has never failed.
Posted Mar 5, 2008 12:10 pm PT
I know how you feel. The same thing happened to me last year. 
Posted Mar 5, 2008 12:29 pm PT
That's a real shame Emma . You should try Dannys idea and stuff your box with chocolates.
. You should try Dannys idea and stuff your box with chocolates.
Posted Mar 5, 2008 6:48 pm PT
Sad to hear. I've had my 360 since April last year and thankfully it hasn't had any problems yet (I expect a RRoD immediately after typing this). The Customer Service line sounds awful, I hate calling any kind of company support. :\
Posted Mar 5, 2008 11:31 pm PT
That really sucks. Hope you get it back soon so that you can get your game on. It might be some problem whit the cooling since my friend had the same problem so he put it horizontally and put the power brick in a more ventilated spot and after that its worked fine.
Ive had mine since early '06 about a month after launch and its working fine. Just hope i dont jinx it now since im currently playing Lost Odyssey witch is awesome.
Ive had mine since early '06 about a month after launch and its working fine. Just hope i dont jinx it now since im currently playing Lost Odyssey witch is awesome.
Posted Mar 6, 2008 8:36 am PT
Thats ridiculous, here in aus they send u a box, then u send it away. Pretty sure it usually takes less than 2 weeks to get back aswell, although maybe it depends on the problem.
Posted Mar 6, 2008 10:46 am PT
Awe that sucks, you might still have the RROD i had the same problem as you before it happen, freezing games, not loading/reading as in dirt disk or put this disk in an Xbox 360 console (WTF?) hope you get it fixed up soon
Posted Mar 6, 2008 4:23 pm PT
Last Sunday, i went to Gamestop and see if i could make a sacrifice with my credit card and buy myself a 360 along with Lost Oddyssey, i asked the employee if MS had made the necesary corrections with their hardware issues for this new year, and he said " Only for the elite 360 "......i was kinda bummed out considering i live in mexico and i cannot afford getting the RRD. Which later got me thinking....since they are getting tons of 360 returns, why the hell haven't they focused their attention on the issue at hand, which "also" got me thinking that perhaps that guy told me a load of BS, who knows.....anyways, im sorry for your loss, hope everything works out once you get a new one
Posted Mar 6, 2008 8:33 pm PT
Been there and had this happen twice. In short, the whole repair routine is crap... they are useless on the support end of things.
Posted Mar 9, 2008 7:43 am PT
The 360 and it's technical problems are a complete joke, as is Msoft's customer support for owners. When are Microsoft going to stop production of these models and revise the machine to the degree it needs to be revised. Even Msoft's own machines are prone to it's technical flaws, a display machine at GDC on the Microsoft stage red ringed live during a demo lol.
Posted Mar 11, 2008 3:44 pm PT
The reason they don't let you send it in the original box is twofold... One, you don't get it back in the same box you send it off in....
And two, they don't want to advertise the contents of the box incase it gets stolen in transit.
And two, they don't want to advertise the contents of the box incase it gets stolen in transit.
Posted Mar 15, 2008 2:44 pm PT
haha, that made me chuckle. Hope you get your Xbox back ok and I hope my new one doesn't die.
Posted Mar 27, 2008 4:26 pm PT
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