thoughthead

I’m an avid gamer, and more specifically an avid Xbox 360 gamer. I’ve spent thousands over the last couple of years on the console, games and accessories. I’ve heard countless horror stories of Xbox 360 consoles going belly up. Thankfully my own launch day console has never failed me (a rare specimen indeed) however most of the people I’ve heard that were having problems with their console got friendly and fast turn around times when contacting Microsoft for repairs.

All of this seemed to change abruptly, as if a switch had been flipped, when Microsoft announced that they would be extending their console’s warranty a full 3 years for RROD errors. I started to see people start quoting that turn around times were going from 1-2 weeks to 8-9 weeks. That’s rather dramatic, though it seemed that maybe it was only growing pains from the hoards of new complains from those that had just been added back under warranty coverage.

My opinion changed when I read an article posted up on Achieve360points.com. Speaker Ender, a moderator there, posted, in detail, his experience with Microsoft’s 1-800-4-MY-XBOX support line. A horrific Ordeal indeed. What followed was an onslaught of others posting their similar experiences with the “new” Microsoft support plan.

What I find most interesting is not just the incompetence on the part of Microsoft but the outright abuse coupled with deliberate organized and widespread “run-around” tactic doled out by the higher level staff. Quite frankly it’s appalling. Even more scary is if even a fraction of these consumers record their experiences it would be perfect fodder for a class-action lawsuit. I realize Microsoft extended their warranty to help prevent such a scenario but in order to prevent it they actually have to make good on their proposal.

I’m posting this here because I like the guys at a360p, and I’d like to see Speaker Ender’s issues resolved. More importantly though, I would like to see this issue resolved for everyone that has seen these kinds of problems when dealing with Microsoft Customer Support. As well as the DRM issues that arise with Xbox Live content when moving to a new console.

As consumers the only way we’ll ever see change is if we make our voices heard. I encourage you to share your experiences with Microsoft Customer Support and spread this message along to anyone you can.