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HORROR STORIES Read my current RoD Story, or the one about the disk scratching problems I had with my original 360 here. I can add your story too - good or bad. I'm not the only victim around.
This is what the gap under his TV looked like for the past 53 days:
Thanks for the pic. Click it to know why its going to stay like that for a while... xbox 360 Red Light of Death - 1 June 2007 to 24 July 2007 - 54 days - by Diz
Welcome to my hell... It's been well over 9 weeks! My 360 bust on 1 June, took 29 days to get fixed (i'd been quoted 15 max), arrived back broke, then went off again on the fantastic journey they call xbox 360 hardware support. I finally got one back after much hassle on 24 July.3 disk read errors on a new copy of Forza 2 and 1 on Oblivion told me I'd gotten another duff one. It's gone away again - to Prague.
Its finally happened to me too. I'd just preordered Forza 2 Special edition. I thought I'd fire up the 360 to play the Forza demo a bit more. It locked up just after the car select screen. I re-booted and got the ring of death - 3 flashing red lights on the console. I called support and explained what happened. They asked me to plug and unplug the thing, remove the hard disk and suchlike. It booted up but froze on the loading screen. Microsoft support told they'd send an email with a returns label, so I could send the thing back for repair. It is more than a year old (by 2 months) but I wouldn't have to pay for the fix. This is not the first time the things gone wrong though. I had problems with the first machine scratching my disks. Microsoft didn't believe me at the time, so I took it back to Argos for a replacement. Microsoft sent me a free game for that one (they called me up out of the blue to apologise).
I was told on day 1 that I'd get an email in 24 hours. It hadn't arrived so I rang back the next day and was told that it was 48 hours...
I rang back this morning and was initially told it was 72 hours in a UK call centre. Then, my email address was checked (a simple 12 character address (including the @ and dot) that I not only sounded out and heard back (echo, delta, foxtrot, bravo) on Friday. Of course it was wrong - the domain suffix was listed as .piz! For some reason bravo was interpreted as P. This helpful UK operator called Elizabeth told me she was going to cancel my existing returns call and create a new one with the proper address. I was asked to wait a couple of minutes, then Liz came back on the phone, thanked me for waiting, then click. The phone went dead! I called again, spoke to someone else called Zelda in a far off land and was given a new call number. She told me I'd get an email in 24 hours. She also said I'd get my 360 back in 15 working days. Interestingly, in the 48 hours since Friday morning and Sunday morning the new number given to me is 110937 more than the old number. Surely not THAT many boxes could have gone wrong in 2 days? I got an acknowledgement email within an hour. It told me to wait for another email. The UPS label arrived quickly and I arranged for UPS to collect the xbox (packaged in its original box) during the next day.
UPS collected my 360 for return to Microsoft
Forza 2 arrived today, courtesy of GAME pre-orders. Imagine my joy... . . .
I got an email from Microsoft today. It said: "We have received your Xbox at our service center. It is our priority to process your Xbox in a timely manner and to get it back to you as good as new. We will contact you as soon as we are finished so you can get ready to get back into the game!"
I called Microsoft to hassle them (they'd told me 15 days max, so I was getting edgy) I was told it had been fixed and was verbally given a UPS tracking number but said it would not register on the UPS tracking site for up to 48 hours. I was told that my compensation would be one "free" month on xbox live. Seeing as I've paid for most of this month already, I don't see that as much compo.
I got an email very early this morning from Microsoft, telling me that my 360 had been fixed and was on its way back to me. They gave me a tracking number for UPS (the same one as given over the phone on Saturday), but it doesn't register on their site (yet). I've been quoted 2 to 5 days now. Well, the tracking number was finally recognised by UPS sometime on Monday (day 25 ). It said "Billing information received" on the UPS site.
The UPS tracking site was still displaying the same "Billing information received info on Wednesday. I rang UPS to find out what it means and why the delay. I was told that they did not have a collections number from Microsoft so could not collect. So, after seeing the same info again on the UPS site, I thought I'd give Microsoft another call. I got through to Dawinda, who promised me at least 10 times that I'd get my repaired 360 back tomorrow. All this was after a 40 minute wait and also after being mysteriously disconnected before I could speak to him. He told me to call UPS and find out. I called them and spoke at length to a chap who explained in great detail about UPS collections, tracking statuses, and xbox 360s. He said that if my tracking status was not updated by midnight, I'd definitely not get my 360 back the next day, as promised.
Come Thursday, the UPS site still said the same thing, so I called Microsoft again to hassle them. After a disconnection during the call, I had music on hold while I waited for the next half hour. I eventually spent about one and a half hours talking to a nice British woman. She offered me compensation - initially a choice from 4 games (Viva Pinata, Perfect Dark 0. Kameo or PGR3 ). I already have 3 and didn't want the other game, so I was offered a wireless controller as recompense for my troubles. After quibbling about a refund for June's xbox live payment, I was put through to an american called Angela (a customer services supervisor). It seemed. at least until I spoke to Angela that is, that nobody could find out why my 360 had not been picked up by UPS. I suggested that she get someone to find out; by contacting despatch, locating my 360 then calling me back. She agreed to this, although she never did call me back.
Friday was a huge day of excitement - the UPS web site tracking status had changed - loads. Collected, stamped, arrival at depot, stamped, checked and loaded on truck to me. It seemed that my call must have worked. It arrived at 13:30. I plugged it in and turned it on - I just managed to redeem my free xbox live token (compensation) and play 20 minutes of Forza 2, then it crashed. I re-started and it froze at the loading screen. A few more attempts and the 360 worked for a few minutes then froze, then red lighted, or froze when re-started. Exactly the same as it was before I took it in. I was shocked and stunned... And past the point of fury.
So, another phone call to Microsoft - a nice long wait - More music on hold (as always, a mixture between "Fur Elise" played in pure tone like on an old cheap keyboard, with a mellow song by the band "Air" playing at the same time). A very sorry Dutchman, another repair number, another email with UPS returns label. More compensation offered - a free wireless headset, from the end of their list, this time. As it was Friday (day 29), I'll have to wait until Monday for UPS to come out. The UPS label email arrived very quickly and I organised a Monday collection.
UPS came for the xbox again.
I got my free wireless controller today.
My free wireless headset turned up today. There's nothing to "plug" my new freebies into though - well, nothing to "receive" them anyway.
I heard Microsoft announcement today, that they were going to guarantee 360s for 3 years now. Expecting trouble are we?
I'm thinking perhaps day 60 sounds realistic for the return of my xbox, but I heard that the phone message now states 30 working day turnaround (make that 38 days +, including weekends).
I thought I'd give Microsoft support another call today, as I've posted a support message on the forum, wrote an email to a special email address and posted to a a few threads on xbox.com in the last few days. I had absolutely no official response, so I thought I'd waste some more of my time and their money to try and get hold of a working 360. I had 10 minute wait and a 30 minute conversation with someone who was ever so apologetic but somewhat powerless to help me. All I managed to get was the promise of a call back from a customer services supervisor. I was told this time that there was no facility to connect me through there and then. Remarkably, I did get a call back from supervisor a couple of hours later. This lady had an american accent and initially seemed convinced that it didn't matter that my 360 had been repaired and returned faulty. She was quite adamant that I should wait again for another repair, until I repeated my sorry experience to her. She offered me the usual compensation that I chose to decline this time. I insisted that I shouldn't have to go through another repair process and should just get another 360. She did not discount this possibility, but she also offered to call the service centre to find out what was happening. I asked her why she had not done that already, prior to contacting me. She told me she'd call me back again, although didn't tell me when. I won't hold my breath...
Guess what? She didn't call back! So I waited until 09:00 and called them to find out why. I spoke to Sarah Stevens, who, after asking me to hold so she could speak to a supervisor, apologised and told me that a customer services supervisor would call me back within the hour. When I explained about all the previous "promises" made, she pleaded with me to "trust her" as she was not "like the others". I asked her why I could not speak to the person she was speaking to. Apparently, they'd gone into a meeting... The escalations team hadn't arrived yet. They were in different buildings... Such bare-faced lies only serve to make me more angry with Microsoft. Well, guess what? No phone call within the hour. So I called again at 11:00 and was promised that someone would call me back within half an hour. I kept them on the phone (by refusing to be put on hold - apparently you have to agree to it!). After half an hour, I reminded them of their promise (the "supers" had my mobile number and I was calling from a land line) and I was put on hold again. The music on hold changed from "Air" to "Kenny G". I was put through to the same supervisor who called on Saturday. She didn't apologise for not calling back and ultimately did not do anything to help. She did not even tell me when I could expect my xbox 360 back. She seemed unaware that my first repair took so much longer than I was estimated at the time either. I found out a couple of bits of info though...
So day 47 saw me waste another hour and a half banging my head against a wall. All I want is to be able to play the 20 games I bought. Why do they put me through so much grief? After reading posts in the Eurogamer forums in the afternoon, I decided to try contacting the Microsoft headquarters in Reading and raise a complaint. Here's their details: Microsoft Ltd I rang the number, got through to the
main switchboard, then asked to speak to customer
services. I was put through to a chap called Tim
in the response management team. He seemed super-understanding
and ready to fight my case. He described himself
as "third line". I gave
him the link to this page and he read it through, seemed
extremely interested, discussed my previous scratched
disk episode with me and asked how many 360s I'd had
in total. By my reckoning, I'm on my 4th. He said it
was "unacceptable". He told me that someone
he knew was an 360 escalations supervisor and they would
call me back, deal with it properly and I'd get something
shipped out. Tim did say to let him know if I didn't
get satisfaction. He made sure I had a complaint reference
number.
At 15:00, a customer services supervisor called me. She told me that my xbox would take 25 working days to repair, from 5 July - the date when it arrived at the repair centre. I asked her what a working day means. She replied by telling me I should know. I reminded her that the customer service centre was open at weekends. She told me that they could not escalate or prioritise in the repair queue. Just as she was trying to finish the call, she offered to contact the repair centre and try to hurry my repair though. I didn't believe that for a minute. She then tried to give me a reference number for the call. I responded by refusing it and demanding that she take my complaints number, since her call to me could only have been generated through the complaint I made to Microsoft UK headquarters. By their estimates I will get my 360 back on 9 August - That'll be 70 days! I called Microsoft UK straight away and tried to get though to Tim again. He wasn't there but called back within 10 minutes. We discussed the situation and Tim endeavoured to keep on escalating for me. He also suggested that "over 60 day" repair periods have been recognised as failing the Sale of Goods Act reasonableness test, so the Trading Standards could be a way to go for me. I do have faith in these UK Head Office teams. Its such a relief to talk to someone who takes note, talks real, and does not use the 0800 repair line script, deviation tactics and dead-end support service options. Tim called back again less than 15 minutes later to make quite sure that I'd be happy with a high quality refurb console. It would take 7 days to arrive and he'd start the ball rolling today! I Remember Tim telling me that I'd get a call from the escalations team within 24 hours to confirm everything.
No phone calls or email from Microsoft so far... I'm worried. But I'll wait until next Thursday. In my quest for more info, I called "Consumer Direct" (trading standards UK advice line). They told me that you have a better course of action against the retailer than Microsoft. So, in the UK, if your 360 craps out on you, DO NOT CALL Microsoft! A bit late now fro me, isn't it. They went on to explain... Despite the 1 year guarantee, retailers are responsible
for repairing defects for 6 years under the UK sale of
goods act.
A UPS van rolled up at 1:30p.m. - No warning. A familiar shaped box was carried down the drive. My refurb 360 arrived today. Along with it, a note, which read: RE: REPLACEMENT OF YOUR XBOX CONSOLE. Dear Xbox Customer, So that you can get back to playing and enjoying your Xbox quicker, we have replaced your Xbox console with a replacement unit. This replacement unit has a different serial number than your old unit. We will handle these administrative functions for you.
If you had purchased an extended service contract through your selling dealer, you should notify the service contract carrier of the serial number change. Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience you have experienced by having to send your Xbox 360 in for repair. It is our goal to provide you with the best gaming and entertainment experience possible, and hope to regain your trust, satisfaction and loyalty. Please accept this complimentary one month Xbox Live membership card as a gesture of our appreciation of you. Thank you for your continued support of Microsoft products and services. Sincerely, Xbox Customer Service Along with it was an xbox quality survey and free pay envelope and a months xbox live card. I've been extensively "testing" the unit. So far, I've had one hitch, while playing my new copy of Forza. The track disappeared suddenly (replaced with sky and background graphics) so the cars were floating around the screen for perhaps 15 seconds. I was just about to reach for the phone to video it (it looked, like, far out and trippy) then a disk read error message interrupted the weird graphic glitch. Of course, I took the disk out, fully prepared to expect dinks in it, but it was perfect. I'll let you know if anything else happens. The 360 does not inspire confidence at the moment. This one sounds quite different to the other 2 I've had - not quieter, but more disk access sounds. It's up on chocks to give it adequate ventilation. I think more testing is required....
My returned 360 has been playing up over the weekend and giving me disk errors. 3 disk read errors (game gets graphics glitches - please clean with a soft cloth message appears - thrown back to the dashboard) in Forza and one in Oblivion. I haven't tried any other games, aside from Guitar Hero (worked fine for an hour or so). It ruins the gaming experience, being unable to complete a race or save some progress because of this issue. So I called Microsoft again to report the problem. At first, the operator insisted it was my disks - impossible since I'd replayed the same sections again without error and have never had any problems before with disk reading. She offered to get the console on the repair roundabout again. I insisted that something better was done and after 45 minutes, I was offered a call back in 48 hours from a "super".
48 hours came and went so I called again and was put through to a US supervisor. The music on hold changed once more from Air's Moon Safari to Kenny G. A "super" asked how she could help me, seeming not to know about what was going on. Her offer was that a refurb would be sent out immediately mine was accepted at their Havant repair / distribution / processing centre and that an email label was on its way (received several hours later. She also offered 3 months xbox live for free and sent me an email containing the code. I sent a strong letter to the Microsoft headquarters, letting them know of my dissatisfaction with the entire experience so far.
The returns email came. The 3 months xbox live email came. The UPS automated collections line worked (I sussed that you have to say "Oh" instead of zero) and UPS came that day to take the box back. The UPS driver and I (now fairly good friends) exchanged stories of troubled 360s. He showed me his van with six consoles picked up that day.
Several things happened today. I got a call from a Microsoft representative, garrisoned at their Reading HQ. This was as a result of the complaint letter I sent them. I had quite an extensive telephone conversation with him. He allowed me to air all of my grievances and was entirely reasonable and thoughtful. He could have done a bit more research though, as I had to explain everything to him from the beginning again. He told me that my console had not yet arrived at the repair centre in Prague yet, despite me previously being told that it was only being sent to Havant. He told me that he'd put a "hurry up" on it and offered me more compensation - a copy of Shadowrun. Its not the sort of game I'm interested in. This was despite me telling him that I did not want any compensation. I also had an email from a news reporter after a RROD opinion. Of course I responded that I'd gladly offer my services. More news, as it happens (nearly...)
To say I'm absolutely freaked by this is an understatement. Not only did I waste my first XBL voucher, but I had 20 minutes of playing Forza 2 - a game I've owned since 7 June, but had never been able to play as the 360 went wrong on 1 June until 24 July. An then only for a bit. And I love Microsoft! (well, used to...) All in all, I've had well over 8 weeks of xboxlessness,8 hours of telephone hassle, Microsoft refusal to refund my June xbox live payment (despite not being able to access their service because their proprietary hardware has a design fault and they can't repair it in a reasonable time). They wouldn't send a refurb out for me, even if my box had gone back to them again. Not until I called the UK headquarters did anyone take notice and make a believable promise to take some action. Even then, the call back from 360 escalation refused to send a refurb. Finally, another call the the UK HQ got a refurb box sent, but with no communication from the support service. It was a pure fluke I was home. Even then, the problems continue... The thing about the xbox 360 is that, when it works, it's great. Forza's great. Ace Combat 6 looks jaw-dropping. There's loads more new stuff too since I've been able to log in. It would be a shame for the whole XBOX enterprise to fail because of these customer service issues. I'm expecting my next refurb to go wrong. Surely, it shouldn't be like that. Thanks for reading! xbox live Gamertag - UsernamePending GameSpot tag - Diz360. You can contact me through GameSpot messaging. Sign up - its free!.
Read about the Disk scratching problems I had with my original 360 here. |
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