Microsoft UK Slammed By BBC Consumer Show

250 Complaints...... damn only a 110 out!

My 360 died on me a couple of days ago due to the ring of death, fortunatly i had 3 days left on my warranty so they've sent a replacement - not tried it yet tho so fingers crossed.

Let us know how this went for you.

Cheers

Tim

will do.

*Doffs cap

Of course, the sale of every new Ferrari goes perfectly, with buyers never left by the side of the road for the ridicule of other motorists...

It's obvious that Gates was trying to give customers an honest outlook on the reliability of their machines! ;-)

If Clarkson's experiences are even half as bad as he has said, then I think Bill should have compared the 360 to a Fort GT! :-)

Disclaimer for PreciousRoi: I don't actually believe what I just wrote, it has a smiley and was intended as a joke.

I'll be upfront. I think Clarkson is a hypocritical oaf (his let's all drive 9 litre V16 SUVs - but "oh! wasn't that hurricane bad" schtick was nauseating), and a neo-nazi (it's all there in any of his books/collections of rants).

But where the GT was involved, he outdid even himself. His "problems" were minor. He basically had buyer's remorse over buying a car that was never aimed at very tall, very fat family men who live at the end of a dirt track. He abused his position to return a car over nit-picking. He had no case, but used the MASSIVE negative publicity his position enables him to create to force Ford to accept his return.

He's a f**ktard.

If his experience was five times as bad as he said, the car should merely have been fixed under warranty. And expecting that to be done quicky on a masively limited edition special edition import supercar is, frankly, unrealistic.

I detest Clarkson.
I think he makes a good telly show though.
Top Gear saw off (an admitedly ailing) Big Brother final. That's quite something for a specialist show about cars.

I mainly hate the fact he is from Doncaster :(

Got my 360 back on Friday so i thought i'd write up exactly what happened and what it took to get a working replacement back into my sweaty hands!

Basically it all started on Friday the 2nd after firing up Dead Rising. During the first cut scene the machine froze. "No big deal" i thought - but how wrong i was...
After trying to restart the machine i got the three red segments on the power up button and having read up on the problem a few days earlier i new i'd just had a hardware failure :(

After nearly breaking down in front of my girlfriend, (yes, some of us geeks do actually have girlfriends!) i decided to get on the blower to Xbox support and see if they could sort the problem, albeit for a price. To my astonishment i still had 4 days left on my warranty (this revelation only disappointed me that i wasn't one of the first to own a 360 on launch last year), so, after i few jokes at my expense about my 'red ring' the lovely german girl on the end of the phone told me that she'd send me - via email - a UPS returns labels to attach to my lovingly packaged 360.

I got back into work on the Monday to find said email and a UPS returns number to ring to arrange pick up. The nice lady on the end of the phone asked me what hours i worked and if i'd be there all week. I was then informed that at some point during my working week a delivery guy would arrive to pick it up.

Five minutes after putting the phone down UPS arrived and i was forced to hand over the hub of my entertainment system - no - my life, to a burley looking bloke covered in prison tattoos. I waved off what could have been the last i'd see of my pride and joy as the surly ex-con swaggered off into the distance with my xbox under his 'roided up' arms.

The next day i was informed by email that the xbox had been received and that a replacement would be dispatched within the next 15 days.

13 long days later my new, probably refurbished, xbox arrived (i say arrived, it was actually left on my door step unattended to whilst i was at work) and although it's still early days it's been running perfectly.

All in all i've received a great response from both Microsoft and UPS customer support - they didn't even get sick of me ringing up every other day to see if my replacement was on it's way. I realise that customer support for any company can be a bit hit and miss. I guess i was just lucky to get a friendly german girl that must have moistened at the sound of my manly deep voice. Either that or she mistook me for comedy genius and king of the jungle Joe Pasquale.

Al.

haha, riiiing stiiiing. you run the risk of having the phone put down on you, cracking that brand of comedy. luckily you found the second ever documented German With A Sense Of Humour

Hi

I had my original x box replaced last december (06) just before my warranty ran out. They couldn't fix it and as a result I was given a new one. Now this one has experienced the "ring of death" and when I phoned microsoft I've been told I'm out of warranty and will have to pay 85 quid! They said I was only entitled to a 90 day warranty on the new xbox??? How does that work?? Surely with a NEW xbox as a result of a known problem their side, should surely come with a new 12mths warranty???

Have I been given the correct information and if so how can this be true!!!! I should be entitled to a new 12 mth warranty on a new xbox!!!

Any advice would be appreciated!

Cheers

I think that most warranties are from the date of original purchase, so you wouldn't get a free warranty extension. I've never heard of this happening.

Indeed most vendors will replace electronic equipment from reconditioned stock rather than new.

Adam - thanks for your reply. My original warranty on the original xbox would have ran out on the 17th Dec 06. My 1st xbox broke just before this date. The xbox that replaced it wasn't my original xbox - I checked the serial numbers.....therefore to me it was a new xbox - reconditioned or not........it wasn't the original product that I bought therefore how can I only be given a 90 day warranty on a new product? If it was my original xbox being refurbished I could understand but it wasn't. Thats why I don't think they should be allowed to offer a 90 day warrranty on a completely different xbox 360. To me thats just not fair with a known default. Every single one of my friends has had at least 2 xbox 360's since they were released, one of my friends is on his 5th one!!!! I think its a disgrace to be honest!

Thanks

They are giving you a new Xbox to honour the warranty on the OLD one. Your warranty is for 12 months from the date you bought the original Xbox - and by law, you are not entitled to a replacement - only to a repair. It is easier for Microsoft to replace, but you are not entitled to a new warranty, so by giving you 90 days, if those 90 days extend beyond your original one year they are actually exceeding the requirements of UK consumer law.

Think about it, you pay your money, and you get an item, and a 12 month "guarantee" that it will continue to work... You may have a "new" (to you) Xbox, but you haven't paid any more money, so why are you entitled to any longer "gurarantee".

Of course, the existence of a known fault sort of messes this up - but you need to argue the known fault on different grounds. You are clearly not entitled (under established UK consumer law) to an extended warranty, and if you argue on those grounds, you are bound to lose. But no company should refuse to replace an item that displays a well documented fault.