Here we go again...

[Andara Bledin]

Welcome back. Was wondering where you'd got off to.

Nekojin's pushing to get an XBox. He wants that driving game everyone's gushing over. He's already got two different custom cars reserved from a guy on another forum that does really nice paintjob work.

^-.-^

[Geek King]

Apparently you aren't the only one having issues with your Xbox. ITWire article here stating that Microsoft has finally admitted there is a huge problem, and they are doing what they can to resolve it-- at the cost of $1 billion to them!

Is this the end of the Xbox?

No, not the end. Looking at some sites that have pics of the fixes that get installed, I would guess the problems are related to long-term heat issues. Not really something you can catch in a hardware test, and anyone who has one can tell you about the heat output. I have to chase my cat away from it on a regular basis. To their credit, Xbox has extended warrenties to 3-years, which helps me, because I have just had the three-red-lights-o-doom. My empty box arrived in good condition, so maybe my Xbox will return in like condition. Not that I wouldn't like an Elite, but Tenchu Z begs to be finished ^^

Oh, and I'm back, but mostly lurking. I may write about my hiatus in off-topic once I catch up to all the threads I missed reading. Hey all

[Shabo]

Apparently you aren't the only one having issues with your Xbox. ITWire article here stating that Microsoft has finally admitted there is a huge problem, and they are doing what they can to resolve it-- at the cost of $1 billion to them!

Is this the end of the Xbox?

[lumlite]

Let it never be said that you didn't earn it.

[repsac]

Part Two:

I won't go into all the details, the call ended up being pretty much the same as the last ones. I tell them something's wrong, they see that it's now the fourth time I've sent one of these things in, and then they start getting all nice and submissive. Yes sir, we can help you. No, we're sorry that happened. HERE talk to my supervisor...please don't sue me sir. You know the drill.

So the supervisor comes on, we talk back and forth some and eventually he sighs. "Well, we have a problem here." My heart sinks. Problem. Meaning I can't send it in for repair? Oh that's not good. NO!

"Problem?" I choked out. "Yeah." he responds. "You'll have to send it in...again. I'm sorry, there's nothing you can do on your end to fix it."

my heart skipped a beat, birds sang, the masses cheered. Life was good. Ok, maybe two of those didn't happen, but my heart did skip a beat.

So, I sit now awaiting a box.

Last saturday, I get a phone call. It's an "Agent". Her message for me is rather short and sweet, and causes me to nearly drop the phone.

Mr. Repsac? Yes, this is (so and so) speaking. In reference to your repair order, we contacted Microsoft, and they have authorized us to replace your Xbox with a new one. Given the trouble you've been through, and your prior request for a new one, we've decided that the best course of action is this. When your box arrives, please send the unit in. Keep your hard drive and all accessories, and any games you may have. As soon as we recieve your defective unit, we'll be shipping your replacement."

I was taken aback. I'm getting a new one? WOAH...cool. Life really IS good. What came next though, is what prompted me to nearly drop the phone. (No exaggeration there. I nearly DID drop it.)

"We're sorry for the trouble you've been through sir, and hope you enjoy many hours with your "elite" when it arrives. We will call you when it ships."



wait...

did she say...

"Elite?" I must have said it aloud, because she seemed to chuckle. "Yes sir. that's right. You did say that was what you had wanted?" Trying not to sound too quick I responded "YEAH...sure....whatever. That's right!"

Epilogue:

It's not arrived yet, but did I ever say that? Yes. Sorta. I don't know if I wrote it here, but during one call I had mentioned to a tech support guy that I'd considered at one time buying an Elite. The problem was, due to all the trouble I had been having with my 360, that I wasn't likely to do that. In fact, I was tempted to just trade the stupid thing in and be done with it.

Apparently he wrote that down.

[repsac]

Good lords, it's been forever since I updated this. Many things have happened in that time. So let me see if I can recap:

The box came, but it was effectively crushed. I was NOT a happy camper. So I called Xbox and they shipped one out. That's where we last left this.

They told me that it would take seventy two hours for the box to come. No more, no less. Third day air express I think. Seventy two hours came and went. No box. Ok, I figured maybe it was a holiday weekend. So, I gave them another day. Then another. A full week later and no box, I gave up and called. The first tech I got said the rote "it takes five to ten days..." to which I must admit I went a bit sucky. Grumbling into the phone I retorted. "Ok, that's nice, but I was talking to a supervisor earlier and she said that it would take seventy two hours to get here. Not five to ten days."

Well, the person on the other end inhaled sharply, (I heard that) and cold transferred me to a supervisor. This person turned out to be awesome, and doing some research discovered that the box had never been shipped out. It was supposed to have shipped, but the way the code works, it just failed to execute. So, he appologizes and sends me another box.


About a week passes. This box comes and it's in pristine (all be it a bit dirty) condition. WOOO! I've got my box so I can send the thing in. All the while I've been getting a call from the repair center every other day. So, I send the Xbox in, and after several calls find out that yes, it had been dropped. So, they fixed it free of charge and sent it back to me. Never sent my game with it, but I did get another one of those (fake cheer) one month membership cards with it.

Problem.

The thing came back while my mother was in ICU. So naturally I just put the thing on the kitchen table and left it unopened for about two weeks. At some point, I felt like gaming, so I ran up and rented "Crackdown". Wisely, I chose "play guard" which meant I wouldn't be charged for any damages to the game.

Heading home, I put the game in and start having fun killing bad guys. Then odd things happen. Walls start dissappearing, cars float on air, and then things go really bad. Textures vanish, parts of the city vanish. At one point, I can stand on a building and see how they made the world and what buildings have interiors just by looking through the walls. Then it all freezes. This is bad.

I called Xbox again, end up on hold again.

Will the madness ever stop? Please make the hurting stop.

Part two to follow.

[repsac]

Ok, so the box came today...the empty one.

Guess what? It too was dented beyond usage. So, I ended up taking several photos of it, and stuffing them inside another box which, per Xbox instructions, I'm sending along.

Talking with J, my service rep, I found out that this type of problem isn't entirely uncommon. In fact, it's becoming more and more common, to the point that Xbox is threatening to quit shipping with UPS. Not only that, but Xbox has been sued several times because of this. In short, it's a total FUBAR.

So, where have I been? Hee hee. Playing WoW. (World of Warcraft) If you happen to play, on the first world that your system chooses, send Kierie or Jandrilla (yeah...I play femme charries) a tell and I'll see if I can help you out.

[Fawn]

Daaaaamn! Keep updating this! So much crazyness going on!

[DarthRetard]

Repsac, if you get that clear ghost case, i'm gonna apply for a job with UPS soon and go hijack it.....

[repsac]

Called Xbox today, day 8 of waiting on the box.

Talking with the "agent" there, we get right down to things. After everything, I wonder if Max (the automated answering machine) doesn't know be by name now.

Anyway, I get to an agent and state that I was told 8 days ago that I would be recieving a box in 72 hours to replace the one that was damaged. Note: This is just the empty box. No console. The agent spoke with me some, pulling up my record before saying (and I quote) "Aw crap. They screwed you over with this one. Hang on, let me grab my supervisor on this."

So, I end up on hold. All the while thinking that this "agent" is cool, and at least honest.

About ten min pass before he comes back. He's spoken with the super, and the super wants to talk to me after he's done. Either way, I have a new ref number and the agent keeps appologizing profusely. Ok...why do I sense something is wrong? The guy goes on to explain that the other agent, some girl who struck me as a bit snotty, had used a system that's supposed to resend the box. Key word there being supposed.

All the agents are warned that this part of the system is problematic, and that IF they chose to use that resending portion that they're to check. Why? Because very often the box won't get reshipped out.

However, that's not why the super wants to talk to me.

So, on hold I go again. This time they're playing "Funky Town" I think I make it through the whole song, and partially into some techno version of a Rammstein song before the super gets to me.

Here's where things turn weird.

The agent had found that I was supposed to have recieved a call from a higher up supervisor. The Supervisor had closed that "ticket" with the note that he was too busy to call. According to them, that is a NO NO. Big time. Further, the girl who was supposed to have resent the box (Or at least checked that it had shipped) was on duty then. This supervisor (today's) said that he was very sorry for her actions, and she would be disciplined severely for what she did, or failed to do.

I got the impression she had done this before, or made it known she didn't have the time to bother following up.

So, I'm back waiting again. I'm supposed to get a call in 48 hours or so, and a box in about 5 days.

New Ref number, new comps. I'm not sure what all I'm getting, Gears is still in there, but this super says they'll see what else they can get me to make it up.

I told them I wanted this: http://www.clearxbox.com/site/pages/...360_clear.html . The supervisor said that they'd see if they could do that, but wouldn't make any promises.

[CrazedClerk]

That's odd--our game consoles come packed the same way and we haven't been having problems with them being damaged that I'm aware of.

Maybe your shipping people would kick them around the warehouse before sending them out?

It's possible, we had quite a few issues with them as I recall (things not being shipped, things that should not have been being shipped, shrinkwrapped games with cracked cases).

I venture a guess the problem was the company penny pinched by hardly using any shipping material in their boxes.

HOWEVER the 360s we were told ship directly from MS not I'm sure you could blame our guys for that.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Wow that's a whole lot of suckiness.

One of the things that always burned me up when it came to Xbox 360s when I worked at the game store was that they are shipped in boxes of two, with NO PACKING MATERIAL WHATSOEVER. I believe we lost at least $5000 of 360s over the holidays because of units damaged in transit.

That's odd--our game consoles come packed the same way and we haven't been having problems with them being damaged that I'm aware of.

Maybe your shipping people would kick them around the warehouse before sending them out?

[It's me]

Banrion, some people have said that the release date consoles don't seem to have as much trouble as the later ones. There's a hundred theories as to why this is, but the best I've heard is the possiblity that Xbox (microsoft) farmed out the construction to a few other companies who didn't uphold the same quality standards that MS had.

This is true of a lot of electronics. The first units get built with parts that are choosen based on very tight specs. Once a whole lot of them are out there and working, the specs are loosened up, usually in stages, as the company gets real-world experience with the units. (Looser specs means the parts are cheaper, of course). Also: in the console world, the companies want the everyone's initial impression to be fantastic, but once a few million units are out there, a few flaky boxes aren't really a factor and won't hurt sales too badly compared to the increased profit on each unit sold.

[repsac]

Soon as I get my mum's camera fixed, I'm going to take a few photos. I'll show you the box (the one that I'm waiting on a replacement for) and the packing material they stick it in. For now, let me see if I can describe it.

Looking at the stuff, it resembles a greenish foam cutout in the rough shape of one end of the 360. The foam, soft to the touch, is about two or three inches thick. Why it's green is beyond me. There are three "buffers" i'll call them. Braces that go over the ends of one side of the cutout. These prevent the Xbox from sliding.

You are given two of these, one for each end of the console. (They are also returned in these.) Also, you have an antistatic bag.

Supposedly, packaging is as follows.
1.) Remove the disc from the console.
2.) remove the faceplate (if custom)
3.) Replace the original faceplate.
4.) Remove the Hard Drive.
5.) Replace the hard drive cover, if found.
6.) Write your Ref Number on a bit of paper and place inside the plastic bag. OR tape to the side of the console.
7.) Wrap the console in the bag.
8.) Place the foam packing material on each end of the Xbox.
9.) Place the "packaged" console into the cardboard box. It will not fit snugly, but may move around some.
10. Place another piece of paper in the box, again with your Ref Number on it.
11.) Tape the box closed.
12.) On two sides of the box, WRITE your reference number in bold numbers.
13.) Place the shipping label you were sent over the existing one on the box.
14.) Return to sender.
15.) Lather, Rinse, Repeat.
-------------------------------

I sent an email to UPS about it, but all they want me to do is send them a tracking number. That'd be easy, if I had one. I'll call monday to Xbox and tell them what's up and see if they can help me out. I'm getting seriously tired of this.

Edit:

Banrion, some people have said that the release date consoles don't seem to have as much trouble as the later ones. There's a hundred theories as to why this is, but the best I've heard is the possiblity that Xbox (microsoft) farmed out the construction to a few other companies who didn't uphold the same quality standards that MS had.

[CrazedClerk]

Thats funny, when I ordered my 360 online from Amazon, it came super duper packed individually. I got lucky too, no problems yet, and I have had it since release day.

More than likely Amazon repackages them before sending them out.