Class action lawsuit could be building against Microsoft for 360 fall update woes

"I am playing my second console at this time, which was also updated, and no problems (so far)."

Just to clarify, I had two units (since July) and I am playing the second unit. I have not received the replacement console yet, still waiting for the coffin.

FYI -

my 360 is sitting in an open air av shelf... there are no ventilation issues with my setup. and my freezing issues started immediatly after the fall update was downloaded.

those 1995 post are only a representative sample of the users experincing the problem... only a small percentage or 360 users are posting on microsoft's forums.

and you are quite the classy guy BIGGEN. you feel cool now???

and btw, what exactly am i lying about???

- my 360 IS freezing
- it did not freeze before the fall update
- no other changes were made to my setup that would cause such an issue
- and many others have had the same experience i have had which has led me to conclude that this is more than a coincidence

which of these statement's is a lie??? you wanna apologize?

A lot of people posting here calling the people having the problems with the Fall update really dont know much about what is really going on. You make a quick judgement/comment without reading through at least a few pages in the topic that was posted in the xbox forums. Some people also assume people WANT MONEY by suing MS. A lot of these people want MS to have a bad image through the press so they'll finally admit it's their fault they didn't do proper testing before releasing an update.
I don't have this problem they are all having, but it's made me afraid enought to update my own 2 week old system. My return/exchange period was only 7 days (bought in microcenter with that 200$ off deal they got going so i got my system really cheap).
The topic has grown to a about almost 70 pages long with over 2000 replies. MS has pulled this topic off their support forums and put it on the wish list/feedback category to try and cover it up. They won't admit the fall update disables lots of Xbox 360s. Yes, it's a small percentage. 1% of 6 million is about 60,000 consoles. not everyone who has the problem will be at that forum board. I read through that thread and saw plenty of upset people. MS screwed up systems by their Fall Update, tried to cover up the BIG topic on the forum by moving it away from the support section, will not admit it's their own mistake and want people to pay 140$ to have a customer's unit repaired. you can't understand how it is because YOU'RE NOT IN THAT SITUATION.
The update was supposedly for updating the display output for 1080p and it looks like MS doesn't want Sony to laugh at them for making a fool of themselves by putting up an update that screws people's systems.

"42. I'm sorry, anyone that states that lawsuits don't effect prices is patently unaware of economics. Check out the medical industry. A company doesn't sell a product at a loss, all costs incurred by the company are rolled into the product to make a profit. If the company can't make a profit because of costs, they go out of business. Frivolous lawsuits are the bane of American life.

Sometimes bad things happen -- there is nothing in life that says you deserved to get paid everytime you have crappy luck.

Frivilous

Posted at 1:37PM on Dec 7th 2006 by jayntampa 2 stars"


I can't believe you are comparing the medical industry with the entertainment industry. You even pointed out the differences in your comments. Medical indutries don't sell products at a loss. The video games industry does. Medical industry has much more leeway (sp?) because oft times, their products are necessities. Lives can depend on whether or not I can buy a certain product, and even above and beyond that, there are organizations set up to help people afford the products that they can't on their own, like HMOs and related Health insurance.

There are no organizations set up to help me afford the 600.00 PS3 unless I am taking out a personal loan or using a credit card. I can live without buying it (been fine so far). The economics of needs and wants are not figured the same way. Entertainment Industry != Medical Industry. Your are a fool for suggesting they would be.

Here's a reliable example. Sony is about to be working through some lawsuits regarding the exploding batteries that they sold to other laptop companies. Will they raise the price of future batteries that they sell now? Will they raise the price of other products instead? PS3 goes up to 700.00 because they made bad batteries? PSP goes up to 350.00? Movies and Music go up to 30.00 per disc? What do you expect them to raise to cover their cost of the lawsuits and settlements they're making. We'll watch together and see how high they don't go.

Dear Biggen (and Buckshot)

Heres my story.

Nov 3 2006, went to Rogers Video to buy a 360 Prem Bundle since they had a sale with GeOW. Bring it home, turn it on, play GeOW a bit with a 'local' gamertag.

About 30min later I decide to use the 30 day gold key and create a 'live' gamertag. It prompts me to update my 360 before I can connect to 'live'

Downloads update, reboots.

BAM! 3 red lights of doom.

I am sick and tired of hearing people say that it's hackers or people that modified the firmware, or ONLY a HANDFULL that got the 360 bricked.

MS messed up on this and they should own up to it.

Luckily I just packaged the whole thing up and returned it and got another one. The second one updated just fine. whew!!!

Lot's of uninformed comments on here.

A. Yes, I was affected by the Fall Update as well. I didn't want a refurbished system, so I just bought a new core system and swapped my hard-drive.

B. Some games still work, some crash after 5 to 10 minutes of game play after the fall update, so yes, checking my (or anyone else's) gamertag would show that I'm still playing games, but that doesn't mean I'm lying about the system being broken. The update wasn't an instant bricking of the console. They just lock-up and hang after xx minutes of play (usually 10 minutes.) A lot of people (myself included) aren't getting red rings of lights. Just constant lock-ups.

C. Microsoft isn't fixing this for free even though their update bricked people's systems. So don't just post on here that you can call MS and get a free replacement. It's $139 for the repair.

D. Microsoft claimed "they fixed the problem" a few days later. What most of you don't realize, this fix is ONLY for those who hadn't done the update yet. Those who did the update are still stuck with broken machines. Also, they still haven't admitted that the update broke any systems, only that they found a problem that kept some systems from updating.

E. Hopefully the lawsuit isn't out to make money, but to force MS to admit to the problem and pay for free repairs. It really sucks to apply an update and your machine stops working then be told you have to pay $139 because you're out of warranty. I don't think the warranty applies if their update broke the machines.

my 2 cents

#4 - when you file a lawsuit which you hope to ultimately be a class action, you must allege the existence of a class, and say that you are filing on behalf of others similarly situated. Class certification, when the court decides if the class exists or not, comes much later. And count me in too...

Well, even with the threat of a Class Action Suit, this would cause Microsoft to be more careful with future updates, and that's the benefits of an over-litegious society

Everyone has to give great consideration to everything they do before they do it, if they don't give it a lot of thought, they might do something stupid and get sued

Corporate (and especially Corporate Class Action) lawsuits are the way the American Consumer can fight against institutions that really have no reason whatsover to validate their claims

I don't know or care if this lawsuit was handled wrong, against MS, it would probably be killed anyway. The guy wins by generating publicity around the subject, hopefully getting MS to admit some kind of problem with their updates.

There's a big difference between a product simply breaking, and then a company breaking it's own product after you have bought it.

First off, the problem was fixed. However, the patch that FIXED THE PROBLEM was only available to people who HAD NOT DOWNLOADED THE FALL UPDATE YET.

So, there was a fix that I couldn't get, and a few crashes later, I get an unbootable 360.

I did no hacking or changing of anything on the system. It only crashed when I played demos that I had before the update.

Second, it took them over two weeks to send the box I needed to ship it to the repair center in. After that, though, it was less than a week before I got it back (yesterday, btw). It seems more sluggish. Isn't that weird?

Third, I would really like to be compensated for the time I was without Xbox Live Gold service, and for the completely useless 360 I had lying around for almost three weeks, plus the time when it was being repaired.


Fourth, this never should have happened with such a major update. If it wasn't ready, delay it. People who didn't have problems may say otherwise, or that we're lying (WTF?). Then again, that's because, well, they didn't have problems.

Looks like this is the real deal... Gamespot got a copy of the complaint from the Washington Disctrict Court....now I just hope that the media keeps getting wind of this so that M$ will at least be forced to admit guilt...

http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=25210068&sid=6162857&tag=latestnews;title;2

I have a 360 that won't play anything, really, for more than a short period of time. this started within minutes of downloading the update the first morning it was available. and it's not doing it randomly. NCAA locks up the moment you begin a game, burnout locks up at save points, and gears locks up during cutscenes. so on and so forth for everything else. DVD playback is fine, and media functionality is great, but everything I've played locks up.

the people who will join this are those people who were unfortunate enough to get consoles that didn't suffer E66 or E71 error messages. our consoles are just as wasted, but Microsoft still refuse to admit responsibility for the problems. I've decided to trade in my defective console, sans hard drive, because none of the gamestops really check anything to work at all, and pony up the $100 difference on a core system, since I've already got the VGA cables at home. it's not great, but it's cheaper than $140 plus shipping to McAllen, TX, just for a refurb, and if Microsoft can't help clean up its own messes they deserve my admittedly defective console making its way into someone else's hands.

The reason you guys get your console replaced for free is because they are part of the 1st batch of console (2005).

If something happens to a console made in 2006.. Reps tells you that the policy has changed and you need to send it yourself... if it's under warranty, this means you just have to pay for shipping.. and if it's not you have to also pay 140$US to have it fixed... even if, like many said here, your console was working flawlessly before the update and died after it.. therefore implying that M$ fucked it up (not voluntarily but still)..

I agree that it's normal for electronic to break.. but that's too much of a coincidence (3%+ of all console.. and still growing... is way more than 1995 btw... ;) )

So even if this case is BS.. it brings the attention on M$.. wich will have to do something about it, or suffer from the bad publicity.

I'm definitely not paying to get this fixed.. at least not to M$.. if I really have no other option, I'll pay a 3rd party shop and get MY 360 back in 24-48hrs.. not some refurbished PoS that is already "briked" when you get it.. after a couple WEEKS.. and since it will need to be open by peoples other than M$.. you can bet I'll be modding it!!

MS completely deserves to be sued into the ground. After their sh***y launch, their get worse a year in! What's more, despite Sony's

To clarify some apparent confusion - Microsoft is repairing, free of charge, any units which were manufactured in 2005 (check your data plate on the back of the unit), and units that are still under warranty. Any other units which were bricked by the fall update, you're SOL, and will have to cough up almost half the cost of a new unit for a (probably) refurbished one. Oh yeah, and you get to pay shipping to and from the repair shop. You get a new 90-day warranty with the repair, and you have the option of extending it before it expires. I suggest you do, because you will probably be sending that piece of trash back again and again.

I turned on my Xbox 360 and was prompted to download an update. I clicked yes to update the system. The update downloaded and my Xbox 360 restarted. When it came back on, it froze on the Xbox 360 logo screen. I waited several minutes and I turned it off. I turned it back on and again it froze on the logo screen. I turned it off and waited several minutes. I turned it back on and three blocks on the power ring were red.

I am a very light user and my console has plenty of ventilation. I haven't had a single issue with my console since I got it on launch day last year. Without arguing over symantics it is clear this update caused this issue. I understand this happens. This has happend to me on plenty of other technology over the last two decades. It's inconvenient but a fact of life. I just refuse to pay for the "fix" to this issue because my console it out of warranty.
Class action lawsuits get attention but five million dollars spread between, as Microsoft stated "less than 1 percent" (which could effect 50 to 80 thousand owners) equals a coupon for a game rental.

It's clear. They broke it. They fix it. I just want my console fixed at no cost to me. That's all.

There are some question that must be answered :

A ) the update is mandatory and if the update is not mandatory, MS give some advice about the risk to install it?.

If is mandatory the you can claim a refund, otherwise MS is not forced to anything.

Derrick, sorry, forgot about this post.

I understand that the lawsuit is about the update "bricking" the 360. MS produces 1 update. The fall update (we are now on the december one), encompasses all of the updates in one. So, instead of having to go Spring-->Fall-->December, you just jump to the last one.

The updates problem is that it created dead 360s, and that is what the Gamerscoreblog talks about. If it created a dead 360, you are to call Support.