Red Octane says two Xbox guitar models 'defective'
by Alexander Sliwinski 
{ Apr 7th 2007 at 10:40AM }
After awaiting an official response all week on what Red Octane plans to do about defective guitars some customers received with their copies of Xbox 360's Guitar Hero II, we've received from several tipsters the responses they received from Red Octane. The response brings up nothing but more questions.Red Octane writes to those with complaints about the guitar, "We have isolated this issue to two model numbers that can be found on the guitar's packaging. The numbers are 95065 and 95055. We are asking that customers who puchased [sic] their items from a retailer perform an exchange with that respective store (for a model number other than the defective two listed above). Customer's [sic] who purchased through our online story [sic] can complete an rma request for their defective item and we will exchange it for a fully function [sic] guitar controller. We do apologize for the inconvenience and will resole [sic] these matters."
Joystiq has been interviewing people all week trying to make sense of this entire issue as Red Octane is less than forthcoming with information. For example, here at Joystiq, we have a 95055 box, with a 95065 sticker placed over the UPC (originally 95055) and a 95065 guitar in the box - everything works fine so far (except star power activation is far less responsive than the PS2 guitar). Over at sister site Xbox 360 Fanboy, where they received a broken controller, they had a 95067 (that is not a typo) box with a 95065 guitar inside. At this point Red Octane acknowledges "defective" models as 95065 and 95055. If you have a defective model guitar, go ahead and return it with Red Octane's blessing.
[Thank you to everyone we've interviewed and those who sent in tips]
Update: Statement on Red Octane's website:
We have been informed of a possible calibration issue with Guitar Hero II for the Xbox 360's whammy bar. We believe this may stem from a feature put in place to ensure accurate scoring. Guitar Hero II features a complex control scheme that requires precise calibration between the game and the guitar. We are currently investigating the situation further; however, if you are experiencing these issues, we recommend that you try the following steps:
1. Turn off the power to your game console
2. Make sure the whammy bar is moved away from the body of the guitar and not depressed
3. Make sure the guitar is securely connected to your console
4. Then turn the console's power back on
5. Load the Guitar Hero II game and begin playing
If the above steps do not resolve your problem, please feel free to contact our customer service department using the following information:
Phone: (310) 255-2050
You can call our 24-hour voice-mail system for answers to our most frequently asked questions at the above number. Contact a Customer Support representative at the same number between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.
Internet: http://www.activision.com/support
Our support section of the web has the most up-to-date information available. We update the support pages daily so please check here first for solutions. If you cannot find an answer to your issue, you can submit a question/incident to us using the online support form.
Update: Emails sent to customers who contacted Red Octane directly had the following paragraph attached in addition to the information above:
We really appreciate you bringing this to our attention. We are aware of the issue and are devoting a lot of resources to investigating and solving it. At present, we believe this may stem from a feature put in place to ensure accurate scoring. Resolving this is as important to us as it is to you and we are working hard to fix it. Check back early next week as we hope to have more information for you on how this will be resolved. Or, we can automatically update by email if you have subscribed to our knowledge based page for this issue. We are very sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Thank you,
RedOctane Customer Service
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Deeznuts420 @ Apr 7th 2007 12:52PM
WHAMMY!
therpham @ Apr 7th 2007 10:59AM
Man, that response looks like it was sent out in as much of a rush as those guitars, with about the same amount of quality control.
Chris @ Apr 7th 2007 11:26AM
I have 95065 guitar and box, and the wammy is acting fine and dandy, any reason to deal with returns? If I got it on Circuit City online, can I return it to a regular store?
killploki @ Apr 7th 2007 11:25AM
i have the same thing happening, 95067 box with a 95065 guitar inside. but everything seems to be going fine so far......
ssuk @ Apr 7th 2007 11:26AM
Wonder if they're going to delay EU release until this issue is sorted. Only NOW is a time where they should delay products for ANY country, when they acknowledge defective products. Does cast a shadow of doubt on the quality of their other hardware products though.
Maxwell @ Apr 7th 2007 11:34AM
Big money, big money, no whammies, no whammies... STOP!
Tony Bowman @ Apr 7th 2007 11:35AM
i've got a 95055 box/guitar and it's working fine so far. just it yesterday and played for about 5 straight hours.
i'll be holding on to my receipt though, just in case.
a ham sandwich @ Apr 7th 2007 11:38AM
yeah really. could somebody please list ALL of the models there are, and of those which are defective?
Aberu @ Apr 7th 2007 11:39AM
If only Microsoft were so forthgiving with recalls!
Pink Chiefette @ Apr 7th 2007 11:46AM
I also have a 95055 guitar in a 95055 box, with no problems to speak of. Sorry for all those with defective guitars. Hopefully RedOctane has learned to have a decent QA/QC team on hand to fix these problems before launch!
Christopher @ Apr 7th 2007 11:54AM
I've got a 95055 box which had a 95065 guitar in it and I have a second guitar that was both 95065 on the box and the guitar itself. Both seem to work just fine. Mind you I have no idea how they compare to ps2 guitars as far as star power, but my wife and I don't seem to have a problem with it. YMMV
AirIntake @ Apr 7th 2007 12:06PM
My box says 95067.491US and the guitar says 95065. I've already passed the game with it, and played for hours with friends, and I have had no problems with it at all. The whammy is very responsive, just like the PS2 version I've played.
AirIntake @ Apr 7th 2007 12:07PM
Oh yeah, the star power tilt works perfectly on mine as well. Actually, I think it works better than the PS2 guitars I've tried.
The only thing I haven't tried yet was the Live! headset with it.
David @ Apr 7th 2007 12:19PM
Dag [sic] it. With speeling [sic] quailty [sic] like that, what the hek [sic] is going on in teh [sic] Quality Controll [sic] Department's? [sic]
Seriously, was that a cut/paste job or dictation to illiterate administrative assistant?
BPM @ Apr 7th 2007 12:27PM
That letter made me pretty sick...
Andrew Samuel @ Apr 7th 2007 12:32PM
So if we ordered from an online retailer we're screwed?
konajinx @ Apr 7th 2007 12:56PM
I bought one yesterday at Circuit City with the 95065 UPC sticker affixed over the original UPC (checked 'em all out, and this was all they had), and so far so good. No whammy bar or Star Power problems.
mike @ Apr 7th 2007 1:06PM
what does [sic] mean?
konajinx @ Apr 7th 2007 1:20PM
[sic] is used whenever you are quoting someone and the spelling errors are theirs and not yours.
Auron @ Apr 7th 2007 1:21PM
-but does it play any games??
- yes it does, they are coming out every month, what about your console?
- no, my accessories don't work and my console is dead...
konajinx @ Apr 7th 2007 1:21PM
Actually, make that grammatical errors in general.
Syphon @ Apr 7th 2007 1:24PM
Does anyone have a 95067 guitar?
I know some people have the boxes, but their guitars are 65. Funny how RO tell us to exchange our defective 55 & 65's for another, yet they don't mention the model # of the working version.
Anni @ Apr 7th 2007 1:37PM
Nota Bene: Sic means "thus" in Latin. It's to indicate that a quote is posted verbatim.
Bryan T @ Apr 7th 2007 1:40PM
I just returend my controller for the third time (but kept the stickers and strap!). Best Buy gave me this look like I wa stupid. And then I tried to mention what Red Octane said...big mistake.
My third guitar is working for the time being.
Chad @ Apr 7th 2007 1:47PM
I'm in the UK and have a 95055 guitar I bought on Thursday. No problems to speak of. Plays perfectly including the whammy bar and star power.
GAME gives you a 3 months warranty anyways if you keep the receipt.
Mike @ Apr 7th 2007 1:56PM
I have the exact same thing as Joystiq, a 95055 box, with a 95065 sticker on it, and have so far had no problems: whammy bar and star power are both plenty responsive.
Game Artist @ Apr 7th 2007 1:56PM
Yah, Im waiting a couple weeks to buy untill the defective units are cleared out of retail channels.
Ryan J. @ Apr 7th 2007 2:02PM
The tough thing about a return / exchange right now is that there are A LOT of reports that the model number on the box does not match the model number on the controller. You almost have to open it at the store. Good luck explaining that to the people at the store, or heaven forbid online! What a mess Red Octane; thanks a lot :(
Smacksmackums @ Apr 7th 2007 2:06PM
Seems very strange that they're now saying both models are defective. I haven't had any real problems with mine, I got a 65 version when I ordered from Red Octane online.
What other models are there?
My whammy seems a bit less responsive than my brother's PS2 version but Star Power works great and I can't say I've had any issues with it. I just suck at the game period.
Judd @ Apr 7th 2007 2:12PM
True story:
I go to college, and my brother sent me a text message at night that he was gonna buy Guitar Hero 2. The next day I wake up with another text message, "My guitars broken."
Deciding to go home that day, he tells me that he found another one in his store to replace it. This is pretty lucky considering he works at Game Crazy, and many Gamestop's are sold out. Since there are no more guitars for sale I try seeing what it's like to play with the 360 controller. Then we switch. Sitting on my couch playing for the first time with the X-Plorer we only do two or three songs before switching again.
He takes the guitar back and says that he just got an electric shock. He hits a note and it doesn't work. The scariest thing about it is he had the same incident early that day.
Apparently, last time when the guitar went out he got it from my sister and got an electric shock as well. Crazier still, the same buttons did not work. Green, Yellow, and Orange. There were even certain buttons on the D-Pad that worked, and others that didn't. But they were all the exact same buttons that didn't work on the first controller. Both models were 95055.
sparx104 @ Apr 7th 2007 3:14PM
I have model 95055 on both the box and guitar and am having problems. This is in the UK and the damn store I got it from is sold out now...
bearxor @ Apr 7th 2007 3:33PM
Yeah, if mine was shipped from Amazon what am I supposed to do? Fill out an exchange and hope they don't send me another 65?
bendak @ Apr 7th 2007 3:46PM
We need a better response from Red Octane and having it at a 9th grade writing level would be swell.
So according to them 100% of guitars are defective? There are some boxes with 95067 but they contain 95065 guitars. Are there any guitars besides 95055 and 95065??!
Yikes...what a mess.
AngusJimiKeith @ Apr 7th 2007 4:06PM
the guitars must be really screwed, though. I went to Target today to get Guitar Hero II, but they said "sorry we shipped all the games back due to defects". Does this mean I have to wait a month to get the game?
Fred Savage @ Apr 7th 2007 4:21PM
Mine was fine until yesterday. Then it just stopped working. My whammy bar works maybe 30% of the time and if i work it back and forth can sometimes get it to come back. I'll have to check the part number hwne i get home. I am not looking forward to dealing with Best Buy.
AngusJimiKeith @ Apr 7th 2007 4:32PM
Yeah my friend got the 360 version (thats why I heard about it) and his controller worked fine until he tried the whammy bar... and some moron at Gamestop said the the "warrenty did not cover the controller" to talk his way out of replacing it. Yeah right.
smellytim @ Apr 7th 2007 11:43PM
i have a 95065 and it works like a dream so i dont know how its defective.
John @ Apr 8th 2007 12:12AM
Just got mine today. Preordered from circuitcity.com awhile back. Mine was a box/guitar model 95065 and it works perfectly, no problems.
Brandon @ Apr 7th 2007 5:36PM
@#32
If you receive a defective unit from Amazon go and do a return on it through their return center and mark the item as defective. You can then choose whether you want a replacement or a refund on defective items. Simply choose refund and once Amazon gets the item back they will refund you.
DjFIL @ Apr 7th 2007 6:38PM
95067 on the box, 95065 on the guitar... no problems over 48 hours, so i'm a lucky one. but my friend, from the same store (not sure about the part numbers yet) and his whammy doesn't work and will be switching it tomorrow.
mnemo @ Apr 7th 2007 7:22PM
Got the EU version 95055 box and controller. I noticed that the whammy bar doesn't respond sometimes in the game, but I thought it might be the songs. Does the whammy have to work ALWAYS? Maybe I'll try the fix in the Guitar Hero forum.
Josh @ Apr 7th 2007 8:12PM
Well I have a 95505 box with a 95065 sticker over it and a 95065 guitar. I had no problems with the guitar really the only thing the yellow button sometimes feels a little hard tp push down but that really aint a problem.
Mr BoomStick XL @ Apr 7th 2007 8:53PM
Yeah, I have the 95055 version and I played for about 5 hours so far and thank goodness there has been no problems to report!! I think that if it were broken it wouldn't have worked right out of the box!!
ill trooper @ Apr 7th 2007 9:02PM
Spelling Hero II
*ships with defective whammy checker
*ummedate recole
guitarherolover @ Apr 7th 2007 9:31PM
I have a 95055, and it is working perfectly. No broken whammy, anything. I will be aware just in case though. But, my total play time since tuesday has been maybe over 10 hours so i'm not worried.
Kritz @ Apr 7th 2007 10:15PM
It's not like I use the whammy much anyway. Also, there was a post somewhere on the Xbox.com forums (Maybe it was Joystiq?) where it showed that you could unscrew the guitar with a Phillips, and untighten (That even a real word?) two screws inside. Doing this, it'd make the whammy bar calibrate a lot better.
Or, for those who don't like opening their things, just try pushing backwards on the whammy (As far as it'll go, but it's only a fairly light tap), then bring it forward again. This'll make it work again for the duration of the wha-wha.
I've become so used to doing this, it doesn't seem like it's broken at all.
>> Kritz
sean @ Apr 7th 2007 10:47PM
i got 2-65's...both are working fine to far...except the extra 65 guitar has a loose whammy bar....everything else works fine.
the potentiameter thing is fine...its just the bar itself is so loose that I can hit it and almost have it spin around on its own...kind of annoying but still playable.
anyone else have a problem with a loose whammy bar?
Zepolcire @ Apr 7th 2007 11:13PM
So how the heck to we return it and get a guitar that is not one of the "defective" ones? All this crazy labeling on the boxes is terrible.
PK @ Apr 7th 2007 11:51PM
I got a 95055 box with a 95065 guitar in it. Star power isn't very responsive I have to almost point the top of the guitar straight up to get an activation unlike the PS2 version which just requires a slight kick to the right. After playing like that for awhile I've gotten used to it. Whammy bar is 100% A.OK! Great game.
GoonieGooGoo @ Apr 8th 2007 12:57AM
On my 3rd Box.....95055....as there were no other #s available at the 2 Gamestops I went to......
I figure I'm not going to open this 3rd one and just Return the unit and wait for them to fix this snafu....
Its too bad....I soooo want to get me some GH2 Achievement Points.....
Mind you......I was even more worried by the Demo GH2 Guitar at Best Buy....
Not only was the Whammy lagged....but the STAR POWER would not activate unless you basically banged the thing against a wall.
Figures....Activision buys the franchise and the quality on the peripheral goes to hell.