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Reader Comments (44)

Posted: May 8th 2007 3:46PM MightyTACO said

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Too bad their damn customer service sucks as well. Apparently they are unable to input in addresses correctly. Three times now in dealing with the customer service they have screwed up my address and delayed service.

Posted: May 8th 2007 3:47PM (Unverified) said

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Moore is an Ahole in plain English. If his 360 goes down, he has an unlimited supply on hand.

My 360 died on me after a year and a half. It took MS 37 days to get it back to me....F@CKERS!!

Posted: May 8th 2007 3:48PM kidwei said

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Right. I really buy that, especially since many 360 owners (including myself) have been extremely dissatisfied with the level of service and lack of reliability of the 360. Can't blame Moore for dodging the question, as the answer is clear at this point. I wouldn't be surprised if the failure rate was closer to 30% than 3%. And his answer to the noise issue with 360 is amusing as well. He probably doesn't own the model that sounds like a blender (i had to send back a refurbed unit bc of its horrendous noise).

Posted: May 8th 2007 7:39PM (Unverified) said

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I will now be going on my 4th Xbox 360 since launch! I was assigned to an "Elite Xbox 360 Team" to take care of my problems...each different. They assured me a "new" console this time since I have had 3 different problems..well they shipped a "refurb" not "new." So again I had to send back the 360...amazing!!

Posted: May 8th 2007 3:53PM Magic Whiskey said

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I hate it when ANY company hides the truth from the populace at large. We all know the 360 bricks up often; let's see the honest truth. is it 30% of consoles sold? Higher? And if so, what's being done to prevent this from happening? I want Microsoft to come clean and be honest to their fans, and fix the problem permanently. Just DO IT, Microsoft.

Doing so would sell systems based on newfound confidence in the durability, and gunshy 360 purchasers would be assured the prior bricking problems would be a thing of the past.

At first it'd be PS3 fanboy candy; to hear the actual rate of bricked 360 consoles, but it'd also show ANY gamer that Microsoft is bieng honest and actually cares for their install base. Sony, meanwhile, still stands as an elitist, macho posturing entity that could care less about the gamer. We all know that already.

Posted: May 8th 2007 4:03PM (Unverified) said

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The 360 can't handle folding at home as well as the ps3 can. The PS3 is perfect for crunching numbers.

Posted: May 8th 2007 4:05PM HeyApples said

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The comments on "treating him [the customer] well and fixing the problem" are just priceless...

This is the same callcenter that leaks account information like a sieve and distributes out bogus/broken refurb consoles as "replacements".

I am of the opinion that MS is shooting itself in the foot by skimping on these cheap hardware components. The costs must be immense to deal with all the customer calls, returns, replacements, lost sales, and bad reputation.

Posted: May 8th 2007 4:10PM (Unverified) said

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I'm waiting for mine to break.. I'm preparing myself for this, no more buying Xbox Live Arcade, cancelling my gold account. the only thing I play now is final fantasy 11 and maybe this summer rpg if I'm lucky.

Posted: May 8th 2007 4:09PM (Unverified) said

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Every time I read stuff like this I knock on wood that nothing has happened to mine yet. Still going strong.

I really doubt that the failure rate is anywhere near something like 30% though. That's recall levels. If it was that bad I think it would have been something that expanded far beyond where it's at now.

Posted: May 8th 2007 4:19PM (Unverified) said

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I've had my 360 for 5 months now.
my friend's 360 bricked on him after 4 months.
my other friend went through 4 360's, and after that, I haven't heard from him on XBL since.

Hopefully with their new repair policy, we'll have less bricked systems.

Posted: May 8th 2007 4:24PM Magic Whiskey said

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JP, there's no need to go spastic about this sort of thing; mine bricked up just the same as anyone's.

It's just a matter of contacting Microsoft, ordering a shipping box, sending it back and in my case, about a week later I got a replacement refurb unit. It's a sad truth this isn't a big deal, but it happens. Don't freak if it happens to you; it happened to all of my friends that own 360's as well.

Posted: May 8th 2007 4:26PM (Unverified) said

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This is painful to do, as I am certainly a fanboy, but I too believe MS needs to fess up. Four other friends and myself all purchased 360's in November of 2006. All was fine, and we have had a TON of fun over the past several months in GoW, R6, and more, but as of last week, four of us have sent in our boxes to McAllen for repair/replacement, and the fifth in currently beginning to experience problems. That's a 100% failure rate for us. We are all heavy users, probably averaging 15-20 hrs/wk of gaming, and 3 of us have had the DVD drives go bad, while the other two got the red lights of death. That being said, MS customer service has been excellent and everyone has had a turnaround time of about a week to receive a new box so far. One of the fellas in our group is getting his new/refurb unit tomorrow and mine is set for the end of this week. MS pays for shipping UPS 3-day Select both ways and is very helpful on the phone, and is delivering the units in about half the time they quote you, 1 week instead of 2. While i hate to say anything bad about the 360, as I think it kicks PS3 booty bigtime, I do feel MS needs to come clean and there is no question that they know the exact failure rate and are keeping it on the DL, IMHO.

Posted: May 8th 2007 4:25PM Magic Whiskey said

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oh..and I had my original system for 8 months before it died while playing Crackdown.

Posted: May 8th 2007 4:26PM (Unverified) said

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i used to think that i was safe and sound and that the only affected xboxen were the first run models. then a couple of months ago i loaded up crackdown and was greeted with a completely green screen upon emerging into the shai-gen (sp?) district. fuck. but after they revised the warranty policy i had my xbox shipped and returned within a week or two. i mean, yeah it's kind of a bitch, but i'll admit they were speedy. even though the damn cs rep thinks my name is spelt "jermmy" (on my shipping label).

Posted: May 8th 2007 4:28PM kidwei said

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I don't know what the new repair policy could do to help things. I'm guessing you're referring to the part where they say most people will get their own console back. From people's experiences so far (mine included), this isn't true. Yes, MS is paying up for the (slow) shipping for the repair. But most everyone is getting a refurbished replacement console instead of their original console repaired. And that definitely makes me uneasy, since I'm moving onto my second replacement which was previously owned by God knows who. I know I took care of my 360, but did the previous owner of my "new" one?

Posted: May 8th 2007 4:29PM Magic Whiskey said

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I think the bricking is a direct result of being connected to Xbox Live. It's a fault there somewhere; it's not hardware issues per se. It has something to do with your console connected online.

Posted: May 8th 2007 4:42PM (Unverified) said

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I've had problems with my 360 in the past but they've all been sorted out with no mess.
- And they managed to send me out a second one by mistake ;).

Posted: May 8th 2007 4:44PM (Unverified) said

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3 red ring of death is directly related to the gpu chip heating and causing the board to warp under the pressure of the X-clamp that hold the heatsink to the chip. this causes a break in solder joints on the chip. if you do not have a warranty and are technically inclined and do the surgery, you can remove those x-clamps and get the 360 working again. I have successfully recover two dead systems with the method. Should be able to find instructions with a lil googling.

Posted: May 8th 2007 4:45PM (Unverified) said

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My launch unit bricked immediately after a Live update. This was about a year ago and before their more forgiving return policy. I told them their update broke my box and they repaired it with no cost to me (aside from the ~2 week downtime). The failure rate is over 50% for the dozen or so people I know personally with 360's. They need to come clean...they're not Sony. That said, I'm still perfectly happy with my 360, as unreliable as it may be.

Posted: May 8th 2007 4:54PM (Unverified) said

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My Launch Day zero hour xbox360 is going strong and I play all the time.

My PS3 folds all day all night hasnt stopped :)

Posted: May 8th 2007 4:54PM (Unverified) said

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What I want to know is how many people get the 4 red lights, like what nerrrrrd said. How many people got their drive's busted or w/e. I know for my 360, mine got over heated and i got the lights. My mom thought she was being smart by arranging things in the living room, putting my 360 right next to the heater vent during the winter and during the summer, the light through the window used to shine on it. Not only that, but the power supply was nicely tugged underneath the entertainment centre where it could stay nice and warm all year long.

I was surprised it even lasted 7 months through all that abuse.

Posted: May 8th 2007 4:58PM (Unverified) said

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Oh Noes! People just found out their not giving money back for consoles. Because if they did they'd be in debt. lolololol. Nah just kidding Xbox rocks

Posted: May 8th 2007 5:04PM (Unverified) said

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Yeah...but I didn't have the best time with customer service, even though they were quick to respond and turn things around fast.

(I'm one of the 4 that T-boz is talking about)
When I got my refurbished 360 back from McAllen the DVD tray kept sticking. During my hour long conversation with tech support they told that if it works in the horizontal position that I should just keep it there. I said "I don't think so!" and told them "I want a brand new 360 since I paid for a new one, and if I wanted a refurbished Xbox I would have bought one and saved money!" I was told that it was up to the repair center to send me a brand new box and they couldn't make any guarantees. Then I went to a supervisor, same answer. I ended up taking the refurbished 360 back to the retailer (Sam's Wholesale) and they took it back with no questions asked. Even let me swap out the hard drive and apologized over and over. I went back home and filed a grievance against Microsoft, through their tech department. Never once did I get a "sorry for all the trouble or problems...NOT ONCE! This is xbox #3 for me and after one month I'm already starting to have problems again.

Posted: May 8th 2007 5:09PM The Fuzz 53 said

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My 360 which I purchased on 12/3102006 died in September 2006. My experience getting it fixed was horrendous. First off, it took 7 calls and 3 weeks just to get the shipping box sent to me. Overall, the entire process took 28 freakin' days. The only good thing was that I did receive my specific console back from MS, probably b/c I included a letter with my broken unit saying that anything other than this specific console or a brand new one in return would be unnacceptable. I also had to file a complaint with the BBB (Better Business Bureau), and order a stop payment on my credit card to get them to finally send me the shipping box.

Posted: May 8th 2007 5:10PM The Fuzz 53 said

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Sorry, wrong dates.

Purchased: 12/30/2005

Died: September 2006

Posted: May 8th 2007 5:14PM (Unverified) said

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I've been selling the 360s since their inception, a year and a half ago. Like any new machine, they've had their issues. The one thing that I can assure you of, however, is that the failure rate, while not as high as Sony's near 40%, is at least 33%. I've done the math.

I urge people daily to make sure they buy some sort of extended coverage beyond that of the manufacturer's warranty. Are Product Service Plans good for business? Absolutely. They DO make the company more money but these machines are not reliable. You'll do well to have a 360 work properly beyond 1 year.

Microsoft needs to start taking cues from Nintendo. Their products are the most reliable on the market. Even Mr. Moore's former employer, SEGA, made better products back in the day than MS is now. But hey, why listen to me. The longer MS makes S*%ty products, the longer I make more money. Eventually, their failure will be MY success! Thanks Microsoft!

Posted: May 8th 2007 5:16PM (Unverified) said

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just to be clear about my earlier post, that resolves the 3-red ring of death.

usually the 4 red ring of death means your AV cable is unplugged ;-)

not only does the system need to be well ventilitated but also the power brick.

also a power surge or a quick loss of power to the unit can cause the 3 red ring of death. this happen to me during a thunderstorm. turning it back on resulted in the red ring. fortunately after leaving it off for 15 minutes (and crying a lot) it came back on fine. I now have it plugged into a battery powered back up supply so if i lose power, the system has a few minutes of juice left for me to properly turn it off.

Posted: May 8th 2007 5:43PM (Unverified) said

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"...I can assure you of, however, is that the failure rate, while not as high as Sony's near 40%, is at least 33%. I've done the math."

mm...you lost all credibility, lol, where did you get that Sony failure rate from? I haev yet to see a PS3 fail, and the very few that have were exchanged for NEW ones, not a refurbished one (sorry if that sounded rude for the 360 fans, but his comment needed to be countered)

Posted: May 8th 2007 5:45PM (Unverified) said

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I am thinking the failure rate is around 100% I'm on my second system and it freezes, more then other peoples. It used to freeze like every day in UNO and it freezed in alot of big games. If you define failure by just red lights then yeah it might be like less than 30%, but if you add in freezing and other issues like that then I believe it is around 100% and a good design hasn't been finalized. I really won't say the 360 is a good system until they fix freezing in games due to lag or using the system blade, I never had this problem playing online with Sony systems.

Posted: May 8th 2007 5:51PM (Unverified) said

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One month after purchasing my unit in the summer of '05, I too received the four red rings on my 360 after downloading marketplace content. I could barely understand the CS rep, and it took close to a month and a half before getting my replacement unit. I don't download anymore and since I havn't had any problems. It just sucks that I'm missing out on great content downloads because i don't want to deal with the bullsh_t of sending off the replacement unit, and waiting for hell to freeze over before getting someone else's "repaired" unit.

Posted: May 8th 2007 6:06PM Stuwie said

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who ever that was complaining about 2 breaking in 7 months has better luck then me I've had six break since I got mine at launch customer service sucks the first one I had the power brick didn't even work i sent it back and it took them a month and a half to get me a new one and then a week after getting it my xbox broke the one i have now seems ok but I'll always be scared that this one will break I guess its just a matter of time but heres hoping that they fix this ....

Posted: May 8th 2007 6:34PM (Unverified) said

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My console died after 17 months ... and now I've been waiting a month to get it back from repair. I don't call that turn around time good customer service. Obviously the failure rate is higher than 3%. It seems like MS is back logged trying to do repairs. Also, am I going to get a month's credit for my Xbox Live Gold memberhip since I haven't been able to use the service? Likely not ... I want it though.

What will make my blood truly boil would be to miss the Halo 3 Beta because my console is in for repair. I pity the person who will be on the end of my phone call ...

Posted: May 8th 2007 6:44PM (Unverified) said

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I don't know anyone (in person) who has experienced a bricked console, and I hesitate to acknowledge I may actually need an extended warranty.

I'm gonna get a little nerdy here. The cost of a 2-year MS extended warranty is $60 bucks, and the cost of repairing a bricked console is what, $180 or something. I'm essentially betting $60 dollars that it will fail within those 2 years, and if it does, I receive a benefit of $180 in exchange. Using expected value, the chance of failure would have to be 33% to make your $60 investment actually worth $60. But, doesn't MS add an additional one year warranty onto repaired consoles now? So, assume that one year warranty is a $30 value and repair costs are essentially $150, then the chance of failure needs to be 40% to make the extended warranty worthwhile.

That said, I have a feeling my 360's innards are melting away every time I turn it on, so I'll probably still buy the MS warranty even though it makes me want to cry.

Posted: May 8th 2007 8:13PM In A World said

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Just wondering if the people whose consoles broke had them standing up or laying flat. Anyone wanna field this one?

Posted: May 8th 2007 9:23PM (Unverified) said

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Moore deflected the issue, saying that customers should focus on the treatment of the problem and not the problem itself. In other words, quality of customer service is more important than the quality of the product.


Thank You Mr. Moore. Now that I know where your copnay stands I wll be purchaisng a PS3 instead of my 3rd 360.

I can't thank you enough for your comments.

Posted: May 9th 2007 1:25AM (Unverified) said

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My 360 worked for a whole year, then after that my cd drive ended up not reading any of my games. I had to send it in to get fix and got a refurbished replacement. That I just got back 2 weeks ago. It worked fine for the 2 week but it is now broke again, and it's the cd drive again. Now everytime I close my drive it reopens! It's now being sent in to be refixed AGAIN! Grrr! Instead of these "refurbished replacement" We should be getting brand new ones!

Posted: May 9th 2007 1:35AM (Unverified) said

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What is he talking about quality of customer service is more important than the quality of the product. If your going to sell a system make it good and make it so it doesnt break down. Sony does it right by not making a shitty ass system. Also the Folding @ home, manager or whatever even said the 360 would not be able to run folding @ home it is not powerful enough. Yet the PS3 can run the program 24/7.

The 360 wont last on top for long. The only reason its doing well is because it had no competition for a whole year and had 1 good exclusive game (gears of war). There system wont last in the near future especially with disc size, no HD video format, and no support from game devs.

Posted: May 9th 2007 7:48AM ninjakoala said

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Ha! Two 360s in 7 months? I bought mine in November and I'm already on my third.

Posted: May 9th 2007 1:38PM (Unverified) said

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X-clamps are too blame. I just did the Lawdawg fix at work. It's working really well.
The link explains the problem and offers 2 fixes. My 360 was giving 3RLOD after 2 consecutive boot-ups. Now it works fine. Yeah. I think this is the real deal fix for this problem.

Checkout the link:
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=595746

In my professional opinion, I work on biometric prototypes in electronics, the 3RLOD is caused by an INHERENT design flaw. The x-clamps should be removed from the 360 design, but that would cost $$$. My guess is that M$ has ordered millions of these x-clamps and would rather keep the consumer in the dark and fix broken units, than design the x-clamps out of the 360. $$$ Some one with legal skillz should jump on this.

Posted: May 9th 2007 11:16AM (Unverified) said

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@Lp47

Unfortunately, you're an idiot and you just shot your credibility down the toilet. The 360's GPU can run folding@home, let alone the CPU's, FFS, do some research before spouting off Sony Talking Points. What's at issue is whether or not MS will allow the software for the 360 to do just that, and that article points that out.

Lastly, you really shot yourself in the foot when you said the 360 is loosing dev support. As a Sony fanboi, that is a problem you should be very concerned about.

Posted: May 9th 2007 11:40AM (Unverified) said

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"this isn't a big deal, but it happens. Don't freak if it happens to you; it happened to all of my friends that own 360's as well."

Uh, it happened to you and all your friends as well, and you say it isn't a big deal?

If it happened just to you, and not your friends, sure. If it happened to just a couple friends but not you, sure. But if its happened to you and ALL your friends, jesus, dude, something isn't right. Or maybe we just don't agree what a "big deal" is :p

Posted: May 9th 2007 11:46AM (Unverified) said

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Has anybody contacted the Better Business Bureau about this matter? I have had my 360 almost 4 months and now It's dead. I'm concerned. There is so much angst right now its ridiculous. Each day I am waiting for my xbox's coffin, I am getting even more pissed.

Posted: May 9th 2007 1:09PM (Unverified) said

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Just got this response from customer service:

"Regarding the quality of Xbox 360 console, the vast majority of Xbox 360 owners are having an outstanding experience with their new systems. But there have been a few isolated reports of consoles not working as expected. The call rate is well below what you would expect for a consumer electronics product of this complexity. As a percentage of the total number of Xbox 360 systems already in the field, these calls represent a very small fraction.



There is no systemic issue with Xbox 360. Each incident is unique and these customer inquires are being handled on a case-by-case basis. " Now i tell ya, thats crazy. BS would be the word.

Posted: May 9th 2007 10:06PM In A World said

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"The only reason its doing well is because it had no competition for a whole year and had 1 good exclusive game"~Lp47

Hmm... what are you talking about? Xbox360 or PS2? Oooooo buuuurn!

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