For the most part, we've given up on reporting every single time one of our colleagues in the gaming press has an Xbox 360 die on them. Frankly, we'd be writing a piece every couple weeks. A brilliant recent example was the Weekly Geek Show's Xbox 360, which we covered, died again in late May. Exactly one month and six days after being "repaired." But, like Peter Moore asked of all of us, we shouldn't focus on the failure rate of Xbox 360s, but on the service in repairing them. And so, we have the story of Officer Craig Ravitch of the New York Police Department.
Officer Ravitch discovered last Friday that his Xbox 360 died on him in a classic New York "You gotta' be frickin' kidding me!" moment. He loves his Xbox 360, it's his "favorite system," but the "constant breaking down is amazing" to him. He called Microsoft, as he's done three times before. This next console will be his fourth since the 360 launch. He bought the $60 two-year warranty after his last failure and also received a 50% repair discount after arguing the last time. Microsoft support told him he'd have his box by Tuesday. After not receiving a confirmation that this Xbox 360 coffin was sent (which he received the last time he did this), he decided to call support again. They informed him his box wasn't sent because "the service department is running very low on boxes, so it will take a little longer than expected to get that box" out to him. Ravitch was shocked. Is Microsoft getting back so many defective systems that they don't have a fresh supply of coffins anymore?
We spoke with Officer Ravitch, who has a 26,000 point Gamerscore and buys about four games a month, and he told us, "As a consumer, I'm extremely, extremely disappointed with the way these consoles are dying. I don't have small children, I'm married, I get my three hours of gaming in when I can." He points out that the time he's lost in the back and fourth transit of his Xbox 360 has cost him three months of Xbox Live and he's thankful that he bought the warranty last time around, despite it being an unnecessary expense. Ravitch was mostly concerned that Microsoft is running low on coffins and now his repair has been delayed by a full week. Ravitch says, "I hate to badmouth the 360, its one of my favorite systems, but this burns me."
