Red Ring Chronicles Pt 2: the Coffin

by Richard Mitchell on Aug 9th 2007 4:30PM

And so, the Red Ring Chronicles continue with that fateful second step: the coffin. Having called Microsoft customer support last Wednesday (Aug. 1), the coffin was on my doorstep on Monday (Aug. 6), three business days after I called, which seems pretty standard. After hearing so much about 360 coffins, I had imagined a more specialized container (specifically, something that looked a little more like this). Instead, I got a cardboard box, some heavy duty packing foam, a plastic bag, and some instructions. After snickering at the morbidly funny picture on the plastic bag, I proceeded to package the once proud beast. If you've never returned an Xbox, you should know that all Microsoft wants is your Xbox. No hard drive, cables, or anything like that.

Just about ready to goWith the 360 wrapped up snuggly, I slapped on some included tape and a return UPS label. Rather than pay UPS to come pick it up, I dropped it off at my local Office Depot (which regrettably took me until Wednesday). According to UPS, my beloved box should reach its Texas destination in a few hours. So there we have it, the second step in the repair of an Xbox 360. Now there is but one step: the Return. The question, however, is how long the period between steps two and three will be. Any suggestions on how to bide my time are welcome.

Update: By popular demand, I've added some images of my recently modded Nerf Maverick pistol to the gallery. I did it the same day I ordered my coffin. Without my 360, you see, I had nothing better to do.

Source

Tags: 3redlights, redringchronicles, redringofdeath, rrod

Reader Comments (72)

Get a PS3 maybe? Come on, it's not like MS have hired you for this website or something! You guys play the Wii right!

For a more cheaper alternative however, umm...dunno, seriously.

I had to send mine back twice. Both times, it didn't take too long to return, though of course now I can't remember how long it actually took. A week or two.

Read a book. They're cheap!

I wish I did have a Wii. Right now I've got a GameCube, DS, and a PS1 lying around. I will have a Wii by Christmas. Got to get my Smash on.

Whip out the original Xbox and relive the glory days.

Count yourself lucky, my coffin didn't even come with the foam inserts.

Just the box, the bag and the instructions.

I had to use grocery bags and newspapers to cushion my xbox. mind you, if I'd known I was getting a totally different unit back I would have just tossed it in there and kicked it all the way to Purolator.

So, there's "unboxing" and then there's this?

Your lucky. I'm going through the same process but mine didn't include the shipping return label. After speaking with MS "wonderful" customer service, they told me that I'd have to wait for them to ship me a new box. I suggested they could just send me a label or give me a shipping code for UPS, but all I got was the human recording saying the same thing over and over.

Wait... that picture... are they implying that should your baby suffocate on the plastic bags you should toss him in the garbage?

Paying $500 for a system because you don't have another for 3 weeks is a bit extreme.

MS pays for 3 day shipping of the system back to them. I shipped from Chicago and they got it the next day.

For me, at least, if I count from when I first called (and remove the time when I had the box and didn't pack it up -- which was over a week), the total process for me was less than three weeks.

I was expecting a lot worse... I know some people have some bad stories about it.

You will get it back in plenty of time for Halo3. Hell you may even get it back before Bioshock. It took a week and a half to get mine back from the day I shipped the coffin back to them.

Wow.. color instructions. They were B&W the two times I had to send my 360 in. The longest part was the wait for the "Coffin" which was about 3 days. I sent it off, they got it the next day, they sent it out the following day, and I had it the next day. I'm guessing that's because the repair center isn't but a few cities away.

Hey, the literature was in COLOR! Feel honored..mine in March was black and white!

My instructions were only in Spanish... There were no English directions... Luckily the pictures coupled with my very low knowledge of Spanish as well as my understanding of French and German allowed my to interpret them. Oh and I'm in the US...

took me around two weeks to get mine back. I just got it back this past weekend and sent it right before E3.

I jsut sent my 360 out Monday but I was told to take the faceplate off... But the instructions didn't say that. Hopefully the person on the phone told me the right thing.

With the new 3-year warranty it seems to take 4-6 weeks... that's at least what M$ claims at 1-800-4MY-XBOX... I'm about halfway through the process and it's been 3 weeks. I don't suppose you taped your repair ID number to the console and the box??? You don't mention that you did- and the repair center specifies repeatedly over the phone that if you don't put the number on both the console AND the box that you might not get your 360 back at all! I'm not kidding, the rep made me write it down she said it was so important. Hope it all works out, seems to me that you give M$ so much (mostly) good press that they should just give you one free anyways but whatever...

I am waiting for my 3 coffin and the supervisor to call with it tracking number.... I am going to try to make sure I get an new 65nm core Xbox 360....hopefully with HDMI :)

Mine died on July 2nd and after calling that night and going through all the steps, I just got mine back on August 2nd. I really felt the withdrawls the first week or so then it subsided. I watched a lot of WEC, UFC, and IFL on TV and started exercising again. I actually feel better now and I'm afraid to play my 360 again because of it.

I sent my 360 back on Monday. It's been three days and they haven't even recieved it yet. It took me 6 days just to get the box.

I am having serious video game withdrawals. I got rid of PS2 a few months ago and haven't picked up a PS3 yet. Now seems like a great time to get one though!

I am pretty much stuck with playing Half Life 2 on my PC right now.

I got my box identical to that setup on the 8th. My Xbox 360 red rings most times I even think about turning it off so it's on continuously, but it does work so hopefully it pretends broken when it gets there. I'll be sending it off tomorrow. We're in the same boat, friend.

Well, my story isn't all too happy.

Mine croaked June 6th. I did the towel trick for a few weeks (I JUST rented Forza). I got my box a few days later. I sent it to them June 27th. They got it July 3rd as expected. I didn't get it back until July 23rd. They said I'd get my console back. I didn't. I didn't get a nifty little new one with HDMI either. I got one manufactured October 28th, 2006.

Now, during all this, my friend's broke and he sent it July 9th and got it back July 18th. My other friend just recently sent his off and got it back in a week and he got a brand new console.

To top it off, my XBLA arcade games don't all work. Only some. Most come up as trials when I'm offline. I re-downloaded and everything

I just asked the UPS guy could he wait a minuite and I just handed him back the coffin with the 360 in it now its on its way to Texas.

@22

Here's what they told me to do on the phone --

Delete all the Arcade games (note them down, obviously).

Then delete your profile.

Then go to recover the profile (this takes forever lol) and start downloading the full versions again.

They should show up as full if you're signed in or not (they did for me). They told me that if it didn't work that they'd refund me the points, but not to my current account... rather to a new Silver account.

I don't know why, but regardless if they did that, your main account could still play them normally.

Looks like we are on the same cycle. I just shipped mine back yesterday. Let's see who gets theirs first and if we get HDMI back.

I dont see the NERF GUN

Its funny seeing that box again so soon. I just sent mine out for repairs as well. I hope I get it back as soon as Bioshock is released. For now im all about the Resident Evil4 on Wii.

NOOOOO! I'm having flashbacks! haha! Mine took a total of 33 days (including weekends). I was told it would take 5-10. I filed a complaint with the BBB, and it was returned within a few days.

I believe they list the wait time at 4-6 weeks. Hopefully you'll get the new chip and HDMI.

Ok, conspiracy theory time. What if MS purposely engineered the 360 defects to prevent people from modding their systems. Seriously, who would take the chance of voiding their warranty knowing that they'd most likely need it in the near future.

OR!

Maybe it's to artificially inflate their install numbers since a lot of people would buy a backup or, not knowing about the warranty, just buy another when the first croaks.

You could catch up on the Harry Potter stories, thats what I did when mine 360 failed. READ READ and READ some more, helps pass time.

When i had to send mine in (i have two so i had a standby, lucky me) they returned it with a free month of xbox live (which was kind of cool till i realized that if i didnt have my second one, i would have lost a month of live to repair).

I think i got mine back in two to three weeks, until then, just mooch off someone elses box ;)

Thats what Buddha does at my place, damn fat mooch lives on my couch and plays my video games. Its like having my real life own "Ed" from Shaun of the Dead.

Tomorrow, mine will have been at the return center for a week. I have had no contact from Microsoft since the e-mail telling me that they have received my Xbox. When I check online, it only says that it has been received. I'm not too anxious as I went out and purchased a core system so that I could keep playing and this way I should always have one system working. :)

The box from the June 6th post is the old version that they were sending out. It's the way the box I sent out looked when I sent my 360 to Texas last July. I just sent in my 360 again because of a bum disc drive. It only took about a week from MS receiving my broken box to them sending me a new one. All in all the entire experience was about 3 weeks. I never used a phone the whole time. Advice to newly-broken 360 owners: use the Repair Agent (http://service.xbox.com/servicehome.aspx). It was convenient for me.

I ended up buying a PS3 during my "wait" for the 360 to return from the repair center. It took 4 weeks before I got a call from the repair center telling me they are sending it back and gave me the UPS shipping number. When I went to get it at UPS (because they MUST have a signature and I work during delivery time) there was another one next to mine and I live in a small town. When I opened the box I found out they sent me a brand new one. They also included a letter telling me why they replaced it and a one month free xbox Live card.
Although I still enjoy my 360 more that the PS3 I did like Motorstorm and still play it between Shadowrun and Oblivion on the 360.

Show us your nerf gun.

For us in Western Canada it sucks, cause it takes like a week before we get the coffin from Ontario, then a week back, then 2-3 weeks for "repair", then a week back. I waited a month and a half last time...and I just got the RROD lastnight again!

Sadly, My beast retired to the coffin just one week before yours did, Richard. I found a site that tracks the repair process. Go here to track your repair:

http://service.xbox.com

mine is on the way back to me. entire turnaround time: around 3 weeks.

With any luck you'll get an HDMI enabled 360 back with a 65nm chip and a quieter DVD drive! I hear they're them in those there Xbox 360s these days. Ah I remember the HDMI-less days of the 360, back in December 05, stupid early adoption.

Mine died for the first time and i hadn't even used it for almost 3 weeks.

at least in the US you get a coffin. i had to get my girlfriend to take a box from work and i took packaging stuff from my work.

i was the last person i knew who's xbox hadn't died from australian launch. looks like we could be reaching 100% failure rate over time.

I took extra care to make sure nothing would ever happen and all that did was stretch it out to 17 months.

my favorite thing ever happened today, i wish i would have had my camera

While walking through Circuit City, I stopped at the XBOX360 display to see what game was currently playable. Lo and behold, 3 red lights and a blank screen. The playtest 360 at Circuit City had broken!

I'll put some of the Nerf pictures in the gallery. It's not all that exciting really, but if you really want to see it...

Find a retailer with a good return policy. Buy a new 360, play it for 30 days or whatever the limit is, then return it to the store. You could also rent an Xbox for a week or two.

Failing that, just catch up on some reading.

I call microsoft and they said i had to write the number on my 360. maybe thats the way to get it faster because i got mine around 2 weeks later

It's good to know that M$ has the return so down pact that they include pretty detailed instructions. When I sent mine back, I called the helpline (to see why it took 2 weeks to get my coffin) and the guy said to take the face plate off. So I have a refurbished 360 and an extra face plate lying around.

Technically, you receive a coffin, a body bag, and then put a toe tag on the coffin (shipping label along with the reference number). Might as well call CSI for that much effort.

Also, the questionnaire you receive back is quite funny. Especially if it takes a long time for the whole process to finish, along with there are no boxes to check if the console is replaced. This is canceling out the ‘how would you rate the repair’ section of the survey.

At least they will give you a 1 month live card when it's all over. While you wait you should go play some original xbox. Relive the memories.

Richard, don't do it! Don't buy a Wii! It's fun for about a month... then it dawns on you how much the device blows/how un-fun it is... I've got one with 4 controllers and about a dozen games (I really, really wanted to like the damn thing) and now all it does is sit in a corner, sucking the life and the heat out of the room. If you lived in southern California I'd loan you mine for a month so you could have the wii experience, without the letdown of realizing how much money you wasted on that POS. As it is though... if at all possible you should test-drive one for a month or two before you commit to owning one; it's a rather expensive door stop, and good for little else.

i really wished the service.xbox.com site worked.

So i called xbox on the same day and recieved my coffin on the same day, i think its going to be interesting to see who gets the box back from microsoft first. I did of course pack it up and send it out almost imediately after receiving my coffin

There is no reason to call the cardboard box a coffin. You send in your Xbox 360 in that box deceased, and that box comes back with your Xbox 360 alive and better than ever. The word 'coffin' does not make sense, how about 'resurrection box', 'respawn point', or 'Sarcophagus (Stargate SG-1)'?

P.S.- Yes, I do know I am a fanboy, but I have had my 360 since Christmas and guess what? No problems with it EVER, all you have to do is keep it outside an enclosed area (e.g. a table near your T.V., the cables will reach it). Wow, this postscript is just as long as the body of the post, incredible.

| 1 | 2 | Most Recent | Next 50 Comments

Red Ring Chronicles Pt 2: the Coffin

Reader Comments (72)

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 4:37PM Teabag said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 4:38PM Teabag said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 4:42PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 4:42PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 4:43PM sli7ha said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 4:44PM xenocidic said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 4:51PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 9:13PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 4:52PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 4:52PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 4:55PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 4:55PM DeadPlasmaCell said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 4:56PM Magic Whiskey said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 4:58PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 5:13PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 5:01PM Disco Ball said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 5:05PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 5:10PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 5:12PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 5:14PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 5:15PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 5:22PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 5:21PM micheal82 said

Posted: Aug 10th 2007 1:32PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 5:36PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 5:38PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 5:40PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 5:46PM ZEBRA NINER said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 5:45PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 5:46PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 6:55PM adamd said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 5:52PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 6:08PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 17th 2007 4:44PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 6:14PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 10th 2007 10:24AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 6:40PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 6:36PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 6:44PM davidc14 said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 7:02PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 10th 2007 11:01AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 7:19PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 7:28PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 30th 2008 10:02PM Clinton O said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 8:26PM EmptyEnergy said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 8:38PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 8:51PM AoE said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 9:08PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 10:00PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 9th 2007 10:16PM (Unverified) said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

WB conjures up Harry Potter for Kinect this fall

Featured Stories

Silver Lining: I Am Alive's unfeeling world

Game Of Thrones and the paradoxes of adaptation

Super Joystiq Podcast 004: 38 Studios meltdown, Gravity Rush, Civilization 5: Gods & Kings, Dragon's Dogma

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW