Dear Microsoft: Why Can't You Fix My Xbox 360?

[Jeremy Charette]

<img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/xbox360coffin.jpg" /> <br /><br />Dear Microsoft,<br /><br />Two months ago, I <i>finally</i> sent my Xbox 360 back to you to get fixed. Since the first couple weeks I'd owned it, it randomly locked up, froze on screen, stuttered, responded slowly to inputs, gave me dirty/bad disc errors, and the only thing that would cure it was to hit the power button or pull the power cord out completely. And it's loud. Really loud. Louder than any of my friends' Xbox 360s. But I waited hoping a patch would cure my woes. Finally, my warranty expired, and I gave up on ever having it fixed right.<br /><br />Then you extended the warranty (thanks!), so I sent it back to you. A couple weeks later I got the same Xbox back, and all was well. Sort of. It's still so loud that it drowns out everything else in the living room. But at least it worked. For a while. Now it's doing the same things again, except I have a new problem. The DVD drive won't open. Sometimes it will, when laying horizontally, but if I turn the console upright, it won't open at all. Not even if I take the faceplate off. So in the process of fixing it, you made it worse. It still locks up, and the stuttering seems to have gotten worse.<br /><br />So I'm going to call your customer service line, request another coffin, and pray that you fix it right this time. If you don't, well, I'll be sending it back for round three, and you can bet I'll be writing another open letter. And hey, why don't you drop me a line? I'm looking for a job, and I think you could use my services. I'm a Quality Engineering Manager with extensive experience in the microelectronics industry. Maybe we could help each other out.<br /><br />Sincerely,<br />Jeremy Charette

[Jason Dunn]

Wow. 8O That's really, really bad. It's bad enough you had the problems in the first place, but to get sent back the same unit with the same problems is completely inexcusable in my opinion. I guess I'll count my blessings that my Xbox 360 is only a bit loud...

[Jeremy Charette]

Not only the same problems, but worse. Now I can't even open the DVD drive. :roll:

[Chris Baxter]

It is interesting to me that they actually tried to fix it in the first place. I sent my Xbox 360 in two months ago and they did not even bother trying to fix it. They just shipped me a new one and told me that they updated my registration with the new serial number. Needless to say, I am very happy with the way they handled the situation. I guess I assumed that they did this with everyone.

[Jason Dunn]

They just shipped me a new one and told me that they updated my registration with the new serial number.

Nice. That's the way it should work.

[Jeremy Charette]

I wish they would send me a new one. I suspect this would fix most, if not all of my problems! Though I recall they recently announced that would be repairing and returning the exact same console you sent them from now on, serial number and all.

[Chris Baxter]

I guess I just got really lucky then. Luckier still is the fact that I was one month past the extended warranty period and they charged me nothing other than the cost to ship it to them.

[Jeremy Charette]

Oooooh, snazzy congo music while on hold! :lol:

They're checking to see if I'm too late. Apparently they only extend the warranty to 30 days past the repair date, and I'm about three weeks over. The CSR is trying to see if they'll still fix it under warranty.

[Jeremy Charette]

Aaaaaand coffin #2 is on the way. The warranty extension after repair has been changed from 30 days to 90 days.

The worst part of this whole deal is that I'm really enjoying the Command &amp; Conquer demo this week, and the Forza 2 demo is due any day now. Guess I'll just have to wait to get my hands on it. :roll:

At least I'm not having as much trouble as this guy (http://www.paraesthesia.com/blog/comments.php?id=1195_0_1_0_C).

[Chris Baxter]

Good Luck. I hope they can come through for you this time. The Xbox 360 is a great game console and it pains me to see poor customer service like this bring it down.