There's really not much that can be done about this reliability problem other than letting people know, so when they make a choice on buying consoles, they factor in that they will probably have to invest in a additional service plan to keep their system going for an extra year. Maybe MS will get their act together when they realize people are choosing competators because the feel they have to spend extra money wtih 360 to ensure a long console life.

What can be done is to figure out the fucking problem and fix it in future console shipments.

well, you'd first have to admit there is a problem


i believe that IS the problem

Oh, they know there is a problem. They're just not going to announce it and kill sales.

They could fix it under the radar for all I care. Just anything to get the failure rate down.

Whoa, what a fucking inconvenience with shitty UPS system. They came yesterday and left the note saying that it request signature. Today, I left the note on the door, telling them to leave it on porch (I live on extemely safe neighborhood). UPS refused and marked a circle on the back of paper saying "adult signature is required on delivery".

Sure if they come here after 4 PM, not at fucking 10 AM while I'm at work. :mad2:

Yeah, I have pretty much everything I order shipped to my work for just that reason. Secretary kind sing for it and I don't have to worry about being home.

You're lucky.... if I have them send to my work, it will be at receiving area with other 100+ boxes (some of UPS guys normally throw the package around - I cannot trust them that!).

Yep, I work for a university (Graduate research assistant) so it just gets signed for and put in, or sat near, my mailbox.

You can call and request another time, or have them deliver it to someone else if you have someone who's normally home.

Or have them hold it at the UPS center for you to pick up yourself if it's nearby.

Just pick it up yourself. They're usually open until 7 or 8.

So I went to my local UPS to ship my 360 back and low and behold, there was a guy with the same box and same pre-paid shipping label ahead of me in line. It was funny and sad all at the same time. :lol:

I'm guessing the guy who took my box and gave me my receipt probably gets to see the 360 coffins all day long.

I had my 360 since Thanksgiving 2005 and I say I use it on average 3 hours a week. I just tried to play RS:LV and it froze. Its froze once before about 6 months ago. Well, I reset the 360 and bamb the 360 gives me the 3 rings of death. So, now I gotta shellout $140 bucks to get this thing fix??? Now, I feel everyone's pain. :(

Well, I just received my repaired 360 console about 5 minutes ago. A one month Gold Live card was included although there's no mention of a new warranty with it. Should there be? Now to fire it up and see if it actually works! Guitar Hero 2, here I come!

P.S. Thanks for the book, McHawkson! ;)

Should have gotten the extended warranty... -ohbfrank- ;)

Got my 360 back today... It included a Xbox Quality Survey, should I give them a harash ranking? :lol:

Don't know about harash, but be harsh as hell. :D

The more harsh complaints they get from people that own the system, the less they can ignore the problem without finding a fix.

Damn my wireless keyboard! :lol:

Yeah that's it. Blame it on the keyboard. ;)

:lol:

My keyboard is SOOOOOO sensitive! I need to figure out how to low the sensitive.

How do you "low the sensitive" rotfl

Looks like you are typing from the Wii.

-ptth-

I found it. In keyboard settings, you can slow down the Repeat rate. There, I won't make any stupid spelling mistakes (except grammar). ;)

Uhmm... you weren't and aren't making keyboard repeating mistakes..... :nopanic:

Three weeks after I started the exchange process by calling Circuit City, my gift card came in the mail. The timeline was:

June 1 -- I call and tell them my 360 is busted. They say they will send me an address label.
June 8 -- I call and ask where the label is. They tell me it's coming.
June 9 -- The address label finally comes. By the time I get home and check my mail, it's too late to drop it off with UPS. The UPS store is closed on Sunday, and I have to work late on Monday, so on ...
June 12 -- I drop off the 360 with UPS. Circuit City has sent a ground ship label, so it doesn't arrive at their headquarters until ...
June 15 -- At which point I get an e-mail saying they are processing my shipment to determine if it qualifies for warranty fulfillment.
June 18 -- I don't get an e-mail, but by checking the Circuit City website, I learn that they have authorized a refund for me and are sending a gift card, which arrives on ...
June 22.

Tomorrow, I will go pick up a new 360. Since all I sent Circuit City was the XBox itself (i.e. I still have my hard dive and wireless controller), my plan is to buy the premium unit if they'll transfer my warranty and the core if not.

And just to close out my story ... I did go to Circuit City today, and as expected, they told me that my 2 year warranty was actually a "2 years or the first time you use it" warranty. I explained to the manager that I had purchased a 2 year warranty, and thought it was reasonable that I be given a 2 year warranty. I explained that when I bought the warranty, I was told that I would be covered for 2 years, not that I was entitled to a single replacement within 2 years.

I also pointed out that the warranty was sold to me under a second set of false pretenses -- I was told that it was longer than the manufacturer's warranty, but in actuallity, Microsoft offers a longer warranty on the 360. I told him that I thought the reasonable thing to do would be to either transfer my warranty over to the new 360 or to refund the pro-rated unused portion of the warranty (i.e. since I "used up" my 2 year warranty after 4 months, I should get reimbursed 20/24 of the purchase price).

I also pointed out that if future XBoxes worked as well as the one he sold me the first time, I would have to rebuy their warranty 6 times in that 2 year period. That's actually not true, by the way; my first XBox died a week after I got it home. Since that was within the 30 days, I was able to exchange it without triggering my warranty. The manager's solution was to try to sell me a cooling unit. Wen I told him that most cooling units lead to more problems because they interfere with the 360's own cooling mechanisms, he was surprised -- he had never heard that before.

So, to sum up, Circuit City's warranty:
1. Is twice as expensive as Microsoft's ($80 vs. $40)
2. In theory lasts as long as Microsoft's, but only if you never use it
3. Is not any more convenient. When I bought the warranty, I thought I'd simply be able to exchange my 360 at any Circuit City location, but it turns out, you have to ship it off to Oklahoma -- that's not any better than shipping it to Redmond.
4. On the plus side, with Circuit City, you're guaranteed a new unit as your warranty fulfillment. Microsoft will repair your old unit.

As everyone expected, the manager didn't reimburse me, or transfer my warranty over, or anything like that. He did offer me a discount on a cooling unit. I thought about working my way up the chain of command -- asking to talk to the regional manager, and continuing to make noise until I eithe get a refund or the CEO of Circuit City personally tells me to go to hell -- but then I realized something:

I actually came out ever so slightly ahead on this deal. My backup plan -- replacing my Premium with a Core -- made me money over having Circuit City honor the warranty as I expected when I bought it. If things had worked as I thought they did, I would have spent:

$400 (for the Premium) + $80 (for the Circuit City warranty) = $480.


If I had done things the right way (i.e. bought a Microsoft warranty), I would have spent:

$400 (for the Premium) + $40 (for the Microsoft warranty) = $440.

Instead, I spent:

$400 (for the Premium) + $80 (for the Circuit City warranty) - $400 (the gift card Circuit City sent me as warranty fulfillment) + $300 (for the Core) + $40 (for the Microsoft warranty I will now buy) = $420

So depending on how you look at it, I either made $60 or $20. Getting Circuit City to do what I thought they were supposed to do in the first place would have actually cost me $60. So I'm going to think of it as Circuit City giving me a free game to compensate me for my trouble. :)

my 2nd xbox360 is at repair center now
 

I'm new to these forums and saw this poll about 360's being sent to the repair center.

I got my xbox360 for Christmas, December of 2006. Since then, it has died twice. I've never had a problem with the red rings of death. My problem is always something to do with the disc drive not reading discs anymore.

It's so frustrating. First one died about March 2007. I live in Los Angeles, CA. Service was very fast, as when I called Xbox customer support, they sent the shipping box out that day, I got it about 3 days later, mailed it off and it arrived in McAllen, Texas about 3 days later. The cool thing was, the day repair center received my xbox, they sent me a new one out that same day! Total time of the process took about 2 weeks tops.

This second time however is very disappointing. I called early morning of Wednesday on June 6, 2007 to Xbox to send a box out. The woman said she'd get it out that day. Well, it turns out the order didn't even get processed until Monday, June 11, 2007. I got the box Thursday, June 14. I mailed it out the same day at a UPS mini-store location. My xbox arrived at repair center on Wednesday, June 20. Well it is now June 24, and my xbox is still at repair center, so maybe they're not sending out refurbished ones anymore, I don't know what the problem is. So anyways, this second time will end up being about 3-4 weeks before I get it back. Very frustrating.

One last note, because I know that Microsoft says that about only 5% of people's xboxes have to be repaired. I say BS to that. When I took it in to the UPS mini-store location last week to mail it off, the guy told me he gets these xboxes to send back all the time, and that mine was the 4th one that week! Now I live in a suburb of LA, and there is many UPS stores to go to, and just this location gets that many, I can only shudder in fear as to how many others get sent off at the bigger locations.

I was going to buy the xbox 360 HD DVD player, but I figured what's the point. What's the point of using your xbox 360 as a media center hub with hd dvds, downloadable movies and tv shows, if I'm not going to be able to use them the next time my xbox breaks down.

Welcome!

Yeah, I posted earlier that as I was dropping off my 360 at UPS a few days ago there was a guy in line ahead of me with the same box. I knew he was shipping a 360. I can only imagine how many they were getting daily at that particular shipping location.