Microsoft XBOX 360 support laughs at customer
By Jonathan Schlaffer
I know a lot of people have had a lot of problems with their XBOX 360 consoles but many of those were early unit runs whereas I bought mine in late 2006. I have had no problems with it whatsoever (yet). The original XBOX 360 warranty was 90 days and was later retroactively changed to 1 year.
This did not help Richard who got his XBOX 360 in 2005. He was just seven days late in order to be eligible for the 1 year warranty extension. His XBOX 360 began experiencing video problems so he decided to have a computer professional look at it.
Common sense should have told him better. If you have bought a computer from Dell or any manufacturer, the slightest amount of tinkering by you or anybody else while it is under warranty could constitute a void warranty and that’s exactly what Microsoft told him.
Since it wasn’t looked at by a “certified” Microsoft technician he could not get any repairs. He got the general customer service runaround with different people telling him different things but it ended in his conversation with a supervisor which went a little something like this:
Supervisor: “Is there anything else I can help you with… and by the way I am laughing at you.”
Richard: “you are what?”
Supervisor: “I am laughing at YOU.”
The Consumerist has the full unabridged version. Well, it is a little funny and if I had been the supervisor I might have laughed inside but would not have admitted it to the customer… unless I was having a really bad day. Maybe he was having a bad day?
The moral of the story is, don’t buy first run hardware, don’t let anyone else look at the offending device and if you do for the love of all things holy don’t tell the customer service people that you DID in fact have someone look at it that wasn’t a “certified” technician from the respective company.
Most of the time when something of mine breaks, it has either been used too much and is just worn out or fails right outside of the warranty. You know what I do when something fails outside of warranty, I don’t bother dealing with the manufacturer… I buy a new one (unless it’s a car…).
Sometimes stuff fails within the return policy of a store, regardless of what the package insert says like “Do not return to store, seek warranty service” I take it back to the store anyway. I’m not going to deal with customer service if I don’t have to and I really do not have the patience to send said item for repair, wait for repair and wait for shipping back, who does, who wants to, so don’t.
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May 13th, 2007
I bought mine launch day 2005. Also bought the 2 year M$ extended warranty. NO Problems for more than 1 year of moderate to heavy use. Had an optical drive failure and replacement recently under the extended warranty with a One-Day repair turnarround. Also had a defective controller replaced under the plan. Things break! There’s a right way and a wrong way to get them repaired or replaced. Don’t get mad at M$ if you’re a dumb ass.
May 17th, 2007
He should be used to people laughing at him, Anyone foolish enough to buy that hunk of junk 360, with it’s .5 generation features, deserves to be laughed at…
May 29th, 2007
i have a folty ear pice thr ear pice works but the mic dosent whot can i do its only 6 mounth old . plz advize me whot i can do
October 17th, 2007
but… why EXACTLY was the supervisor laughing? Im no 360 fanboy, nor am I a fan of M$. However, those three lines of conversation text could be anything and could be taken out of context. We are left with only bits and pieces of the conversation (even on the “full version” )
But what’s done is done, maybe mark is right. maybe they were laughing at you because you bought a 360 and was shocked it failed.
February 20th, 2008
LoL Microsoft is a such a joke i can’t believe he admitted to laughing wow how worst can Microsoft get.
October 20th, 2008
Yeah, I’m a supervisor for xbox customer support and that makes no sense why they would’ve told him they were laughing at him unless he said something like, “ARE YOU LAUGHING AT ME??!!!” all mad. MS don’t play with the policy :p. There are certain situations where we can bend the rules, but if you don’t meet the standards for that exception, it is what it is. And yeah, I’d say the 360 has too many problems too, especially on live, but hopefully they’ll work somethin out