Loading ...
Well it’s been a whopping 6 months that I’ve had the XBox 360 HD-DVD player and it’s trashed. Turn it on today to watch a movie and the XB0x 360 doesn’t see it at all. Been on support for 55 minutes now to have a lady I can barely understand ask me every question 3 times (using different wording) to find out that I need to pay for service because it’s out of warranty and will cost me $80 to repair and I have to ship.
Ohhhh nice… this is not a joke, I can no longer hear her because a fire alarm is going off in the background in her office and she’s just yelling and cannot hear me… this just keeps getting better.
Not to mention that there is no “direct” number to the XBox 360 repairs, and I have to go through this entire process every time… this ensures that Microsoft doesn’t have to do a goddamn fucking thing to repair their pile of shit hardware.
I’ve been put on hold 8 times 9 times
I don’t think you appreciate how frustrating this is… every time she asks me a question, she puts me on hold. It’s gotten to the point that it’s so ridiculous that the only thing I can come up with is that Microsoft trains their reps to do this so they don’t actually have to service hardware and instead out of frustration I hang up and don’t request service…
Little does this woman know I will stay on hold until someone dies…
Loading ...
May 28th, 2007 at 8:06 am
I had the 3 red light error like most of us and I had been on hold for 3 times just to tell me my warranty is over and I have to pay for repair. Luckily I searched the web and I found a great tech support site that help me fix it. Here is the page for Xbox Repair
May 28th, 2007 at 10:20 am
Leroy,
The link and followup is very much appreciated. Nothing more frustrating to get all lined up to play a game or watch a movie and wham… nothing
June 2nd, 2007 at 5:47 pm
*CALLING ALL*
I know a lot of us are having problems with our Xbox’s and it seems as though it is either a never ending cycle or Microsoft seems unwilling to truly assist us in addressing these issues.
I feel that if we all unite as a single force, we can open someone’s eyes! We need to get all the people together in one place! My suggestion is, let us grab all the gamers, friends, posters, bloggers, IMers, whoevers and get them all onto the Myspace page that I have created just for this reason. Send everyone you can! WE HAVE POWER IN NUMBERS!!!
Remember to post your story. Be professional, courteous and mature in your postings please. Let’s take the high road and be civil.
http://www.myspace.com/my360sux
June 3rd, 2007 at 12:33 pm
I bought a PS2 console when they first came out and am look at purchaseing a new system. I am looking at a Xbox360 elite. Any views on if i should switch over to the microsoft crowd or stick with the playstation platform? In the past i have had to send my console out for repaires because my system would no read some disc’s, apparently the PS3 looks to be the same situation, but now im reading about these 3 red lights of doom. Any suggestions?
June 3rd, 2007 at 9:15 pm
Pondering,
It’s hard to say. XBox 360 has a strong lineup this year because of the year long head start they had, however, towards the end of the year you are seeing some major names coming out for PS3.
I think next year the PS3 is going to blossom, and continue for many years after that as the platform has more horsepower than the 360, but is admittedly probably more complex.
The PS3 is much more like a computer than I originally thought it would be (which I ended up liking a lot).
Also if you plan on playing online alot, I would really suggest you wait and see what Sony does with their Home service. I know people in the closed beta and they say that the potential is amazing but the kinks are still being worked out.
Then again the XBox has a really smooth/integrated online solution with XBL that is so easy to match up with friends… that’s pretty slick too.
June 11th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
i have not even had my xbox 360 for 6months and i have sent it back twice. What a pile of crap! this is my first and last xbox. My next purches will be a playstation. Why the hell is the support in india when nobody can understand them and just to fustrate people they all seem to have english names! what the hell is that all about. Nothing like trying to maximise profits by paying people 50pence aday!! what a load of shite…..
June 22nd, 2007 at 5:56 pm
My 360 went red ring of lights death. Since contacting them on June 4th (which took 45 minutes of auto response hell from “Max” followed by Rajiv not understanding what I wa saying I waited until the 11th to get the box the send it back. It’s been with XboX since the 15th according to their records but at this point they can neither confirm nor deny if they even have the unit or what happened to it. I was told there would be no information for another 3-5 business days. This being Friday that means another week at the least just to determine apparently if they can even confirm that they know where or if they have the unit let alone fix it or replace it. Even if they turned it around by the 2nd, there’s new legal holiday in the middle of the week which pushes the 3-5 business days return ship out at least one more day. Figure best guess July 11th under optimal conditions. That’s 5 weeks from first contact. 5 motherfucking weeks and that’s just a guess at this point based on their promise to pull their heads out of their asses 3-5 days from today. I have to add that have attempted to call them daily. The fact that you have go through “Max” the retard even if you already have a case number is infuriating but it’s just the appetizer for the meal from hell when you finally get to an agent. Sorry guys but you have to at least grasp a minimum of fucking English to do your job. My last name has 6 goddamn letters in it. 6. When I spell it out letter by letter try to get it by the 5th fucking try. So here we are week 3 and the monkeys in service don’t know if or where the box is. And maybe if pray real hard to Ganesh someone will pull their head out of their ass long enough to check right up on that shit.
June 22nd, 2007 at 9:49 pm
Steve,
That mind-bending rage you are feeling is EXACTLY how I felt and still feel towards Microsoft.
The strategy of the inept call center is that it’s “easier to buy another one, then repair it” ironically enough…
I would point out that I had *exactly* the same reply when I called back, he asked me for the Case ID, my name/address/etc then put me on hold. Then came back and said “I’m sorry we have no record of the delivery, do you have a delivery confirmation” and I said “Yes”, he asked me for the number, so I gave that to him, he put me on hold and came back and said “Did you get a receipt for the package?” and I said “yes” and he said “Well then we will need that to”…
this is when I fucking lost it
In a very slow-but-loud voice I said “No you don’t. You have my case number, I have confirmation from the post office you received the package. You may put me on hold 1 more time, and when you return you will tell me EXACTLY where my HD-DVD player is, and when it will be returned to me repaired. Every bit of information you need is already in the trouble ticket.” very uncomfortably he said “… oh… ok” and came back and guess what? OMFG it’s magic, he suddenly knew EXACTLY where it was, there was NO repair charge AND they were sending me a new one.
Go fuck yourself Microsoft… fuck yourself and die.
June 26th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
As a support agent for Xbox, I’m going to have to say that it sounds like you got someone new to the job. It happens.
June 27th, 2007 at 7:48 am
support_guy,
While I don’t doubt you are good at your job and tech savvy, I’ve called 4x and each time gotten someone different with the same script:
1) Question
2) Hold
3) Question
4) Hold
5) Question
6) Hold
…
I compared notes with posters here, same thing. I compared notes with 2 other friends that replaced an HD-DVD drive and an XBox 360… same story.
It is clear that this process is very intentional and not accidental or someone “new on the job”.
Why is anyone surprised? When has Microsoft ever behaved in any fashion different than this?
June 27th, 2007 at 8:10 am
More on my particular problem. I rec’d an email last Sunday indicating the return unit had been shipped. This was 6/24. The note stated it had been shipped 6/8 which was 7 days before they even got my old one. The UPS tracking number was invalid. I called daily until yesterday afternoon whereupon I was told after spending more than 75 minutes on the phone with Xbox to “Call UPS and see if they can do anything.” I spoke to one support person and one supervisor.
That was their final resolution. As it turned out Xbox shipped the return unit out Tuesday not Sunday and it finally hit UPS, tracking system about 5:30pm eastern with a logged pickup time from Texas of 1:30pm local time.
Mind you my first contact with Xbox was June 4th. I will have been sans unit for a month. And this required near daily badgering from me, on the phone to Xbox to get credible information about what’s what. If this replacement unit goes south….well I’d like to say I’d rip someones head off and shove it up their ass but my kid likes the unit so I’ll be forced to go through this again.
And companies wonder and scratch their heads why their own customers want them dead…..?
June 27th, 2007 at 8:16 am
Steve,
The exact same thing happened with me. I think the “wrong date” is intentional for internal tracking, so if they are audited for performance numbers by Microsoft they look better than they actually are.
My shipment notification showed a “shipped out” date 3 days before I ever sent it to them, naturally I actually got it weeks later, but as I said, it’s all cooked bookkeeping to make sure they look like a performant service center and can keep the Microsoft contract. And regardless of customer outcry and a 30% failure rate, Microsoft will keep the service center because it’s likely the cheapest and that is all they have ever and will ever care about.
You don’t pull of a 30% failure rate on your hardware because you love your customers… you do it because you love the lowest bidder.
June 27th, 2007 at 11:08 am
Just a heads up for anyone doubting my assessment above, please take a look:
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3160603
June 27th, 2007 at 11:10 am
This about sums it up, and confirms what I said. Microsoft’s bottom line was getting impacted, so they cheapen support more and more, to make it such a frustrating process that they’d rather you go buy a new one:
It’s ironic… if the machines had a smaller failure rate, the customer service would be better… but since they have such an amazing high failure rate, the custom support is trash because it’s overloaded and MS is trying to minimize costs… NICE.
June 27th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
Xbox support has been hiring A LOT of new people lately. They honestly do not pay beginning agents enough and, for some, the hassle of being a support agent is not worth it. There is a high rate of turn over among beginning agents and coupled with recent expansion, I do not doubt for a second that you could have gotten 4 new people in a row.
I’m sorry you’ve had some bad experiences. Let me give you a hint to avoid getting an inexperienced agent. As soon as someone answers, just tell them to escalate you to tier 2. You will get a very experienced agent.
Also, the HD-DVD attachment isn’t really covered in new agent training and it’s a newish and rare accessory for us to deal with. I don’t think we even have one on the floor to play with.
There’s no excuse for bad service though. That’s what we’re here for and believe me agents hate putting customers on hold because they know they start looking inexperienced. I’m sure the agent hated putting you on hold as much as you did. Take some comfort in knowing that their supervisors most definitely took notice of the situation.
June 27th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
support_guy,
If what you are saying is true I’m glad you posted it and I hope things get better as the agents get up to speed (and hopefully demand better wages).
I’ll keep your tips in mind in the future as I almost expect my XBox to die any day now (it makes a chunking sound now when it reads disks… :()
June 27th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
Oh, and about the alarm you heard. That sounds like the security door alarm. You can blame the Samsung people downstairs for that one. If the door is open too long, it will go off.
Whenever you have a problem with your hardware, use the support pages at xbox.com and if you do have to call tell the agent exactly what you’ve done so you don’t have to go through it all again.
Remember, don’t hesitate to ask to be escalated to tier 2 if the agent seems inexperienced. If you feel like you’ve been inconvenienced because of the situation, ask for a month of LIVE service. I wish we could give more, but that’s all we’re authorized to give.
At the same time, I have faith in most of our agents. For the most part, everyone is on top of their game and more than capable to handle your calls. But like I said, there are a lot of new people on the phones this month for some reason. At least you won’t have to wait forever to have your call answered.
Anyway, be assertive. Expect professional service and if you’re not getting it, demand a supervisor.
I hope your system is good, but if you’re concerned about the noise and still in warranty go ahead and call it in before your warranty runs out. You should get a repair and have your warranty extended after that.
Have fun with your Xbox and I hope I’ve helped to clear up your issues. I apologize for your bad experience.
December 17th, 2007 at 11:41 am
“1) Question
2) Hold
3) Question
4) Hold
5) Question
6) Hold”
guess it’s too hard to come up with a better script
December 17th, 2007 at 11:44 am
DM, that’s *exactly* what it was. I wanted to hang myself.
The 2nd time I called after the box Red-Ringed, it was a lot faster, cause there was nothing to trouble shoot…
1. Can you turn it on?
2. Yes, but there is a red ring.
3. What happens if you restart it?
4. There is a red ring…
5. Ok
So that part was good.