Microsoft has selectively extended their Xbox 360 warranty out to 3 years for folks dealing with the seemingly insolvable problem of the Red Ring of Death. *This is great news and all, but wouldn't it have been better to, you know, keep them from breaking in the first place. *This is not a fix, this is a reaction. *Honestly? *It's a good reaction, they need to belly up to the table and own this problem. *It's real. *And consumers shouldn't have to pay a DIME for their troubles. *In fact, I'd love to see some sort of standard "peace offering" like 800 MS points be given to each person that has to turn in a dead 360 for repairs. *Above and beyond, Microsoft, that's the only way to keep the stink off. *Go above and beyond. *Personally, I'm waiting for the 3-yr Disc Read Error warranty extension as that's where I've had most of my problems...

Source (xbox.com) (http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/petermooreletter.htm) *This is "real", the Fictional Friday is tomorrow.

Open Letter From Peter Moore

To our Xbox Community:

You[ch8217]ve spoken, and we[ch8217]ve heard you. Good service and a good customer experience are areas of the business that we care deeply about. *And frankly, we[ch8217]ve not been doing a good enough job. *

Some of you have expressed frustration with the customer experiences you have had with Xbox 360; frustration with having to return your console for service after receiving the general hardware error message on the console.

The majority of customers who own Xbox 360 consoles have had a terrific experience from their first day, and continue to, day in and day out. *But when anyone questions the reliability of our product, or our commitment to our customers, it[ch8217]s something I take very seriously.

We have been following this issue closely, and with on-going testing have identified several factors that can cause a general hardware failure indicated by three flashing red lights on the console. *To address this issue, and as part of our ongoing work, we have already made certain improvements to the console.

We are also implementing some important policy changes intended to keep you in the game, worry-free.

As of today, all Xbox 360 consoles are covered by an enhanced warranty program to address specifically the general hardware failures indicated by the three flashing red lights on the console. * This applies to new and previously-sold consoles. While we will still have a general one year console warranty (two years in some countries), we are announcing *today a three-year warranty that covers any console that displays a three flashing red lights error message. *If a customer has an issue indicated by the three flashing red lights, Microsoft will repair the console free of charge -- including shipping -- for three years from the console[ch8217]s purchase date. *We will also retroactively reimburse any of you who paid for repairs related to problems indicated by this error message in the past. *In doing so, Microsoft stands behind its products and takes responsibility to ensure that every Xbox 360 console owner continues to have a fantastic gaming experience.

If we have let any of you down in the experience you have had with your Xbox 360, we sincerely apologize. *We are taking responsibility and are making these changes to ensure that every Xbox 360 owner continues to have a great experience. *

This will take a few days to roll out globally, and I appreciate your continued patience as we launch this program. *I[ch8217]ve posted an FAQ that should address some additional questions, and we[ch8217]ll update it over the next few days.

I want to thank you, on behalf of all us at Microsoft, for your loyalty.

Seems like it'd be easier to just make them so they don't break than to individually extend the warranty on a per-cause basis...

Well he did say they've improved the consoles. Sounds like their fixing it. I actually thought it was pretty nice, I mean they apologized, said they were taking responsibility, started improving the consoles, anyone who has paid is reimbursed, and repair and shipping is taken care of. Seems pretty good to me... :-/

Though this may be in retaliation to the constant PS3 bashing?

Well he did say they've improved the consoles. Sounds like their fixing it. I actually thought it was pretty nice, I mean they apologized, said they were taking responsibility, started improving the consoles, anyone who has paid is reimbursed, and repair and shipping is taken care of. Seems pretty good to me... :-/

Though this may be in retaliation to the constant PS3 bashing?

Maybe it's because Roth actually finds this stuff so that we can all be more informed. I feel the same way he does about them making the consoles correctly in the first place. I don't really care if they are improving it now, they should have done a better job to begin with.

so, you are saying they made these faulty in the 1st place on purpose?... :-?

what?... :o

Well he did say they've improved the consoles. Sounds like their fixing it. I actually thought it was pretty nice, I mean they apologized, said they were taking responsibility, started improving the consoles, anyone who has paid is reimbursed, and repair and shipping is taken care of. Seems pretty good to me... :-/

Though this may be in retaliation to the constant PS3 bashing?

Maybe it's because Roth actually finds this stuff so that we can all be more informed. I feel the same way he does about them making the consoles correctly in the first place. I don't really care if they are improving it now, they should have done a better job to begin with.

By no means did I mean any ill will towards Roth. I didn't mean to be interpreted as finding this post useless and that I didn't want it. I just thought he was a little harsh on them, the way we're all a little harsh on PS3. Though I guess it deserves so theres a bit of equality on the forums. ;)

I actually thought it was a very useful post since I hadn't heard this yet, though I just got an e-mail from 1up entitled 'Breaking News' which had this story in it.

I agree they should of been working since the beginning, but since they weren't Microsoft has owned up to their mistake and is making efforts to fix it, which is commendable I think...

When I said "Though this may be in retaliation to the PS3 bashing" I simply meant it might of been put into an 'extra' insulting way just to show that Microsoft isn't perfect either. Which it's not, and people are acting like the Wii and 360 are both perfect and the PS3 is a cluster****. Which of course it isn't...


Wow, gotta love the word censor haha, replaced clusterf@#k with cluster crappity smack... Bahaha!

By no means did I mean any ill will towards Roth. *I didn't mean to be interpreted as finding this post useless and that I didn't want it. *I just thought he was a little harsh on them, the way we're all a little harsh on PS3. *Though I guess it deserves so theres a bit of equality on the forums. * ;)

...

When I said "Though this may be in retaliation to the PS3 bashing" I simply meant it might of been put into an 'extra' insulting way just to show that Microsoft isn't perfect either. *Which it's not, and people are acting like the Wii and 360 are both perfect and the PS3 is a cluster****. *Which of course it isn't...


Look up at the top of this page (I'll wait), this is "The SARCASTIC Gamer", tagline "Totally Biased". There's no "Totally Biased Against PS3", as a matter of fact I think someone around here other than me loves their PS3. *My "sarcastic" hat is on when I post on this forum and it's not the same hat other people wear. *Hell yeah I enjoy posting positive Sony news and negative Microsoft news... and I do it openly here with very little concern for being an equal opportunity poster/basher... I'm highly outnumbered as it is.. *Hell yeah I enjoy giving a Microsoft fanboy (or XBot as they're called elsewhere) a verbal smackdown of the factual kind (facts aren't necessarily a given in these parts). *

The intention of this site (as far as it's been portrayed to me) is sarcastic humor related to gaming. *The funny is first (to get people riled up and talking), facts are secondary... *it all seems to be fine as long as we're praising the 360, bashing the PS3 and frankly ignoring the Wii. *I'm rather jaded and will pick apart anything that needs picking, regardless of platform.

And HPaladino, I in no way think Microsoft intentionally designed a faulty console. *I think they were under a time crunch to be first to market and it's entirely possible more QA time on the hardware wouldn't identified this problem or led to some other design that wouldn't be faulty... *so the two could be related, but that's purely speculation.

Anyone else find the corporate spin to be hilarious?

The consoles aren't flawed, Microsoft is just spending too much time doing an "unacceptable number of repairs to Xbox 360 consoles". Yeah, that's the ticket. ;D

Seriously, do they teach Corporate Spin in MBA school?

PS. Roth - just so we're on the same page, I made a "promise" to someone else to rile you up some in some Sony posts. ;) Hope you didn't take it personal.

Anyone else find the corporate spin to be hilarious?

Um, me!

Seriously, do they teach Corporate Spin in MBA school?

They must. *It's not just Microsoft, I laugh at them all... but it's Microsoft's turn this time.

PS. Roth - just so we're on the same page, I made a "promise" to someone else to rile you up some in some Sony posts. ;) Hope you didn't take it personal.

Damn it Doc, you're gonna get it. *Causing me to wonder how many a-holes there are in this forum and they keep saying "Doc made me do it!" *Well, in Captiosus' case, he just said "someone", but I know who. *Thanks Capt, nope, I just thought you were an a-hole. *I understand totally now.

Doc's a mischevious guy...

This is pretty incredible...in a sad sort of way. I thought it was another joke article (read it on Friday) until I got about half way through, then followed the source link. Good for MS, it's about time they owned up to the problem. No doubt it became a big enough PR headache that they had to do this or risk market share. This also (perhaps not so coincidentally) broke on the same day as the PS3 price drop leak.

Edit: Regarding the PS3 price drop, GameDaily has confirmed it: http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=16721

Edit2: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070705/ap_on_hi_te/microsoft_xbox_warranty;_ylt=Arl20hQiL.pzxTcY7ShzT LUDW7oF

"Microsoft said it will record a charge of up to $1.15 billion for its fourth fiscal quarter, which ended June 30, to cover the additional costs associated with the warranty extension."

Ouch.

Damn it Doc, you're gonna get it. Causing me to wonder how many a-holes there are in this forum and they keep saying "Doc made me do it!" Well, in Captiosus' case, he just said "someone", but I know who. Thanks Capt, nope, I just thought you were an a-hole. I understand totally now.

Doc's a mischevious guy...

Hehe, I didn't want you to think I hated you or was intentionally out to piss in your Wheaties. I've never been a rampant fanboy of any product (well, except for Oakley Sunglasses, but... they sold out to rayban, :'() so what you got from me was completely and totally out of character.

Besides, if I truly hated the PS3 and its owners, how could I possibly coexist on the 2old2play forums?

Look up at the top of this page (I'll wait), this is "The SARCASTIC Gamer", tagline "Totally Biased". There's no "Totally Biased Against PS3", as a matter of fact I think someone around here other than me loves their PS3. My "sarcastic" hat is on when I post on this forum and it's not the same hat other people wear. Hell yeah I enjoy posting positive Sony news and negative Microsoft news... and I do it openly here with very little concern for being an equal opportunity poster/basher... I'm highly outnumbered as it is.. Hell yeah I enjoy giving a Microsoft fanboy (or XBot as they're called elsewhere) a verbal smackdown of the factual kind (facts aren't necessarily a given in these parts).

Good point with the "Totally Biased." bit. I guess you can't really be too harsh if everything is going to be totally biased. I never said that you shouldn't say anything bad about Microsoft but I thought it was being a little harsh seeing as how they're owning up to the mistake. But seeing as how everything is "totally biased" you can't be overly harsh.

(That wasn't sarcastic)

This is good news. If I'm not mistaken, for the same level of service from Sony, it's like what? 3 bucks a month?


So cool.

This is good news. *If I'm not mistaken, for the same level of service from Sony, it's like what? *3 bucks a month?


So cool.

Keep in mind this is a warranty with a big old asterisk on it. If anything goes wrong between day 366 and the third year that doesn't result in a red ring, there's absolutely no difference for you whereas the (Europe-only I believe) Sony plan you're talking about covers the entire unit.

I was on the VGS session this week and asked CPal if he'd seen any backlash from the extremely-specific warranty extension and he said he hadn't noticed anything. Personally, since MS is admitting to the problem, I mentioned I felt it would've been a nice nod to their commitment to just flat out extend their entire warranty to three years and set the bar there... as it is, I can't help but think their business plan has some portion (no matter how small) that counts on people paying for repairs or flat-out repurchasing 360's due to failure. Which, well, bugs me to think about. Not that I think it's specific only to Microsoft by any means, but when you've got an admittedly faulty product and extend only one flaw in your warranty, it just comes off a little cheapskate-ish to me. Overcompensation would've been more a better example of good customer service and commitment.

My Xbox 360 "redringed" last week. I´m going to call the support tomorrow and I expect them to handle my replacement/repair-request quickly. If they make any trouble, I´ll let you know. :-/

After 20 minutes holding the line :P a nice lady talked me though the process. They will E-Mail me a UPS-code so it won´t cost me anything to send it in.
Repairs currently take 15 to 25 days. Bummer. :'(

(FYI: I live in Germany.)

After 20 minutes holding the line *:P a nice lady talked me though the process. They will E-Mail me a UPS-code so it won´t cost me anything to send it in.
Repairs currently take 15 to 25 days. Bummer. *:'(

(FYI: I live in Germany.)

Demand an extension to your Xbox Live subscription once you get your 360 back. There's no reason a repair should waste away FOUR WEEKS of your subscription.

If you live in the US, you get a code to extend your XBL subscription for 30 days...I'm not for sure about other countries.

If you live in the US, you get a code to extend your XBL subscription for 30 days...I'm not for sure about other countries.

Is this always? I've never heard anyone I know that's had a return/repair mention that. Do you have to actively ask for that?

It's probably what they give you when you ask to get your XBLive time back.

It's probably what they give you when you ask to get your XBLive time back.

Well actively asking for it is quite a different thing than them offering it up as a peace offering.

That it is. Only time I've ever heard them openly 'offering' them is when someone had returned 12 of them. Which is just ridiculous(I sense a possible article here). I think they also started offering him Microsoft Points for compensation.

If you live in the US, you get a code to extend your XBL subscription for 30 days...I'm not for sure about other countries.

Is this always? I've never heard anyone I know that's had a return/repair mention that. Do you have to actively ask for that?

I didn't ask for it. When I got my 360 back, there was a 1-month XBL card included inside the box. MS gave a specific reason for it, I think it said complementary...but I didn't save the letter.