XBOX 360 Vent if considering purchasing, pls read!

[a1tinkfans]

Just wanted to let you all know about our XBOX 360 situation which we now know is not Uncommon!

The original Xbox 360 incurred the RED RINGS OF DEATH....it basically means the system malfunctions due to an internal hardware meltdown..NOT caused by anything the user does.
Sadly, according to reports, Microsoft allegedly knew about the malfunction but sold them anyways.
SO, the game system dies and then your ONLY option is to contact Xbox Support and they have extended the original 1 year warranty to 3 years to cover the game system for this Hardware Failure .
SO fast forward here a bit.....we have the game about 1 1/2 years..technically its out of warranty (1 year), but due to their acknowledgment of the failure (and a class action lawsuit) they extend the warranty to 3. So, our Journey begins.......
We then wait a week for them to send us a label to ship our system to them. We then bring it to UPS as we are directed (they pay ship) but NOT insurance. I decide NOT to insure figuring they sent the label.
All is good.
They allegedly receive it in about a week. We then wait 7 weeks, yes 7 weeks (and UNlucky for us its thru Xmas break). At that time we call for a status and are told its being shipped back.
Another week to get it.
We now use this REPAIRED system and WahLa it DIES AGAIN THIS week! Talk about frustration.
Are you ready for this......Microsoft sent us back a DIFFERENT console, one from 2006 that they repaired...so since we did not register the serial number (why would we, we already registered the one we bought not knowing THIS returned one was not ours) we cannot access our OWN XBOX account!!
SO, after 3 phone calls and so much frustration,,,, they tell us that we now have to wait 3-5 business days for a NEW LABEL to ship it back to them AGAIN!! Then 3-5 days for them to receive. Then allegedly 3-5 weeks for repair or replacement AND then 3-5 business days to ship back to us.
Can you see where we are going/have gone with this
TIME TIME TIME..........................
Well, I can tell you....I will NOT be buying ANYTHING for the XBOX 360 this holiday season, not 1 thing!
Meantime, for XBOX live, you BUY items to play the games, so the $$ we spent just last week....WASTED...can't use it.....Of course Microsoft did not offer anything, knowing this.......so when I called AGAIN to ask about that...Was told they'll give us a month FREE, another JOKE, because we already bought a years subscription and they don't ADD the extra month...
SO
a WARNING to all you hardworking moms and dads out there....you will likely spend lots more $$ on gaming things with the XBOX 360 (if they go online to play) AND
you'll very likely spend Much MORE TIME having to get it repaired....maybe over and over, its like 54% chance of failure...there are several lawsuits going....another thing that apparently happens is your cds get damaged and don't play...... so far we have not faced that.
Well, if it were up to me, I'd ditch the entire system....instead I'm here giving a heads up and again waiting for our label to get it repaired. Which probably means ANOTHER machine as we have done some research now and looks like they CANNOT be repaired....CRAZY if you ask me.....Once that 3 year warranty expires (which is ONLY from original purchase date) I will not be paying for any repair...so hoping it lasts till then.....we shall see....

For US: XBOX360 = HEADACHES!

 

[java]

Ah the ring of death. We've had it many times. But our turnaround from XBox has never been more than 10 days. And they've been good about fixing it for free. Yes it stinks. But hey for what it does- the massive multiplayer games- it's amazing they don't burn out faster. Ours has gotten well more than it's fair share of use.

Sorry and I understand your frustration. And YES one of ours returned and had a ring a week later. (oh did I raise hell) So I totally understand your anger.

 

[a1tinkfans]

10 days?????????????????

I am so jealous....

the ds is SO MAD, and I cannot blame him....

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

My son is an Xbox addict. You have to take control of the call when you call in and make sure to get your repair expidited. Most games that Xboxers love are not on other systems or are online. You take the good with the bad. Sorry for your aggravation, I have been there/done that.

 

[Inigo]

My son's xbox got the "red ring of death" a couple months ago, so he shipped it off to the factory for warranty service. We had his repaired system (same one we sent off) back within 10 days too. It was the easiest transaction for us. The worst part for him is that I refused to drive 1 1/2 hours to his college to deliver the repaired system to him once it arrived. He had to wait until he came home the next weekend.

 

[a1tinkfans]

We're in NE and last console went to Texas..................maybe thats why it takes so much longer????

I cannot even MENTION 10 days to the ds, he is already so annoyed...so that'll be my little secret.
Boy, that would be so nice.............10 days...

 

[Mrs. Charming]

Yeah, we've had that too. Poor DH... went through withdrawal. We got it back in a reasonable amt of time. Actually, I thnk we got a different one than the one we had, but eh... no biggie. As long as we got one back.

Apparently there's a "towel trick" but I don't recommend it. It essentially overheats it to the point where the chips fuse together and it "fixes" it... lol

 

[dturner]

WOW, I can't believe all the problems some people have with the XBOX360. The first one I bought was about 4 years ago and just replaced it a couple of months ago - never got the red ring of death but it wasn't working like it should (it would take forever to get a game to load) and I just thought
DS(13) wore it out since it's used everyday.

I took the old XBOX360 to Gamestop and they gave us $80.00 store credit.

Sorry for all your problems.

 

[java]

We're in NE and last console went to Texas..................maybe thats why it takes so much longer????

I cannot even MENTION 10 days to the ds, he is already so annoyed...so that'll be my little secret.
Boy, that would be so nice.............10 days...

We are in the NE too. Fingers crossed for 10 days for you too. By the way we were told the 3 years starts again after they fix it. (I don't know if that's because I raised holy hell with them- but point being be the squeeky wheel)

 

[maciec]

We have gotten the Red Rings of Death 3 times now. The last time we had this happen was about a year ago. One of the things that we learned it that sometimes the RRoD can happen because the box over heats. So we bought a cooler and made sure that the box had plenty of space around it. So far so good, but you know now that I have said this it's gonna die again!

 

[cinderella73]

We had one of the very first systems put out. I kept hearing about the red ring of death and everyone was shocked ours lived as long as it did. Ours went just a year ago and they " started" to give us a hard time atfirst about repairing it. But I knew they had to as it was their fault. ( You would have had to be living in a cave to not have known about the issue)

They did send us a label and we got our system back quickly. Its been about a year now and so far no issues.

But I wonder.... Is this something they fix ? Or is it just something that can happen again? From some of your posts that I read it looks like they never really solved the problem. I know they were telling people to purchase fans but to me that something that should have been built in I thought.

I also heard about all the Xbox lawsuits. They have definatly had quite few issues over the years and I have heard stories about them knowingly shipping out flawed systems.

Anyway to the OP I dont blame you for getting ticked. I would have been flipping out myself. Usually they get it back to you pretty quick but since you had all those problems I would suggest you start documenting who you spoke with and when. That way if you need to get hold of a someone higher up you can have something to reference just in case. I hope u get ur xbox back soon! Not that they are a great system / company but I think you are having a bit of bad luck on top of it.

Double check but I know with Nintendo when you get a repaired system back even if your warranty was about to expire you get the repaired item with a additional year added on.

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

So do the new ones have this problem also?

 

[msmayor]

I'm not sure who you've talked to that said you have to 'wait' for a mailing label...both times my son has needed to return his console the shipping label is e-mailed to me within 30 minutes of the call to Support.

We have had nothing but EXCELLENT customer service from XBox on this. My son got the RR of Death three weeks before Christmas the year before last, and they had another console to him in 10 days.

Its absolutely NORMAL for them to send a different console. Its a faster system than having you wait for the repair on your original one. You don't need to register the new console; they should automatically do it for you (as they did for me)

Just 6 weeks ago, my son got a different error message (E74, I believe...another fatal hardware error that is also covered under the extended warranty). It took all of 10 minutes for them to agree to replace the console again. The shipping label was again e-mailed, and we had the new console very quickly.

They DO send a card out for a free month of XBox Live. No, they don't automatically add it to your account...that's true. But the card they send allows you to add it at any time yourself.

 

[disney1995disney]

We had the same issue (before we moved to PS3 and the blueray).

It took us under 10 days to get it replaced. They did a good job. My issue was that your harddrive is replaced/wiped so we lost a bunch of downloaded content the kids had..

But from a timing standpoint, it was really fast to get the fixed unit back.

 

[RachaelA]

DH bought the little fan for his 360 and it definitely helped. We got the rings of death once. I don't remember the turnaround time being unreasonable though.

 

[dawson5]

DH bought the little fan for his 360 and it definitely helped. We got the rings of death once. I don't remember the turnaround time being unreasonable though.

same here. Quick turnaround. Oldest DS bought the little fan to put on it, no problems since.

Also his buddy had the same issue but tried to fix it himself without any luck. He eventually gave this unit to my son who has been trying all these "fixes." He has not had any luck with them at all. This boy's parents bought him a new unit, so DS doesn't have to worry about returning it, the tamper seal being broken, etc.

 

[WDWHo]

Hey all. Something that happened to my DS15 xbox360: It kept overheating and stalling. It would just shut off and not work for days. I went and got a can of that pressurized air stuff to clean keyboards and the amount of dust that flew out was incredible. (He has had his system for about 4 years). NEver had a problem since. I do it about every three months. Give it a try. Might prevent the ring thing.

 

[Blue.Fairy2]

I'm not sure who you've talked to that said you have to 'wait' for a mailing label...both times my son has needed to return his console the shipping label is e-mailed to me within 30 minutes of the call to Support.

We have had nothing but EXCELLENT customer service from XBox on this. My son got the RR of Death three weeks before Christmas the year before last, and they had another console to him in 10 days.

Its absolutely NORMAL for them to send a different console. Its a faster system than having you wait for the repair on your original one. You don't need to register the new console; they should automatically do it for you (as they did for me)

Just 6 weeks ago, my son got a different error message (E74, I believe...another fatal hardware error that is also covered under the extended warranty). It took all of 10 minutes for them to agree to replace the console again. The shipping label was again e-mailed, and we had the new console very quickly.

They DO send a card out for a free month of XBox Live. No, they don't automatically add it to your account...that's true. But the card they send allows you to add it at any time yourself.

We do not own an xbox but if they are sending out different systems to you than the one you sent in why does it take even 10 days?????

It should be immediate turn around, they receive the system and immediately send you out a new one being you are not getting your system back anyway. makes no sense that it even takes 10 days!

thanks for posting this thread OP makes me appreciate our Wii and nintendo CS even more.

 

[tiggerplus5]

We do not own an xbox but if they are sending out different systems to you than the one you sent in why does it take even 10 days?????

It should be immediate turn around, they receive the system and immediately send you out a new one being you are not getting your system back anyway. makes no sense that it even takes 10 days!

thanks for posting this thread OP makes me appreciate our Wii and nintendo CS even more.

It would be safe to say that the shipping time is probably 2-3 days each way and they do have to test the system prior to mailing a new one. They don't overnight the boxes. So what would be a reasonable time in your opinion, 5 days? That's some customer service expectations!

I have two DS (17 and 20) that LIVE to play xbox360. In their opinion, there is no equal. I don't play at all but I see them playing Call of Duty (for instance) and the picture quality is amazing and the online games where more than a dozen players are all playing at the same time really takes some special software.

They are perfectly fine waiting the 10 days to get their games back. We have a PS3 and my DD has a wii and they could care less. We have sent back 5 consoles already. YUP, 5 consoles (over several years). No probs and they do send you a link by email to print a mailing label.

Their friends all have xbox360 consoles and there was one incident where the console was shipped by xbox and he never received it. But there was confirmation that UPS delivered it. They guessed it was stolen from their porch.

The problems of the OP is not the norm. I know of 4 of DS's friends that had to return the consoles and they had no problems either.

I get very frustrated when they tell me the 3 rings of death are back. How many times can this happen? The boys just want to get their console back. Microsoft tried to brush this off a few years ago. They said they would only warranty the consoles for 3 months. That was prolly when the big class action lawsuit came about. I remember one time we went right back to bestbuy and they just handed us a new one because it was still under warranty. You can't do that now.

One of my dad's favorite sayings

~it is what it is~

 

[Planogirl]

We've never gotten the red rings of death but our video went out after we'd had our XBox for about a year. I had purchased the Best Buy warranty so I was a bit unhappy when I had to mail the broken XBox to another site. It turned out OK because we received a voucher for another XBox in about a week and a half and I just had to go to Best Buy and pick one up. And yes, I did purchase another Best Buy warranty!

We've had the new one for about 10 months now so we'll see. I've noticed that this one never feels particularly hot now while the first one did get hot to the touch. I wondered if Microsoft corrected their problem?