January 1, 2008

Another Xbox 360 bites the dust tonight, 5 bad systems in less than 2 years and counting Xbox 360, customer adventures, gaming — by TDavid @ 9:21 pm PST (2 votes, average: 3 out of 5)  Loading ...

Dear Microsoft,

Our family of five loves the Xbox 360, but we’re starting to think it, and you, don’t even like us in return.

Sure, you like the fact that we keep reaching into our wallets to buy new systems and pay for the hottest, newest games like Bioshock, Assassin’s Creed and Mass Effect. Halo? We’ve bought at least two copies of each: Halo (2) for the Xbox, Halo 2 (3 copies, one was played out) and Halo 3 (2 copies, one the collector’s edition). My current favorite game of 2007 is Rock Band. Many Xbox 360 games we buy on launch day like Madden 2008.

And let’s not forget Xbox Live where we have four active ($49.95 x 4) one year live accounts and one Creators Club ($99) account, not to mention purchasing almost 100 arcade titles to date across the four accounts.

We rent movies from Xbox Live too. Haven’t kept track of the numbers there, but it’s probably over a dozen movies and TV shows rented. And yes, we bought the HD DVD player too (haven’t received the promised 6 ‘free’ HD DVD movies either).

Does this qualify our household as a good customer? In our possession right now, we own five Xbox 360s. The last one broke (#4) less than 60 days ago and you won’t fix because it’s a few months past the one year warranty and not the red rings of death; we don’t have an extended warranty on that one either. The disc tray won’t load any games or DVDs. Xbox Live still works though. If we want that fixed you’re going to charge us $140. We decided in light of the hardware reliability history we would buy the Xbox 360 arcade edition with extended warranty instead for Christmas. You can see it along the right.

Tonight my son was playing Halo 3 and #6 Xbox 360 console went into red rings of death mode (picture top of post). Amazing. This is the fifth Xbox 360 we’ve had go bad since April 15, 2006. Let me list the complete dates and history of Xbox 360 consoles in our household because it’s starting to be unbelievable.

Xbox 360 systems that have died since April 15, 2006
#5: today, January 1, 2008 (Happy New Year, Microsoft!). Status: three red rings of death, unrepaired. Under warranty, we’ll call for replacement tomorrow.
#4: Xbox 360 broken November 3, 2007. Status: broken disc tray, unrepaired. We replaced system with Xbox 360 Arcade System.
#3: April 2007. Status: red rings of death, replaced three weeks later on April 23, 2007
#2: September 22, 2006. Status: red rings of death, replaced on October 20, 2006
#1: June 14, 2006.

Status: red rings of death. Replaced July 1, 2006.

We try to place the Xbox 360 so they won’t overheat, see the current placement of the most recent system to die:

We can place the Xbox 360 horizontal or vertical, but death is inevitable. I pity other customers who buy an Xbox 360 and do not buy an extended warranty. These systems are the lousiest design of any home videogame system ever.

Should customers have to face these kind of issues? Just how bad is it? Susan Getgood contacted me after the last Xbox 360 breakdown to get my feelings on this negative customer experience. When writing about how many have gone bad the last time, I wrongly thought that was our fifth Xbox 360 to go bad. Actually, nope, this one is our fifth to go bad. How crazy is that when your own customer can’t even recall how many of the systems have gone bad? At least now I can point to this post. I’m thinking about adding a broken Xbox 360 counter to the homepage, as well.

Our next one to go bad, probably within the next 90-180 days based on history will be #6. The most durable Xbox 360 we’ve bought so far is the Xbox 360 Elite which is on life support at 8+ months. We’ve been having random audio out problems and screen blackouts at inopportune times. I would classify the Elite’s condition as “hopelessly diseased.” Odds are that one goes next. We have the Best Buy warranty there and will just return to them for exchange instead of messing around with Texas.

Microsoft, I know you’ve promised customers that you’ll fix these broken systems for three years and that came at great expense to your company. I implore you to extend the scope of that three year warranty to cover any non customer abuse situation. We didn’t do anything to have the disc tray not load any games and yet we have one that’s no good. The other four systems all died from red rings of death in less than two years including today’s.

Shameful.

If this were likely any other niche than videogames, I would never do business with your company again. I wonder how many customers you’ve already lost because of these problems. With each Xbox 360 that dies, my loyalty in your platform wanes and any fun from when it does work is reduced immeasurably. It’s like walking into the greatest arcade in the world and getting punched in the face at the door.

At some point, and I’m not sure when, I’m not going to enter any more.

Sincerely,

A little less loyal Xbox 360 customer

P.S. Dear readers, feel free to forward this to somebody, anybody at Microsoft that actually might give a damn.

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15 Comments »

1. Xbox 360 was my serious console purchase and it cost me a fair chunk of change considering our 1:10 exchange rate to the USD.

   Unit #1 died 2 weeks after purchase while playing Gears of War
   Unit #2 lasted a further 8 months just in time for me to finish Halo 3
   Unit #3 survived Mass Effect and Bioshock … perhaps one more game :).

   Fortunately since Microsoft does not have a local office we just take it to the dealer and do a straight swap out.

   Comment by Garth — January 2, 2008 @ 1:00 am PST

2. My son’s Elite died on Christmas day. It was a replacement to one that was out of warranty that died. He did call MS and they are fixing both for free. We’re still waiting on the shipping box.

   Comment by Fred Beiderbecke — January 2, 2008 @ 4:39 am PST

3. Ouch Garth and Fred. There are way too many tales like these from Xbox 360 customers

   Comment by TDavid — January 2, 2008 @ 5:36 am PST

4. I was waiting to hear some follow-up to your Elite experience.
   I had hoped that version might be the ticket when I decided to purchase, but it seems like a dead-end also.
   I’ve said it before…I will not buy something if I know that it has a HIGH chance of not working properly.
   I LOVE gaming and usually buy systems after they’ve been out for a little while. I figure that any kinks that need to get worked out will be corrected within a year and I’ll feel secure in dropping hundreds of dollars.
   Over two years later and still issues…they’ve lost a customer in me.

   Comment by Wayne — January 2, 2008 @ 11:33 am PST

5. I’d love to be able to tell people to ignore the hardware problems, Wayne, but can’t do so in good conscience. People need to go in buying an Xbox 360 expecting it will break and buy a warranty package around that. I can’t think of any other purchase I’ve made with that kind of mindset. I’d just walk away … but videogaming is a passion and the games are too much fun for me to walk away from the Xbox 360.

   But I’m definitely getting weary with the experience. There is a number of breakdowns where I’ll say no more. Not sure exactly what that number is, but there is a number.

   Comment by TDavid — January 2, 2008 @ 11:41 am PST

6. Why in the hell would you keep buying the xbox360 over and over and over and over and over again if you’ve had so many problems and they keep breaking?
   Sell your games on ebay and go with a different console…or better yet, put it in a savings account.

   Yes, Microsoft should be addressing these issues…but you are playing the fool here and the only thing you are doing is giving MS more money. I’m sure they love people like you.

   Be a man…cut the cord dude. I love video games as much as the next adult who acts like a kid…but come on. Go outside and play. It’s free.

   Comment by Curt — January 2, 2008 @ 2:02 pm PST

7. Curt - this has nothing to do with “being a man” it’s called entertainment which in this particular case has a negative side financially on the hardware. Many others spend more than thousands of dollars on other hobbies. To date we’ve only had to PAY for one replacement console, the other consoles have been replaced by warranty, so what are we out? $140. Come on, that’s not a big deal (financially).

   As for saving? We do plenty of that, these systems were purchased with discretionary income. Take a look at the left side of the homepage. We don’t have TV and don’t have any credit cards. How much do you have of that kind of monthly debt that we don’t have? I’d say the Xbox 360 is one very rare case of excess discretionary spending and as I alluded to above: if the hardware failures continue, I will be jumping off at some point in the future.

   Comment by TDavid — January 2, 2008 @ 2:36 pm PST

8. Wow… I would be really pissed if that happened to me so many times! And to what curt said: He keeps buying them because it is what he enjoys doing…

   Comment by Gil — January 5, 2008 @ 9:19 pm PST

9. Well Im on the phone right now waiting on hold for close to 45 mins, I am now on my 5th xbox 360 Red lights, every one of them had the red lights issue,,, 5 in the last 1.5 years, 3 in 4 months two within the last 2 months,, Im loyal but this is getting out of hand and Im really starting to get $#@%$#$%#%^ of with the whole issue. 50 mins on hold now

   Comment by Mick — January 11, 2008 @ 4:12 pm PST

10. I just got off the phone with an English speaking rep (surprise) and after hearing that my unit was going in for a third time I was told typically it’s an exchange and not a refurbed, but that remains to be seen. I wait until I receive a new on to check that out. In regards to some of the previous posts on here that say it’s not bad, it’s OK, man you people must either work for MS or be card holding lemmings since this type of issue is completely unacceptable in the market place. I don’t give a s— if it’s a video game console and I have disposable income.

    If I want to throw my money away I’ll give to a homeless person. I at least was fairly smart and did not buy too many games as I use Game Fly. I am currently considering dumping this p.o.s. and going with a PS3.

    Comment by Dan — January 20, 2008 @ 11:09 am PST

11. I just experienced the RROD, and I am awaiting my box to turn in. I wanted to know, if anyone has experienced a run around from MS and not want to fix the system ie…. saying that yes, your system is fried, but it looks like your tray is going to fail, so we’re not going to fix it unless you pay 140.

    Comment by Rebecca — January 31, 2008 @ 7:35 pm PST

12. I have had mine for 2 years and no problem so guess im lucky plus all the bad things happining to microsoft even wrost things go wrong on the ps3

    Comment by Trevor — March 5, 2008 @ 11:31 am PST

13. ive had mine since the day it came out and i have had NO trouble with it…im really lucky arent i?

    Comment by Kayza — May 12, 2008 @ 5:46 am PST

14. Why does the Xbox 360 keep dieing? 5 Console that bad!

    Comment by nickyj83 — August 11, 2008 @ 3:11 pm PST

15. so was it the xbox 360 arcade that broke as well

    Comment by james cleworth — August 27, 2008 @ 3:44 am PST

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