The times they are a-changin’.
This post seems to be older than 17 years—a long time on the internet. It might be outdated.
My Xbox hasn’t been working for about a week now. I’m not exactly sure why it isn’t working, but it’s not. I’ve literally tried ALL my Xbox games (about 10) and ALL of Chris’s Xbox games (easily another 15). No luck. I tried a some audio CD’s thinking the issue may pertain to the DVD part. No joy. I tried playing some DVD movies. Again, no joy. I went out and bought a CD/DVD Lens cleaner and some compressed air, convinced at least ONE of them would work. Nope.
I went to the Xbox web site and tried all everything they said. I even deleted my entire hard disk (after backing up everything I wanted to a memory card). I really hated doing to next part, put I had to. I continued on with Live technical support via their website. The technician said that I would have to call 1-800-4MY-XBOX to get it serviced. Crap. I did some research about users with the same and similar problems before I called in. There is nothing worse then getting your ass kicked by some off-shore worker reading from computer prompt.
As I figured, they wanted to charge me $79.99 to get it repaired. After I sent it to them on my dime. I asked to talked with the supervisor and the service rep placed me on hold and then was able to get me transfered to her supervisor. Now there are two things I would like to note at this time. First, it took some time to get a supervisor (like 3 minutes). During this time, there was this annoying automated voice repeating “Please Hold” every four seconds or so. Definitely enough to drive a man crazy. However, Microsoft did manage to astonish me. When the super have been found, the original service rep came back on with the super to make sure I was transfered properly. Wow. That was awesome. I mean, how many times have you been mis-transfered and had to call back in again? Yea…wAAAAaay too many. I digress.
The supervisor was willing to give me 50% of plus a free game OR 75% off and no free game. I would still have to pay shipping and handling, thus amounting to somewhere in the $35 dollar range. Please keep in mind that I am a college student with loans in excess of what the average American made in 2004 [pdf warning!]…and I’m only in my second year. The point being that while I appreciate the offer, I think the repair should be free (including S&H both ways). Here is my case:
I purchased my XBOX from Costco less than a year ago on December 11th, 2004. Why do I know this? I blogged about it.
During my ownership of said XBOX, I have never dropped it or mishandled it in any way. Granted, this statement not really verifiable, you’ll just have to take my word for it.
This is NOT an isolated incident. Engadget reported that a class action lawsuit was in the works. Note: This post is almost a year old and I know that Microsoft did tweak some things in the XBOX.
Microsoft made over $10 billion in the the 4th Quarter of their 2005 FY (Fiscal Year). This is a 9% (or almost $1 billion) increase from the same quarter last year. Microsoft ended their 2005FY with almost $40 billion in revenue. My point is this: Yes, Microsoft is loosing money on every XBOX they sell. But that is just the barrier to entry in a market they were not previously in. They should know that better than anyone, seeing as they control the x86 OS market with ease. In order to make money on the XBOX gaming division, they are going to need customers. Making devices that are notorious for defects isn’t going to help their case. Rumors tends to spread like wildfires, especially in the gaming industry. Worse yet, many of the rumors, while somewhat true, will be significantly exaggerated.
Long story short is this. I am customer #xxxx. I do have a name (it’s Andrew Ferguson). I do have a brain that works wonderfully (139IQ). And most importantly I have the check book (or debt card in my case). In short, I don’t need to give Microsoft my business, they need to earn it. Whatever my feelings, I will make sure everyone who reads my web site knows it. They can be praises of joy or songs of sorrow, Microsoft can figure out which one they want.
While writting this blog, I took a look at Costco’s website and they should be able to handle my issue for free. I’ll pay about $5 in gas to get to and from Costco, plus another $1.50 for one of those awesome Hot Dogs. Hell, I’ll probably even get some groceries there…maybe even $79.99 worth.
In case someone (perhaps the Scobleizer, famed Microsoft front man) would like to take up my case with Microsoft, my ticket number is: 198426627. Tell them I sent you and that I decided to take my business else where….at least for now.
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