Brent’s friend bought an XBOX in November with a 90-day warranty. It died. When he called the Bangalore based tech support, “Steve” told him:
“I don’t care if you bought your console yesterday, we still show your warranty is expired.”
We’ve received several complaints about XBOX’s customer service recently. Perhaps Microsoft needs to find a new outsourced call center. These guys, seems like someone peed in their curry.
Transcript, inside, with screaming. — BEN POPKEN
Brent writes:
- “I run a tech company and a support organization. I’m overly courteous to tech support people because I know they have a tough job. My friend J bought an XBOX 360 bundle at Costco and it bricked on him in roughly two weeks. I was over there Friday night and decided to call XBOX support for him since he’s kind of a hothead about these things. Here’s how it went:
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On hold for about 20 min, finally reach Steve, India-based tech support:
Steve: How can I help you?
Me: I’ve got a dead console.
Steve: Let me walk you through the troubleshooting steps….
(we go through all the steps, he verifies it’s dead, we go through the serial number, name, address, etc.)
Steve: Sir, when did you purchase your XBOX?
Me: Early November.
Steve: I’m sorry sir, but your console is out of warranty.
Me: Excuse me?
Steve: Your console comes with a 90-day warranty, your warranty is no longer valid.
Me: I don’t understand, I purchased the console one month….
Steve (suddenly angry, agitated): EXCUSE ME SIR, PLEASE LET ME FINISH
Me: What?
Steve: (almost yelling): IF YOU DO NOT STOP THIS I WILL HAVE TO END THIS CALL RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!
Me: I’m sorry, I have no idea what you’re talking about….
Steve: SIR YOU NEED TO STOP TALKING AND LET ME FINISH OR I WILL END THIS CALL!!!!!
Me: (very calm still): OK
Steve: Our system shows your console’s warranty has expired.
Me: Well, that doesn’t seem right since I bought it about a month ago.
Steve: (here’s the kicker) I don’t care if you bought your console yesterday, we still show your warranty is expired.
Me: (stunned, but still courteous, as I’m clearly dealing with a nutjob here) OK, what do I need to do?
Steve: You need to fax your receipt to [he gives me the info]
Me: OK, and then you will process the repair?
Steve: NO
Me: Huh?
Steve: Then we will have your warranty updated in our system. You will need to call in again to tech support to request a repair.
Me: Really?
Steve: Yes
Me: Could I please be routed to a supervisor?
Steve: Yes, and sir, I’m sorry if I was rude to you.
Me: It’s no problem, could I have your last name, Steve?
Steve: NO, you cannot.
Me: Could I have an employee number or something to identify you?
Steve: NO, you cannot. Please hold.
Anyway, I stay on hold for another 45 minutes (really) to reach a supervisor. He STILL does not accept that my console is within warranty, but instead of requiring me to fax the receipt and call them back, he actually allows me to send in the receipt with the console as a means of verification.
I let him know about my experience with Steve and that I work in this business and was pretty shocked that anyone would talk to a customer that way. He doesn’t sound interested, but lets me know someone will talk to Steve’s supervisor.
All in all, a complete nightmare. Microsoft should be ashamed of their XBOX support operation. First of all, to immediately assume a customer is wrong is terrible customer service. Second, to yell at a customer and cut them off as they are calmly asking you to clarify something is completely insane. Last, when you are facing a class-action lawsuit because so damn many of your consoles are exhibiting this exact problem, you should probably consider some kind of proactive moves to avoid infuriating even more customers and exposing yourself to Sony battery-style bad publicity. Terrible stuff.
Spinachdip:
India is the second most populous country in the world, the largest democracy, and the largest English-speaking country.
so your just going to send your xbox360 in with the receipt and hope you see it again some day???
So you either,
Buy a:
360 – it breaks, and your boned.
PS3 – and are too poor to afford either of the 2 games that are worth buying.
Wii – and just break your TV and give your girlfrind a black eye.
Talk about a win-win.
Costco will take back anything. Just return it to the store.
The friend should have just returned the 360 to Costco after getting off the phone with Microsoft. That’s what I did with my (5 month old) failing 360, and the guy who processed my return at Costco was already on his third Xbox. Same problem.
They even let me open up the new Xbox at the Customer Service desk and swap the hard drive with my old one, so I didn’t have to redownload content/lose save games, etc.
And fwiw the person I spoke with at Xbox support was very courteous and nice. There are bad tech support people everywhere. The big problem with Xbox support is that the consoles have a somewhat high failure rate and a very very short warranty.
Peed in their curry… Funny joke hahahaha THOSE INDIANS LOVE THEIR CURRY HAHAHAHHA!!!
Seriously, what the hell.
[Brent here again] To those of you who still think I made this up – please, why on earth would I? I have a 360 with no problems and I’m the one who convinced my friend to buy one instead of waiting for a PS3. I don’t really think Costco qualifies as a “shady seller,” but I am probably going to take the whole bundle back to them and report how it went here. I thought I would play by the rules and give the warranty process a shot, but clearly that was not a good idea in this case.
Ummmm, it was purchased at Costco. Why didn’t you return it at Costco?
I had an XBOX 360 die on me 9 months after I bought it at Costco, I brought it in, and they exchanged it for a new one. They’re widely known for having the best return policies out there.
Brent, as other posters have mentioned, just return that piece of garbage to Costco. They are an awesome retailer, in my experience, and they will graciously accept all returns. Just let them know your experience. While Costco can’t do anything directly about MS hiring incompetents to man their call centers, if Costco receives enough complaints/comments, it will take action because accepting that many Xbox returns affects its bottom line. Due to the amazing quantity of items Costco sells, it holds way more clout with large companies than we do.
hoss/Brent, it’s pretty clear from all these stories that your friend’s experience wasn’t unique. Don’t bother worrying about the couple of people who doubt it.
Was I the only one who read Steves’ part of the narrative to the sound of Apu’s voice from The Simpsons??
Take it back to Costco, that’s what I did, and I had no problem. I received a full credit to my card, and purchased a GameBoyDS for my lil bro instead!
What a douche…………
“My friend J bought an XBOX 360 bundle at Costco and it bricked on him in roughly two weeks.”
Just return it to Costco. No wonder he got yelled at, mustved detected the stupid.
Care to provide a case number? No one can verify your story unless you give that. I’m a writer for Destructoid, and I’m trying to verify what happened, but I can’t go anywhere without it.
And the award for Best Username goes to:
Dick McVengeance!
The guy that answered the phone should be fired. There is no excuse for abusing a customer like that regardless of how bad a day you have had.
He apologized for how mean he was?…Hell the only suitable apology would be for him to lose his damn job and pay the guy for a new Xbox.
Would it not be an awful lot simpler to just bring the console and receipt back to the shop where you bought it? Ringing customer service within your warranty period is just plain nuts.
I might as well post my experiences…I’ve called MS several times since my first Xbox, but three calls regarding my 360 stand out in my mind.
My 360 got the 3 red lights just beyond my 90 day warranty. I called up, got someone who spoke very clearly, loud, well spoken English. They gave me free shipping, free repairs, and the whole process took about 1 week. I was pleased.
Then, recently, I picked up the wireless headset right when it was released. I didn’t get much chance to use it until the following weekend. I kept having the sync problems. I called up MS, and got India. My biggest problem with these call centers is that they speak SOOO SOFTLY! I can barely hear them! When I ask if they can speak louder, they don’t. I don’t know if this is an attempt to cover an accent, or not to disturb others in the call center, but it drives me crazy. Anyway…she tried very hard to help me, giving me suggestions like shutting my cell phone when gaming, or moving my whole setup to another room. I told her that these solutions would not be acceptable (or helpful, seeing how it is now an acknowledged issue with the older wireless controllers). She offered a replacment, but said it was such a new product that they had no procedure to fix this problem. Luckly, I was within the Gamestop return peroid, brought it right back. She was very polite, tried very hard to help…but was just not given the info needed to help me.
My third call was in regards to downloading an HD movie. It stated complete, but wasn’t, and wouldn’t play. I asked for my points back, but was instead told to start to re-download it, and wait on the phone with the rep till it finished. I started the download, but informed the rep it could take a few hours. She didn’t realize this. I stayed on hold while she refunded the points for one movie, while I was downloading it a second time. Then she stated that if the second download didn’t work, call back, and they would do the same process, but a different movie. I told her there wasn’t any other movie I wanted, and she said if that was the case, then they would refund my points if the 2nd download didnt work. Well, it worked, but the movie (Posidon) was lame.
My point here is that, yes, it can be frustrating dealing with someone who has an accent, who speaks to softly, and sometimes may not understand what you are saying…but the issue is they are not given the info by MS to properly help customers. The last two times I called, I was told that it was new issues that they have yet to be instructed on how to solve.
If you get an Indian rep with an attitude, because they don’t understand your problem, or are offering unacceptable resolutions, it is because Microsoft isn’t giving them the proper info to do their job.
no excuse for the verbal abuse the rep gave you, if he was at my call centre he would be fired promptly if caught. My call centre is in Canada by the way, I do tech support for comcast and generally my customers are really pleased by my service and knowledge, Ive been there for a couple of years and Im awesome at my job, I know all the tricks of the trade and will go out of my way to credit people and fix their problems. Often times in this industry its hard to really help customers though, its almost like the company your working for doesnt want your to do a good job, they want you to have quick calls that dont escalate to supervisors. That being said, I work with like 500 people in my centre and Id have to say that at least half of those people are lazy and stupid, its sad but true, I look at them and they hate their lives so much cause they didnt follow their dreams and are now stuck at go- nowhere jobs (im in university by the way) thats the nature of the beast I guess though.
Ironically, I remember Bill Gates saying that he thinks we should be allowed to outsource more employment. He feels it would provide better results.
You know, the response of “just return it to Costco” is getting old. Just suppose for a moment that he had not bought it at Costco? Is your response going to be that he is SOL and should have bought it at Costco? That is stupid. The CSRs should be better. This is their product. It should not be dependent on where he bought it whether or not a problem will get fixed.
Glad I bought a Wii!
@placebofx:
I know walmart’s evil and all. But seriously, you’re idea ain’t cool. F*CK you.