Reid, the guy with the Playstation that Sony said was too dusty to repair, is getting his system replaced through his Visa card’s extended warranty protection.
UPDATE: VISA Won’t Replace Dusty PS3 After All
For those of you who are not familiar, many credit cards carry a benefit that doubles your manufacturer’s warranty and helps you out of these sorts of sticky situations. When last we saw Reid, he was battling Sony Computer Entertainment for warranty repair because his system was having trouble reading discs. He lost, and Sony shipped the unit back to him. For the record, Reid says that the PS3 arrived much dustier than when he originally sent it. Not knowing what else to do, he bought a dust buster and cleaned the unit up, determined to fix it himself. Then he tried upgrading the PS3′s firmware and the system completely bricked.
Thankfully, his Visa has extended warranty coverage and he’ll be getting a new PS3.
Reid writes:
I just got off the phone with Visa for the third time and they are sending me a claim form to start the repair/replacement process of my system.
They at first said that they would need to attempt to have it repaired in my local video game repair shop, but I let them know that i had already contacted them and the firmware in combination with the blu-ray lens made it impossible to repair economically and it would have to be replaced. They said as long as I had a repair receipt stating that it wasn’t economical to repair, I could walk into a Best Buy, charge a new PS3 to my credit card and they would credit that charge.
Thanks A LOT, for all your help, you guys have more helpful than i would ever imagine. Lets just hope I never need to email you guys again shall we?
Thanks again,
Reid
PS, This was possible because (some?) Visa Signature cards carry a “warranty manager” feature that effectively doubles the warranty on any product purchased on the card up to one year. Because the problem that bricked the system occurred after I was legally out of warranty, Visa is taking care of it. Again, I can’t thank you guys enough, you really put the power in the customers hands in an industry where its customers are generally ignored due to their demographic. I owe you guys.
If you buy a lot of expensive electronics, make sure your card has extended warranty protection. In fact, we reminded a reader yesterday that his broken out-of-warranty TV was probably covered by his MasterCard. It was!
We love happy endings.
PREVIOUSLY: Dust Voids PS3 Warranty
Sony CSR: What? No! Dust Doesn’t Void Your PS3 Warranty!
Is This Playstation 3 Too Dusty To Be Repaired Under Warranty?
TV Breaks Right After The Warranty Expired? Call Your Credit Card Company
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@kingpsyz: Yeah, I dont think Nintendo needed to pay him, as you hint at, considering how well the Wii is already doing.
@shades_of_blue: I don’t see where fraud comes into this.
So will he have to send the broken PS3 in after this?
I have always been curious about how the credit card extended warranties worked but of course I was thinking in terms of my laptop which the regular warranty service was giving me hell.
So it seems like it could be actually worth it to buy things with a credit card. I suppose its no substitute for the accidental care warranties correct?
You know what’s funny Reid, your revisionist history of the events have transcribed to what you think I have said about you.
In fact at first, I had your back. I suggested moving over the CSRs heads and go right to an executive service line if the consumerist could find one and hoped you would get it resolved.
But as the story progressed more and more came to light about the possibly, and increasingly likely neglect that led to your system failure.
Personally, I would never place a gaming system in an enclosed entertainment center as you’re cutting off airflow and turning it into a dust trap. Unless you have an airtight sealed cabinet it’s bad news. More so when you volunteered your system for folding@home running non-stop. Yes sony included the program and encourages those able to to donate their internet access and engery costs, but they also would expect people use common sense and not keep a running computer enclosed and not properly dusted.
Dusting a system before shipping /= cleaning it on a regular basis. Even if you had neglected to blow some compressed air through the ports during the 8 months you played your PS3, spending $3 at Wal*Mart to do so before shipping might have averted this whole mess, but the fact would remain that the lack of circulation and the extreme buildup of dust inside the system led to the system failure.
Sorry you don’t like being called out, but everything you have presented so far tells a very uneven story. I still find it hard to belive that Visa would just say go to a specific retailer and we’ll credit the account. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe you are not understanding that they mean you can submit the reciept for the replacement and they’ll eventually refund your father’s account. I highly doubt they would just credit your next $500 purchase from an electronics retailer.
Here’s the thing this all boils down to though, warranties should not be ued to replace a product because we fail to properly care for it. It’s there to protect us from manufacturing defects. But everytime something like this goes through it makes real warranty repairs all the harder for the rest of us.
As someone who worked in CE for a while and now work in the auto buisness, I deal with warranties on a fairly regular basis. While most people are honest, others think personal responsibility has gone out the window and we should cover every flat tire, old battery, door ding, and more. We had one customer buy a brand new Scion tC, they drove the car hard and fast for a year WITHOUT ONE SINGLE OIL CHANGE OR FLUID CHECK. When their engine ate itself one day they honestly thought the warranty should cover the replacement of their car. It’s basically what you’re asking for here. While there’s no giant sticker in 80pt typeface telling her she should change her oil, common sense and the cars manual says she should. Just like if you run a fairly hot running media center in your home to not enclose it, and to dust it regularly.
If I AM WRONG ABOUT YOU AND YOU MADE AN HONEST MISTAKE and it caused your PS3 to crash I’m sorry. Now you know better and hopefully it doesn’t happen again to you after visa replaces your PS3.
@KingPsyz: Whoa, excuse me pal, I’m not taking sides in this, and I’m certainly not “being misleading”. If I had to be misleading to make a point, then it’s a point I would have no desire to make.
And my PS3 looks nowhere near as dusty as Ashcraft’s or Reid’s, especially after three weeks.
I was replying to the original poster, not you.
And I said misREADING not misLEADING… Both the Kotaku and Gizmodo articles mentioning dust magnet also state that they don’t think the unit attracts more dust that it just shows it better than most CE devices because of the finish.
@girly:
The Fraud comes from the Warranty holder denying the claim because they showed he voided the warranty.
So waiting a few months til that warranty “died” and then making a new claim with Visa could be considered fraud.
Otherwise why not just go to Visa right away when they denied the claim?
@KingPsyz: Whoops, I apologize for my misunderstanding.
However, I don’t think it’s relevant that Kotaku and Gizmodo stated that they think the unit just shows dust better, but doesn’t necessarily accumulate more. I can look at the PS3 in my living room and compare it to those pictures and easily refute that. I see no dust on my PS3, and have never seen dust on it anywhere near the magnitude of Ashcraft’s pictures. Upon close inspection of my PS3… there’s a small amount of dust on there. Obviously Ashcraft’s PS3 actually attracted more dust. Ashcraft and Reid must live in ridiculously dusty environments.
@PSN: kingpsyz: If that was a factor I assume they would have asked if the warranty was voided or not. And if he lied about it, then I would say that was fraud, but otherwise it does not seem to be a factor.
@Tzepish:
Right, I live in conditions that are ripe for dust. Near a window, three dogs, kids running around, smokers in the house, next to a computer and a HDTV on top of a dresser…
And still nothing more than a light dusting which takes little to no effort to eliminate.
@ivealwaysgotmail10: You shouldn’t have gotten away with a new PS3… You scammed your credit card into getting you a new ps3.
Shame on you.
@PSN: kingpsyz: I completely agree with you, my PS3 is also dustless. So it’s a mystery why Ashcraft’s PS3 accumulated so much dust in such a small amount of time. But I’m not about to suspect Ashcraft was lying about it, I can’t see a motive there. There definitely IS a motive for Reid to lie about it, but it’s also possible that he isn’t lying, since we have Ashcraft vouching for the potential dustiness of PS3s. Where the dust came from, though, in either case, it a complete mystery to me, and if it weren’t for Ashcraft, I’d probably think Reid was lying as well.
Well considering the ammount of advertising on a gaming blog… I would hope Ashcraft holds up some kind of journalistic fortitude, but as anyone who say the CES prank from the giz knows, Gawker media isn’t known for high journalistic standards.
Regardless, I’d say this is a very isolated incident as there’s not daily reports of warranties being denied for dust.
So maybe we’re only hearing half the story. Maybe they found something else that threw out the claim. Moisture, tabacco or other smoke resin, power suply failure, homebrew software, who knows.
@PSN: kingpsyz: “If I AM WRONG ABOUT YOU AND YOU MADE AN HONEST MISTAKE and it caused your PS3 to crash I’m sorry. Now you know better and hopefully it doesn’t happen again to you after visa replaces your PS3.”
Thank you, thats all i was looking for.
Dont you think if Sony found something else like water or tobacco etc, that they would have mentioned this when emailing the pictures (that i myself also received and forwarded to consumerist) of my system to web blogs?
I did not scam anyone, Are you serious? Visa doubles the warranty terms of the original manufacturers warranty, they discern the terms for themselves, And I’M quite sure, that any technician i bring the system into will 100% agree that the system is pristine on its outside and the inside is not accessible by the consumer without voiding the warranty, so my warranty is 100% in-tact. Just because sony has asthmatic technicians who dont really enjoy what they do for a living and void peoples Sony warranty for a unit being things like “too dusty” etc becuase they dont want to have to do their jobs, does no mean that Visa’s interpretation of that same warranty will include such RIDICULOUS claims.
I dont agree with your comparison to a car, something that is obviously constantly brought in for maintenance and cleaned etc and has its oil changed etc is a far reach from a play station.
The situation has been resolved, And im still being flamed by people who refuse to beleive that i did nothing short of drop my system into a vat of dust-bunnies before sending it off. If any of you were in my position you would be doing exactly what i did. And i really hope that when/if it does happen to you, that you get flamed as much as i did.
I have heard that recently the amount of systems being denied for warranty has increased substantially, from the mouth of a ps3 repair center, “in the past 2-3 months, alot of systems have been denied” he was speaking to one on the phone explaining the problem with the system and listening to someone tell him it was out of warranty for some crazy reason and he said “you guys are digging yourself into a ditch here, this is your fault, you need to honor your warranty, this is not the customers fault”
maybe this incident isn’t so “isolated” after all.
As for what happens to the old system, i do not know, i may have to send it somewhere, but if not, i may just destroy it into tiny pieces, put it back in Sony’s box, and send it to them on my UPS tab, with a big note saying “For future reference, THIS is what ABUSE looks like.”
@Kingphys, But again, The system bricked itself, with sony’s OFFICIAL update (whoever says i used botched firmware is out of their mind, i clicked system update, is system update botched?) That problem cannot be attributed to dust, period, The warranty says to wipe off the vents to keep them from clogging, i did so, they were never clogged at any point, i did not wipe off the memory card readers or inside the usb ports because i didnt think it was necessary, I would think it would be more likely to void my warranty Q-tipping around in the MMC reader then leaving some dust inside of them.
I have never needed to take a qtip to my PS3, I use some compressed air and that’s it.
For future ref., when you get your new one blow it out at least once a week.
And the car analogy isn’t far off, yes you take it in for service, but most people could also change their own oil if they so desired. Just as when you have a fairly high end piece of tech you maintain it. As someone with a self professed ton of CE stuff, you know to blow them out with compressed air to clear the intakes of dust. If you didn’t you do now.
@ancientsociety:
I’ve never dusted any game console I’ve ever had, and I’m not very big on keeping a spotless house. I smoke inside, too.
Funny how my PS2s have always died internally, and never looked like that. One died after a power failure [Well, OK, this wasn't an internal failure], one stopped reading DVDs [CDs were fine, though], and one stopped seeing the HDD.
@ivealwaysgotmail10:
What we really want to know is WHY DOES IT LOOK SO GODAWAFUL? No one of any substance cares about the firmware update (sony’s fault, obviously).
You haven’t (as far as I’ve seen) disputed the images, so what are you doing? Are you farming dust in your house? Did you house the PS3 in lint?
@RvLeshrac: Im telling you, It didnt look like that when i sent it in, I wiped off the top and sides of the console, The only way the console could have become this dusty is if dust came out of the system when it was being shipped (ups). BUT i still beleive that even in the pictured condition dust should not be considered a warranty voiding element. And if it should the condition of the console should be obvious and indisputable, My console is dusty yes, But you cannot tell me that every single tech there would void my warranty, and that their opinions would not differ dramatically on the subject.
You’re missing the point methinks…
Nobody is taking issue with the exterior, they’re taking issue with the fact you say it came out of the inside of the box during shipping and handling.
If that’s how much shook out in shipping how much more is left inside?
It would be nearly caked inside and why it had a massive failure. It was choking on dust which no doubt mucked up moving parts, overheated components, and possibly scratched the optics.
If that much could shake out during shipping I wonder how much fell out when you picked it up and placed it in the box. Did it ever smell like something was burning or getting really hot? It was probablly the hot dust inside your PS3.
No i think You’re missing the point, It never got that hot, never “smelled funny” it worked perfectly, without flaw until the day it stopped reading discs, i may get some pictures of the inside of the system soon, Im telling you my room is no dustier than anyone else’s there is no reason for the inside of the system to be anymore caked with dust than anyone elses innards, None at all. The fans are still very much alive and kicking, (as you can definitely hear them). The system bricked itself during Sony’s Update, There is no chalking that up to dust. Period… it worked PERFECTLY except for the optical drive until i attempted to do a system update, This bricked my system into an infinite loop of attempting to re-install new firmware. The system was in an air-conditioned room inside of an entertainment center.
Wow, that’s funny. I just watched your fucking Fox News video again and you never said anything about a botched firmware upgrade. Die, Asshole.
KNOW WHY I DIDNT SAY ANYTHING ABOUT IT? BECAUSE IT HADN’T HAPPENED YET, It happened after i received the console back, the console was 100% functional except for not reading discs, i hit system update and it froze at 45% and re-attempted 3 times before telling me to contact technicalsupport. Are you serious? “die, asshole.” wow man, You have some serious issues.
have you gotten your replacement yet?