Microsoft Can't Send You A Shipping Label Because They Already Have Your XBOX?
Ryan is probably looking at his XBOX 360 right now, wishing he could play it, but he can't. Why not? Red Ring. And Microsoft can't fix it because they say they already have it.
But they don't. Ryan has it. They sent it back to him, unrepaired. He's tried to explain this concept to Microsoft, but all they do is tell him to call back later when their computers are fixed. Ryan is tired of calling back.
Do you guys know any way of me to force someone to fix my XBOX 360? It red ringed a month ago and I called in to get it repaired. I talked to Microsoft and they told me I would receive my shipping label within 24 hours. 2 days later on Monday I call them since I had not received a shipping label... and they claim the past phone call never happened or that their server is updating. I finally get a shipping label.
I ship it back to them and about 2 weeks later I get my XBOX back. I plug it in and start it up, and it immediately wants to do an update, which I let it do. It is taking a while to download so I leave it for a bit. I come back,' install the update and than turn it off as it took a while.
About a week later I get a chance to play and go down and turn it on and it has Red Ringed again. This is last Thursday. I call Microsoft again. They say they are sorry and are issuing a repair order. The next day I have not received it, so I call again and they say their server is updating so it never went through. So I ask again to get my shipping label, and they say their server will not let them issue a repair order for my XBOX since their service department claims they have my XBOX.
They tell me call back in 24 hours it should be clear.
So it is now last Saturday (12/6/08) and I call again, and they say that now they are going to contact the service dept and it will be 24-48 hrs. So I call Monday and they say they can't issue it call back in 24 - 48 hr and the supervisor promised it would be different this time.
By now it is Wednesday. I call back and they say they will contact the service dept and they promise it will be fixed in 24 hrs but there is nothing else to be done.
So now it is Friday I have relayed all of this to another csr and got hung up on when he finally got me to the Supervisor. I called back to be told by another Supervisor after an hour of calls that maybe Monday they could issue a repair order.
Is there anything I can do besides just wasting their money tying up lines calling everyday? I also find it funny that Microsoft is claiming they can't give me a shipping order because of computer problems!
Sure, Ryan. We have some posts about escalating your complaint with Microsoft — and some specifically about the XBOX.
Here are some links:
Reach Tier 3 XBOX escalations
Executive Email Addresses For XBOX Complaints
Secret Phone Numbers And Email Addresses To Reach Executives At 101 Companies
When you reach someone, slowly explain that they can't have your XBOX if it is currently at your house. If you're lucky, you'll have contacted intelligent life.
(Photo: Milkham )
This is a test using rich text formatting and html links. It's the generic "company" ad that should appear on all posts with the Company category if they don't have an ad attached to a specific company.
Post a comment
Comments:
Cool! Keep calling them.
Tell them to fix it and ship it back. When they can't find it, they'll have to send you a new one.
They once sent me an e-mail telling me they were shipping back my Xbox and that all repairs had been completed. Of course this e-mail was sent 4 months after I had already received my repaired Xbox back.
Baffling stuff, but I am grateful they got the thing to work.
Meanwhile, somewhere in Asia a Nintendo marketing exec cackles while wringing his hands.
@Murph1908: That's what I'm thinking. Play it their way. The next call should be "I'm calling to check on the status of my XBOX."
Let them decide where it is and what they should do about it. If they think he's demanding one they'll probably figure out they sent it back, and then he can start talking about getting it fixed again.
I don't know what's wrong with that department. I figured most of the red-ringed XBOX's had already gone through the system.
My brother's XBOX red-ringed just about 2 months ago, and although it took my brother a month to finally call tech support, it took 2 calls trying to get a shipping label emailed to him, and then another phone call assuring that he'd get a box with a label because the initial order (for the labels) was DELETED for some reason! Anyway, they eventually sent the box + shipping label, but they still have the XBOX...and it's been about 3-4 weeks now. :(
My friend had tons of trouble trying to get his fixed. He said he was frustrated at the whole process and the csr ended up offering him some free stuff. Ended up getting a wireless controler out of it.
When a beastly, cobbled-together system like Xbox's repair division gets outsourced, you're only asking for trouble. Don't bother "escalating" your concerns through their robotic call centers; 9/10 times their resources are limited, and access to higher levels of the support food chain is restricted. If you can't beat the lvl 1 drones, you're unlikely to get anywhere. Go around the problem, write in, call executive support, or in the rare instance it works, file a BBB complaint.
You think that's bad? I've been trying for nine months to get them to remove my credit card details from my Live account. I posted the details here - [slashdot.org] - and since I posted that, it still hasn't been done. What has happened more recently is that I've emailed asking for an update. To which they reply - sorry, you have to call us, we can't discuss this over email.
I can honestly say that Microsoft's customer service is the worst I've ever encountered. All you get is empty promises from the supervisors.
I'm going along with Murph1908. If they have it, have them fix it and ship it back.
"Uh, yeah, so when do you think it'll be fixed and returned to me?" is a good place to start.
have you checked the serial numbers? maybe they really do have yours. i wouldn't put it past them sending back the wrong one.
Ahhh...Xbox 360 problems. My husband got his hard drive back after 9 months of calls and promises. They sent him back a fixed one but the wrong one. How does he know? It had someone else's saved games. He said, "I am taking this hard drive and running."
What is everyone complaining about? This outsourcing to India is to provide you "better" customer service. Microsoft doesn't have time to deal with their customers and their trite complaints. They have Vista to sell!
Blue screen. Red ring. What's next, Microsoft? Yellow 'splodey?
since you got it back rather quickly, ms usually issues refurbished xboxes. they probably have your old serial number on file somehow and they claim they have your xbox. make sure you're specifying to them your new serial number on the xbox and that it is the one that ms sent you earlier. tell them it red ringed again, send a label to get it serviced. if they help you or don't help you say "please let me talk to you supervisor / let me talk to someone that can help me." keep taking notes of names, locations, badge numbers one by one and continue pressing that "someone getting back to me in 24 to 48 hours is not an answer i want to hear." once you have that growing list of names, they'll move mountains for you. no one wants their name mentioned to a manager that they're not doing their job for you.
I have a friend who lives overseas who had his system RROD on him. Rather than send it back to me for repairs with MS, he opted to save the $100 each way (here and back to Japan) shipping charge and just repair it himself. Needless to say, it's a little bit time consuming and you'll definitely sweat it out while voiding your warranty, but it was easy enough to do after watching him do it via webcam that I'd feel competent enough to try it on my own should my own 360 decide to RROD again (3 so far for me...)
I think that everyone needs a little light shed on what exactly happens for a RROD. The most common problem is that the clamp holding everything on the GPU gets bent out of shape and when the heatsink stops distributing all that heat out, it makes part of the GPU separate from the motherboard. All very technical, yes, but it's thankfully very serviceable on your part.
The servers weren't down. They were just too embarrassed to tell him that they are too busy reinstalling their OS due to constant BSOD.
Is it so wrong that all I can think of after reading this is, "SWEET - Free Xbox hard drive!"
I mean, the Xbox you have doesn't work. But the one that Microsoft has will once they send it back to you!
It baffles me why people continue(d) to support Microsoft after using/dealing with Windows by buying an Xbox 360, especially after the first one was so terrible, and ESPECIALLY after like 33% of all 360s end up with RROD. It's like half of the computer/video gaming population are masochists.
That being said, I'm waiting for another slickdeal to come up like that one Dell had a while ago so I can get me one.
i'm currently on my 5th 360, the last time it broke i emailed Steve Ballmer directly and was put into contact with the "executive response unit" and was able to get another refurb unit in about 2 weeks rather than waiting the normal 4 weeks or whatever, but the guy that was "helping" me was a condescending asshole who told me, and I quote here, "Stop barking up the wrong tree..." when i pressed for a new system rather than for yet another refurb. i emailed all of this correspondance to Consumerist when it happened but they didnt take any interest i guess. :(
@trujunglist: It's because they go into withdrawls if they can't run around calling one another fags on XBox Live while playing Halo.
I hope someone from Microsoft reads this cause it needs to be said...
"Your gaming console is one of the best developer platforms ever created, and Your console is one of the worst pieces of gaming hardware ever created. I'm never buying one."
The "system is updating" is the same bull they gave me when i called in about mine. I do technical support for a living. What company would be doing a system update that shuts down a key piece of software required for providing service during business hours? I got that excuse twice, 6 days apart. It has to be a lie and a stalling tactic. I find it hard to believe even Microsoft is that inept. You would think they would be getting service done well on accident by now.
I did what undeadsac did. I was on my 3rd xbox which died after 3 hrs of use. After arguing with the supervisor they would not budge so I email donm@microsoft.com - Don Mattrick- SVP, INTERACTIVE ENT. BUSINESS and got a rep in 2 day who called me back. Again you have to be careful you cant ask for everything and you cant get a new xbox either at least not right away, explain you situation and give them what you exactly want, a shipping label, a new repair order open and that just want your xbox repair. Its up to you to ask for free stuff, I got 2 wireless controllers and a HD for my troubles but I had a long history. If your lucky and you get a supervisor who may know 3rd level support, if he wont contact them, you could try to call back and hope you get a better supervisor or call try the exec email or try calling 3rd level support right away but you need a ticket numb er. Good luck.
@DarianNimrah: No no, they have vista to advertise and promote. They can't worry about fixing things when they can be signing actors to sell their software!
maybe if they had unix / bsd servers they wouldnt be down.
Though the price of the Xbox 360 is tempting -- Sony has mismarketed PS3 since day 1 -- these horror stories keep me from getting one.
What a piece of junk!
Who ever heard of an electronic product in this day and age having a failure rate approaching 50% or whatever it is currently?
It's really pathetic, and the fact that their customer support is so lousy on top of it all -- yikes.
I am just going to hunker down with my first-gen PSP and wait out this round of the console war. With any luck, Nintendo will come up with a console featuring next-gen graphics and a DVD player, or Sony will sell a console designed to play games, not serve as a Trojan horse getting people to buy more overpriced "content".
Phooey...
@blackmage439: Or fill your Xbox with shit, burn it, spraypaint "fuck you" on it and send it to microsoft headquarters.
Geez, from everything I have read so far, it makes me want to open the darn thing myself and fidget with it. Forget all that waiting and bullcrap excuses from the antichrist of computers, I want my system to work again!
I doubt anybody from Microsoft will read this, and if they did, maybe it would spark some change in their ways of dealing with customers. Yea, customers...the ones buying their crap. Maybe it's time I joined the Apple movement?
Here's what I did and I swear on my life that it worked. After about 2 weeks of b.s. from Microsoft I called the Attorney General. When I told Microsoft that I contacted him they gave me the usual b.s., 2 days later I received not only my new xbox 360, but also a personal apology letter, a copy of gears of war, and a new controller. Try it, it really works.
@jpdanzig:
Serve as a Trojan horse for selling overpriced content? If you're reffering to BlueRay, it plays DVDs just fine. If you're reffering to game content, find me a system that doesn't offer content for sale.
Ha. The worlds largest computer software developer can't get their computers fixed... That inspires confidence in their products...
It's a sad state of affairs when a company has this kind of trouble providing customer service. It seems like a fairly common problem with big companies: With so many people spread out in big offices, the problems can get lost in the system, and in some cases, there's always someone else you can pass the problem onto, and the customer gets the runaround. If a big company can figure out how to provide good customer service consistently, then I'd be pleasantly surprised.
This is the result of call center robo- er, CSRs, who simply blindly follow what their system tells them without applying any logic to the situation.
Hmmm, I received the same 'our system is down so we can't process your repair order at this time please call back' and when I did get the repair order processed I was surprised that I am responsible for finding my own coffin box to ship it in -- is the xBox division going broke from all of these red ring repairs?
I had the same trouble removing a credit card and would recommend people just not do it to avoid the mind-numbing aggravation. Buy the prepaid cards from an internet dealer, it'll be cheaper and far less stressful.
If you live near a Play N Trade video game store they should be able to fix it. I work for one in Tucson AZ and have personally fixed 12 in the last 4 or 5 months. Having the store do it will void your warrenty, but it sounds like you wont be getting help from Microsoft anyway.
@failurate:
I had an interesting, albeit opposite, experience. I recieved multiple emails saying that they had not yet recieved my xbox. I continued to recieve these emails after I already was holding my 360 in my arms.
I called and informed them of the issue and they promptly closed the ticket. The few people I had to talk to were all pretty helpful and nice.
"Our systems are updating" is call-center-speak for "Major system outage". These are not really planned updates - those happen at night - but "our computer systems are down" or "our servers crashed" or "someone took out our T1 with a backhoe" (that last one is based on an actual event), is not something call-center managers will allow customer service reps to say to customers. Only if a rep has a higher-than-average QA score can they get away with it, and then only on that rare call from a customer that they like who seems knowledgeable and understanding about such things.
I love you so much, Microsoft.
Oh wait.
No I don't.
This is classic Microsoft, I had a very similar experience with 3 returned xbox's that went RROD within a week. Eventually I got fed up and fix it myself with a penny trick (wrap 12 cents of penny's in 4 stack with electric tape then tape it to the RAM chips to maintain presure)
My xbox has been working for over 10 months... If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself.
Luckily for me im a computer tech, and I have never seen a Microsoft product that I didn't have to fix so I sort of knew what to expect.
I'm sorry but it's so hit and miss. I see all you people that have had bad customer service/support and the problems of the poster. Then you have to remember their is some of us that have had nothing but great service from them. My 360 red ringed about a year after I got it on release day the replacement one they have sent which is now two years old has not had a problem yet. When I called I got the box a few days after the call and sent it right away and the replacement was delivered in three weeks.
Step 1: Unplug your Xbox
Step 2: Throw it into the nearest large body of water
Step 3: Walk outside and an breathe deep. This is what a real life feels like
Step 5: Talk to a real, flesh & blood human. Face to face. with a pulse.
Geez....
@Zombini: There actually is a way to remove the credit card, it's hidden for some reason but I found a few months ago, I'll go dig it up for you and then post how to do it.
My 360 red ringed like a month or 2 ago. In the course of 11 days I called, got a label, shipped my Xbox and got my Xbox back.
It was pretty simple.
@QueridaAsclepius: Considering the service dept runs 24/7 sooner or later they are gonna have to update something which will bring it down for a while.
You probably were talking to someone in India and its possible they were having issues.
try to make a repair order on xbox.com and go to support-check repair status. Check to make sure that they have updated your account with the new serial number, as the box you get back is rarely the box you sent in. If you do it via xbox.com they should email you a usp tag, at least that is what they did for me.