Microsoft Deep-Sixes Red Ring Of Death Coffins, Makes Customers Supply Their Own Boxes
Although we received an indication in March that Microsoft was phasing out its Xbox 360 return policy of sending customers padded boxes with prepaid return envelopes, gaming blog Joystiq confirmed that Microsoft quietly made it official in late May.
As of May 26 the policy was discontinued "in an effort to expedite the repair process." Customers will have the option of receiving an e-label to slap on the box they ship their bricked consoles in, but the days of the "coffin" are now over. A Microsoft spokesperson tell us, "Customers can now ship their consoles themselves using an e-label provided by Microsoft and do not need to wait for an empty box to be shipped to them."
Why, how thoughtful of you, Microsoft! We're sure the move is all about customer convenience and has nothing to do with passing costs on to victimized customers who keep on having to return their breakdown-prone consoles to you for another breakdown-prone refurb.
On the plus side, I've never met an Xbox 360 owner who hasn't had his machine give up the ghost at least once on him — I'm currently on my sixth 360 — and most everyone has so little faith that their console will last that they've kept at the ready the box the console was shipped back to them.
Microsoft kills 'coffin' policy, time to pack your RRoD Xbox yourself [Joystiq]
(Photo: Cheap Ass Gamer)
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And by not using the Microsoft packaging, the ability to deny claim (not securely packaged) will increase to 100% of returns.
Look! You don't need to wait, isn't that the greatest? Now you can pay for your own packing materials. And if it isn't properly packed, we'll probably deny your warranty claim despite the fact that we've been making an inferior quality product for years.
Wow, I just missed the cut off then. I didn't red ring, my disc drive crapped out. Still they sent me a box in may.
I bought my Xbox 360 shortly before GTA IV came out, and it hasn't yet failed on me... but a pretty big chunk of the people I know have had theirs fail on them.
"I'm currently on my sixth 360"
are you freaking kidding? does the 360 shit gold bricks or something? what could possibly justify something that requires 6 replacements???
I got a box last week, June 5th. Put in the request June 2nd. Clearly, something is not right.
You guys once again are so quick to bash Microsoft you forgot to do some actual reporting. They don't offer the box as the default option, however they will still send one if you request it or tell them you don't have suitable packaging to send the console back.
My 360 Red Ringed last month (again for the 2nd time in 2 weeks) and instead of going thru Microsoft, I remembered I purchased the 2 year warranty from Best Buy. One of the best choices I made since I went there, exchanged the old 20 gig Pro (kept the Hard Drive obviously) and upgraded to their 60 gig version.
All in all, took me about 15 minutes to swap out and the difference in price paid for another 2 years on my new 360 and I got $10 bucks back in Gift Card form to Best Buy. Thank god for extended warranties.
I "inherited" a broken launch console from a friend because the DVD drive was busted. I replaced the drive (obviously voiding the hell out of any warranty) and it still runs like a champ. Launch 360 with NO RRoD. I would like to know what the hell you are doing to these things to end up on your 6th. I know they have a high failure rate, but seriously, 6?
Well, if the thing is already useless, why spend money on cradling it to return it? It's like putting an automatic closer on the barn door AFTER the horse got out. Maybe now they can put that saved money towards fixing the newer units.
@Marc Melton: Mine shot craps at the beginning of May and I was told I had to supply my own box.
Although that is the only thing approaching a complaint I can make about the process. I shipped it off to the MS repair center in TX and turnaround was less than a week. So far I haven't had any problems with the new unit.
My 360 crapped out for the first time during the 3rd or 4th week of March after about 2-3 years of some heavy game play, although i took care of my console. Maybe you groups of people going through six are laying the the box and power supply on the carpet and playing for 18 hours at a time or something but my box stood up to about 8-12 hours of gameplay 5-7 times a week. I had a replacement from Microsoft in about 1.5-2 weeks (including the time waiting for the "coffin) for absolutely no charge to me.
That much being said, I am very satisfied with a process that was even easy online with the use of my LiveID. Like 30seconds easy.
@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): He's not saying that he has purchased 6 different xBox 360s, he is saying that he has had to return 5 xBox 360s due to malfunctions and is currently using the 6th xBox 360 while only having paid for 1 xBox.
I am on my fourth xBox 360. I had one fail strait out of the box on launch day and I have had two red-rings-of-death since then. Each time, I have had the unit replaced for FREE!
I'm not happy about it, but at least my xBoxes keep getting replaced for free.
All of my friends that have xBoxes have had at least one experience with the red-ring-of-death and all have received the cardboard coffins and had their xBoxes replaced for free.
anywho at the time printing your own label and using your own box at your own expense were an option. did they make that the only option or is this a misunderstanding?
I've had my 360 for well over a year now, bought it off Craigslist, and it was a launch console. It hasn't red-ringed on me once, aside from a power outage where I had to reset my tv to pick up the input.
...and here's where the haters' heads all explode. Can't help it if my 360 runs on an Improbability Drive.
After over 2 years, our 360 RROD'd last month. We got a box with no hassle, and got it quickly. I made the novel decision to SAVE IT (after the completed repair, of course) just in case it ever happens again.
On an interesting sidenote, our 360 was shipped home to us the day after they received it, completely repaired. Talk about a quick turnaround.
Mine's still kicking. I did see the dreaded rings a few nights ago when the electrics flaked out briefly, but a nice, refreshing reset later in the evening made papa not tear the walls down.
I've kept the original box in the event I do need to ship it somewhere.
@mancide: That's what I remember from sending mine in. There was a separate request area for it. Then again I did this before the supposed cutoff, so maybe it's different now.
@Dustin Landgraf: the RRoD isn't drive related, it's something with the GPU separating from the motherboard or something like that. You can open it up and reconnect it and spread some of that paste between the two and it will work.
is the red ring of death limited to the first few revisions? my xbox is one of those with hdmi ports. anyone know if those are susceptible as well?
@mancide:
Thank you. I was going to say the same thing....heck I'm all willing to jump on the hate wagon, but this is being blown out of proportion a bit I think.
Heck for me it was a better choice to print the elabel (back in 12/08) and ship it with my own box.
what slays me about the RRoD replacements is that after you've sent one in, you ONLY get a 1 year warranty on your box.
So you better pray to god that if your box is going to ring, your box rings in that 1 year- or you're Sh!t out of luck.
@Sean Beattie: I bought mine six months after launch brand new, and it red ringed about six months ago. You might be one of the lucky few that didn't get a bad one, but it might just be a matter of time.
@Sean Beattie: Same.
I got my 360 shortly after launch and it finally gave out on me almost 2 months back. And I use it A LOT. So, seems to be we lucked out in the batch with the Improbabilty Drives.
Considering the extended warranty they tacked on, the quick turn around time, and how they used to pay for AND send out the shipping boxes (not to mention them paying shipping)... I like Microsoft did a good job in addressing the issue to make it easy on the consumer.
And it's not like MS suddenly forced the issue of consumers to supply their own boxes. There was always that option. Print out label, use own box, and send out.
With the new models having purportedly fewer issues, I don't see a problem with them taking a little back.
As long as they still will provide the box, what is the problem here?
Boxes, are what, 4 or 5 bucks for a good one? at least they still pay the shipping. And quite personally, i've had my elite since the elite launched, and it hasn't died yet. I get a bad feeling its getting close though.
@Taliskan: er I think Microsoft did a good job, etc. Though I do like them for it. This one time. >.>
@downwithmonstercable: Oh, no, I understand that. I was just saying I have dealt with a drive failure, but NO RRoD on a launch box. I know they aren't related (not directly anyway), and I also know how to fix a ringed box. My point was how the red ring issue seems to happen to the same person a bunch of times, and to other people (ie; me) not at all.
it's been a while back that they stopped offering packaging - I had to send a unit in for a friend last December (that's about 6 months ago now). HOWEVER - if you ask, they'll still send you the box.
Since I had newspaper (expensive to use for packing material, I know) and an old Amazon box laying around, printing the label probably shaved a week or so off the repair time (I'd called on a Friday).
I'm pretty underwhelmed with the fact checking on this story.
I feel bad for the OP - I run with some hardcore gamers, but I don't know anyone that's ever had to have more than 2 replacements. I've heard horror stories of 3 and even FOUR replacements. But SIX? This guy must be the unluckiest guy on the planet.
The HDMI Xboxes are susceptible to the E67 error code, I have the first gen console that has RROD twice on me and my brother in law has a XBOX Elite model with HDMI that had the E67 error code, i believe its 2 red lights. His crapped out on him about 3 weeks ago, he purchased it about a year ago this month
@MakinSense...ForOnce_GitEmSteveDave:
Well they typically don't ship you a replacement console. They just repair your console (new drive, motherboard, what have you) and send it back to you. I would take care in shipping it then.
And they did address fixing the issue with the newer units. :)
@ShikhaCadimillac:
I have had 2 RROD and 2 failed lasers/drives.
I actually considered myself lucky when the RROD appeared immediately after the second failed drive. Warrany vs. Non-warranty repair FTW.
I just sent my back like two months ago and didn't see anything about them giving me a box. They just allowed me to print the label and pack gave a PDF of packing instructions. That's it. So I think this started before May.
@LJKelley: Wait, couldn't you do this before? I know way back when my 360 RRODed, the CSR asked me if I had my own packaging because if I did they could just send me the elabel and I could have it sent in immediatly to expidite my repair, or if I did not have adequete packaging on hand, they would send me a box, however it would mean my repair would take longer since they had to send me the box.
I was under the impression that you could e-label before. And this was WAY before this whole not shipping coffins thing started showing up.
My XBox 360 died about a year after purchase. I sent it back and kept bugging Microsoft support about when it would be returned, until they escalated me to VIP support out of (I think) Texas. The next Thursday I got a console in the mail. Then, the next day (Friday), I got another box - with another console. The following Monday, my wife called me at work - "You won't believe what just showed up at our house". Another console.
When MS Support called to find out if I was satisfied with the resolution to my ticket, I said I was quite happy with my 3 Xboxes and did they want any of them back? Apparently there's no room in their process for customers returning superfluous hardware, so I am the proud owner of 3 consoles (but unfortunately not 3 hard drives and power supplies, otherwise I could start my own gaming cafe).
This has come in handy, as over the last few years every time one of my XBoxes breaks, I pull out one of the 'spares' to keep me occupied while I wait for the repair. And yet, last summer, there was a brief period of time where ALL THREE of my consoles had RROD and were out for repair at the same time.
Just last week I had another RROD. I haven't even bothered to send it back yet because I still have two spares. And yes, I make sure to keep the packaging!
@dadelus: They will give you a box if you ask for it. I just sent in two of mine and requested boxes for them. This happened right at the end of May and I had no complaints from Microsoft. It takes longer if you wait for the box, but the repair times are great for RROD issues. Both of the ones I sent in were received, repaired, and shipped out on the same day.
Be sure to request the box. I told them I wanted to be sure they were shipped securely and they said it would be no problem.
Sony must be sacrificing newbornes to the gods that the xbox is such an unreliable piece of junk; otherwise I have to believe that the PS3 would have already died, taking the once-proud electronics giant with it...
Why do people still buy these consoles? Worst investment ever. My PS3 is still alive and kicking and it's a launch 60gig model. Never had a problem with it.
@b01000100: Yeah, my brother's elite just RROD the other day, and he got a box too... so i'm not sure how accurate all of this is.
Maybe they're giving out boxes until they run out of said boxen?
I just had to return my red-ring-of-death-ed Xbox recently. If i had the option, I would have still packaged it myself anyways. Although i would prefer that Microsoft would sell me a product that didnt have such a high percentage chance of breaking, i had my Xbox back TWELVE days after i took it to the UPS store. From WI to TX and back to WI. I was impressed with the service.
@potzertommy: i wanted to keep playing fallout 3 real bad... there was no way i was waiting for someone to ship me an empty box.
@LJKelley: I second this. I have a 360 that so far hasn't needed a coffin (fingers crossed) but in the event that it does, I'd much rather grab a box from work/grocery store/liquor store/anyplace that is a business and slap a label on it.
@Darrone: I'm fully convinced that anyone who pays for boxes anymore are completely unresourceful. You can get boxes free practically anywhere (grocery stores etc).
@ShikhaCadimillac:
A chemist friend of mine in the solder business blames this all on the European Union which demanded that MS use only lead free solder for everything.
The problem is that lead free solder forms what they call whiskers in the solder biz & many are too small to see without a microscopic exam of the boards & because of this their are an unknown number of electrical connections that shouldn't be there & cause shorts & other failures.
He says they all hate lead free solder for everything but water pipes!
I've had mine for 3 years no issues. I have 6 friends who've had 360's as long as or longer than I, and not one of them has had an issue...
I'm quite dubious of people who are on their "6th XBox". I'd say it's a safe bet that there is something else going on.
I'm really glad that I kept the boxes from my last three piece of crap refurbs they sent me. At the rate my failures are going, I'm due for another red ring sometime this month.
Well technically if you already have a box, then this will be faster. Before you had to wait for the box to arrive, now you just print out a label you received instantly.
Yes, Microsoft is reducing their cost, but its pretty normal to have to package your own items (I had to so when Target replaced my Xbox) and some places (like when me external HDD failed) require you to pay the shipping.