Brian believes a firmware update made his 80gb Zune give up the ghost, so he called customer service asking for a repair. The CSR’s idea was for Brian to send the Zune and $160 so Microsoft — new 80gb Zunes are going for $217 on Amazon — but Brian had a different idea: call in an EECB airstrike.

This is the letter he sent to addresses for Steve Balmer and Bill Gates he found on Google searches:

Dear Microsoft Executives,

On Sunday September 20th at 11 AM CST I updated my 80 Gigabyte Zune to the latest firmware that you offer via the Zune software. Needless to say after the update was finished my Zune has completely stopped working. So after letting it sit for a few hours hoping that maybe the battery needed to be charged I tried to get my Zune to work again. No luck so at 3 PM CST I felt an call to Zune customer support was in order.

The first representative I talked to was named Icee. He has me do all the tricks that are on the Zune support pages that I have already done to no luck. Icee then puts me on hold for several minutes before finally getting back to me saying that I would have to pay $160 to send my Zune to them to fix it. I explain that their software is liable for causing the problem and you should fix it on your dime. Icee tells me that they can’t do anything since my account is “locked” and that its expecting an credit card number in order to advance with the repair.

I then ask for an manager. Icee puts me on hold for several minutes again before I get transfered to the manager Lee. I explain the issue to Lee who then tells me to “keep an eye on Zune.net” since they are investigating problems with the firmware update. I get the case number [redacted]. I made it clear to him that I am very unhappy with even the idea that I should have to pay out of my pocket for their software issues making my Zune no longer work. He simply tells me to watch the website and has no idea on when to expect an fix if any. Call at the end was 30 minutes or so.

I have spent most of today trying various methods to get my Zune working again. As of right now its refusing to work. I am at the point of where I am very unhappy with the idea of having to pay $160 out of my pocket to fix what your software messed up. This is not the first Zune that has stopped working on me as my previous 80 gigabyte model
also stopped working.

Zune support responded the next day, asking for an address to send his prepaid Zune coffin. Brian now awaits the return of the spoils of his EECB direct hit.

(Photo: organic nyc)

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