He writes:
My name is Jon. I work for an anime convention and we just ordered 20 refurbished Xbox 360s. One of them was shipped with the wrong power brick (brick had three prongs, cord has two holes — every other console we received had two prongs on the brick and two holes on the cord). I thought that Microsoft's customer support would be understanding. They were not.
The first person I talked to did not understand that I just wanted the power brick replaced, so I got on the horn with Louis, her supervisor. I explained the situation that I wanted the power brick for this one console replaced, so I and the thousands of people who come to our convention have a playable console. I told him the other nineteen consoles were fine. He told me I had to register all of the consoles. Since I did not technically own the console I told him I was not comfortable registering something I did not own. I told him it was his company's responsibility to send out the correct materials of product they refurbish. He told me they do not refurbish consoles. I know this is a lie, as 1) I used to work for MS and know they do, and 2) I had a friend who was just laid off from refurbishing consoles at Microsoft.
He then continued to be rude and would not let me speak to his supervisor. This man continued to be unreasonable, and I eventually told him I would be informing your site and ended the call before I went off the deep end.
Is it too much to just own up to your mistakes? Anyways, I appreciate the help.
Jon gave up on Microsoft and ended up ordering the proper part online. He probably would have been better served his cause to have called customer service again another time or two, hoping for better luck with a more helpful CSR, but if his story is accurate it's inexcusable how he was treated this way.
If you're an Xbox 360 owner, you've more than likely dealt with customer service and developed your chops. If you've got tips on how to deal with Microsoft's wily customer service folk, leave them in the comments.
(Photo: tom.arthur)
]]>The Xbox 360 power bricks take standard C13 cords between your outlet and the brick. You know the power cords for your PC? Monitor? PS3 Fat? A million other electronic devices for both consumers or industry?
You could go to any electronics store and get a C13.
While some newer 360's use modified C13's with no ground, they can still fit no problem. I've done it.
Also echoing that people saying that MS doesn't sell refurbs to consumers anyway.
]]>It should be illegal to pretend to have customer service.
I had the same problem with Dell, when the best I could get was someone who didn't speak English to read Dell's help webpage to me.
]]>It really is a riot that both Sony and Microsoft are making such a big to-do about digital distribution and how it's the wave of the future, but neither company seems to have realized that in order for digital distribution to work at all, they're going to have to provide large hard drives at prices customers can actually afford. Personally, I'm not at all impressed with the idea of buying all my games online and downloading them to an HD, so the sooner this plan bites the dust the better, but sometimes I wonder if the companies promoting the idea even want it to work with some of the decisions they're making.
]]>When you get big, servicing customers becomes a full-time job -- actually, many full-time jobs. This means a support department. This means hiring people who just answer the phones all day. This means hiring people whose best option is a job that involves answering the phone all day, who never made any decisions that led to your calling on the phone with a problem, who don't get paid any more or less regardless of how your call ends, who really don't have the skills or inclination to think of ways the company could solve your problem satisfactorily at a minimum cost, and who in all but very specific cases can't do anything for you even if they wanted to.
]]>I think he needs to talk to the company that they actually bought the 360's through.
]]>@squinko - is pretending there's a star: Yeah. I accidentally knocked mine off its shelf while adjusting my cords while playing NCAA 09...so long NCAA 09.
]]>Not anymore.
]]>@Naame: MS doesn't sell or support any refurbished units unless MS did the refurb on a repair of an original XBox. If you *purchase* a refurbished unit from a 3rd party, they've refurbished the unit and Microsoft does not support said unit, the seller/refurbisher does. I've been through this, escalated to the top because I had trouble with one of my own original 360 units once it was repaired and then broke again. Once you escalate from the outsourcer back to someone who's actually a Microsoft employee, it seems, you can get straight answers and get things fixed.
However, it sounds like the one oddball power brick provided here was one of the older 3-prong units and the power supply in the 360 itself was one of the newer 2-prong units (perhaps the refurb on that 360 was the PSU???). Ultimately though, if he didn't buy a refurb unit from Microsoft directly (and he didn't, it's impossible), his anger and support call has been misdirected. That the Microsoft rep should have attempted to be more helpful seems obvious, but I guess we can't expect that anymore in this age of save a buck no matter what, even if it screws the customer?
]]>Those exact steps are actually what lead to my problems. I deleted my CC information online rather than calling to cancel my recurring subscription.
Microsoft didn't care that I had removed my CC number and accompanying identification info. They just charged the last working credit card associated with the account.
I'm not even sure if their actions are legal, but the options are pay up or no more Xbox Live. I can't even change accounts because the 12 month prepaid card is already associated with my current account and the "no refunds" policy applies.
]]>Besides, the direct subscription never goes on sale, but you can generally find the card at a discount and/or packaged with useful stuff. For example, my last card came with a keyboard. Best Buy wanted it gone, so the subscription and keyboard cost less than a subscription alone.
Same goes for Wii points, btw, though I've never found Xbox points at a significant discount.
]]>I think anyone that DOES by an XBox now is a fool. Does nobody remember all the RRoD stories? You're basically buying a product that's guaranteed to fail.
I usually despise Sony products, but I've used a couple of PS3's. Very nice machines with an intuitive OS, and it doubles as a BD player.
]]>I've run into bad reps and good reps in lots of places (even at Comcast). Roll the dice again.
]]>Honestly, crap like this really tempts me to pack up my console and games, march on over to Gamestop and trade the lot in for a PS3. Sony's not really much better than MS, but at least you can shove any HD you want into the PS3.
]]>I am not a gamer so I don't even know if MS does direct sales of the 360 or they all go through third party distribution, but I agree with the others who said that the OP should have gone to the seller first. They in turn should have handled the issue for him or referred him directly to the entity that would do so. In any event, it's their name on the product; MS should have been helpful even if they didn't make the direct sale.
]]>My complaint letter got a RMA & shipping label in my e-mail 8:00 a.m. the next day.
]]>i believe the piracy thing is a red herring as well, but it's possible that universal media could be used to hack games or even manipulate the xbox experience. hell, XBMC would never have existed if it weren't for exploiting the ability to bridge the firewall between console & PC.
personally, i don't give a shit about piracy, but if cheaters find a way to use media cards to run scripts that give them an advantage in gameplay, then i'm all for killing off their use. i hate cheaters.
]]>In other words, the third party company is nothing more than a reseller in which case most (if not all) warranty claims occur between the customer and the original manufacturer. Therefore, it is MS's responsibility to replace the part since it is their fault that they shipped the wrong part to the third party company in the first place.
]]>That was my first question as well. I can't figure out how in the heck he ordered refurbished 360's direct from Microsoft. I google'd, trolled through microsoft.com, and I still can't find anywhere to order refurbs from them.
I'm going to go with that he ordered these from somewhere like GameStop or whatever and that he is barking up the wrong tree until there is an update otherwise.
]]>So after a few months I got a new router [hey my old one was working and I didn't want to rush out and immediately buy a new router]. This was a Microsoft router, and on the list of supported routers. But the problem still occurred. I called MS and told them they gave me faulty advice to begin with, and the initial problem was with the adapter and not the router. They refused, saying that it was passed the initial 30 [or was it 90] day warranty for the wireless adapter and told me to buy another one.
]]>As for the pricing, if I'm not mistaken, the 360 itself is profitable at this point. There have been enough hardware revisions, and cost cutting measures taken that they're at least breaking even, if not profiting on each console sold.
You're absolutely right - MS is trying to make a move towards digital distribution, and if people can't afford the hard drives to store all that digital content on, they're just going to be shooting themselves in the foot.
]]>It's like some Business Studies manual they've all read says "Thou shalt have a customer service budget of exactly $50,000, no matter how many customers it'll serve."
]]>More likely they need to make up the cost of the loss taken from selling the console itself. Ultimately, that will hurt them because without cheap storage, I'll have nowhere to store Arcade Games and DLC, so I won't buy them.
]]>@JPropaganda: More likely they'd just freeze and/or scratch the disks beyond repair.
]]>@coan_net: That's what my question was. If he had ordered from MS, they would have record of what they sent him.
]]>I don't think this guy actually ordered the refurbs from MS, though. He should have checked with wherever he ordered them.
I have to side with MS on this one...something seems amiss in this story...
]]>Well there's your problem right there
]]>AMEX returned the money, but then Microsoft suspended my Live account. And they refuse to unsuspend, until I pay $7.95 it even though I have a full year of prepaid Live usage.
What a pain in the a__ for 8 bucks.
]]>If he ordered them directly from Microsoft, then going to Microsoft for the replacement should have worked.
If he ordered them from somewhere else, shouldn't he be talking to them?
]]>In my experience just call back and see if you can get a better rep. If not, EECB.
]]>In related news, hey Phil, since you like taking on the gaming industry (even when they don't deserve it) why not post about this [majornelson.com]
The short version is that MS charges absurd prices for their hard drives and memory units for the 360. Other companies stepped in and made memory units that would take a microSD card, and you can make your own hard drive w/ the right parts. Those alternative memory solutions will not work after the next dash update - an extremely anti consumer move if ever I've seen one.
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