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.
xbox 360
Sam's Club Lets You Swap Out RedRinged Xbox Hassle-Free
By 11.21.08
Virg’s Xbox360 got the dread Red Ring of Death. He bought it in Feb ’07, and it started failing this Nov ’08. He figured it would be months before he would get it back and expected to have to pay somewhere. Much to his surprise, Sam’s Club let him swap it out for a new one for free.
Whoops: I Paid $143.82 for 1.5 Years Of XBOX Live
By 10.17.08
Thomas did something dumb and he wants to warn others not to follow in his footsteps. He assumed (incorrectly) that his $7.99 per month subscription to XBOX Live would roll over into a yearly subscription once he’d paid $50. (A yearly subscription costs $50, obviously.) Yeah, it didn’t.
UPDATE: Microsoft Offers Full Refund To Overcharged XBOX Live Member
By 8.19.08
XBOX Live member ForceTrainer writes in with an update about his issue with Microsoft. In our last episode, ForceTrainer has been charged $50 for 2 months of a XBOX Live gold membership– the price of a year of service.
Microsoft Left A Sheet Of Stickers Inside My XBOX 360
By 7.21.08
Of all the good places to store a sheet of stickers, “inside someone else’s refurbished XBOX 360” is fairly low on the list. Maybe even at the very bottom. Unfortunately for reader Nick, Microsoft appears to be using his XBOX as sticker storage. Read Nick’s letter inside.
You Can Now Transfer Licenses For Your Xbox 360 Content
By 6.27.08
As suspected, Microsoft has finally addressed the DRM issue with content you’ve purchased on your Xbox 360. In the past, if you bought a new console you couldn’t transfer the licenses—one customer was told by an Xbox 360 CSR to “buy the content again.” Now you can visit this page on xbox.com and transfer your licenses to a new console. Hooray for progress!
Microsoft: Replace Your XBOX 360? "Sorry, We Can't Help You. Buy All Of Your Content A Second Time"
By 5.29.08
Reader Mac’s XBOX 360 was out of warranty when it broke, so he decided to buy a new one thinking he could just transfer his old hard drive to the new XBOX. Sadly, no matter what he tries he can’t get his content to work properly on the new machine. He called Microsoft to see if they could help him out (after all they do this sort of transfer all the time for people whose boxes are replaced under warranty), but Microsoft’s only answer was “buy all your content a second time.”
How To: Quickly Contact Intelligent Life At XBOX Customer Service
By 5.5.08
Jason at Doombot has developed a process for reaching intelligent life at XBOX customer service. He discovered this easy 4-step procedure thanks to a XBOX 360 that enjoys not reading discs.
Xbox 360 Breaks Down 5 Times In A Row, But Microsoft Refuses To Replace It
By 1.22.08
Greg writes in to tell us that on January 2nd, his Xbox 360 unit broke down for the fifth time—it lasted eleven days this time, setting a new record for Shortest Period of Functionality. In the past year, it’s been out of commission for over 12 weeks total. He’s now asking for a new or refurbished unit, or else a refund, but Microsoft is determined to keep him in an extended warranty repair cycle indefinitely and won’t negotiate. Surely by this point it’s just cheaper to replace the defective unit, isn’t it?
XBOX 360 Failure Rate As High As 33%
By 7.3.07
The failure rate nearing a third of all Xbox 360 consoles was found at other retailers too. A Best Buy customer service department manager, who wished to remain unnamed, said that failure rates for the console were “between a quarter to a third” of all units sold.
XBOX360 Consumer Pwns Microsoft Using Level 34 American Express Powers
By 6.20.07
Remember Richard? Microsoft and numerous commenters mocked him for trying to get his XBOX360 fixed under warranty repair because he had a random tech pry open the box, thus voiding the warranty.
HOWTO: Return an Opened Video Game
By 4.19.06
Most stores won’t give you your money back for an opened video game box. Instead, they will give you the same title.
This Day in Xbox 360
By 12.22.05
• Tim Harford revisits the mystery of the Xbox 360 pricing and availability, uh, mystery. The question, if you recall, is why Microsoft isn’t charging more for the 360, since they seem to be worth more if you go by the prices paid on eBay. One of the theories in Harford’s latest column—and the one he advocates as the most likely—is that if Microsoft charged more than $400 at retail, even with the pent-up demand, no one would buy them in the first place.
Best Buy Insider: More Xbox 360s This Week
By 12.20.05
Best Buy’s ‘Retailer Insider’ newsletter, Issue Today, says to expect more Xbox 360s in stores this week. We’ve cut out the salient bits in the above graphic, but if you’d like to look at the full scan, have a look here.
Alaskan Teens Selling Xboxes in Parking Lot Robbed
By 12.20.05
We can’t decide which part of this story makes us shiver the most: the fact that teenagers were hawking Xbox 360’s in a parking lot or that they were doing so in Alaska. Either way it was a dumb decision, since those precious Xboxen were stolen right from them at gunpoint.
A man who was described as bald and wearing bluejeans and a blue hooded sweatshirt walked up to the van, opened its sliding door and pulled a gun out, police said. The man ordered the teen to open the van’s rear door. Another man, described as having dark curly hair, opened the door and took four of the Xboxs.
The poor, 14-year-old kid in the car managed to hide a single remaining Xbox under his feet. We’re sure when his other four teenage friends returned, they graciously let him keep his.
This Day in Xbox
By 12.19.05
First of all, dorky brother site Kotaku is reporting that all the Xbox 360s that were released this weekend at Best Buy have already been sold out. No big surprise there. We have it on good word that there will be one more Xbox 360 shipment into Best Buy before Xmas, so keep checking (here).
