I'm not one for the corporate conspiracy theory, but after my experience this weekend with Microsoft's Xbox support team, I am definitely asking, What happened to customer service? And shouldn't companies try to work to keep you a customer? After spending hundreds of dollars on an Xbox 360 and hundreds more on games and Xbox Live, I will have to spend a $100 more to fix Microsoft's mistake with its fall update.
The blogs and forums are already littered with postings regarding the now-infamous fall update's original E071 screen of death, which Microsoft owned up to, then released a new update for and provided free support to those who received the error. But within those postings are a subset of users, like myself, who applied the fall update, experienced immediately game freezes with no error code, and then an eventual "ring of death" signal from the machine; death by update...
Post by Greg Steen
And because my system is newly out of warranty I will have to pay to get it fixed. The thing that bothered me the most about this experience (thus far, anyway; I still have to ship it out, hope it gets there, and wait for a replacement) is the immediate assumption that anyone who calls support is trying to defraud the company into "out of warranty" support. ("Really, the Play-Doh just crawled into the DVD drive..") Products have warranties with specific time periods, and it is the customer's responsibility to realize and account for the ramifications of a short warranty like the 90-day one Microsoft provides on the Xbox 360. But I have taken enough math and logic classes in my life to know that if you change one variable in an equation and the thing blows up, what you changed caused the blowup. "So you applied the patch, games started freezing, and then you got the red lights? I'm sorry to say you'll have to pay for service."
Noting the posts on the forums, I realize this has affected a relatively small percentage of Xbox 360 owners, but in my mind, the possibility of losing those customers' future purchasing power and loyalty far out-weighs the immediate pittance of a cost for providing understanding and service without a price to those user's who were obviously effected by the patch. Please Microsoft, don't make one of your long-time defenders turn to the dark side because of this. Own up to the possibility that not all code exceptions are caught, mistakes have been made, and fix what you broke, without cost to those who apparently all-too-quickly clicked the A button to download your "pushed-to-consumer update" and saw their $400 machine turn into a doorstop.
If this has happened to you, speak up, and maybe Redmond will listen.
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November 6, 2006 3:29 PM
I don't have an XBox360, but I can say that at this point, businesses like Microsoft, especially when they have a runaway product like the 360, could care less about us as customers, as long as we keep buying games and more people keep buying units. There comes a point where there are just too many of us that they don't care any more about what happens to us, or what our experience is like with their support staff or customer service agents.
At the same time, I've worked that other side of the line and will freely and openly say it sucks, and you're under tremendous pressure to not give anything to the customer outright that could be non-beneficial to the company-so I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft's support folks are told to charge people out of warranty support for the repairs they're seeing come in, even if they themselves have cried to their management that there's a substantive problem here.
Still. It just sucks. That's big business for you. There are a few companies who seem to get it right though, companies like Apple and APC, who are large and sprawling, but seem to keep in the backs of their heads, at least some of the time, that their customers are their livlihood. And it doesn't require bending or taking crap from their customers either-customer service doesn't have to be the same as customer entitlement-you can offer superior service without taking crap from self-entitled morons who call looking for a free XBox360, but it does mean giving everyone the benefit of the doubt.
Good luck with your repair Greg! From what I've heard from other 360 owners, it could be an arduous road from here to finally getting a repaired or new one back from Microsoft. :(
November 6, 2006 4:15 PM
I had the exact same problem with my 360 I never got any error codes my console just froze a few times then the three red lights appeared. After calling microsoft they said I had to pay $139 to fix it becasue my console was recently out of its pethetic 3 month warrenty. I tried everything to get them to pay to fix it but they said unless I got the error 71 it didnt matter what else was wrong so i searched the internet for answers. I found a way to find out the error code was 1020 which is an unknown error but many people have found ways to try to fix it with some success. Many people found that opening up the console and using a heatgun on it helped fix the console but still later many froze. I didnt want to do this cause that would put even the $139 microsoft fix out of the question so i found a differnet way.
Turn on the console and cover up much of the air intakes with a towel then leave it run for around 30 min or so. Then turn off the console and leave it cool for 20 min. Then just turn it back on. Right now mine is working fine once again and i now have a small fan helping to cool it but there are no red lights and it is not freezeing so if you want to try an easy fix without voiding all the warrenty go for it. And if it doesnt work you are no more worse off then before. Good luck
November 6, 2006 6:53 PM
The best part is - once you do agree to getting service, they'll charge your credit card before they even receive the product...
November 15, 2006 1:32 AM
Same thing has happened to me and I am going to continue to call until they do not charge me. And if it takes more than that, thats what I will do. Their patch ruined my XBOX.
November 22, 2006 10:41 PM
How does one investigates this issue with the update and collaborate with other users with this dilimma.
November 28, 2006 8:29 PM
My xbox stopped working on the 25th of Nov. It froze on and off for about a week, then on the 25th I got the three red lights. I have been calling the support team and trying to argue my case, but it is not working. I have been getting many different answers, and one support person actually said that its a "BUMMER" my xbox stopped working from the update. This just shows that the people at MS have no clue how to handle this situation. Last night I was just offered 20% off the repair charge, which is a slap in my face. I feel the 20% off is also a way to get as many people as possible to send thier xboxs in to get fixed before this story really gets out. I personally am going to wait this out and keep calling. Well hopefully something good happens if we keep fighting this.