Bill

ive had my xbox just over a year and its dead so i sorted out repair online but the option for a pre paid box wouldn’t work so i phoned them, i got some german guy who kept asking me to repeat things because he couldn’t understand me, so we get the details done,

i say i want a pre paid box shipped

he says they only do that in special circumstances as it takes longer and theres more work involved and Ups struggle to deal with sending empty boxes

i say that i dont want to be held responsible should anything happen to the console in transit and xbox blame me for it being damaged further in transit (as ive heard people experience online) i say i dont mind if it takes longer id rather i dont have to do all the leg work as it is their problem to deal with for me as they’ve supplied faulty goods, also i had an apple laptop sent back to apple for repair and apple sent me an empty box via UPS which they delivered very quickly and took straight away and all i had to do was put the laptop in the box (how easy is that?)

then the guy kept talking under his breath at me and being very aggressive, he ended up shouting and continuously trying to belittle me, claiming at one point that my precious apple computer means i have unrealistic expectations (WTF?)

i asked him if he is representing microsoft right now as this is a laughable way to treat a customer

to which he replied “whatever” i’ll put you through to his superior

so i get through to the supervisor and within 1 minute the pre paid box and details are sorted, very helpful very quick

so was this just an unlucky encounter with a moody worker or are microsoft getting as bad with customer service as they are with making games consoles?

my experience left me in a really bad mood and swearing that microsoft will never get my money again

Mid-November my xbox audio just stopped working. No warnings, no reasons, just no sound. So I called the support line and was told that I would have to pay the $110 to get the warranty and that once paid they would issue a box and repair the console etc. So,being an honorable person I pay the $110. The box and the label come a few days later, and I ship it out.

3 weeks later the repaired unit returns, and it worked fine…for 2 days. Then abruptly, no more sound again…so I send emails to Xbox support (**never do this, it is bad for your intellect). The message I sent was clear and concise “HDMI audio is not working again after you repaired it”. The first response was apologetic for my consoles “inability to power up”…huh, clearly that dummy didn’t bother to read my email. I blasted back with a more firm support email, kindly reminding them that the problem is HDMI audio related and not power related, and that this was just fixed. The second response I got back was just as priceless…”we are sorry to hear that you are having problems with your xbox. It can be frustrating when your xbox won’t boot up.”

At this point I realized I had slipped down the rabbit hole and that I was surrounded by drug-addled morons. So I skip email and decide never to use it again to speak with xbox support. I call and get a rather nice yet firm rep who is clearly in India. (note like you I have no aversion to Indian people or to outsourcing work, but I have a major aversion to people who do their job poorly). She is fair and when I ask her what she is going to to do to compensate me for the 2 months my xbox was being repaired she quickly put me on hold and came back to offer me a free game, Project Gotham Racing actually. I gladly accepted it, thanked her, and the next day sent the xbox back out for repair.

3 more weeks later I receive the xbox back…I hook it up, pop in Fallout 3, and ta-da it works, like it should…for 3 days. If you can believe it, the same problem happened yet again.

Now I am just flat out angry. This is definitely the worst hardware experience I’ve ever experienced, without at doubt. What makes it even more frustrating is that I work in the Video Game industry and have a great relationship with dozens of folks in the Xbox Live team.

So I get back on the phone with Xbox support. I don’t even try to hold back my tone or anger at the situation. I never curse, but I do allow my tone to be pretty sharp. So, she hangs up on me. I call back, but this time instead of navigating the “repair” option I instead choose the “technical support” option. This took me to a very lovely and helpful woman named Brooke who was definitely in the US and definitely concerned that I had experienced this problem a 3rd time. She volunteered to connect me with her supervisor because she felt that my case was pretty rough.

I was connected with a supervisor who was not as nice or as supportive as Brooke, but he was efficient. I told him that I only want a new replacement of the exact same console I have, not a refurbished unit, and that I want the newest available chipset version so that I won’t have to go through this again for at least another 6 months. Well he told me that they don’t do that, they only send refurbed units. But he did offer to “expedite” my replacement with a newly refurbished unit, which felt to me like he wanted to expedite me off the phone. I pushed back a bit and he agreed to also give me a free controller.

Just before writing this little rant I penned a very formal and stern complaint letter directly to Microsoft Corporate and intend to fully nag them about this issue until someone who is actually important addresses my concern and gives me some level of satisfaction for this fiasco.

I totally agree with all your comments about Microsoft, it’s a love-hate thing with them. The xbox is a great system of content and hardware (when it works) and they should be applauded for the quality of the gaming experience it can provide. But it is sad to be treated like a 9 year old by customer service. I am not alone in my frustration, I’ve been trolling through dozens of similar stories across the web and have finally concluded that they know they are in a very bad situation and are purely doing damage mitigation at this point. They are probably instructed to fight as hard as possible to prevent having to issue any collateral for customer troubles until the customer is just about to break with reality and have a postal experience.

I wonder what the $1billion they set aside to handle all these problems has dwindled to at this point.
So that’s it. I hope you enjoy my rant, and I’ll follow up with the next chapter in the saga when something new occurs.

Cheers!