Just a tale of woe which may serve as a warning: I've had an XBox 360 for about 7 months now. I like it, not a whole lot of games that I want but plenty of casual games in the arcade and lots and lots of demos means that system sees quite a bit of usage.
The only game that I've played a lot is "Oblivion" but that was worth it. The system locked up pretty often with "Oblivion" but not so much that I couldn't chalk it up to overheating or a dusty disc. Lately the lock-ups have become systemic and finally, last night the system just gave up the ghost: it won't boot, I get the apparently well-know ring of red lights. After trying all the at-home fixes I called MS. I spent well over 20 minutes with an incredibly frustrating "hipster" voice mail system. His name is "Max" and he REALLY wants to help me and I REALLY wanted to choke the living shit out him. The whole mess is a transparent and completely patronizing attempt to put already aggravated people at ease. All it really does is infuriate you. Finally getting to a human it's painfully clear that MS has outsourced its support. The thick accent, the inability to understand English, the glib attitude: all just scream that I'm going to be well cared for. It didn't start well. I gave my name. After a few seconds of flustered silence I was asked to spell my name, then specifically asked to spell my first name as well: J-I-M D-A-V-I-S When he couldn't find my name he spelled it back to me: G-I-N. I told him "No, it's J-I-M." He answered, "Yes - as in GEORGE-IDAHO-NANCY." "NO." I replied, "J-I-M. Jim. James. Jimmy." I thought only later of spelling it out: "JERKS-IDIOTS-MOTHERFUCKERS" but you always think of the best things to say later on. Anyway we get the name out. After some more language juggling we get the serial number out. My console is out of warranty. I asked "how can that be: the system hasn't even been out a year!" The warranty, it turns out, is only 90 days. I asked how he knew my console was out of warranty when he didn't know when I bought it. He said that the serial number determined the warranty length for MS. (What this means, in case you're not listening, is that if you bought your kid a 360, say, in September and set it aside for Christmas you might open up a broken system that is already out of warranty.) In any case my system (my $400 system), 7 months old, is out of warranty. The only way to get it fixed by MS is to spend $140. Yup - nearly half the cost of a new console to fix one less than a year old. Once I get it fixed they will warranty it for, you guessed it, another 90 days. I can purchase an extended warranty for $30 for a year or $60 for two years. So it'll cost me $170 to get it fixed and warranty that fix for a year. The value proposition of the PS3 is looking better everyday. Say what you will about Sony but they've got a one-year warranty from the time of purchase for all their gear. And in my experience the few times I've needed their support it's been excellent. I'm just really, really pissed at Microsoft right now. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Introducing the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update. 80 pages of hard-hitting, up-to-date ColdFusion information by your peers, delivered to your door four times a year. http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:221269 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
