Xbox/ Microsoft Screws The Little Guy

I am asking for all of your help here. 1 year and 8 days ago I bought an Xbox 360. I paid $600 for the console, 2 controllers, hard drive and a couple of games. I played it for 3 months and suddenly got an error on it that said “Unplayable Disk” every time I put something in. So I call their service department and they had me send it in and when they received it they promptly called me to tell me they were just sending me a new one. 3 weeks later I received it and didn’t have any more problems. That is until yesterday.

Yesterday my son tried to play our brand new game “Mass Effect” which we had bought the day before for the low-low price of $59.95. He got the “Unplayable Disk” error again. So when I got home after my 10 hours at work I start the service phone call. A few minutes in the young lady with the latin accent informs me that my warranty is up and they will have to charge me for the repair. That charge? $100! Which includes shipping and handling and gets me a new 1 year warranty and 1 month of Xbox Live (which figures out too be about $2.00). “How long had it been since my warranty expired”, I asked. 8 days ago. 8 DAYS AGO!

Sensing my frustration and apparent lack of sympathy for Microsoft I was transferred to a supervisor. “Mike” gets on the phone and with nearly the same Latin accent tells me he “feels my pain” (I shit you not) and patiently listens to me besmirch his daddy Bill Gates on how he’s putting his penny loafers in the little guys ass. He agreed with me and explains that when I sent the Xbox in the first time (7 months ago) that they fixed it for free but I did not pay the $25 for the extended warranty on the new one they sent me and that the warranty does not start new with the new machine. He says unfortunately there is nothing he can do with the exception of giving me 25% off so my final charge would be $75.00. I then asked what would happen if I had the “3 Flashing Red Lights Of Doom” on it would they still fix it past my warranty…. yes they would! But not my problem, noooooo not my problem.

This is unacceptable people. This is a malfunction that is due to their hardware problems. Not because I was putting grilled cheese sandwiches into it or using it to beat my kids with or using it to scramble eggs with. I have paid my $75. But I told “Mike” that in return for their charging me I would be having my own “Power To The People” moment. Here’s what I am doing, and what I am asking you to do. Just as I told them I would be doing and “Mike” said it was my prerogative to do so.

I will be calling the help center’s phone a minimum of 20 times a day for the next 4 weeks or until I receive my replacement/repaired Xbox. I figure that it would cost them a minimum of $3.00 to just answer the phone when it rings so forecasting 4 weeks at 20 times a day it should equal roughly $1600 by the time I get it back for a $75 charge on equipment that is faulty because they suck.

So I am asking all of you out there to call the following numbers and simply wait on hold until someone picks up and tell them that you are complaining about their service, tell them that your name is Ed Gruberman and simply hang up. When you have done this please just leave me a comment.

Thank you for all of your help and I will continually update this post and push it back to the top everyday until it is resolved.

1-800-4MY-XBOX
International (direct dial to U.S.): 425-635-7180
Hearing Impaired (TDD device): 1-866-740-9269 or 425-635-7102

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