MICROSOFT EXTENDS 360 WARRANTY TO 3 YEARS FOR RED RING ISSUES

Microsoft has announced that due to the ongoing issues with the Xbox 360’s dreaded Red Ring of Death system failures, the company will be extending the system’s factory warranty to cover the defects that cause the issue to 3 years from the date of purchase.

I can’t begin to mention just how huge of an announcement this is. Microsoft has basically admitted that the failure rate on the Xbox 360 is far higher than they would like and have taken action to make sure that their customer base is treated fairly. To give you an idea of the scale of the problem, Microsoft will be taking a 1.15 billion dollar pre-tax charge to their earnings for the quarter ending June 30th to cover the cost of the extension. (If you’re wondering, this means that the cost of supporting the warranty will not be included in fiscal year 2008, meaning that Robbie Bach’s prediction that the Xbox line would be in the black by 2008 is still a reasonable possibility.)

In an open letter to their customers, Microsoft’s Peter Moore apologized to Xbox 360 owners for any inconveniences they may have experienced due to system failures and promised that the company would be retroactively reimbursing any fees paid by 360 owners for repairs due to the issue.

“As of today, all Xbox 360 consoles are covered by an enhanced warranty program to address specifically the general hardware failures indicated by the three flashing red lights on the console. This applies to new and previously-sold consoles. While we will still have a general one year console warranty (two years in some countries), we are announcing today a three-year warranty that covers any console that displays a three flashing red lights error message. If a customer has an issue indicated by the three flashing red lights, Microsoft will repair the console free of charge—including shipping—for three years from the console’s purchase date. We will also retroactively reimburse any of you who paid for repairs related to problems indicated by this error message in the past. In doing so, Microsoft stands behind its products and takes responsibility to ensure that every Xbox 360 console owner continues to have a fantastic gaming experience.

If we have let any of you down in the experience you have had with your Xbox 360, we sincerely apologize. We are taking responsibility and are making these changes to ensure that every Xbox 360 owner continues to have a great experience.” – Peter Moore

It should be noted that the extension (years 2 and 3) only cover issues related to the three red ring failures and does not cover the rest of the system. To clear up any confusion, Microsoft has made a FAQ available that covers many of the questions Xbox 360 owners may have about the updated warranty and have advised that they will continue to update the FAQ over the next few days.

One question that wasn’t covered in the aforementioned FAQ was what affect this would have on the warranty status of those who purchased the Xbox 360’s 2 year extended warranty directly from Microsoft. To get an answer to that issue, I called Microsoft’s customer support help line at 1-800-4MY-XBOX, and after waiting on hold for 1 hour and 15 minutes was advised that the extended warranty will begin once the 3 year warranty period has expired and that all services would be covered during that time.

I found that answer a little strange as one would assume that only the coverage for the Red Ring failures would continue into the 4th and 5th year of the warranty period, but the representative I spoke with assured me that this was indeed the case. While I’m taking that part of the answer with a grain of salt, I am at least confident in believing that those who purchased the extended warranty via Microsoft will have protection from general system failures (Red Ring of Death failures) for 5 years from the date of purchase.

My guess is that since Microsoft also stated that they believe they’ve found a way to fix the problem that this move may essentially be a long-term recall. If the problem is such that they know that most Xbox 360’s will fail within 3 years, this would allow them to repair the problems without the massive negative publicity a true recall would bring. The move should also allow Microsoft some breathing room at E3 in regard to the failure rate, so while it’s certainly a great move for the consumer, I wouldn’t go sending mushy love notes to the company just yet. Still, I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling all warm and fuzzy at the moment. Between the rumors of the PlayStation 3 price drop and Microsoft’s warranty extension, it’s been a pretty good day for gamers. For more information on the announcement, warranty procedures and what it all means to you, check out the below links.

• Microsoft Expands Xbox 360 Warranty Coverage – Official press release
• Xbox 360 Expands Warranty – Gamerscore Blog
• Open Letter From Peter Moore – Xbox.com
• Expanded Xbox 360 Warranty Coverage FAQ – Xbox.com

THE RED RING OF DEATH STRIKES

After 15 months, it finally happened to me. While downloading the Virtua Tennis 3 demo last night, my Xbox 360 locked up. When I rebooted, I was visited by the dreaded creature known as The Red Ring of Death. My Xbox 360… is dead.

I headed on over to Xbox.com and tried all the troubleshooting tips in an attempt to revive my friendly neighborhood console with no success. A short conversation with the folks over at 1-800-4-MY-XBOX and it was confirmed that my console had breathed it’s last. As I purchased the extended warranty on the console, I was informed that a return shipping box would be arriving in 3-5 business days and that once sent back, it would be up to 14 business days before a warranty replacement would be arriving. Given the fact that I’ve taken a vacation day from work on April 4th in order to spend the day playing Guitar Hero II, I’m seriously hoping that the return process will be considerably faster.

I’d like to take a moment here to say two things… First, this naturally is going to slow down the progress on my Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel review. Secondly, don’t listen to companies that tell you console skins don’t leave any residue on your console. In removing mine from the 360, I’ve discovered that my entire console is now essentially one large lint brush. Nice.

The only good news in all of this is that there are still plenty of games for me to spend time with while I wait, so it’s not as if I’ll go through game-withdrawal of any kind, though I was really hoping on playing through Gears of War again this weekend. Oh well.

THE VIEWSONIC SAGA CONTINUES

Allow me to start this off by stating what should become the obvious – I will NEVER buy a Viewsonic product again. The customer service, or more accurately the lack thereof, I’ve experienced from this company over the last month while my monitor was in for repair has been pathetic at best. For the sake of your sanity, I would suggest you avoid them like the plague as well.

As I advised a few days back, my monitor was due to return from from warranty repair today. Well, the monitor was in fact returned, though to be more accurate, it returned in a box that wasn’t sealed on the bottom (I could find no sign of ANY tape holding the bottom of the box, nor could I find torn cardboard indicating it had been removed) and the monitor looked like someone had taken a hammer to the top of it. The case was cracked on one side, the LCD crooked, the top set of navigation buttons were caved in and the top seam of the case was apart. In other words, it was broken.

Time to call Viewsonic again. I call them and go through the whole story and am told that they’ll send me a pre-paid shipping label. What they don’t tell me is that that label will not include pick up service (which most companies offer for about $1 additional) – in other words, I’m going to have to drag this monitor down to my local UPS office. So I call again, explain that I’m not happy with the entire Viewsonic experience so far and ask to speak to a supervisor.

The clown I’m connected to has the nerve to advise me that they’re providing the shipping label as a courtesy and that they don’t even have to do that…

Before we continue, let me give you a little background on myself here… I’m the guy who always tries to see things from the other person’s perspective. I’ll usually tip at a restaurant even if service sucked, because maybe the person was just having an off-day. I’ll accept having to run through a maze of flaming hoops from many companies just to get something over and done with. I don’t get bothered by long waits or technical problems so long as you give me a reason why it’s happening. Hell, despite what everyone else told me I should so, I even would go so far as to ship a defective monitor that I had been told I’d get free shipping on back at my own expense when a company reneges. In other words, I’m the guy you’d probably want to deal with if you were having an off-day and worked customer service.

That said, I utterly lost it on the phone with this jackass.

After all has been said and done, to be told that they’re doing me a favor by picking up the return shipping on a poorly packaged and therefore damaged replacement monitor that I was sent because the previous product was defective was the final straw. I’ve gotten absolutely zero empathy from this company from day one and while I wouldn’t say I’ve been lied to by their customer service department, I also wouldn’t say they’ve been forthcoming about their policies either.

Some other highlights of my conversation with Captain Moron came when he told me that it wasn’t customer supports job to explain the return procedure to customers, that’s what the forms they mail to you are for and the discovery that for much of the conversation, he was looking at the wrong ticket number despite having asked me for the current ticket number at the very beginning of our conversation.

For this just joining our show already in progress, let me give you a breakdown of what’s happened…

1. I made the mistake of buying a Viewsonic N3250W 32" Widescreen LCD HDTV/Monitor back in early-mid February of this year.
2. After 4 – 4 1/2 months of using this thing, it died for no reason one day. (And I babied this thing like you would not believe – some friends of mine actually made fun of me for the care I gave this thing)
3. I call Viewsonic and am told that the monitor will have to go in for service. They tell me it qualifies for their Advanced Replacement Plan and that they’ll fax me a form to fill out, I simply fax it back to them, they send out a replacement monitor and when it arrives I put the defective unit in it’s box and ship it back. All of this at their expense. At this point, I’m feeling pretty good about the whole deal.
4. I get the forms and discover that they require a security hold in the price of the monitor to ensure that you’re not trying to rip them off. Since I don’t have some $1,000 that they can play with until the transaction is completed, I call them back. (I guess hat falls in line with the stated policy of not having to explain the return process to customers)
5. Now I’m told that in this case, I’ll have to ship my monitor back to them first AND I’ll have to pay the costs of shipping the unit to them. How exactly the fact that I have to send the monitor back to them first eliminates their covering the return shipping costs boggles the mind, but I reluctantly agree and pay DHL to pick up the monitor and ship it to them.
6. I’m told once they receive my monitor, I should have it or a replacement back within 14 business days. Again, I’m not particularly happy with the amount of time this is going to take, but what are you going to do.
7. I make all the arrangements with DHL, they pick up the monitor and deliver it to Viewsonic on July 5th.
8. I hear nothing for 14 business days.
9. I call them back following the 14th business day to get an update on the situation and am told "Didn’t you get a tracking number?" – turns out my monitor has already been shipped out and is die to arrive on July 26th. Thanks for the heads up guys – I’ve been getting spam from you since the day you got my e-mail address, you’ve got it on file with my RMA #, but you couldn’t think to tell me it was on it’s way back.
10. The monitor arrives. It arrives on it’s side because the bottom of the box apparently wasn’t sealed, and it’s damaged as I described above.
11. I call customer service and am told that this time they’ll send me a free shipping label and that all I have to do is return the monitor to them and as soon as they get it, they’ll send out a replacement. I get a new RMA # for the second return.
12. I get the shipping label via e-mail. In reading the instructions and I discover that it does not cover (or allow for) UPS picking up the package at your residence. You have to take the thing down to your local UPS office. Greeeeeat.
13. I call back and explain the situation to customer service, who again apparently must be staring blankly forward at their screens like fish looking at their reflections. I ask to speak to a supervisor.
14. I explain the situation to the supervisor (along with the fact that I’m not happy about having to take time out to drag this thing down to my local UPS office) and am asked for my RMA #. I provide the new one and continue the conversation.
15. I get told that I was sent a prepaid return label as a courtesy and that they didn’t even have to do that.
16. I lose it on the phone with this clown for awhile.
17. I get told that since it needs repair, he’ll have to open another RMA #… you know, exactly what they did 15 minutes earlier. Yup, he’s not even looking at the right ticket. He’s looking at the original ticket. He then tried to make it sound as if I gave him the wrong ticket number. (Usually I may even give someone like this the benefit of the doubt, but the fact the only number I had at the time was the new ticket number ensures I gave him the right one)
18. I try to impress on this guy the reason why I just lost it on him and explain the above to him, including the constantly contradictory replies I’ve gotten from customer service and the fact that this is now going to be dragging into it’s second month. This is when I’m told it’s not Viewsonic’s policy to explain the return procedure over the phone – that’s what the one page, barely explains anything e-mail they send you is for. So… it’s policy not to communicate with your customers? That sounds about right weighed against the experience I’ve had with Viewsonic so far.

That’s where it stands right now. I’m sure this situation will only get worse as time goes on as I have absolutely NO faith in Viewsonic as a company anymore. If I could, I’d ask for my money back at this time and call it a day, but since I didn’t buy the monitor directly from the company that’s not an option. The worst part? not only am I now going to not have had this monitor for 2 months, but apparently my 1 year warranty continues to run during this period, so by the time it comes back, I’ll be into the 6th or 7th month of my warranty. Given the longevity of the product the first time around, I get the feeling that the question of how much longer the monitor has left is always going to be on my mind and be a constant worry – and soon it won’t even be under warranty.

My advice at this point if you’re in the market for a HDTV or monitor? AVOID VIEWSONIC LIKE THE PLAGUE. Bad products, horrid customer service, a horrid warranty program and a general poor attitude towards the customer do not equal a fun experience. I’ll be updating this story as news warrants. Please, feel free to post your own comments, suggestions or Viewsonic horror stories in the comments section via the below link. (The add a comment link will be to the right of the article after the link)