Despite the fact that Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg has said their hardware troubles are a thing of the past, hardware failures for any consumer electronics happen. Maybe more so on Xbox 360's than others, but hey ... they happen.
In a recent email to consumer advocate blog The Consumerist, a reader relays a sad tale of an Xbox 360 that stopped working a little after a year of use. Their issue? One flashing red light. According to customer service, one flashing red light is a $99 repair, not covered under the warranty. Had their been three lights, that would have been covered under the extended warrant.
So here's a tip to everyone who has any kind of Xbox 360 issue, whether it be one red light, no video outputting, sound issues ... whatever: just tell Xbox Support that you see three red lights. While we normally don't advocate lying, we're big fans of you guys having working consoles that you paid for. Because videogames should be fun, and not a hassle.
And while I won't come right out and say that I've had to do this a few times (I've never gotten the dreaded Red Ring of Death, but have had other issues technically not covered under warranty), I will say that I've heard stories. Stories about people just smiling, nodding, and saying "three red rings" over and over again until Microsoft sent them a box in the mail.
Contest:
2:00 PM on 03.09.2009
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http://www.divineo.com/cgi-bin/div-us/zz-36-xbrk
this is just one site of many... and the shipping to Canada on it is atrocious but it is probably better for you American folk
Thank goodness for the Best Buy Warranty - "new" box (Read, off the shelf months old Xbox with new bundle and bundle box sticker), at no cost, save for the original warranty price.
I hear they send you a box but its full of rabies so you can't reuse it. It's just sent to make your life harder.
Don't worry, Microsoft has it covered!
Really? My last two experiences with "red ringed" Xbox 360s tell a different story.
It's not exactly like they don't check anything, right?
Your 360 goes to a service center. They ship you a completely different refurbished console. Your old one will be gutted and refitted and you'll never see that thing again. There's no WAY MS will bust a person doing this simply because they put too much automation into the repair process for RROD repairs.
They have too much backlog on busted systems to check each one adequately, so they pretty much eat the repair cost no matter what the real issue is.
That said... If you do get a red ring, you might as well fix it yourself. The cost of parts and tools is a whopping $25 and it takes all of 30 minutes to do it yourself.
The store wouldn't take my xbox and told me I had to send it to MS. I was going to have none of that. Refurbs are even worse than 1st year xboxes. And I wanted the upgraded 60gb and hdmi... and eventually the price match 2 weeks later.
Talked to the CSR and was like "what if I had disc read errors too?" I still had to send it to MS because of the RROD. Eventually the problem with my xbox was ONLY disc read errors and the RROD never existed. I got my gift cert and bought a new xbox 2 weeks later and then price matched it to it's current price 2 weeks after the purchase.
Then there was a giant warning:
"If you claim your console has been affected by the 3 red lights and our technicians determine this to not be true, you will be charged the standard repair fee."
So be careful.
Headlines are kind of like Twitter in that we're constrained by a character limit. I probably effed around with this headline a few times, and then that happened. By "that happened," I mean me being an idiot. Fixed.
Buy a PS3. You get what you pay for, well with M$ they give you as little as possible and charge for anything that could vaguely be described as an "extra". Buy a PS3, get everything you need for YEARS of online gaming (except the games) and do not worry about RROD ever again.
i just don't understand the blind fanboyism of going through so many broken consoles! If you went out a bought a brand new Ford Car and the wheels fell off after 6 months, would you go buy another one? If it happened again would you still buy another one?
I'm pretty sure you wouldn't. How about if the manufacturer KNEW it was going to happen but fooled you into buying a broken product just to get it into your home before their competitors did?
Take all the ludicrously priced perhipherals you've got and that pile of generic FPS games and trade them in towards a PS3. Get the Killzone bundle at £289 (You can't get much Xbox with HDD space and Online play for that!) and you'll never even want to play Halo again.
It'll cost you less in the long run and you'll be ready when the best games are too big for DVDs.
I've got a Snes & it still works, My mates Xbox 1 still works, Im sure my commodore 64 still works. 360 is like the new fangled cell phone that costs lotsa bones yet dies in a year. MS lost me & a lot of people with this bullshit.
Why do the Sony fanboys always go the "Halo" route??? It's no longer THE FPS everyone is playing. It's COD4 & World at War thats the best... oh yeah, because its a multiplatform title thats why.