An anonymous e-mail hit the tips line earlier today and after placing a call with Microsoft’s technical support, we can confirm that starting February 2, all launch day Xbox 360s will no longer be covered by Microsoft’s three-year extended warranty. The warranty should have technically ended at the end of September last year, as I was told by the technical support agent.
If you’re unfortunate enough to own a launch version of the Xbox 360 and need to send it in for repairs after February 2, you’ll have two options available to you. You can either call Xbox’s support line and get the unit fixed for $119, or you can just go to Xbox’s online support page and get the unit fixed for $99, saving yourself $20.
It looks like Microsoft is attempting to cut the amount of calls they get by giving customers a “discount” by having them go through the online page. You pretty much have today and tomorrow to claim your launch Xbox 360 broken due to the Red Rings of Death to avoid paying the fee.
While we’re on the subject, how many Xbox 360s have you all gone through? I’ve gone through two so far. My first Xbox 360 (that I got shortly before Halo 3 was released) audio output died.
