Xbox 360 - $1bn repair costs

[BananaBreadMuffin]

[source]

Basically, as the repair costs at Microsoft of broken "Red rings of death" Xbox 360s has risen to over a billion dollars, they're giving free 3-year warranties to those who have had to get them replaced.

Now, of the 10 people I know (including myself) with an Xbox 360, none of ours have broken yet, but over in the Xbox 360 Club there are regular tales of woe about rings of death, and quite frankly, it's unnacceptable. My GameCube still works (albeit, with the occasional disc reading error) after years of abuse, my PS2 similarly so, so that the xbox should so regularly crash, and not just a "leave for 10 minutes then turn on again" crash, but a crash that effectively destroys £300 of hardware, is unacceptable. The fact that if people try to make the room look tidier by standing it upright or stowing it away in a Video/DVD/TV cabinet significantly increases the chance it'll go AWOL is, quite frankly, ludicrous. This 3 year warranty buisness is a welcome retribution, but if you ask me, it doesn't go far enough. Because while it means I can get it repaired for free if it does go AWOL on me again, I don't want it to die ONCE, yet alone have insurance for the SECOND TIME.

Rawrg.

Also, if you've come here to provide such constructive comments as a suggestion to go get a wii or a ps3, fuck off right now. Seriously, you're not funny or helpful.

[Xragon]

Guess Microsoft learned it's leason... you have to make them work the first time or don't bother.

[Paradox]

Heh, my brother had one of those red rings of death on his, also I suck cock.

[Xragon]

At 7/6/07 11:11 AM, Paradox wrote: Heh, my brother had one of those red rings of death on his, also I suck cock.

Yes we already know about the last part.

[Abyssus]

I don't understand the ring; they GAVE you something to know if your 360's broken?

[hatefuleagle]

ya that kinda sucks that the xbox 360 crashes alot luckily mine hasnt crashed like that yet it has crashed a couple times (cause of hacking games only) even after about a year and half of abuse

[MittT]

I kid you not, I am on my fourth Xbox 360.

I go through them like mad.

I think this newest one is here to stay, though. I've had no problems and I've had it for about 6 months.

[thomtomw]

iv simply given up trying to repair my 360, besides I'm going to university so i cant be bothered (let alone afford) to pay for a TV licence to play the fucker.

[ClaudeSpeed]

Microsoft needs to get themselfs in check. First off Microsoft has that "The future now costumers pay later" kind of attitude that they had for years. First with XP then Xbox 360 (Develop drivers or a service pack that can be a subscription to people who don't have XBox Live) and last but not least Vista. That piece of shit operating system gets more complaints than Xbox360 circle of death. The latest experience that I had was vista's blue screen of death. If anybody does not know what that is it's a screen that is blue (I know Duh) that has words and numbers of encrypted nightmares. Microsoft need to have better quality control rather than just making products and hoping for the best.

[Xavon]

My 360 got the ring of death 3 days after I got it. I was so pissed, I had a bunch of saved files on the hard drive already and was a majority of the way through Oblivion with some sick shit when it happened. (I was addicted to Oblivion for a little while, so I had 40 hours on it in 3 days) Anyways, I didn't wanna lose my Hard Drive, so I took it out of the box right before I returned it and they never noticed, it made me a little skeptical after they opened the box to check and shit though.

Long story short, I have 2 Hard drives. I've had my new 360 for 14 months now with no error at all, and that free Hard drive I got still hasn't been used. :)

[Xragon]

So you can complain... but the question you got to ask yourself is... could you do any fucking better?

[ClaudeSpeed]

At 7/6/07 11:25 AM, Xavon wrote: My 360 got the ring of death 3 days after I got it. I was so pissed, I had a bunch of saved files on the hard drive already and was a majority of the way through Oblivion with some sick shit when it happened. (I was addicted to Oblivion for a little while, so I had 40 hours on it in 3 days) Anyways, I didn't wanna lose my Hard Drive, so I took it out of the box right before I returned it and they never noticed, it made me a little skeptical after they opened the box to check and shit though.

Long story short, I have 2 Hard drives. I've had my new 360 for 14 months now with no error at all, and that free Hard drive I got still hasn't been used. :)

i feel your pain that's what happened to me with Oblivion for the PC when I run it on Vista. I Could not copy the saved games onto a External hard drive because I could not get to window and I had to restore my PC 5 times before I gave up.

[Dark-Phire]

Hrmm, my friend got his back with 5000 Mpoints.

[saqwert]

my friend is getting his repaired now. x box 360s must be real weak

[TurtleJuice]

I thought i had one once and i think my heart stopped for a moment. Lucky it wasn't

[BananaBreadMuffin]

At 7/6/07 11:13 AM, Abyssus wrote: I don't understand the ring; they GAVE you something to know if your 360's broken?

Yeah, what kinda shitty system has error messages to help you find the root of your problem?

[simon]

At 7/6/07 11:10 AM, LickitySplit wrote: W00T I WAS ONE OF THOSE!

i just sent my xbox in about a week ago to get fixed for the problem!

Why is that a woot?

If I had a ring of death, I would be upset.

[kidray76]

It sucks, but mostly hardcore gamers have that problem. Though, youhave a point. Everyone once in a while, I take out my snes, nes, and replay a game. And I never have a problem once it gets started up.

[Xragon]

At 7/6/07 12:39 PM, kidray76 wrote: It sucks, but mostly hardcore gamers have that problem. Though, youhave a point. Everyone once in a while, I take out my snes, nes, and replay a game. And I never have a problem once it gets started up.

Well to be honest any machine will break if your run it for 12 hours a day 7 days a week... the ring of death is just God's way of telling you to go the fuck outside.

[AdamRice]

I can't imagine microsoft is too pleased with all the money they are losing on repair costs. That kinda shit can seriously destroy an entire business model. I think they already lose money during initial production of the console because they are selling it for less then it costs to reproduce in order to stay competitive.

They have to make all their money back plus a profit through game sales, xbox live subscriptions, and other extras.

[dalmo]

I just got 3 lights two weeks ago its coming back now a 3 year warranty though damn thats nicer then the one you can buy.. I suggest just when you call them complain like i did and they will give you a live card or something to reimburse you... Also i heard they replaced scratched discs..

[ZachMM]

At 7/6/07 11:13 AM, Xragon wrote:

At 7/6/07 11:11 AM, Paradox wrote: Heh, my brother had one of those red rings of death on his, also I suck cock.

Yes we already know about the last part.

LOL!

[Placebo]

I was really surprised by the numbers too, but like your friends, my 360 has had no problems since I bought it almost 2 years ago. A friend of mine got the red ring of death and sent his in. It was repaired in about a week and he's had no trouble since. I'm just glad they are finally doing something meaningful about the problems and that they seem to have narrowed down the defects, although it does seem like too little, too late.

[Memorize]

pft. I left my Ps2 on the ground, in the same spot without moving it for 7 months, and it broke.

And no, my xbox 360 is working perfectly.

1 billion? Bill Gates could pay that off with his own money in his sleep.

[AlkaSeltzer]

I just bought a 360 and I knew of the worldwide errors before I purchased it, I'm happy as long as long as my warranty checks out and repair is free. My other consoles and handhelds have never had problems, which of none were from microsoft. Hopefully these errors will not begin a stereotype, next gen I could be buying a ps4.

[Rego001]

ive been through 3 360's

the one i have now works, but i never play it anymore anyways

[sean5892]

To think. I'd have a 3 year warranty right now, if I hadn't replaced my Xbox 360's case with a custom clear blue case and blue LED's.

Damn. :[

[verycoolguy]

I've gotten a red ring of death on my 360 before, and it works fine now. I hope it doesn't face that problem again.

When I saw the topic title, it lead me to think that there was an Xbox 360 that was damaged so badly, that repairs cost a billion dollars. :o

[nightwolfv3]

To bad, you could have gotten a wii and be able to play brawl

[jmtb02]

At 7/6/07 11:09 AM, BananaBreadMuffin wrote: Basically, as the repair costs at Microsoft of broken "Red rings of death" Xbox 360s has risen to over a billion dollars

Actually that quoted figure is for the cost of repaying those who paid for fixing if the xbox was submitted in the past three years, and to cover the new costs. God knows how much they paid before.

The quoted rate of return is 33% of all current xboxes. A primary problem is with the soldering of one of the parts, which when the xbox gets too hot, the solder will melt. When the console is turned back off, the solder will become hard again, usually in a not so happy place. The xbox won't boot with the hardware being soldered in the wrong place... which is why some people have found that wrapping their xbox in a towel will remelt the solder, allowing the system to be turned back on.

I love my xbox, but yeah, it sucked when I had to ship my xbox back to Microsoft because of the Red Ring. But it was all very fast and easy to do.

1) Box shipped to you in 2-3 business days. Box comes with padding and shipping paid for.

2) Box shipped to them in 2-3 business days. At the time they recieve it, they will spend no more than 48 hours trying to fix it. If no fix, then they'll send you a new one (no worries, your saves and arcade programs are on the harddrive you took off before you sent it). They even emailed me to tell me what happened, and that they fixed it and will be shipping it. They shipped mine the same day they got it.

3) Box shipped back to you in 2-3 business days. I got mine back with a free 1 month Gold card... I thought it was totally worth the week and a half of waiting for it. Not only that, but they cleaned the entire console of dirt and grime, and made the disc tray quieter. They also extended my warranty an extra year :).

So yeah, pain in the ass, but in the nicest way possible. Customer Service was fantastic, but I just wish Microsoft would get the kinks out of their next system.