http://www.crn.com.au/story.aspx?CIID=85600&src=site-marq Microsoft facing US$1.15bn Xbox 360 repair bill By Tom Sanders, 9 July 2007 07:27 AEST Consumer Electronics Software giant admits there are 11.6 million faulty consoles, which it will have to fix. Microsoft has admitted that every one of the 11.6 million Xbox 360 consoles sold in the past 19 months suffers from a design flaw that could cause the device to fail. The firm will extend the warranty coverage from one to three years to compensate consumers, but does not plan to instate a recall or exchange programme. Microsoft gaming chief Robbie Bach claimed in a conference call with financial analysts that the design issues surfaced recently. "In the past couple of months we started to see significant increases in repair requests and call requests and significant attention from people," he said. Microsoft did not disclose the exact nature of the problems, but said that it had made the necessary design changes and that units currently in stock will be upgraded. The extended warranty period is limited to hardware failures indicated by three flashing red lights on the console. Users of consoles suffering from such problems are entitled to free repairs and shipping. Microsoft estimated that the repairs will cost the company US$1.05bn to US$1.15bn, spilt evenly between the higher than expected return rates for existing consoles under the one-year warranty, and future returns under the extended warranty period. Damn, you'd think they would of figured this one out in testing or within the first month but a year and a half JC that is bad on their part.
When you bought one, you get a year automatically. You just have to mail it in when it gets broken instead of taking it to a store.
Every 360 has a one year manufacturers warranty. This was extended so no worries. In three years I'm sure we will be moving on to a new set of gaming consoles.
No way, usually 5 years between consoles. Too bad my console has a voided warranty. I did save the difference of a new console in games, but still, i don't have that much money to replace it if it screws up.
MS had such a hard-on to beat Sony to the market that they didn't care, and then tried to ignore the problem, or at least not publicly admit it, until the situation simply got too big to ignore with constant reports of the "red ring of death" destroying 360's.
It could just be a time related thing. Maybe whatever is causing the failures doesn't occur in just a month. I mean, I bet they did test it for a month, probably even more, but there's no way to tell if something is going to happen way down the road. ^ I don't know if that came out right, but it makes sense in my head :breakdance:
I got the red ring once, called tech support and tried all their solutions without any success. After that i hit it as hard as i could and its worked since
that happened with my gameboy a couple years back. shit wouldnt turn on, tech support didnt help, so i threw it at the wall. never had a problem with it after that
yeah, that makes sense, but usually when you test a product you do so for a month but in conditions that simulate a longer period of time, say a year, so they had to have known. also, complaints of the faults have been reported since the system was first released, so it isn't just a matter of systems now suffering from it, they have always suffered from it, MS has only now admitted it after trying to ignore it. this is because they knew they were putting out a faulty system but knew without a significant headstart they wouldn't have had a real shot against Sony. and unless consumers are now dissuaded from buying a 360 because of it, it may have been a good gamble for MS despite the billion plus expense this is going to cost them if the success of the 360 equally hurts Sony.
I like it, I put together a little story about how it came about. The Predator is like Sasquatch to some: a myth, a legend, and most believe he's complete bullshit. They've even made up several ficticious movies about his hunting prowess and battles with wierd alien creatures. Well, just like Sasquatch, there are believers, people that go out looking for him with all their cameras and sensors and what not. One group of believers went out to a beach near where The Predator is thought to reside. They laid in camoflauge for three days, hoping he would appear. Sure enough, he did! This is the only known authentic photo of The Predator to date. :breakdance: :lol: :breakdance:
how do I go about this? do I call them up and let them know the problem first and then they will guide me from there?
