A few weeks ago I received an email from Robert, a frustrated Xbox 360 owner. He was frustrated because he had paid $59.90 for an extended warranty but Microsoft would not honor it to fix his Xbox 360. He didn’t have a RROD, he had some video issues. The warranty department seemed idiotic as you will read in his letter that he sent to me and other gaming websites. I’ve contacted Microsoft myself to no avail. The Bitbag is too small for them to be of concern. So now, as I promised, I’m bringing this issue out in the public in the hopes that someone at Microsoft will help Robert. Here’s the email with an image of his cleared check.
Hello my name is Robert and I’m sending out this email to several gaming sites and blogs hoping someone catches on and I can make a little noise about my issue.
I’m trying to bring attention to my xbox horror story because I want my issue resolved, I’m at my wits end with contacting various support personnel. I’m hoping that someone out there will publish my story and take notice to help myself and possibly others with the same problems. Below I will outline the events in chronological order.
End August-Early September 2008:
I began getting an issue with my xbox 360 where periodically I would get blue artifacts all over my screen. So after checking obvious things like cables and connections and my television I come to the conclusion that my console has an issue.1st call to support:
Went through a list of troubleshoots with the agent and he says the following “to me it is clear that your console is in need of service”. I think to myself “i knew this” but go along with the guy. Everything is fine until he says “your console is out of warranty so that will be a charge of $99″. Hold the phone, when I bought my console in February 2007 I also purchased a 2 year extended service contract from Microsoft.I inform the support agent of this and he says he has no record of me purchasing a contract and I have no proof so I must be mistaken. I painfully argue with this man until he sends me up a level in the foo chain. I talk to someone else he says the problem is beyond him and I am escalated again. This man seems to believe I am being truthful and give me an address to write a letter concerning my warranty. I take the address and write a letter.
Letter to service department early September 2008:
I wrote a letter outlining my issue and providing the information that I was told to provide, and was told this letter would take up to 30 days to get a response.Letter from service department September 26 2008:
I recieved a letter back from the service department stating they had no record of my warranty, nor a record of me purchasing this warranty. They enclosed an enveloped that requwested I sent them statements from my bank showing I had in fact paid the $59.90 for the 2 year extended service option.2nd letter to service department end of September 2008:
I sent in back records showing I paid for the warranty as well as included the information they requested, again expect to wait up to 30 days for a response.2nd call to support, November 11 2008:
Call support again regarding my console issue(still periodically occurs) and my warranty issue (not resolved). The agent tells me my warranty information is still not updated and that it would still cost me for a repair. I try to get my issue resolved via phone again, and I am again escalated to 2 other individuals. The last indivdual is very rude and says the reason I don’t have a warranty is because I clearly did not purchase from Microsoft. I actually got rather heated with this guy and read him off the information from my bank saying that my check for $59.90 was recieved and cashed by Microsoft in February of 2007.This is his answer to me:
“Well that is weird sir”Not weird sir, very very aggravating because I’m being ripped off. He then tells me that it is out of his hands and schedules me for a call back from the warranty department for anytime between 3pm and 5pm eastern time on thursday the 13th of November.
3rd call to support, November 13 2008:
I did not recieve my scheduled call back from the warranty department so I call service again. I am told that they attempted to contact me but could not reach me so the agent asks for my information again. I give it to him again and he relays to me that originally they had the wrong phone number so I give them a pass, after all the support agents that I’ve been talking to aren’t exactly impressing me with their knowledge of the english language. He reschedules me for a call back the next day at the same time.4th call to support, November 14 2008:
Again I did not recieve my scheduled call back so I wait an extra hour or so and then call support again. I get a female agent this time, her name was “Anne” I believe, I remember this because she was in fact very short with me during the call, like I was disturbing her or something. A generally unpleasent person to talk to. Anyway I tell her my issues yet again we go through the same thign again and she then tells me that support contacted me but I was unavailable. No sorry Support didn’t contact me, the log on my telephone has no calls recieved from microsoft at anytime. She actually seemed argumentative about this insinuating that I was not being truthful.Finally she says since “I wasn’t available” for the scheduled call that I have to take contact into my own hands. She gives me a number and a name of someone in the warranty department that will supposedly sort my issue out. So what is the problem here? Well the fact is I still have yet to be able to reach anyone or anything at the number provided and my issue is unresolved.
I’m left with an extremely annoying xbox console that is not only doing the aforemention blue fuzz on my screen trick, but ahs now resulted to scratching my game discs to the point where they are difficult to read.
In Conclusion:
I paid for a warranty that is not being honored, I’m out of a properly working device and I’m out of my $59.90 that I paid for this warranty. If by chance I do get a contact at the phone number and they fix my issue I have now lost nearly 1/8 of the time(3 months) of that warranty so far.I think it is time for me to start making noise about this issue because my next step is going to legal if my issue is not resolved soon. Hopefully somebody out there will grab my story and publish it.
best regards,
Robert
If he bought an extended warranty from a retailer like BestBuy or Gamestop for his 360, shouldn’t he take his 360 back to the store where he bought it from?
If he had bought the 360 direct from Microsoft then it would be a different story, but I guess since he didn’t buy the warranty direct from them, Microsoft isn’t going to honor it…. However, he did show proof that he bought the extended warranty and I think that Microsoft should just go ahead and repair it since he showed proof…but I guess they have to follow policies.
I bet that if his 360 had the RROD and he had the extended warranty, Microsoft would have repaired it in a Jiffy, because Microsoft has already been under so much heat for the RROD and they would probably do as much as they could to help someone with the RROD.
The guy should just take his 360 back to the store he bought his 360 and/or extended warranty from, and they should give him a replacement.
With the first Xbox 360 3 year warranties expiring just last month, I’m pretty sure that Microsoft’s customer service department will be VERY busy.
thats messed up i hope my 360 dont break cuz it will be my 3rd one
Am I the only one that noticed he made a check out to xbox 360? Wouldn’t you make it out to the company or the store he got it from? I didnt know you could pay xbox 360. lol
But on a serious note if thats all you have as proof then it might be hard to fight your case, but usually when you get warranties you get a receipt stating the beginning and end time of the warranty. From my experience you also have to have the store receipt for proof of purchase. But that was my experience. Now if you have a reciept of both the warranty and proof of purchase you can sue. Call the better business bureau and report it.
Not to be funny but the way you wrote the check is probably why they don’t have it on record.
come on guys. Everyone who owns an Xbox 360 knows you can buy an extended warranty directly from Microsoft. This has nothing to do with the store he purchased it from. The in-store warranties are the best. You just take your broken box back and get a new one. In this case however, he bought it from Microsoft and even though it was made out to Xbox, they cashed it. But you are right! That may be why it’s not on file.
Correction. I have a warranty form here and it says to make the check payable to ‘XBOX 360′.
ok now for my second inquiry If he didn’t start having problems till 2008 and he didn’t contact his bank till sept 08 why is the tracking number dated for 2/26/07. Not trying to be an asshole but things just don’t add up. Plus its not like we can do any thing about it he needs to take it up with better business bureau and get it investigated. Because if the bank has record that they cashed it and it was indeed for his warranty like he says then he has a case and he can either get his money back for the warranty or he can try to get money back for that and the console. Like i said not trying to be an asshole but you would have to have as many people with the same problem as the rrod had before posting on websites going to do any thing. I highly doubt microsofts paying attention thats why you contact the better business bureau, some one they will pay attention to.
I had a very similar situation happen to me.
See thread at http://forums.xbox.com/24411510/ShowPost.aspx#24411510
Basically I had to send them a fax of my credit card statement showing the charge for extended service contract, then they demanded the original call ref # from 3 years ago (this was before they had implemented online support) and then they asked for proof of purchase for my original xbox360, and the serial number. Oh did I mention I am on my 4th now. Anyway, I was fortunate enough to have all this info (!) – I know right? but it still took about 3 weeks for it to be resolved.
The tracking number dated 2/26/07 is when he purchased the extended warranty from Microsoft. I’ve purchased an extended warranty from Microsoft as well. It was a one year warranty extension and I waited almost till then the end of the first year warranty that was included before purchasing it. Only cost about $30 and it was well worth it. I ended up having to send my unit back to Microsoft 1.5 months before the 2nd year warranty was up. I had the “Unreadable Disc” error. It wouldn’t read any discs(game or DVD). I sent it the Monday before Thanksgiving & received it yesterday. Pretty damn quick considering the long holiday. Like all repairs, they just swapped it out with another one. Seems to work great, but little annoyed that it was 7 months older than my original one. Anyway, I say keep harping on them, but also contact BBB. In the future, I would definitely consider against writing checks for anything but local businesses. I paid for mine over the phone after calling 1-800-4-My-Xbox using a debit/credit card. Also, you should have known that they only applied a 1yr warranty to your account since their support site was updated August 2007 to show what your warranty expiration date was.
First, contact Consumerist.com with your story as well. They can escalate this and they will link it back to thebitbag.com.
Second, extended warranties usually have an insurance underwriter. Contact the insurance company and tell them your warranty is not be ing handled correctly and you want their help in getting the product repaired and you want to extend the time period you have been waiting for service, which is your right to demand.
Next, contact the attorney general in your state wtih this information. They really hate warranty providers who drop the ball like this. If they will not honor the warranty it is a case of fraud. This gives the entire extended warranty industry a black eye, and their reputation isn’t that great to begin with. Come on Microsoft, fis it!
step one: with dealing with M$ ask for an american office or a place in america.
step two: once you have an american on the phone tell them your problem in great detail so the unsmart person can get the idea.
step three: if step 2 fails ask for the highest person you can speak to “by law they have to if they run you around you can press charges with the law on your side” and demand your product gets replaced or fixed. “you bought it you have a right” then demand them to pay for the broken games there console messed up. “many people have done this”
step four: sell your xbox at a garage sale and profit
Ok I read the whole thing and he has to call them back. i went throught he same exact think with a 300 dollar paintball gun amd was told I never paid for it after a month and a half I called them screaming,you cant be nice. I got a new gun . The problem is hes speaking to retards.
My brother xbox went out on him 3 times in 1 year and after the 3rd time i went off on the tard on the phone, I got my brother a NEW xbox 360 1 game 3 mos live gold and 2 arcade games. You have to demand to speak to a person with a brain and you have to frighten the people on the phone.You have to remember your dealing with people who make $2.00 an hour in india and they dont give a shit.
The problem MS seems to have iss no record of the warranty which is possible, My bank “citibank” had no record I was a customer and said I had no account with them meanwhile they had 10k of mine sitting in my account and some tard when the y updated my account didnt enter my info right so what im saying is mistakes happen but he has proof so they cant turn him away he jus thas to keep at it. I like calling companies and yelling at foreigners if you want I ll call for him and see what i can do
I feel his pain. For me trying to get anything done with Microsoft customer service was near impossible. Some people have reported really good service from them, but they tortured me. I hope he gets this resolved, but thank god it’s not me that has to deal with Microsoft again… “looks at 360, please don’t rrod a 2nd time”
the people that got good service were talking to americans in america.
as with any customer service you have to ask to speak to americans or else they dick you around.
its not being a bigot in any way.
not to sound like a fan boy but please join the club where respect if apart of the there code in life.
you know japan runs off honor and respect. america runs off greed and power.
that isnt fan boy talk eather thats the truth.
This. This right here is why I’m glad to know you, Torrence. I hope MS sees this article and rectifies the problem ASAP.
This Story is actually about me a few points to make
the check is made out to xbox 360 because that is what the warranty form instructs you to do
as for the attacks on my handwriting, that was intentional as well, it was written that way to minimize mistakes which obviously didn’t help. I’m a reasonably educated man and the attacks on my intelligence aren’t appreciated.
a few things to note since I sent Torrence my letter a few weeks ago and they are as follows
I posted the same thing I sent to you at on the xbox forums and had a good discussion going about the situation. One of the VIPs sent me a pm that said the following
“I reached out to my Support friends and got this bit of information for you. I hope it helps.
The correct process is being done regarding the extended warranty and redirecting “Robert” to the service contract department, but giving out a support contact number for the warranty department is inaccurate. The best I could possibly personally offer is a discount (can’t say how much as I would need to review his full account history) on the out of warranty charge to get his console into repair and get an additional one year warranty placed on the console while he sorts out the issue with our service department. He may then have his extended warranty period from his service contract added into his extended warranty timeframe from the date of the repair.
However, it would be best though for him to stay in contact with the service contract department via snail mail so he can resolve his warranty extension issue before doing a console repair. Less potential issues in the future that way.”
This offered no real solution and only told me to continue what I was doing. Few days later after the discussion continued my thread was locked and the VIP posted the following:
“i attempted to help you by personally coordinating a resolution with Support but you’ve ignored the messages sent to you. it seems now that you’re really not interested in solving this issue and instead only here to rant and cause a panic. i’m locking this thread.”
The VIP is actively lying about what he actually sent me and stifling my voice because I’m nothing but a trouble maker.
here is a link to the actual thread so you can see it was a rational and mature discussion
http://forums.xbox.com/24078285/ShowPost.aspx
I’ve contacted support another time since the the original letter.
They told me that there was a note on my account to notify me to send the proof of payment again IF I CALL BACK. They never tried to contact me and how the agent said on the phone they seem to have gotten my other letters because he said “We are asking you to please send your proof of payment again to our warranty department.”
I continue to ask the man why am I to rewrite the same letter and resend it and all he would do is repeat the note until about 5 minutes later he just broke down and said “I do not know Sir”.
So basically this call sent me back to square 1, back to the first call I have made with no help at all.
AS for contacting the consumerist, I have on several occasions. I sent my letter to 2 of the editors and well as the tip line, even today I sent this article to the tip line and I have not heard from them. I originally contacted them before I contacted Torrence.
Other sites I contacted include Joystiq, 1up, Kotaku, Xplay, G4 forums, the xbox live/360 forums and a few other blogs and communities.
So far Torrence is the only one to offer any real type of help aside from the xbox vip who mocked me.
I’m hoping somebody out there takes notice of this because I’m being denied what I paid for, there is no question I bought the service contract and they have my money so I’m not sure what the problem is in giving me what is rightfully mine.
instead of mailing it you should ask to for a fax number and fax it. Also Let ti be known that since your check was cashed then either you want it back or you are going to file a fraud report with your bank. I did this 1 time with my bank ” citi” and they did something because a few week later i received my product and an apology letter
3 years after the launch of the xbox 360 and its still a broken mess. Microsoft really needs to do something about this and fast. But the sad thing is it’s been 3 years, so if they haven’t fixed it yet, it doesn’t look like they’re gonna.
Sorry to hear there is another out there. The same thing has happened and is happening to me. Unfortunately this is the second time MS has lost my extended warranty information. I have ordered statements from my bank and have apparently searched the wrong months.
They say my warranty expired in June of 07, but i should have a month or two left on my extended. So unfortunately the clock is ticking, and still dont have my proof.