How The Game Is Played

A weekend of games: Part 1 - 360 blues

Well,
This weekend I finally got a chance to play with some toys I've had sitting waiting for me.  Having finished the gaming table  (article and pictures  on that to follow), I decided to hook up my refurbished XBox 360 that arrived last week.

The good news.  It was easy to hook up and I got a nice big picture on the projector screen in my home theatre.

First problem:  It wouldn't recognize the wireless controller.  Apparently, my "fixed" XBox still had a broken blue-tooth synch switch.  A quick google however on the problem told me that you can synch the controller using the cable from the "charge and play kit."  This kit also comes with a rechargeable battery that folks on the internet said was essential. So a quick hop to GameStop and $20 later and I was synched and ready to try it all out.

More good news.  The Wireless controller worked flawlessly sitting in my theater seating with the XBox360 in the rack in the next room.  I was able to boot up and make my online account.  It said it wanted to download an update and then it would restart the machine.

I watched it download, then the screen went blank and I waited.... and waited...  and waited...
Nothing.

Going back to the rack, I saw the Xbox360 had three of its 4 "ring lights" lit red.  Power cycling didn't help so I wnt back to the net.   Success, it seems on the 360 you need to leave it off for at least 10 seconds on a power cycle.  Returning to the box, I powered it down, counted to 20, and turned it on again.  All 4 lights went happily green and I went back to my theater seat to play around.

Mass Effect, the 360 game I really want to play, hasn't shipped yet, so I started prowling the online offerings. I saw a few  interesting demos and videos and started the downloads.

Next problem: After about 90 minutes, the screen suddenly goes checker board and freezes.  I go back to the rack and put my hand by the box... its not blowing particularly hot air so it shouldn't be an over-heat.  I shut it down, count to 20, and start it again....

Still red!  Uh oh.   I do it again , nothing changes.  I unplug everything, count to 20 and plug it all back in and turn it on.  Sill the "red ring of death" as the net community calls it.  I go back to google.  The only advice I can find is to call 1-800-4MY-XBOX.  This is late saturday night.

Good news again: MSFT has the line staffed 24 hours seven days a week.  A very nice lady, probably in India, takes all my information and tells me that (1) This problem needs a factory return.  They will send me a prepaid shipping box to do so (2) That they will extend my free online subscription a month to cover the time I'm down and (3) They have an extended warranty to 3 years to cover the red ring of death.  (Such secret warranties actually are fairly common.  The auto industry uses them all the time to cover known manufacturing problems.)   She also apologies profusely and what sounds very sincerely for the hassle.

I am now waiting for the box.

All in all I have very mixed reactions to this.  I have bought many refurbished products over the years and this is the first one I've had any trouble with.  Microsoft really needs to work on their quality control (QC.)  They also need to understand that QC is *especially* important in refurbished units and a basic test of *any* refurbished unit should be a burn in bench test of a day or two. 

On the other hand, their customer support has honestly been excellent.  All in all this has to be costing them a fortune on what was already a loss-leader product (the 360.)  There are lessons we could learn here  in terms of customer support.


 

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Posted at 02:22PM Nov 12, 2007 by gameguy in General  |