Things I Hate: Microsoft Xbox 360 Customer Service
So, some of you have been lamenting the change of heart that I’ve had following both my damning review of Twilight and my ill-fated attempt to see the Spirit. A kind, happy Jeff is not a Jeff that some of you want to read, it would seem.
Well, you guys are in fucking luck.
Today, I am a burning obelisk of pure hate thanks to dealing with Microsoft Customer Service.
Last night, I got home and wanted to play some Guitar Hero. I fired up my Xbox 360 and got the infamous Red Ring of Death that indicates hardware failure. This happened to me not long after launch and my experience with Customer Service that time was exemplary. This time?
I went online to arrange a repair on my own, and that’s where the problem began. I was asked to register my console, and was informed that the serial number of the console was already registered. I didn’t buy the console used, either; I got it directly from goddamn Microsoft. Because I can’t register the console, I can’t do anything online, so I have to call.
When I call, I am confronted with an impenetrable wall of automated responses suggesting that I use the Internet to do what I need to do. It takes way too long to finally talk to a human being who is obviously outsourced and obviously unwilling to deviate from his script, and I have to explain my problem to him at least three times. He then asks me to walk through each of the suggested fixes that the online troubleshooting guide and the automated phone system have both suggested to me. He does not address the console registration issue and he won’t tell me how much the repair will cost, just that I need to print a label online and send the console in. I’m given a service number and told to have a great day. Which, you know, seems very likely because one of the few things I can do that will occupy my time without requiring me to think is broken and I just spent a half hour on the phone with someone that I want to strangle.
Once I get a confirmation email, I try to print my shipping label, but SURPRISE - the website that I’m directed to doesn’t recognize my service number and/or zip code. So I now have a broken Xbox 360 which will be repaired 3 weeks after I ship it to them with the shipping label that I can’t print. So yeah, that rocks.
As it stands, I’m going to have to get back on the phone with them, which I’m as excited about as setting myself on fire, wearing footie pajamas to work or reconciling with my ex. I sometimes feel like the universe consigns me to the most difficult route to any positive resolution. Bullshit like this is why.
27 comments
I find it’s best to be drunk when dealing with tech support of any kind. Also when dealing with people in general.
As an Xbox 360 owner, this post fills me with dread.
One trick that has always worked for me when dealing with intractable cubicle drones is to state, “I am an irate customer. You aren’t paid enough to put up with me. Connect me to your supervisor.” Say this in your best burning obelisk voice and I can practically guarantee you that the drone will happily pass the buck.
If at any time you feel you’re being given the runaround, repeat this line. Eventually you will reach someone competent.
Don’t be afraid to threaten their pocketbook, either. Saying “I am unhappy with my subscription. How do you intend to keep me as a customer?” will send most Customer Service folks into paroxysms of helpfulness and special offers.
Maybe I just got lucky (in a sense), my Elite broke down today with the RRoD. Called the support #, told them what was wrong and that I had already followed all of the troubleshooting steps at their web site. Gave me instructions on how to ship it for repair on the spot! So for me, I can’t complain…yet. I still don’t have a working 360 in my hand and I’m sure something will go wrong along the way but here’s hoping.
Don’t feel badly. My power supply broke and Xbox customer service has sent me two incompatible replacements and now a third is supposedly coming only after calling twice . I have been on the phone 5 times with them. Its been almost 2 months since I was last able to use my console.
My brother had the same problem. Turns out he had to type in his zip code + the extra 4-digits of yours extended zip code. Now that he’s in, it says his warranty is expired (which shouldn’t be true) and he can’t find the shipping label to print. Now he’s gotta call them back.
I bought a two-year service warranty shortly after I purchased my $500 elite 360 system at a Sams’s Club. The warranty stated I would get a loaner 360 if repair was ever needed. I never got a service warranty contract but my credit card was charged for it. calls to xbox were unfruitful. 6 months after purchase the dvd drive went out and I call the 800-my-xbox service line. they proceded to tell me that they had no record of the extended warranty and I would have to send it in as a regular warranty repair. I told them I didn’t want a refurbished unit, I wanted my original one repaired. They took 20 days and sent another elite that was 3 months older than mine and had a beat up looking face plate and a louder fan and drive. Still asking MS to have my 2 year extended warranty recognized they sent a copy of a service contract—–for the serial number of my original that they had kept. It covers the 360 I don’t have until 2010. The service people I talk to after that state that the serial numbers are updated. This weekend the replacement 360 goes RROD. I call service hoping to set up repair. They still can’t find or recognize the service contract even when I give them the all the numbers. They say because the service contract only covers the original unit and original serial number (that they kept).
Tonight I am on the phone to xbox service 90 minutes. They ask me to fax in the the service contract so that they can review what they will do for me. I can send my unit in under the 3 year extension for RRODs. Their record keeping stinks if they can’t track the serial numbers of the refurbished units they replace and honor an existing service contract.
So to console my weeping children I bought an arcade 360 this weekend and will reuse my hard drive. The last supervisor I talked with said this will take 2-3 weeks to resolve and maybe I can get a repair after that. Apparently I need to send a long letter to Redmond to straighten out this trashy customer treatment but I don’t even hope that they care about their end users who had the bad experience of trusting their products.
Update Day 3
I faxed the copy of the service contract and case numbers for the repair that took my extended warranty 360 and gave me back a poorly performing replacement. No warranty now because they kept the unit and serial number I had the warranty on. When I talked with Achmed 3 days ago he said they would give resolution of this the highest priority. No reply from xbox service. Stone cold dead silence from them exemplifies how much they appreciate your business. When you buy a $500 elite 360 and an extended warranty you will still get the same miserable disinterested service from this company and a money pit to boot. At least it toasts bagels.
I have a different route altogether when dealing with Microsoft. I know that buying a console is a gamble, and even when a customer does everything right, they often get screwed and shell out a load of cash, have to wait a lot of time for a repair, etc.
I say screw all that nonsense. the cost, both financial and time-wise, of a warranty repair is just not worth it.
I decided to do my homework on repairing and modding an x-box, and i found that you can buy an elite off ebay with a broken dvd drive for about 100 bucks. I bought a new, quiet BenQ drive for 35. to swap out the drives, you need to flash the old drive’s unique key to the new drive. A bit of a hassle, yes, but there is a wonderful silver lining to this story. the process of flashing a dvd drive with modded firmware to play burned games is the same as what you must do to replace a drive. so you turn this hassle into an opportunity :)
i now have a beautiful elite, and tons of free games, grand total spent: $200 for everything.
Screw you, microsoft. If your system worked without constant risk of repair, i wouldn’t be doing this :) but your system fails often, and your support blows. So arr, matey, I’ll keep pirating away until you fix your process.
I am having the EXACT same problem. I swear I could have written this, because this same bullshit happened to me last night; tried to do this online, couldn’t because it said my Serial Number was already registered, called and finally got to an outsourced human, then couldn’t print the fucking shipping label.
Microsoft. Your customer service SUCKS!
Hey guys and gals, we should all contact our local news stations or your FOX news networks in your city. Write them an email and lets get this thing in the media so we can show our disgust and despair. I already wrote to FOX news in nebraska.
This shit has gone on for long enough and it is surely not fair. This piece of shit cost me 300 bucks. and now it doesnt even turn on. I am super pissed at microsoft.
they knowly sell you crap, now they won’t fix it, under thier warranty, are they up for bailout money? We woud be in jail if we pulled this crap, all thier products are crap, they need to be put out of business, sued, an the money given back from to the people they stole it from. Because they work with the government, spying on the people for them, they get away with it.
https://twitter.com/XboxCSApathy
starting the uprise.
Different problem same bullshit. My system has an unreadable disc issue…$99.99 for repairs (Guess what..ALL repairs are $99.99!!!). System went in for the RRoD issue in October, now a different issue….I went to the top of the bullshit ladder and got Steve at Corp. (At least I think he was at Corp. Wouldn’t give out his location for fear of retaliation) Our warranty ran out in January, so we are responsible for the repair…NO. Microsoft is a crappy company with NO customer service, it should be called customer screwvice. Steve has a title….Global Escalation-Xbox issues. Apparently they are very familiar with the problems on a corp. level. He was not authorized to give me the name or number of anyone higher than he. His supervisor does not return peoples calls…no exec. does. Buyer beware..Xbox, Vista, you name it…Bill Gates should be ashamed. Send all crap systems to corp headquarters with notes stating how upset you are as a client, and move to Playstation and Mac! Fuck ‘em, they can’t create things that work, they just want market share, they DO NOT support the customer.
my disc tray just broke and i cant seem to fucking print out the label for shipping!!!! GRRRRRRRRR. plus customer service sucks so now i’m screwed.
Customer service for xbox 360 is bullshit. Outsourced personnel do not know a damn thing. They received console on June 15, 2009 and to this day I have not received anything.
Called them last week, they received package but no detail as to when it would be mailed. Promised they call me back and did not. Just got off phone with them and cursed them out. I requested I speak to someone in United States and they said I had to keep calling until I got some one. I am so fed up. My son everyday is asking me package. Does anyone know the address to office in VA so I can chew them out. I requested they refund my money and they won’t even do that. Supervisor does not know shit.
My 360 got the rrod at the end of june. Got it back a couple weeks later, functioning again, but now, THE WIRELESS HEADSET NO LONGER CONNECTS TO THE CONSOLE. The Wireless controller? It will stay connected for short periods, but FORGET about trying to play it online. What good is a controller to you that loses its signal for 5 seconds before reconnecting. So I called customer service and I sent it right back in a day later for a new repair on a wireless problem with the console. Got it sent back a week later completely unchanged. Called them up AGAIN and asked for a supervisor, told him the situation, and he said the same thing the first operator said. “Ok just send it back in and we’ll fix that for you.” I got it back a week later, and AGAIN NOTHING WAS DONE TO IT! I called up customer service, got an outsourced employee again, asked for her supervisor, waited 10+ minutes on hold again, got her alleged supervisor who was also outsourced. Told him he could convince me why I should still keep my xbox when I’ve sent it in 3 times this summer and they haven’t fixed the problem. He made me no new offer or said anything I hadn’t heard already, so I told him to send the message to his supervisor that they just lost a 7 year customer and hung up
I purchaced an Xbox live account for 12 months and used it for 9 months ranking up to a 6th prestige in Call of Duty World at War online.Just to have Microsoft billing lock my account for no reason other than I opened a second account for my girlfriend on my same Credit card.After a month and a half,Verifying my Info was correct over and over and fucking over through emails online support and phone calls I am still told to go to their billing website and Verify my Info is correct .Yesterday I filed a complaint against Microsoft for BREACH OF CONTRACT and CREDIT CARD FRAUD with the BETTER BUISNESS BUREAU.
Exact same problem. 5 hrs of my time wasted and blood pressure through the roof. I live about 10 miles from Microsoft in Redmond, Wa. I am taking this piece of crap there tomorrrow. Cant take anymore of their customer service.
I just read everyones posts. I am printing and heading over to Redmond tomorrow with my XBox 360 and all your posts.
I dont trust anybody in their customer service. It is a joke . Its worthless. Bill Gates lives in Medina, about 12 miles from here. Wish I could go knock on his door, but its all gated.
lol you think this post is shitty check this out….. So i was at work and i got home turned my xbox on to find my nephews had changed my gamertag with my last 800 ms points in an attempt to make themselves a gamertag….So I call microsofts east indian support center where after 20 minutes i get a op. and they can hardly speak english. I than went on to tell him what had happened and never used the words hacked stolen or comprimised whatsoever… and out of me telling him the story of my nephews he seemed to think i said my account was stolen….2 hours later after i taked to the dude im playin cod mw2 and i get kicked off…I than tried to sighn on once again and was told that my account was stopped due to credit info blah blah blah…. but this cant be because i paid for 3 months gold in nov and im good till feb…so i call microsoft back the next day….they put me on hold for 2 hours on and off than they put me on with a “Resolution Specialist” and the only resolution they had was that i wait 10 to 15 days for my profile to get un banned because it went to upper management…..Ive been callin them since for 3 days and guess what……upper management has no number and no place of location i called microsoft and they gave me the same shitty number i been dealin with I’m half ready to crack this system in half and get a ps3 …….Final word F*CK XBOX “CUSTOMER SERVICE” I’ve been pissed off all weekend dealing with these idiots……I basically got screwed over because the idiot couldnt understand my language… I WOULDA BEEN BETTER OFF BUYIN 800 MS points and changin it back or keepin it!
Ive joined the ranks of the seriously po’ed xbox owners. Red ring of death. Six weeks to get replacement sent. Same red ring of death when i turned it on. Called customer service four times yesterday. Call dropped three of those times. They say it will be another three weeks for repairs. As a republican even i can say we need to fight the power!
i was bannedbanned for CoC, thats fair enough but they then ban me for the same reason as before i call up customer service talk to some foreign guy who whispers everything he says then asks me to speak up lol. he does nothing takes him about 10 minutes to put me onto his supervisor who didn’t even know whether they could un ban accounts so she had to ask wtf?
so in short if someone annoys you get them banned with friends submitting complaint, they can’t track who submits the complaints so don’t worry. enjoy getting all those people banned as microsoft don’t care.
Same shit different customer. I’ve been going back and forth with MS customer service for a few weeks now. What I have found is that when you corner the customer service rep. with how their policies are incredibly unfair to the customers, then they just start lying to you to get you off the phone. I’ve been lied to regarding the mailing of a part 3 times in the last 2 weeks. Oh, and don’t try actually getting to a manager or anyone who can resolve your problem on the phone - they refuse to pick up. They hide behind the drones no matter how much you insist on being transferred to someone in power.
To solve the “Service number and postal number complaint problem.”
I received the e-mail from customer support that :
1. had incorrect links to customer support
2. told me to log in with my repair number and postal code
But, the postal code thing wouldn’t work.
You DO need to log on to xbox.com with your xbox live ID so that the top right of the screen recognizes you and gives your LIVE Id and your gamer points ..etc.
THEN go to support.
THEN log onto check repair status.
Enter your repair ID, and your postal code in the format *****-****
So, like, 80241-1255 or whatever yours is. You can find your postal code on USPS.GOV
Then click on the link. NOW, the print label button should work.
It takes a LONG time to print your label. But without the whole postal code, it just doesn’t know what to do.
I printed mine, and will send it off today. If I don’t come back here to complain, assume that it worked.
Other facts: I am using Internet Explorer if that makes any difference.
bunch of bullshit runaround with xbox sent our $ 500 system to get repaired at my cost . It had a game stuck in the machine, they said we never had a game stuck in it so we lost the game .The manager was a total idiot to deal with.
Leave a Comment