bordagen

Those of you who are frequent readers here would more than likely be aware of my past Xbox 360 troubles.

Well, it happened again week before last. Needless to say I got on the phone to Microsoft right away and ordered the cardboard coffin for the dead device. I was told that it would take between 24-48 hours for the box to arrive, and then I put the console in and send it back with the courier.

48 hours later, the box still hasn’t arrived, so I ring them up again and explain that the coffin hasn’t arrived and I get an apology from them and a guarantee that a box will be with me within a further 24-48 hour period.

Another 48 hours later and still no box. I ring Microsoft again and ask to be put through to a supervisor. This is a whole new conversation as apparently their systems were spinning down for the day (which is strange if they are still open for another 2 hours – but never mind) so the guy goes and tells me that he is looking up my details on the system. Then I hear nothing for 15 mins – just dead air. I question this with a simple “hello”, but nothing. So I hang up on him and ring back, then my mobile rings and it is the supervisor again. Apparently there was some sort of communication problem and he had to call me back. I then get assured that another service number has been raised and a box would be with me in 24-48 hours. As a goodwill gesture I get sent a free wireless controller (which is nice).

The next day – a box arrives for me to send the Xbox back in, but the UPS guy who delivered it wouldn’t take it back to the depot, so I had to ring up for UPS to come and get it.

I arrive back from my long weekend to find another box waiting for me at work. Another coffin.

Currently I am still waiting for my Xbox to be returned to me. I think it will be next week sometime now – but I have missed New Dashboard Day…

Yesterday I received my cheque from Microsoft for the amount I spent to get my Xbox 360 repaired.

For those who haven’t been following the saga of posts, it’s taken me nearly 20 weeks to get this refund when MS informed when they changed the repairs policy that it would be between 10 and 12 week.

Sadly there was no compensation for all the problems that occurred along the way, but at least I have the money now.

Lets just hope that the cheque clears.

After the call earlier, I decided to write an email to the Boss, the Head Honcho – Mr Gates himself. I also CC’d in J Allard (the corporate vice president of Design and Development for the Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division – source).

I never expected a reply, but lo-and-behold I got one. Not from Bill Gates, but from J Allard.

I’m not really sure if this is actually from him or a minion but it’s a reply and possible forward movement on the matter. According to the email, J already ‘[has] someone already on it’.

I’ve just had Xbox Customer Support on the telephone asking me exactly how much I paid to get my Xbox repaired.

Surely they would have this information on their system, or if the refund isn’t from them but from the repair centre, then they too should have record of this.

It’s coming up to 20 weeks since the announcement and I still haven’t received my refund now. Has anybody else reading this had theirs?

I have been chasing my elusive refund from Xbox over the three red lights of doom error repair that I suffered back in April.

I was told last month that I would receive the refund by the 6th November.

That date has since been and gone and I still don’t have it. I rang them up today to try to find why this is, only to be told that the refund was sent out, but had been sent back to Microsoft.

Apparently, Microsoft are now cutting me a new cheque and sending this one to my NEW address – despite me changing the address at the beginning of September when I still hasn’t received the refund.

Since we have been given our notice for moving out of our current house, it occurred to me that I still hadn’t received my refund from Microsoft for the last set of repairs that my Xbox 360 went through under the new policy.

On phone to MS (again) to check the status of my 3 red lights refund in accordance with the new policy.

For a moment I thought that they were telling me that I wasn’t going to get a refund – but luckily I am after the support ‘technician’ checked with her superior.

I just asked if there was a way that I could track whether the refund cheque has been sent out yet – at the moment I am on hold again whilst she checks with the supervisor again. Apparently they are going to check the status and get back to me in 48 hours to see if they have sent the refund already.

It’s a shame that after I was blogging my experience with Xbox Support for this long, I didn’t finish the tale right away but what with birthday things and actually getting the console back, I was quite overwhelmed.

Yes the console is back, and plugged in to HD-goodness. It is, dare I say, ultimate greatness. Typically though, the day it arrived was the day that I was back at work and Liz was in York. So I had to enlist the help of my brother to wait in for the delivery for me. But after the busy that was that, I can sit back and finally play Dead Rising as it was meant to be played, in glorious high definition.

Now we have a bank holiday weekend coming up and I can spend some quality time with my console catching up on games I haven’t finished, or not played enough.

I just came back from Richer Sounds today, after getting myself a spiffy nice upscaling DVD player. Quite a nice bargin too, what with the HDMI cable being bundled with the player (should have been £15) and the optical cable having some money knocked off it (should have been £20).

I can now watch my DVD’s in 1080i which makes them look awesome – I tested it on Superman Returns.

The DVD player also has a USB port on the front so I can put DivX on to my 4GB memory stick and watch them downstairs on the big telly rather than huddled up to my monitor.

I also have all my AV equipment going in to the telly and the sound output in to the AV receiver which channels it rather nicely.

I’m still waiting on my Xbox 360’s return, I found out today that it is in Prague still! I have been told though that it should be back in the country by tomorrow and back to me by Thursday, but on current form, we shall have to wait and see.

Interesting.

It would seem that I have been lied to by Xbox Support again. After ringing them on Friday enquiring about the status of my Xbox repair I was informed that it was with UPS but hadn’t been scanned. I just rang them up today to check on the status of my delivery, as the tracking number I was given was not showing up on the website tracking system.

As of this morning, the tracking reference is still not registering on the site, so I figure that I might have written the tracking number down wrong. I rang up Xbox Support again to be told that it has left the repair centre. I rang UPS who tell me that it hasn’t been registered with them and that Xbox Support might just have printed the tracking label out.

So it would appear that my Xbox is stuck in Limbo.

I rang up Microsoft Xbox Support again today to see if I could find out about the status of my repair.

Turns out that it has gone out for dispatch by UPS, but at the time of the call hadn’t been scanned at a station. I was told that I should expect it to arrive back after the weekend. I was however given a tracking number so that I can keep an eye on it’s progress.

Luckily I have Monday and Tuesday off of work so at least I can wait in for it.