Microsoft admits 'unacceptable' 360 reliability issues; extends warranty

LookingFor

I guess all these reports about 20-30% failure rates for 360 have finally forced Microsoft's hand:

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3160812

Microsoft announced today they are extending all Xbox 360 warranties to three years, a policy that not only applies to new consoles but retroactively, as well. If you've had to pay for Microsoft to repair the red ring issue in the past, they will pay you back. At 2:30 p.m. PST, Microsoft will hold a teleconference to announce this.

"As a result of what Microsoft views as an unacceptable number of repairs to Xbox 360 consoles, the company conducted extensive investigations into potential sources of general hardware failures," said the company in a statement. "Having identified a number of factors which can cause general hardware failures indicated by three red flashing lights on the console, Microsoft has made improvements to the console and is enhancing its Xbox 360 warranty policy for existing and new customers."

Hopefully they just fix the design too. Whether you're in-warranty or not, having your system fail is no fun at all.

Ciaran500

Fastest I've ever seen you report news and first time you've ever posted Xbox news o_O

LookingFor

Ciaran500 wrote:

Fastest I've ever seen you report news and first time you've ever posted Xbox news o_O

You're welcome It's kind of hard to know what's post-worthy here and what's not, generally..I think this should interest any 360 owner, though.

RobertFoster

Is it worldwide, or just in the US? IIRC, the US generally get 30 day warranties while the EU gets 1 year. 3 years for everyone is great, and good news for those who've had to pay in the past.

LookingFor

RobertFoster wrote:

Is it worldwide, or just in the US? IIRC, the US generally get 30 day warranties while the EU gets 1 year. 3 years for everyone is great, and good news for those who've had to pay in the past.

Worldwide. Although they say it might take a few days for everyone to come on stream with this new policy.

Stephen!

does this mean that if your console breaks down, they';ll be repairing it with the new changes?

Sad Professor

This is good news alright. I only bought a 360 a little over a week ago but I'm glad I'll have that extra piece of mind in case anything should go wrong. Here's the full statement from Peter Moore:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/petermooreletter.htm

There's also an FAQ.

Apparently it's going to cost them over $1 billion.

johnny_ultimate

Good news for all of us. With more and more stories coming out about 360s (I have heard of one exploding, and one poor soul on his ninth 360 - although I can only assume that he left his 360s on 24 hours a day, beside a radiator) I constantly fear playing that white box for any long amount of time. But at least Microsoft have addressed the issue, and made efforts towards dealing with it before it spirals out of control (a class action was likely brewing somewhere).

Although you have to wonder why Microsoft keep going with consoles, what with all these losses and costs.

a bald bloke

johnny_ultimate wrote:

Although you have to wonder why Microsoft keep going with consoles, what with all these losses and costs.

Probably because games are from their point of view are only about half why
they do it, for them it's about getting into your living room and selling
additional services, music, movies etc...

GrumPy

If a customer has an issue indicated by the three flashing red lights, Microsoft will repair the console free of charge—including shipping—for three years from the console’s purchase date. We will also retroactively reimburse any of you who paid for repairs related to problems indicated by this error message in the past.

Sounds a bit strange, does this mean because my 360 died from graphic card death, and I still paid €125 for them to send me out a new one, that I am not covered?

steviec

It's about time.

I had three seperate 360s break, including the third one which I sold to a family member about a month ago who rang me to tell me it died last week. I just hope he hasn't broken the warranty seal because he said he'd try and fix it himself if Microsoft wouldn't...

I may be tempted to go buy another 360 soon then, this is a step in the right direction though they really need a hardware revision fixing the problems.

0ubliette

Irish GrumPy wrote:

If a customer has an issue indicated by the three flashing red lights, Microsoft will repair the console free of charge—including shipping—for three years from the console’s purchase date. We will also retroactively reimburse any of you who paid for repairs related to problems indicated by this error message in the past.

Sounds a bit strange, does this mean because my 360 died from graphic card death, and I still paid €125 for them to send me out a new one, that I am not covered?

i was thinkin the same. my premium never got rrod, but freezes in almost every game i play on it. So am i not covered either??

Riesen_Meal

They apparently also have a heat-sync fix for it now aswell, as a lot of people who have had recent refurbs got a whole new fan-thingy in it......

Fingleberries

a bald bloke wrote:

Probably because games are from their point of view are only about half why
they do it, for them it's about getting into your living room and selling
additional services, music, movies etc...

Exactly ... It's a cunning plan, and it's no big secret as they talk about it openly.

If they're in your living room already and you're so used to using their interface, their services, etc. to download content (ok, we're not as hooked because we don't get all the same stuff on offer as our American cousins - TV shows, Movies, Music, etc.) ... then why would you want to add another box (from another company) to your living room to do the same job?

Alnilam

Woo-hoo, my release 360 went "ring of Death" a week after the warrenty expired, must ring MS over the weekend and get it sorted. Forza 2 Here I come

JM MARCONI

Irish GrumPy wrote:

If a customer has an issue indicated by the three flashing red lights, Microsoft will repair the console free of charge—including shipping—for three years from the console’s purchase date. We will also retroactively reimburse any of you who paid for repairs related to problems indicated by this error message in the past.

Sounds a bit strange, does this mean because my 360 died from graphic card death, and I still paid €125 for them to send me out a new one, that I am not covered?

Thats what it looks like. If I ever have any problems with mine and dont have the red lights, i think il be telling a little with lie on the phone.

JM MARCONI

Have a listen to this. It will probably anwser your questions.
http://www.majornelson.com/archive/2007/07/05/Show-_2300_233-The-one-with-Peter-Moore-on-the-Xbox-360-enhanced-warranty-.aspx

ciano1

did we not have a two year warrenty before they extended it????......i am reading alot or articles on the net saying that european consoles had a two year warrenty

Microsoft said it would extend the warranty of the game console to three years to customers worldwide. Previously, products sold in the United States were covered by a one-year warranty, while Xbox 360 units sold in Europe had a two-year warranty.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/06/business/06soft.html?ref=business

Sad Professor

ciano1 wrote:

did we not have a two year warrenty before they extended it????......i am reading alot or articles on the net saying that european consoles had a two year warrenty http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/06/business/06soft.html?ref=business

Well I don't know about the rest of Europe but in Ireland the Xbox's manufacturer guarantee was only 1 year. However due to an EU directive (which has been implemented here) the retailer must provide repairs/replacements free of charge for at least 2 years, potentially 6. So from the consumer's POV most of the legal obligation falls on the seller and not the producer. That's my understanding of it anyway but there's a lot of confusion on this matter.

Absolam

Sad Professor wrote:

Well I don't know about the rest of Europe but in Ireland the Xbox's manufacturer guarantee was only 1 year. However due to an EU directive (which has been implemented here) the retailer must provide repairs/replacements free of charge for at least 2 years, potentially 6. So from the consumer's POV most of the legal obligation falls on the seller and not the producer. That's my understanding of it anyway but there's a lot of confusion on this matter.

NOT true. Can you quote the directive and its' translation into Irish law? The guarantee from seller to buyer is still only covered by the Sale of Goods Act, which provides for a reasonable period of guarantee. This has through custom and practice come to be accepted in law as one year. Should the law be changed, it would have to devolve on the producer as it would create an unfair burden on a seller otherwise. So for now the general guarantee at retail remains one year: in specific circumstances (3 red lights) Microsoft are offering an additional direct service for 3 years.

thebman

Absolam wrote:

NOT true. Can you quote the directive and its' translation into Irish law? The guarantee from seller to buyer is still only covered by the Sale of Goods Act, which provides for a reasonable period of guarantee. This has through custom and practice come to be accepted in law as one year. Should the law be changed, it would have to devolve on the producer as it would create an unfair burden on a seller otherwise. So for now the general guarantee at retail remains one year: in specific circumstances (3 red lights) Microsoft are offering an additional direct service for 3 years.

A reasonable amount of time is not defined as one year.

A reasonable of time varies depending on the product type. Consoles have an expected life span of 4-6 years. If they don't meet this then the consoles broke in an unreasonable length of time and therefore is faulty and must be replaced by the retailer who sold the faulty product to the consumer.

Sad Professor

Absolam wrote:

NOT true. Can you quote the directive and its' translation into Irish law?

Well the directive in question is 1999/44/EC and you can read it here.

According to Citizensinformation.ie it was passed into Irish law in 2003 and you can read it's translation here. I'm just home from work and my brain is kinda mush and I don't quite know the technicalities of how EU law is integrated into Irish law but maybe someone can enlighten me.

The guarantee from seller to buyer is still only covered by the Sale of Goods Act, which provides for a reasonable period of guarantee. This has through custom and practice come to be accepted in law as one year. Should the law be changed, it would have to devolve on the producer as it would create an unfair burden on a seller otherwise.

Well your contract is with the seller. You bought the Xbox from Game, Smyths, wherever, not from Microsoft. Retailers are far too fond of playing dumb and blaming the manufacturer. But the shop is always liable to the buyer, that's consumer law. Any guarantee provided by Microsoft etc is additional and doesn't effect your existing rights to have the shop repair/replace it. In my experience manufacturers usually tell you to go back to the seller anyway.

Absolam

brim4brim wrote:

A reasonable amount of time is not defined as one year.

A reasonable of time varies depending on the product type. Consoles have an expected life span of 4-6 years. If they don't meet this then the consoles broke in an unreasonable length of time and therefore is faulty and must be replaced by the retailer who sold the faulty product to the consumer.

'Reasonable' is defined by the courts when they rule on the legislation - that is why retailers give a years guarantee, because that's what the courts have required..

Absolam

Sad Professor wrote:

Well the directive in question is 1999/44/EC and you can read it here.

According to Citizensinformation.ie it was passed into Irish law in 2003 and you can read it's translation here. I'm just home from work and my brain is kinda mush and I don't quite know the technicalities of how EU law is integrated into Irish law but maybe someone can enlighten me.


Well your contract is with the seller. You bought the Xbox from Game, Smyths, wherever, not from Microsoft. Retailers are far too fond of playing dumb and blaming the manufacturer. But the shop is always liable to the buyer, that's consumer law. Any guarantee provided by Microsoft etc is additional and doesn't effect your existing rights to have the shop repair/replace it. In my experience manufacturers usually tell you to go back to the seller anyway.

If you look at the two pieces of legislation, you'll see that section 17 of the EU directive (which sets a minimun recommeded period of two years for taking action on faults at time of delivery) is not included in the Irish Statutory Instrument, so that part is not (yet?) law. The seller is of course liable for what they sell.. but it is a limited liability, as defined by the law. Even with the full enaction of this EU legislation, the seller will not have to guarantee a product for 2 years; only deal with a fault evident at the time of purchase up to 2 years after the purchase.