http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3159284

If your Xbox 360 hasn't experienced red rings of death, your probably know someone who has -- the machine's a little finicky. Mike Antonucci recently chatted with Microsoft exec. Peter Moore across a number of topics, including touching on the seemingly high number of faltering Xbox 360s, despite Microsoft claiming a "3% failure rate."
Antonucci passed on the story of one user who replaced his Xbox 360 twice in the last seven months and wondered whether Microsoft's been dodging the real issue. Moore refuses to comment on specific experiences with the hardware, but says people should be focused on how Microsoft treated them as a result of the failure, not the failure itself.

"I can't comment on failure rates, because it's just not something - it's a moving target. What this consumer should worry about is the way that we've treated him. Y'know, things break, and if we've treated him well and fixed his problem, that's something that we're focused on right now. I'm not going to comment on individual failure rates because I'm shipping in 36 countries and it's a complex business."

Given Moore's response, what's been your experience with Microsoft's customer service fixing Xbox 360s? We'll look into compiling some responses into a follow-up story.

i am not at all surprised with the answer. but it does acknowledge that there is a higher than 3% failure rate, or else he would have flat out towed the previous company line again. sadly, the failure rate is much higher and we all know it. the processor/mainboard design are flawed.

it's interesting his response. if they were more concerned with how they are addressing the problem, why shaft people just out of their 1 year warranty. it's their flawed design.

Mine failed last weekend. Called MicroSoft on Monday and they agreed to fix it which made me happy. Its more then a week later and I still have not received my shipping box which makes me unhappy.

To be continued.

I have to say that the 360 is one of the faultiest things I've ever owned. I've never had one single electronic device fail on me more than that thing has. I've had to send it in for repairs 3 times.

Guess it really comes down to what they think "treating someone right is". Do I think they treated me right in relation to my repair? No, I don't. In addition to the inconvenience of being without the thing for a lengthy period of time. They refused to refund me for the 3 months of Live! I had paid for, even tho I only got to use a bit less than 3 weeks of it.


My repair went something like this:

Unit started freezing up continuously, it would not run more than a minute or two before it would freeze up. Called MS and was told, until there is 3 red rings there is nothing they can do.

After a week of being completely unusable it finally died. Called MS again, its now the day after Christmas. I don't get the box until after New Year's. It takes a week to get there, 3 days for them to decide to send me a refurb, and then another week to get it back to me. Guess what? It's DOA right out of the box!!!

Another week to get the new coffin, 2 days for them to decide to send me another refurb, another week to actually get it and woohoo! This one goes 48 hours and then 3 red rings! You get the picture, a week to get the coffin, 2 days for them to decide to send me yet another refurb. A week to get it back and thankfully this one has been going strong since Feb. The only problem is it is without a doubt the LOUDEST unit I've had!! It Sounds like a house fan on high when it's reading from the DVD Drive.

Unless something has changed since Feb of this year, they shipped every box 3 day select. NOT once did it arrive at either end in 3 days. The usual was 5 business days + a weekend. The quickest one was a box that was picked up from them at 7am on Monday and delivered to my home after 5 Friday evening.

"I can't comment on failure rates, because it's just not something - it's a moving target. "

Exactly how hard is it to give a real number on. You have 2 numbers: 1) the number of units that are sent back for repair. 2) the total number of units sold. You divide 1 by 2 and get a simple failure rate. Throw in a time factor and there you go. Don't give us this BS about "it's not something...blah blah blah"

I love my 360 but after ot broke and the way M$ handled everything I now hate them.

I really didnt like the Customer Care Dept.

M$ knows they have a problem but they act as if they dont.

Personally, I'm on my fourth 360 now but thanks to the Costo return policy I've never had to deal with Microsoft's customer service. My original Xbox failed and they were absolutely horrendous while the unit was still under warrantee.

The Xbox 360 is hands-down the buggiest, loudest, most poorly designed piece of consumer electronics I've ever owned. A friend had issues with his own and then, after getting the run-around from MS (who wanted to charge him over a hundred dollars) decided to repair it himself. He installed a better (quieter) fan and manually improved airflow by cutting an extra hole in the side, which solved his overheating issues. It's a frankenstein, but at least it works.

The stock case is so tight under the DVD drive it's no wonder so many systems fail. It really feels like MS rushed the 360 out to get that one year head-start, and who knows if it's going to pay off in the long run. They've generated a lot of ill-will in my house, that's for sure. That said, I'd love for the new "Elite" 360 2.0 systems in the fall to have 65nm cores and guaranteed Benq drives.

"I can't comment on failure rates, because it's just not something - it's a moving target. "

Exactly how hard is it to give a real number on. You have 2 numbers: 1) the number of units that are sent back for repair. 2) the total number of units sold. You divide 1 by 2 and get a simple failure rate. Throw in a time factor and there you go. Don't give us this BS about "it's not something...blah blah blah"

I work as a reliability engineer and I can tell you that its not that simple. I would venture that since you disagree with his comment, you really dont understand the issue as much as you think you do also...

My launch 360 went down around Christmas 06. No run-around, no hassle, nothing. two weeks later, I had a new unit. No problems since.

I can't say the 360 is the faultiest piece of equipment I've ever owned- that distinction falls to my PS2.

You can tell it's high like in 20% high or so simply from all of the reports. What surprises me the most is that they aren't making major revisions to the hardware to make things better in terms of reliability, heat and noise.

Wanna treat customers well Mr. Moore? Give the people that have their systems break, a NEW ONE, rather than someone elses broken machine.

I work as a reliability engineer and I can tell you that its not that simple. I would venture that since you disagree with his comment, you really dont understand the issue as much as you think you do also...

This is a BS excuse. Whereas in my job (research) it can be difficult to explain phenomena to people, it still can be done. Sure, the issue is complicated, but you can still give an educated answer to the question. They don't want to answer for one reason, legal issues. Thats it, point blank. I don't blame them either, who wants to come out in public and say that they have released a faulty product.

i wholeheartedly agree with you dpe8598

I have to say that the 360 is one of the faultiest things I've ever owned. I've never had one single electronic device fail on me more than that thing has. I've had to send it in for repairs 3 times.

While I love my 360 to death, the only other video game console I have had fail on me in the last 20 years of gaming was my original ps1 which the drive went out of but it lasted for god knows how long before it did that. My first 360 failed 10 months into its life....

Personally, I'm on my fourth 360 now but thanks to the Costo return policy I've never had to deal with Microsoft's customer service. My original Xbox failed and they were absolutely horrendous while the unit was still under warrantee.

The Xbox 360 is hands-down the buggiest, loudest, most poorly designed piece of consumer electronics I've ever owned. A friend had issues with his own and then, after getting the run-around from MS (who wanted to charge him over a hundred dollars) decided to repair it himself. He installed a better (quieter) fan and manually improved airflow by cutting an extra hole in the side, which solved his overheating issues. It's a frankenstein, but at least it works.

The stock case is so tight under the DVD drive it's no wonder so many systems fail. It really feels like MS rushed the 360 out to get that one year head-start, and who knows if it's going to pay off in the long run. They've generated a lot of ill-will in my house, that's for sure. That said, I'd love for the new "Elite" 360 2.0 systems in the fall to have 65nm cores and guaranteed Benq drives.

I had the same experience with the original XBOX so went the Costco route on the 360 as well.

The moving target comment makes me think the number is large. Classic diversion of attention, "doesn't matter if they fail, it gives us the opportunity to treat you right!" He sounds like he is a Marketing Director.

Maybe i'm in the minority, but I have had 0 problems with my 360 to date, and I got mine around just after launch (January 06).

i had four - since december 06.

two had issues with not reading anything.
two overheating.

futureshop was nice enough to give me an instore credit.

and since then i have been a happy camper and no need to worry about the xbox breaking, and getting some beat up, used refurb.

The unit is a piece of garbage and is as another poster here said"the faultiest piece of hardware I've ever owned" I've handled it like a newborn and kept it completely ventilated since day 1. Since day 1 it has been freezing, refusing to boot/3 red rings. I'm at the point now where it takes me 50+ tries before it boots up.

Still on my launch console but when it dies. I wont pay to get it fixed or get another one.

well i'm pretty sure mine is on it's way out, and i will be getting another for sure, tried the ps3, and my wife has a wii, definitely nothing there for me. hopefully MS will help me out with my repair, if not i may just have to get an elite.

This is a BS excuse. Whereas in my job (research) it can be difficult to explain phenomena to people, it still can be done. Sure, the issue is complicated, but you can still give an educated answer to the question. They don't want to answer for one reason, legal issues. Thats it, point blank. I don't blame them either, who wants to come out in public and say that they have released a faulty product.

Umm he did---3%.

I've had mine since April '06, and while I've not had any red rings (is this the nuvo BSOD? ;)), my console has recently been scratching discs and inexplicably freezing up. I treat this thing with kid gloves, no reason it should be doing this.

I can say that this will be the last MS console I will ever purchase, unless they get their shite together. :mad:

I think people overreact to his answer. I mean he knows it had a high failure rate and we know it so why talk about it...They know its their and go about fixing the problem the best way they can with no hassle and it still gets hate.

Microsoft has been nothing but wonderful with me. I got a 2 year warranty they replaced my console no problem and turn around was always 5 days (business days) I get a letter in the mail telling my that my original 2 year warranty purchased in September of 2006 that ran until September 2008 was now extended until 2009 giving me an additional year which they did not have to.

My only complaint is that I cant understand the damn people on the phone, I hate talking to people with broken english and I end up repeating myself a half a dozen times...Outsourcing is a bitch.

I think people overreact to his answer. I mean he knows it had a high failure rate and we know it so why talk about it...They know its their and go about fixing the problem the best way they can with no hassle and it still gets hate.

Microsoft has been nothing but wonderful with me. I got a 2 year warranty they replaced my console no problem and turn around was always 5 days (business days) I get a letter in the mail telling my that my original 2 year warranty purchased in September of 2006 that ran until September 2008 was now extended until 2009 giving me an additional year which they did not have to.

My only complaint is that I cant understand the damn people on the phone, I hate talking to people with turbans on and I end up repeating myself a half a dozen times...Outsourcing is a bitch.

So because they treated you right, everyone else should stop complaining? That's a rather self-centered mode of thinking.

I do agree that their support line is painful to deal with. It's just awful.

I'm still on my launch 360. I've never had any problems and I do not find it too loud, but I sit 9ft back from mine. If it dies, I would go to Costco ( where I bought it ), and get a new one. The only other game sytem that has ever failed on me in 30 years ( I'm old, started with an Atari 2600 in 1977), was the PS1 ( CD drive died) after 2-3 years.

I think the support quality changed somewhat when they started outsourcing. That's when all the complaints started coming in.

My experience is as follows, first replacement in 05/06 (This was refurb box dated 10/05) went perfect yet the second replacement (New box 06/06 was in 08/06 is when I noticed the outsourcing had taken place. This was not as troubling as some of you had experienced but I did have to really listen because the connection was poor due to the lower volume level and a lot of static. But it went well because we understood each other and yes, I did have to repeat a thing or two and that was fine.

I was so worried about having a bad experience based on all the complaints on this forum but I did not. I even got a follow up call when the box came in.

So because they treated you right, everyone else should stop complaining? That's a rather self-centered mode of thinking.

I do agree that their support line is painful to deal with. It's just awful.


Not at all am I implying that...But you have to take the good with the bad...Its ****** to even have to expect these things to happen but we know the problem lingers and the best thing to do is take the good with the bad and Microsoft has treated me right way better than the service I have seen from Circuit City/Toys R Us when it comes to broken consoles....I could have really fought TRU about the crap they pulled on me...

I had the good o'l red ring of death...

The support was actually wonderful.

I called up, told them everything, had the box for around 5-6 months..

I received a shipping pre-paid box within 3-4 days. Shipped it out, Received it back in about a week... everything was fine. and still fine... its been around 8 months now.

My only complaint is that I cant understand the damn people on the phone, I hate talking to people with turbans on and I end up repeating myself a half a dozen times...Outsourcing is a bitch.

:confused:

Im usually a fan of yours spinks, but that comment was kind of unnecessary. I agree sometimes they sound Indian, Asian or other non English as primary language speaking and can be hard to understand, but no need to go the standard ignorant route... Theres enough of that everywhere you turn anyway...

Whats the point of this thread again?

:confused:

Im usually a fan of yours spinks, but that comment was kind of unnecessary. I agree sometimes they sound Indian, Asian or other non English as primary language speaking and can be hard to understand, but no need to go the standard ignorant route... Theres enough of that everywhere you turn anyway...


Sorry to offend anyone I have had a hot morning but that is the only thing I regret about their service. I have to walk through the steps just to tell me what I already know and I have no clue what they are saying...I turn my phone volume on maximum and it still makes me ears bleed...It would be different if they would be pretty affluent in the english language because I do have some indian/arab friends with an accent and its not a problem but when they speak broken english on a phone you cant hear its just irritating when you have to ask them to repeat themselves and they do the exact same back...Its poor service, I fear the day I will get someone speaking french/spanish one day on the other side of the phone to get my 360 fixed...

Each country should have their own service phone IMO.


*edited original message*

Mine failed last weekend. Called MicroSoft on Monday and they agreed to fix it which made me happy. Its more then a week later and I still have not received my shipping box which makes me unhappy.

To be continued.


I spoke to customer support tonight to check on the status of my shipping box. The rep told me it was billed out on May 9th and that I can expect the box on May 14th. Then I reminded him that TODAY is the 9th and that my reference number was from May 1st. He could only apologize. I'm wondering if this has been a particularly bad week in terms of failures?

To be continued.

My launch unit broke about a month ago. After hearing all the horror stories here and other places about M$'s so called customer service I decided to take matters into my own hands. I bought a new 360 from BB, took it home, swapped hard drives, packed the old broke 360 in the new ones box, and promptly returned it back to the store for a FULL refund. I normally would not condone such things but in my opinion M$ is playing its customers for suckers, so I might as well stick it to them. BB doesn't lose out because MS will just send them out a new unit for the return.

I blame each and every one of you for this situation....


Hope that got your attention!

But seriously, MS has done what can only be described as pure brilliance when it comes to covering their tracks over the whole failure rate issue.

Because MS bypasses the retailer and encourages the retailer to make the customer go direct, they have effectively shutout any third-party from collating data in any substantual way. Just think how it would be if every single customer with a faulty 360 returned their console to the store rather than directly to MS.
For every customer that does go back to the retailer, 20 more will just go straight to the source. If the failure rate is as high as most people think, then I would imagine that retailers would have by this time refused to stock the item if the burden was transfered to them for every failure.

We have inadvertently helped them veil the truth from us by our own actions. Whether the rate is as high as we think it is or as low as they say it is, one thing is true, we can never truely know.
Now I'm a little iffy on US consumer law, but in Australiasia and the EU, there are consumer rights that allow the customer to insist that the retailer deals with the problem.

Its sad that we have actually cut out the people that can give us definitive proof of any widescale failings. I'm sure the retailers worldwide are still getting many back, but not in the significant numbers they would if they were the main stopping point for returns. I'm going to make sure my retailer knows about it if my console fails.

*PS. I don't blame anyone for taking the easiest route to getting their console fixed, its human nature.