Picking up Microsoft’s slack
Playing around with computer hardware is not something I enjoy anymore. There was a time and place when I reveled in hardware. Since then I no longer care much about specs and just want something that works out of the box. I guess I’ve lost my techie edge. I’ve built many computers and unfortunately, I’ve also had to fix several gaming consoles, including my Xbox 360.
My wife bought me an Xbox 360 for a birthday present in October of 2008. It worked, I was happy, and all was well. Then it broke. It quit reading discs within a year. It wasn’t a red ring or anything like that, it just gave up. It was under the 1-year warranty so I mailed it back to Microsoft (for free) and they replaced the console with another one, a refurb. It worked, I was happy, all was well. Then it broke.
The lifespan of an Xbox: Less than a year
Last month my second Xbox 360 in 2-years gave up as well, again refusing to play game discs or DVDs. I went to the Xbox site to start the repair process and found out my warranty had expired. This was two years after I purchased my original Xbox, but it was within a year of getting the replacement Xbox. Too bad Microsoft says the replacement Xbox doesn’t get a new warranty at all, it has to survive off of the original warranty. Is it just me, or is that a little fishy?
Inside the Xbox 360, where no man should have to go
It’s an entirely different device with an entire different history of which I don’t know. In fact, the replacement Xbox could have been older than my original Xbox. It just seems a bit unfair to roll it up into an old warranty. Well, when the wife found out repair would cost $100 (which we’d never pay for anyway, I’d just get a new console for $200), she called up Xbox support and expressed her discontent, and I can’t say I disagree.
A product that has a life span of less than year is slightly ridiculous. Why would anyone spend money on a product that isn’t going to last? Despite the arguments, Xbox wouldn’t budge or waiving the $100 repair charge to make up for their shitty console. With that, I took matters into my own hands.
I need a screwdriver, stat
Even Roxi had to help fix it
With nothing left to lose, I opened up the console to see what I could find and possibly repair. I had repaired my Playstation 2 before and a few old NES consoles, so digging into a console is nothing real new, but it’s not something I really enjoy doing. All the stuff I had read online about unreadable discs in the Xbox seemingly boiled down to dirty lenses or gears or something. So I did just that. I took apart the DVD drive and cleaned some of the gizmos and laser lens. After putting it all back together, it worked. I’m not sure what single thing did the trick, but I’m just happy I saved myself $200 in a new Xbox.
But my having to fix the console myself aside, lets go back to the Xbox customer service.
As with most things, I mentioned my broken Xbox on Twitter and Xbox’s Support people replied to me pretty quickly, “Sorry to hear you are having some Xbox troubles. Drop us a line, we’d be happy to help.” It’s good to see they’re being proactive on Twitter but it’s a false sense of proactive-ness. You see after the call to Xbox and then expressing more discontent with having to fix the Xbox myself, and again announcing it on Twitter, I got another response, “If you are having any Xbox issues, hit us up, we are here to help.”
Close but no cigar
Wonderful…..but it seems a little overkill to me. I mean, if they’re using Twitter as a customer support tool, you’d think they’d do more than a canned response whenever they keyword “xbox” shows up. At least they should now they already replied to me. Instead of telling me to call them a second time, maybe they should do a follow-up to find out what happened. I’m sure there are hundreds of people manning the Twitter customer support, which is great, but keep your shit together so you can provide a less laughable customer service experience.
After the second “call us to help” I politely told them I did call and they didn’t help at all. Heck, they even apologized.
Look, I know customer service is rough, that’s why I don’t do it. But I’d like to think that if I did, I’d keep my customers happy…within reason. If they want a free Ferrari, too bad. But if they present a good case for why your product sucks and are on the verge of ditching your product all together, I’d toss them a bone. Maybe not a complete bone, or even a T-bone, but something. Something that says, “look, we’re sorry about your experience, but we can’t do that, so here’s this instead.”
If you can be hero, do it
The theme that’s livin’ large right now is customer experience, and this is a perfect case of that. It’s not just about the end product anymore (frankly, it never has been), it’s about the whole package. From sale, to use, to retirement…it’s about what that product/company provides to its consumers, and more so, HOW it provides that support. I give Xbox a nod for some basic efforts, but I’ll fail them on their willingness to step up and be a hero. They missed their chance to shine.
