scribblings from a deist transhumanist libertarian minarchist citizen soldier

Xbox 360 “support” fails to impress – in fact, Xbox 360 support sucks

Posted by Trevor in tech on Mar 20th, 2009 | View Comments |

I love the games available for my Xbox 360. I have more than 50 titles and I’ve spent countless hours playing titles like Fallout 3, Bioshock, Grand Theft Auto IV and so on.

Unfortunately, Xbox 360 systems won’t function without a hard drive. And hard drives tend to fail. Especially if you have a dusty house. I have 15 dogs and my house collects about 15 times as much dust as normal. My Xbox 360 has failed twice in three years.I’ve had it repaired each time. The most recent failure of my original Xbox 360 happened outside the extended warranty period. Time for a new Xbox.

Order a new Xbox 360 Elite (red edition) with Resident Evil 5 included from Newegg.com. It arrives and I try to swap out my working 120GB hard drive from the old failed Xbox 360. I get a message stating that the system needs to update. The update runs. System reboots and then I get a message saying the update cannot be applied. Damn it. I call tech support. The tech support is probably in the Phillipines. When you call you get one of those infuriating automated recording systems that is supposed to have voice recognition but forces you to listen to Xbox Live advertisments while you’re trying to figure out how to get a human being on the phone.

The first human being to come on the phone after about 10 minutes of robot voice keeps putting me on hold to “check on that for your sir.” Great. After about the fifth hold session without a single helpful suggestion as to how I can resolve my problem, the phone give me a dial tone. I’ve been disconnected. Great. I call back. Another 15 minutes of my life are wasted renavigating through the robot to get to the Filipino. I have nothing against Filipinos. I do have issues with offshoring when they won’t tell you where they are from for “security reasons” – dude, I just gave you my home address and telephone number! Don’t give me bullshit. I’m not coming to the Phillipines to kill you. I just want my damn Xbox 360 to work. WTF!

After an hour of punching buttons and being putting on hold I’m told that a) you cannot swap a hard drive from a broken Xbox 360 to a new Xbox 360 for “licensing reasons” and b) you can order a free transfer kit online to move your content from one hard drive to the other. I’d like to offer a big FUCK YOU to whoever decided to inconvenience me in this way. It makes me much more likely to spend time looking for a company that doesn’t force me to jump through giant flaming hoops to use content I have paid out the ass to use. Redownloading all my content not to mention losing all my saved games every time a hard drive fails is retarded. Why isn’t there a simple, affordable backup mechanism for the Xbox 360? WHY! This is idiotic – someone at the research and design arm of Microsoft Games should have figured this out a long time ago. It will take me hours to re-download all the additional content I’ve purchased through the Xbox Live service. What the hell man? What’s more important – keeping customers loyal or making sure it is nearly impossible to move saved content around?

To compound my irritation with the people at Xbox and their Filipino support division the new hard drive that shipped with my limited edition Xbox was dead in the water. Yeah. It was defective out of the box. The tech told me to just return it to my retailer for a replacement. Why not ship me one overnight and let me return the defective one to you? I’m now disinclined to purchase another console owned by Microsoft. When you make it hard for me to enjoy any continuity in my gaming experience you make it hard for me to remain your customer.

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Nick

When I had my playstation 2 for 5 years, it was packed with dust and it never had a problem. I sold it to game stop to get a 360 . . .I would rather the ps2 back. Theres overwhelming testimony that microsoft makes fallible crap. There controllers suck too, along with "windows live" that no one ever uses.
Matt C.

Thanks for this post. I feel a little bit better about the shit I just had to go through with Customer "Support." My console broke AGAIN, this time out of warranty. I had already purchased a new A/V Cable since I was lead to believe that was the problem. It didn't help, so my only other option is to pay $100+ to get it fixed yet again. It's amazing how years later the customer support is just as bad, if not worse than it was the last time I dealt with them. I've always been a blind Xbox customer, but I'm done now. Glad I'm not the only one.
zack

O my god I could not agree with you more. My xbox got the 3 red lights of dezacjath, and so I sent it in, waiting a month to get it back. Then, I plug the new xbox in, and it simply will not turn on. The idiots at support tell me that its my power supply box, so they ship me a new one and that didn't work. Finally, I call them again and now its my BRAND NEW Xbox that is the problem. Holy shit. Now I have to wait ANOTHER month to get my new xbox. I don't think I am ever going to buy anything from microsoft again.
Lee

Im fucking sick ! after 6 years of playing games downloading content buying upgrades with microsoft points some CUNT!!! has thought it funny 2 hack my profile an steal the fucking lot cant even sign in 2 my profile because the BASTARD has transferd it 2 another xbox everything ive ever done is now lost an 2 make it worse the utter TWAT who stole it is useing my profile on line is there some way i can get this back plz help me ive tried xbox support but keep getting some bloke who cant speak hardley any english an keeps hanging up on me which is about as much use as a chocolate fireman plz help.
trevorsnyder

Lee,

Call back. Ask for a manager. Have your proof of account ownership ready. Above all, remain calm and patient. The initial rep will argue but insist in a relaxed tone of voice that you want a manager. Mention that you are writing about your experience with XBOX tech support for (blog, newspaper editorial, etc.)

Don't call anyone a cunt or bastard - they may well be those things but it is not relevant to getting your problem solved and mentioning it an an angry tone of voice will only slow down or stop the process of getting your account back. Do you have a Microsoft Live account?
Lee

Im fucking sick ! after 6 years of playing games downloading content buying upgrades with microsoft points some CUNT!!! has thought it funny 2 hack my profile an steal the fucking lot cant even sign in 2 my profile because the BASTARD has transferd it 2 another xbox everything ive ever done is now lost an 2 make it worse the utter TWAT who stole it is useing my profile on line is there some way i can get this back plz help me ive tried xbox support but keep getting some bloke who cant speak hardley any english an keeps hanging up on me which is about as much use as a chocolate fireman plz help.
Shawn

Yep thats fucking xbox for you. Iv gone throught at least 5 of the goddam things and there customer service is shit. I'v called them about my account being hacked and me trying to get recompinsated for all of those 1600 Microsoft point cards iv spent on content and spent 2 hour talking to some indian guy who cant understand me or vise versa and i go through person through person, get hung up on multiple times, and then finally they say "well call you in ten days to investigate your problem. 10 days later hes like wse cant do anything about this unless you have the card and the recipt, now i'v kept all the cards for whatever reason but who the fuck keeps a recept of a game card for over a year? so then i said fuck you and thanks for wasting my time dickhead
jerry

my xbox sucks and i had told this morning when this will be the 5 time i have sent it in but this one is a $119 because of warranty is out. what is the use in paying 119 when you can go get a new one for 100 more. This pisses me of because everytime you call you have to talk to automated bullshit or one of those arabs that you cannot uderstand. Stand up for your rights fuck xbox.
Becky

Just bought a new Xbox 360 Elite, went online to the Xbox website to register it only to find out the warrenty had expired a month ago! I have only had it for one day, and the warrenty has expired??? I called the Xbox customer support, they only way they will issue me a new warrenty is if I fax them a proof of purchase. That sucks! So I returned it back to the retailer, went to another store found the same Xbox 360 elite. I went online to register still have the same standard warrenty expired crap! So I suppose if I get a RROD or E 7 out of warrenty now, I'm out of luck and have to pay an arm and a leg to get it fixed. So now I'm so mad I'm may return it, get my money back and forget owning a Xbox 360 elite.
Steves a Fag

Oh and Steve what kind of dumbass loser goes on xbox 360 forums when they dont have that system just to point out flaws in other peoples complaints. How bout you stop fiddling with your wiener over the idea you've only further pist this person off and actually do something productive like becoming a locksmith so you can pick locks with your tiny little cock
Matt

All i have to say is the xbox 360 is a discrace. Ive had mine break 5 times...ive never had to repair any other system ive had since nintendo and then this huge piece of crap comes along and i go through 5. If you ask me microsoft is begging for yet another class action lawsuit.
trevorsnyder

It's too bad that any company would run people ragged. That's a recipe for failure.
Jeff

You hit the nail on the head Jason. It's that reason I gave up on Microsoft and all its products - software and hardware - four years ago. Although I complained about them many years before that.
It's a shame my "company" blindly supports them with American tax dollars.
Open source is the way to go, even for government organizations. Even Trevor proved that.
Trevor

@Steve:

Thinly veiled racism? How absolutely rude of you. Don't waste your time with that sort of garbage utterance. My complaint was more about faceless corporate non-responsibility than anything, but way to misread.

Free way to transfer? The web site states it only works from the 20GB HDD to the 120HDD. "This kit lets you transfer content from your Xbox 360® 20GB hard drive to another Xbox 360 20GB or Xbox 360 120GB hard drive."

Willing to pay $800 for the system? Yes I would if the focus was on customer service. Microsoft could have provided a system that a) didn't place me into an irritating voice menu with patronizing "help" messages b) ensured that their representatives not hang up on me c) create a system that would immediately call back when disconnected instead of forcing me to repeat the stupid process when hung up on d) hire knowledgeable reps who don't keep putting you on hold every two minutes to "check on something for you" e) stop worrying about garbage like this:

"License Transfer

After migrating all the data, you'll need to transfer the licenses for your Arcade games and other content to your new console. With the license transfer tool, you can transfer the licenses of all your previously downloaded content from your old console to the new one.

Find out more about the License Transfer tool.

Major Nelson shows how it all works.

In all cases, movie rentals downloaded from Xbox LIVE will not be available after content transfer. If you have movie rentals, watch them first!"

Dude, Microsoft needs to get a clue.
Trevor

@Erik:

Erik,

I appreciate your comments.
Jason

Steve, I don't know about the other guys here, but I take great care of electronics. Among the people I know who have 360s, there's been about an 80% failure rate. So here's what I wished:

1) Microshit would actually take quality control seriously, and...
2) Microshit would ensure their customer support staff is able to communicate fluently with their English-speaking customers--nothing racist about that all--and finally...
3) Microshit customer support wouldn't lie to the customers, so in summary...

I think it's perfectly reasonable to take out our frustrations on Microshit.
Steve

So, you know you have environmental factors (excessive dust) which cause electronics to fail more often at your location, yet you took no additional steps to protect your unit?

Then, you purchased a NEW revision of the hardware assuming that it would be backward compatible with the older build?

Did you research any of that before assuming it would transfer without issue?

I don't even own a 360, and kinda despise Microsoft, but you dropped the ball on this one. They offered you a free way to transfer, what else can they really do for you?

You want to blame the phone support guys with thinly veiled racism, despite your claims to the contrary. You don't want to talk to Filipinos? You willing to pay $800 for the system?

What else could they have done for you other than offer you a free way to fix your problem? It's "inconvenient"? They don't make magic wands, you know.

Take a step back, take a deep breath, and realize that your frustration would be better spent on yourself.
Jason

Erik, what you describe is a result of Microshit's entire philosophy which pervades their entire business scheme. They're a marketing monster with little quality to back it up. From their hardware to their customer support, they exhibit zero concern for the satisfaction of their customers insofar as they continue to make enormous profits. Unfortunately, we're so easily duped by their marketing that we gobble up whatever garbage they serve up. Not anymore, says I. I have an NES from 1987 that still works like new, yet I've been through three 360s in two years (and apparently, I'm lucky it's only been three).
Erik

I worked for this company, and yes, some of the support is in the Philippines.

It's called Harte-Hanks. I was on a queue for Microsoft Windows support for Adware/Spyware and Virus removal here in the US, but they lost the contract. Despite having over 50% of calls go to the Philippines, costs were too high, performance was too low, and Microsoft wasn't happy. The company had brought in consultants to try to train us and fix procedure to improve things, but it really didn't change anything.

We sat right across from the XBox guys. They were busy all the time and run ragged even though company was also ramping up more outsourcing to the Philippines still.

At the time they were hiring literally anyone, with basically no requirements for education or experience. On my queue there were people who sounded like they had never used computers before. Employees only had to pass a drug test and take a certain amount of calls per hour to stay employed.

This company just didn't understand how low the quality was, and still doesn't. They should realize that the quality of their service is a direct function of the skills of their employees. Hiring higher and higher volumes for cheaper and throwing more unskilled people in never works.
Jason

I'll never buy another Microshit console again. Since most of the really good games are cross-platform, I'll give my business to Sony when the next generation comes out. I'm waiting for Xbox #3 to ship back from the "repair" center. Why? Because Xbox #2, the one that they sent me to replace Xbox #1, had a faulty optical drive. From the day I received it from Microshit it had trouble reading discs until it conked out altogether. Of course, Microshit won't cover the repair for this one, so I got ripped off the $100 repair fee, which is actually just a restocking fee, since they don't actually repair your console; they just send you a refurbished one from the factory. Of my many friends who own 360s, all but two have sent them in for repairs, some multiple times. Microshit sucks, and I'll not give them my business anymore. Most of my friends now say the same.