Xbox360 Warranty = about as usefull as a chocolate fire guard :(

[Kneel]

At around Christmas my Xbox360 stopped giving me a picture/video when it was switched on. I phoned Microsoft Xbox Support and explained the fault and that it meant I couldn't use my console. They checked the serial number and then told me that I have had my Xbox for 2 years so its out of warranty and it'll cost me £100 to repair the fault with them I explained that I could go out and buy a new Xbox arcade for £120, and the lady on the phone acknowledged this and said that thats what most people do...

Not happy with these options, I went to a repair shop in town and got the fault repaired at a still eye watering £40, especially when the guys at the shop explained that its a faulty solder on the graphics chip and basically they re-heat the solder so it sets properly again, Microsoft would have charged £100 for a bit of solder!! Either way, console fixed back to playing Forza

About 2 weeks later, the console started up with the 3 red rings, so I sent the console back to Microsoft under the 3 year warranty, they had it for about 2 weeks and it came back with a letter saying the console had been tampered so the warranty was voided. I emailed customer support and explained that it had been opened up but it was only to repair a fault with the Xbox that was out of warranty and unrelated as I wasn't willing to pay Microsoft £100 for a repair when its basically the same price as a new console. They emailed back to advise that it was Xbox policy that the warranty is voided if the console is opened up regardless of the reason and that my sons (?) warranty was no longer valid. I emailed again to give full details of the repair and that nothing had been altered, modified or tampered and that it would not affect the fault I'm experiencing and shouldn't affect my warranty...

This is the reply I got:

Dear Neil,
Thank you for contacting Xbox Support.
Kindly be informed that repairing the console outside our service center considered as tampering.
Kind regards,
Lina Cooper
Xbox Service and Support Team

In short, Microsoft seem to have carried the reliability of Windows and PCs over to games consoles, the warranty is worth less than the paper its written on and the 'Support' team are absolutely f**king useless! I have a Nintendo Control Deck somewhere that still works perfectly fine ffs, its as old as me! I will NEVER buy another Microsoft product again. I'm going PS3 and Mac tbh.

 

[PinkoCommie]

I hate to say this, but you shot yourself in the foot by getting it repaired by a 3rd party.

Pretty much no manufacturer in the world is going to honour a warranty when the device has been tampered with by an untrained 3rd party.

Basically what it comes down to is that if the repair people were poking about with a soldering iron around your video chip, it was likely them who have screwed your xbox by weakening other solder joints in the same area.

edit: also, if you had paid MS the 100 for the "repair" they would have likely just shipped you another box and thrown yours in the bin, and you probably would have ended up with a new 1 year warranty and another 3 years for RROD.

 

[Kneel]

They dont poke around with a solder iron, they put some heat at the solder on the graphics chip (I watched them do it) just to melt the solder. If there was visible damage to any other part of the console, then the warranty should be voided as that damage may have caused the issue. There wasn't, they just know the case has been opened then void it. Put it this way, if you get a service on your car done at an independant garage provided they used genuine parts then the warranty is still valid, despite what else they may have poked at with the tools they used

I imagine they would send me a new console, I will have paid for a new console with the cost of 'repair'. I should have more choice than to pay that especially when I paid close to £300 for the console originally. If the repair cost at Microsoft was reasonable I would have done it.

 

[PinkoCommie]

How do they heat up the solder then?

Modern electronics are not designed to be soldered by hand, the pads are too close together, by heating up the pad(s) you want, you will also heat up the ones in the surrounding area, by fixing one joint, you've just buggered the ones either side of it, the next time your Xbox gets warm, these go ping and voilá, RROD.

Anyway, a car is an invalid comparisson, as the car warranty doesn't specifically state that opening the case or 3rd party tampering invalidates the warranty.

E. EXCLUSIONS FROM LIMITED WARRANTY

This Limited Warranty shall not apply and Microsoft has no liability under this Limited Warranty if the Xbox Product:

• is used with products not sold or licensed by Microsoft (including, but not limited to, non-licensed games and game enhancement devices, adaptors and power supply sources) or which are otherwise incompatible;
• is used for commercial purposes (including rental or lease);
• is modified or tampered with;
• is damaged by Acts of God, power surge, misuse, abuse, negligence, accident, wear and tear, mishandling, misapplication, or other causes unrelated to defective materials or workmanship;
• serial number is defaced, altered or removed;
• is damaged by programs, data, viruses, or files, or during shipments;
• is not used in accordance with the printed user instruction materials packaged with the Xbox Product;
• is repaired, modified or altered by other than Microsoft authorized repair centers; or
• was sold as used, refurbished, or reconditioned.

You broke the terms of the warranty by wanting to save yourself some cash, so they have no legal (or moral) obligation to do anything, and now it's going to cost you more in the long run. So by trying to save £60, you've ended up costing yourself an extra £80. :lolup:

 

[Kneel]

I said they weren't poking around not they weren't using a soldering iron. Poking around implied they were poking it all over the place, they used it in a specific spot. A soldering iron is only a couple of mm in diameter, it will only put enough heat to melt or weaken the solder where the tip is placed, it was placed against an area of broken solder and then tested when the solder (and any surround components) had cooled and was tested for long enough for the console to warm up. If I lose out on £40 to find that I dont want to continue using the product through fear it will fail again somewhere within the next 2 years and again and again, when I have an original Playstation and a paystation 2 still lying around that have never had anything wrong with them, and have been played more than my xbox has then its a cost worth losing out on. I can sell my games and accessories and buy a PS3, which I doubt I'll have any worries with. Also, I'm amazed that it tickles you that much that you are lol'ing.

 

[Brand86]

They do have to draw the line somewhere really. The new ones are fine though.

What is ridiculous is the price of a new larger HDD You pay to download stuff, then pay to store it somewhere. In this day and age memory should be free / cheap as chips.

 

[Bodge!]

You got a 3rd party to look at the console, ergo you void warranty.

 

[Kneel]

They do have to draw the line somewhere, but they could atleast offer to help in someway. The repair shop has fixed RROD on a friends console before so I'll take it back on that warranty and start looking about for a PS3

 

[Dink]

what you should of done was send it back under a rrod fault

then they would of just send you out a replacement

also i'd imagine there will be the same t&c's regarding a ps3

 

[Kneel]

I would imagine there would be, but from experience I dont expect I'll use the warranty on a ps3. The repair shop has told me they could have removed any signs of them having been in the console if I'd have told them before sending it off :s hindsight is a wonderfull thing.

 

[PinkoCommie]

I said they weren't poking around not they weren't using a soldering iron. Poking around implied they were poking it all over the place, they used it in a specific spot. A soldering iron is only a couple of mm in diameter, it will only put enough heat to melt or weaken the solder where the tip is placed, it was placed against an area of broken solder and then tested when the solder (and any surround components) had cooled and was tested for long enough for the console to warm up.

A soldering iron may be a couple of mm wide at the tip, but most surface mount pads are a mm across or less and have an even smaller gap between them, even a 2 or 3 mm wide solder tip will bridge at least two pads.

Surface mount boards are just not designed for being repaired by humans, they do not have the dexterity to do it, you wobble while applying solder and you've just shorted 5 tracks, you hold the heat to long and you've just unsolddered 3 pads instead of 1.

In addition, the solder they use for SMT is has a very low melting point in comparission to your everyday solder you'd pick up at maplins, so your tolerances are even less.

So in conclusion.

Xbox360 Warranty = perfectly usefull unless you're daft enough to have some un-qualified herbert poking around an SMT board with a manual solddering iron and then expecting MS to do something about it.

edit: p.s. If you get a yellow light of death on the PS3 I suggest that you send it to Sony.
p.p.s can I have your Xbox games and controllers?

 

[PinkoCommie]

In this day and age memory should be free / cheap as chips.

WTF? Are we living in some communist workers paradise nowadays?

"I don't want to pay the asking price so therefore it should be free"

Christ, everyone wants something for nothing these days.

God damn hippies. :rasp:

 

[iimushroomzii]

Take it to the people who fixed it the first time They'll probably sort it. Still end up cheaper than the £100 when its fixed too.

 

[Christopher]

Hardly Microsoft's fault dude. You "tampered or interfered" with the device.

No one, not Apple, nor Sony would repair it under warranty after that.

 

[.Kev.]

Ive had no probs with Microsoft,

1. Snapped the cd drive off its runner, pushed it back in, rang them and told them it wouldnt eject they sorted out UPS had it 2 weeks came back fine. No charge.

2. 3 red rings, Xbox told me the warrantys had been extended for red rings/mother board 3 years i think, again UPS picked it up. They had it for 2 weeks came back sorted. No cost.

No probs or hassle,

A freind of mine also had the 3 red rings,but he wanted to have look broke the security seal trying. He then sent it off they sent it staright back saying they wouldnt touh it even thought he said he didnt mind paying.

 

[Longy]

Gotta agree with Pinko 100%, it is annoying modern products don't last as long as old school stuff but to be honest todays technology moves so fast and operate at such high temps it's hard to make something without testing it over a long duration you'll soon be out of date.

 

[Jonesy]

just buy 1 of those cheap rrod fixes online and do it yourself. Otherwise buy a new 1

 

[Chrisjk]

There is always a way around their warranty, just unlucky for you. If you had said it had 3 red lights they basically replace the console, i had a 2 year old console with a sticky draw they replaced under rrod warranty. I had the same issue as you on my first console and ended up buying a second due to their silly repair cost.