Microsoft offering free repairs for all 2005 Xbox 360s
By Paul Miller 
posted Sep 21st 2006 6:15PM
posted Sep 21st 2006 6:15PM
Those Redmond folks are sure on a good news streak. After announcing 1080p upscaling and a delightfully low-priced HD DVD drive for their 360, they're offering a helping hand to early adopters who haven't had quite as much fun with the console. Microsoft is offering free fixes to all problematic Xbox 360s built in 2005, and is sending out refunds to users who paid for repairs to that "three red lights of death" problem or other quirks before this dealio went into effect. Of course, one could argue that Microsoft should've been doing these repairs for free from the outset, and it seems like 2006 Xbox buyers are just SOL, but this is at least an improvement to the situation.[Via DailyTech]
It's about time they did this! A couple of months ago mine got the "ring of death" for no reason. I called and argued until I was blue in the face about how I should not have to pay for a hardware defect. I even spoke to a manager and they still didn't get it. This news made my day today and I called right away. They are sending me the box to repair it for free. Again, about time!
This is a nice move for Microsoft... I bought the first rev. of the original xbox, the one that could catch on fire, and well, mine did. It arched on the power supply input and started a little fire from the dust and animal hair that had collected inside. I contacted Microsoft and they wanted $150 to repair it.. I wasn't about to pay that so I opened it up and got a little creative with solder and patched it up. It's nice to see they wont make you pay for a design flaw now..
This reminds me of the problems Sony had with the early PS2s, fortunately I waited until the later units came out to get one...no problems.
I think I'll stick to waiting at least another 6 months beroe I decide on either the 360 or PS3.
You just have to wait out the bugs and gremlins.
How can I tell when my Xbox was manufactured, anyway?
Now I am a little scared now. I called tech support to get some support expecting to pay thru the nose, Ricky the support tech told me that I was still under warranty until Jan 15 2007, and that I could send my unit in to have it repaired. I sent it in on 12/15 they received it on 12/18 and are returning what I think is a replacement unit. I just hope it's not the so called "Refurbished" one. Anyway just making a comment on the fast turn around, I was actually quite surprised. Lets hope I am not surprised with a crappy replacement. Sorry for digging up an old post!
HOW CAN I GET A FREE REPAIR FOR MY XBOX 360
FOR SUM REASON THE DISC ISNT SPINNING
IT WONT PLAY AT ALL
Well MS won't own up to all pre-2006 owners of the original 360s released. I just got the three red rings of death and it died - wont go on anymore!
I called up MS and they said sorry we changed policy two weeks ago (according to the supervisor) and now you have to pay for it since its past the 1 year warranty. I find this totallly unjust as MS said ANYOEN who had a 2005 model could get it repaired for free, and now they turn around a few months later and decide we wont pay for our defects anymore. Nice customer service and a way to make an xbox fanboi reakky think about scrapping the 360, buying a PS3, and selling off my games on ebay (over 50 at $60 a pop USD). Nice way to treat your consumer public MS! Just think at 140 bux a pop, they will make over $11 Million plus on repairs for all those 360s that are just now blowing up (its almost like they patched your 360 to blow up on a certain date past the warranty since we all know they can put stuff on your machine and not tell you about whats there at any given notice for anyone who received the infamous "xbox live is updating your console please dont turn it off while this takes place" during certain games! That, AND after losing every game save thanks to the infamous dead rising game crash that effecte dme has driven me to madness! I wonder if the dead rising game is tied to early adopters and if everyone who bought the game and was an early adopter were the ones having defective 360s - possible tie-in or link? Wouldnt doubt it. This MS lemon they sold me for $400 bucks is worth the same as my trashbag now. MS is no longer reimbursing for pre-05 consoles and they have not informed the general public!! WRONG WRONG WRONG! They should recalled this garbage!
Are you f%$#in kidding me that was my life line and i was just going to use it!!!
damn ring of doom
Same thing just happened to me. They said policy changed and they will no longer repair consoles for free made in 2005.
i herd on the news bout 4 days ago how this problem is effecting all xbox users, i went upstairs to try mine and the same thing happend. but i foned xbox and ups turned up to my door the next day. i was shocked how quick they were, 7 days they told me. im not annoyed eventhough this is my 2nd xbox to have this problem. mean while ill have to stick to my ps3.