Microsoft extends Xbox 360 warranty to one year, covering most "bricked" consoles

Sorry Microsoft, hate to be back seat CEOs here, but we really think it might behoove you to actually do the right thing from the start one of these days. We're all proud of you for finally patching things up for your consumers in these recent Xbox problems, but why is it so important that you wait for a class action lawsuit and/or heated public outcry before you come around? Just saying is all. Anyways, if you're one of those recent victims of the Fall 2006 firmware update for the Xbox 360 and had your console bricked, you might be glad to learn that Microsoft has extended its standard 90 day warranty to a full year, and the new warranty applies retroactively. That means current consoles less than a year old are now covered, and those who have paid for repairs for a 360 less than a year old will be reimbursed in 10 weeks ago. We're not exactly sure how this helps those who purchased an Xbox more than a year ago, just to have it bricked by the Fall update, and we're guessing that class action lawsuit isn't going anywhere, but at least it's a good step from Microsoft -- just a few weeks late.

[Thanks, Andrew S]

[willyjsimmons @ Dec 22nd 2006 11:33AM]

Well ain't this a ...

Once again, Microsoft, once again!!!!!

Jeez.

I feel a Cher song coming on.(sorry for the flat booty visual)

[Ed @ Dec 22nd 2006 11:44AM]

Heh.

My 360, 5 months old at the time, died late last month. It was clearly out of warranty, and I'd bought it at Costco, so I returned it. Costco let me open the new one at the Customer Service desk and swap in my old hard drive, which was great. I kept the saves, the downloaded games, etc.

Except for one thing: because I bought the XBLA games on my old 360, which died and I returned, they were tied to that machine. I can play them on my new 360 when I'm logged in, but if Live is down or my wife wants to play the games, no dice whatsoever.

I spent 2 hours last night trying to explain the situation to CSRs from Microsoft. Eventually they decided I needed to find proof that I had returned my old 360 before they would issue me codes to "purchase" the games I already own again.

What really sucks is that if my 360 had held out one month more, I wouldn't have this problem.

What REALLY sucks is that if Microsoft had a slightly more relaxed DRM system I wouldn't be in this situation, either.

Now I have to go to Costco three days before Christmas and see if they can give me a copy of my return receipt.

There's even an 800-post-long thread on the Xbox forums about this exact problem, and the CSRs were still clueless for the first 90 minutes of the call. Ugh.

[Ronald Heft @ Dec 22nd 2006 2:32PM]

Can't you just redownload the games from Xbox Live? Microsoft lets you do this, and it should then tie them to your new 360.

[TheCash @ Dec 22nd 2006 7:25PM]

Why didn't you keep your return receipt in the first place? One would think you'd hold onto that thing for dear life after your first one crapped out. I wouldn't be so quick to jump down the CSR's necks for requiring something most people would still have in their possesion.

[Andrew @ Dec 22nd 2006 11:44AM]

So this means that the 130 I payed for a March 2006 console will be refunded, and that my 1 month old refurbished console I just got now has a 1 year warranty? Or an I greatly confused?

[Matias Korhonen @ Dec 22nd 2006 12:26PM]

90 days? Wow, folks in the USA have it tough. The warranty or guarantee for pretty much all electronics here in Finland is at least 12 months.

[Adrian Williams @ Dec 22nd 2006 1:36PM]

damn 12 months maybe thats why they launch consoles in Japan and the US first just in case they brick or fvckup after 90 days they wont have to pay millions

[spaceman @ Dec 22nd 2006 12:53PM]

In fact by the EU directive 99/44/EC all EU countries have 2 years! EU countries can only improve on the directive, not take anything away from it. Finland has a very good law system for this sort of thing.

(I live in Finland myself and had to scare HP into doing the correct thing! I ended up getting 200€ish comp out of them!)

[johnnyd @ Dec 22nd 2006 1:06PM]

Mine bricked last week. Bought it the day it was released last year and worked fine up until a week ago. Emailed MS support and they responded within 15 minutes with standard troubleshooting (unplug, reboot, etc) and attached a ticket and phone number. I called the number and was on the phone all of another 15 minutes. I paid for shipping out, they will fix/replace and ship it back. 30 minutes to resolve. That ain't bad.

[Dave @ Dec 22nd 2006 2:06PM]

I got my Xbox 360 in November 2005. I got the Red Ring of Death earlier this month, a little over a year after I bought it. I called up 1-800-4-MY-XBOX and the chick on the phone said that they would still cover it because it was a launch console, I didn't have to pay for anything.

I got my replacement earlier this week, and everything seems good so far. It sucks that it died, but it's pretty cool that I had a working replacement 10 days later at no cost to me after over a year since the initial purchase.

[sam @ Dec 22nd 2006 2:09PM]

That is why i purchased a ps3. I like the xbox 360 but fear it will be bricked by microsoft. Which i believe they are bricking consoles on purpose, so people will either pay for repairs or purchase new ones. Mine still works, but i have not applied any updates to it, in the fear that it will be bricked.

[GhostDoggy @ Dec 22nd 2006 2:24PM]

Sam, you got a PS3 out of fear. Lol. Sorry, man, but that's admitting a little too much, no? You spent $200 more on fear. You were willing to forget about games you had considered on the Xbox because of fear. I got two years of warranty (one from Microsoft and one from Zmex), plus the uber-positive customer service from Costco.

I saved the $200, though, and didn't give into fear.

[James @ Dec 22nd 2006 2:24PM]

OK, first, sam, your comment makes no sense -- what kind of retard would "[brick] consoles on purpose", then extend the warranty so that they would have to pay to fix/replace the bricked console? If anything, the move that this post refers to flatly disproves your theory.

Second, I really lucked out. Yesterday, I got my 360 Premium system -- literally at 9:00 last night. They asked if I wanted a 1-year extended warranty for 30 bucks, and I would have taken it if I lived closer to the store (see below). I told them I'd think about it, but now... I figure if something is going to go wrong, it'll probably be within a year.

Aside: you have till the end of the month (if you live in the US) to find a Micro Center near you (www.microcenter.com) and get a 360 Premium for HALF OFF. They have a $100 mail-in rebate, and if you apply for a credit card and spend over $399 on it, they'll give you 13000 "points" (as if you had spent $13,000 on the card), which can be instantly redeemed for a $100 check, or more if you keep using the card and racking up points. You probably won't be able to beat that price until the Xbox 720 (or whatever) comes along. Not an advert or anything, I just don't want people to miss out on the deal.

[Ed @ Dec 22nd 2006 2:35PM]

I tried. The console is linked at the time of purchase, not the time of download. So my purchase is permanently linked to my old console. Only repurchasing the games/content will link it with my new console.

[Geoff @ Dec 22nd 2006 3:47PM]

So I was right not to purchase the extended warranty after all? Nice. :) I knew it!

[Bertrand @ Dec 22nd 2006 5:47PM]

"We're not exactly sure how this helps those who purchased an Xbox more than a year ago"
Those were by definition manufactured in 2005, so they're under warranty forever.

[Mike D @ Dec 23rd 2006 5:49AM]

sorry for the language but holy f**k how can you blame this on Microsoft? Sony had batteries that were life threatening and they didn't take action right away! Companies have to do a cost benefit analysis before they do something like this and they also have to prepare for it.

[TV @ Dec 23rd 2006 12:16PM]

Ed,

What you said makes no sense.

"Except for one thing: because I bought the XBLA games on my old 360, which died and I returned, they were tied to that machine. I can play them on my new 360 when I'm logged in, but if Live is down or my wife wants to play the games, no dice whatsoever."

I have 2 360s right now, and I don't/didn't have a problem downloading the XBLA games to both of them. My games aren't tied to either machine. How is this possible? Plus, I bought the second hard drive used..

[Septimus @ Dec 24th 2006 10:40AM]

MS replaced my console last week and tacked on an extra 2 years warranty also which is nice.

[Isaac @ Dec 24th 2006 5:13PM]

Haven't you guys ever seen Fight Club? Ed Norton talks about his job with the insurance company and he's spot on, but it affects *every* large corporation.
1. Find/analyze defect.
2. Determine how many people might have it.
3. Figure out costs of paying for future repairs/class action lawsuits later vs. paying to replace/repair defects *now*.

Remember, every dollar they don't spend *right now* is a dollar they get to keep in the bank and earn interest on (or use as liquid cashflow, I'm sure there's more to it than just bank interest, but you know what I mean). That's the basis to rebates as well and why rebates take 8-12 weeks to get back to you, that's 8-12 weeks of interest/assets they get to use instead of you. (not to mention the large number of people who lose their paperwork or are too lazy to file the rebate, or just do it wrong). I'd imagine it probably makes their quarterly numbers look better too, if they time it right. MS/Sony aren't going to fix your bug/glitch/bricked systems out of the goodness of their hearts, they're going to do it because it's financially the better route to take.

Not to mention some upper manager somewhere is thinking, "Geez, if I don't spend the money to fix the problem *now*, and it's not likely to manifest itself seriously before the quarterly bonuses, then it'll make my fiscal numbers look better... F'm, I'll get my bonus now and worry about it later. If I'm even still working here..."

Money money money my friends. Stop being fan boys to the big corporations, neither Sony nor Microsoft nor Nintendo give 2 turds about you, but they'll be happy to trade you a big turd for what's in your wallet. :)

[Monarky @ Dec 29th 2006 7:25AM]

I've had 2 X360's brick on me since launch. First time I waited over 4 weeks. After the last time it was much quicker (less than 5days), but I left it in the box and put it up on ebay with bonus games and controller as New. Got most my money out of it, so now I just got a Sony PS3 and just pulling that thing out of the box impressed me with it's quality look n feel. This is some real futuristic looking kit here. Now a near a week into ownership, I'm amazed everyday by something new about it.

Still used to what went on at X360 launch with power cord fires n recalls, BSOD's, heat problems, and those wonderful bricking error codes! Live's first day was anything but smooth and good. Go back and look at forums during those days, even Official ones. There was a horrendous amount of problems and confusion. Another problem my X360 had, was the ghost in the DVD/CD drawer, where sometimes it'd take and alot of times spit back out. Always a battle just to get that drawer to stay in. Not the only either, this has become one the most complained bugs in the system! Have problems with 50 times pushing it in and call Microsoft, you get nothing! They won't acknowledge the problem even exists. To Hell with Microsoft and it's not about what they should be rightly doing for their customers. It's about making units that function properly in the first place so you don't have to go through the hassle!

I'm done with Microsoft for good and after so easily installing Linux on the PS3, I just finished getting Beryl and Xgl Sabayon Linux on my PC, and I am flat out floored. Why didn't I do this sooner!? Vista sucks and Long Live Linux! LOL

[laurence @ Nov 17th 2008 6:51AM]

I been waiting about 5 weeks for microsoft to send me a box, so i can ship it back to them to get fixed. is there another way to get my xbox fixed faster. This is making me very very mad and Iam loseing intrest in microsoft.

[Ryan @ Jan 13th 2009 9:41PM]

Watch, I bet you Microsoft Purposely bricks consoles, you send it back, pay $100, they prolly just flip a switch on the inside, then send it back to you, making like 100 Bucks for doing nothing.