Gamer's tale takes Xbox repair woes to new levels of sadness

There's certainly been no shortage of sad stories involving Xboxes, but when it comes to attempts to get the console repaired, this latest tale from a gamer known only as Nathaniel might have to take the cake. As you can see above, his console (one of the first to hit the market) boasted a good deal of personalization, including signatures from folks at Bungie and the Xbox 360 team, and a spiffy illustration by Rooster Teeth Comics artist Luke McKay. As with many other Xbox users, however, Nathaniel's console eventually packed it in, and he was forced to send it to Microsoft for repairs. Needless to say, that's when things took a turn for the worse. Despite calling ahead of time and getting assurances that his prized console would be sent back intact, and including a letter reiterating how much the console meant to him, Microsoft apparently took it upon themselves to clean it as best they could before returning it, leaving only a few faint smudges of permanent marker to ensure that it was, in fact, the same Xbox. There's no word as to what Nathaniel plans to do next (other than weep), but given that Microsoft gave the royal treatment to someone that did nothing more than get a Zune tattoo, you'd think they could at least give the guy a few free points or something.

[Brooks @ Feb 29th 2008 2:33PM]

I hate to say it.

But this was on digg like 6 hours ago..

[makishima @ Feb 29th 2008 2:42PM]

And we hate you FOR saying, so next time DON'T! No one really cares at all where you saw it before now. There are plenty of people who probably didn't and on behalf of them I will kindly ask you to leave now.

[David Piatek @ Feb 29th 2008 2:43PM]

Does someone always have to make a comment like this? Not all of us have the time to read a bunch of different news sites, so it's still "new" news to us...

[kastonie @ Feb 29th 2008 2:48PM]

man i bet you feel like a total asshole because you are stupid and made this comment, and it is now low ranked....

[Arkweld @ Feb 29th 2008 2:53PM]

and Nathaniel heard the story before EVERYONE! Even before those on DIgg, but I don't think he went on there and said "this is old news to me."

[Brooks @ Feb 29th 2008 2:53PM]

Haha,

I guess I came off a lot more elitist than I intended. Sorry ya'll, didn't mean to offend anyone. I just thought it was interesting how stories appear double on sites that are pretty related.

This really is a shame though. I still can't figure out why Microsoft would let something like this happen..

[PhilxBefore @ Feb 29th 2008 2:59PM]

Um, I think the important question here is who the hell plays on an autographed Xbox and puts wear and tear on it? Like he stated, if its a prized posession to him, then he shouldn't be using it in the first place.

Thats like punting an autographed football down the street.

[murray @ Feb 29th 2008 3:00PM]

Some people don't read digg, y'know.

And what makes you think digg and engadget are related?

[jdeuel @ Feb 29th 2008 3:03PM]

"But this was on digg like 6 hours ago.."

So it was on reddit yesterday?

[Hax Or @ Feb 29th 2008 3:08PM]

Please don't feed the Brooks... I mean troll.

[Brooks @ Feb 29th 2008 3:16PM]

*Nom nom*

Brooks hungry! Brooks make engadget readers angry!!

Anyone else think Microsoft should sponsor a trip for him to Redmond and Bungie?

[sinjinn @ Feb 29th 2008 3:23PM]

"Um, I think the important question here is who the hell plays on an autographed Xbox and puts wear and tear on it? Like he stated, if its a prized posession to him, then he shouldn't be using it in the first place.

Thats like punting an autographed football down the street."

whats the use of having an xbox 360 signed by bungee and drawn and all if you DONT use it. its like not eating the cake because it'll ruin the icing

[mattclarkie @ Feb 29th 2008 3:30PM]

I wouldn't play it, but if I did, if it RROD I would not send it to MS, I would be willing to buy a new one, but likely I would bitch to MS and get them to send a new one out.

He brought it upon himself, and it is a shame that such a nice object was destroyed. Really though, why did they clean it, and a coat of varnish on the outside could have prevented this tragedy.

[whatishalo? @ Feb 29th 2008 5:00PM]

"Some people don't read digg, y'know.

And what makes you think digg and engadget are related? "

How about: I saw this story about how some kid got his custom signaturized XBOX pwnd by MS...digg it?

[computer.dude.28 @ Feb 29th 2008 5:05PM]

"and a coat of varnish on the outside could have prevented this tragedy"

The easiest way to turn plain ol' varnish into barbeque sauce for your xbox..

Doesn't the xbox get hot enough already?

[James Ollier @ Feb 29th 2008 2:36PM]

I hate Microsoft. Bunch of greedy fuckers

[kastonie @ Feb 29th 2008 2:43PM]

yea they scraped off the artwork and signatures and kept em for themselves!!! muahahaha you caught on to their evil plan!!!! wtf microsoft totally fudged up this whole situation but what exactly makes them greedy fbombers???

[James Ollier @ Feb 29th 2008 2:59PM]

@kastonie
I didn't have to look very far...

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/07/microsoft-weighs-in-on-save-xp-petition-sort-of/
http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/16/microsoft-vista-plus-pack-in-the-works/
http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/01/microsoft-blames-babys-parents-for-deadly-xbox-fire/

[Aashish Jain @ Feb 29th 2008 3:07PM]

lol kastonie..
and I usually don't laugh out loud at the office

[fanman @ Feb 29th 2008 3:07PM]

I pity the foo' who steals my masterchief decal!

[James @ Feb 29th 2008 3:55PM]

It'd be silly to have it customized and *not* play it, however there's no way I would send in something like that for repair. Buy a new one and put the good guts into the customized case.

[Jon Graft @ Feb 29th 2008 4:53PM]

Agreed. Microsoft, as a company, has lost pretty much all of my respect. They rushed the 360 to beat the competition, gave it shoddy parts that fail (16%...was 33%), claimed they were going to make a program similar to Folding@Home (PS3 has F@H) and not because they want to heal the sick, but because they wanted to compete with Sony in the section. :-| Don't even get me started on Vista...Vista is by far the WORSE product to be sold in 2007! It would not in the slightest, surprise me if Microsoft goes completely under in 10-20 years!

[michael @ Feb 29th 2008 5:08PM]

Yeah, I hate all the other companies as well for every other small to big mistakes they've made. I mean, it's not like MS is the only company to do stupid things to their customers.

And I'll also hate a bazillion other stuff just because they did something bad before as well. I might as well hate everything.

Besides, I do feel sorry for this person, but I don't see how Microsoft was 'greedy' if they were giving his Xbox a nice clean. More like ignorance to users' customizations is more like it. That's what they need to fix in their repair policy, and maybe they will now since it hit the news.

[Elevator @ Feb 29th 2008 2:37PM]

1/2 of me feels bad for the kid.
The other 1/2 makes me want to slap him for even beginning to think to send in a custom console. Nobody in their right mind should ever do that, even if you wrote a letter.

Plus don't pretty much all manufactures give refurbs BACK to the customer anyway? If you read the fine print on pretty much any warranty it says that.

[Nick @ Feb 29th 2008 2:51PM]

well once you send it in and they fix it, it technically has become a refurb.

[Calviin @ Feb 29th 2008 2:59PM]

I agree with the first half of you, because there should not be a reason that we have to beware of bad customer service. especially with a company at prominent as MS. If you read article they link to, it says he actually got the same exact case back. It's not some switched machine. It's the exact same one that he gave them. The faint marks from where the market was scrubbed off can be seen still. "All that is left are some smudges and the unmistakable purple-ish hue of diluted permanent ink." So someone actually cleaned this off the machine before sending it back, which is exactly the opposite of what the notes and letter said. I don't know if MS has a policy of cleaning off 360s before returning them, but unless there is such a policy, then I can't even imagine how this was not done intentionally.

[miyagi @ Feb 29th 2008 3:09PM]

Saw this on the blog it was originally posted on in the comments. Could be fake but take it for what it is:

Hi guys,

Im one of the people that works at MS for console repair.
(im a lacky but I can shed some light on this)

Keep in mind that the console repair facility for north america is in mexcio, by a 3rd party company, under administration by microsoft. Very few people there speak english so the letter would have just been disregarded when the consoles are unboxed.
Standard procedure is for the consoles to udnergo a cleaning and removal of any stickers or anything on the console before and after the repair process (otherwise it might get back dirty and people would complain about that). Thats what happened here. It got scrubbed with rubbing alcohol twice before leaving.

Nobody took vengance against the console to purposley scrub it off, this incident inst the fault of MS. Its just std procedure to make sure the consoles are returned to the customer in like new condition.
Sucks that it happened to this console though

[Chebwa @ Feb 29th 2008 3:18PM]

"Its just std procedure"

Your mom is an STD procedure.

[Peter @ Feb 29th 2008 4:46PM]

The North America Xbox 360 repair facility is actually in Texas.

[Ghen @ Feb 29th 2008 8:08PM]

mexico, texas... WTF-ever. One has lots of mexicans and the other one has slightly less mexicans who can legally own guns.

[Philster @ Feb 29th 2008 2:38PM]

Oh my god. Poor guy. I'd be pissed. What kind of idiot would "clean" off that artwork?

[miyagi @ Feb 29th 2008 2:42PM]

The kind of low cost labor that 95% of US companies use.

[Matt B @ Feb 29th 2008 2:52PM]

Being that the facility is in Texas, senorita was just doing the job she is payed to do.

[DarkLightConnection Unbanned @ Feb 29th 2008 2:56PM]

"What kind of idiot would "clean" off that artwork?"

A jealous idiot.

(Or one of the above.)

[andy @ Feb 29th 2008 3:02PM]

Matt B:

No hablo english.

[MAJ @ Feb 29th 2008 3:38PM]

racist idiots.

[Jeff @ Feb 29th 2008 4:13PM]

an idiot who took the case for themselves and sent back a different, dirty case to this kid.

[i.c. weiner @ Feb 29th 2008 4:35PM]

you know, 96% of chinese workers don't even know the brand of the company they work for

[phlavor @ Feb 29th 2008 4:49PM]

You know 86% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

[Philster @ Feb 29th 2008 2:38PM]

Oh my god. Poor guy. I'd be pissed. What kind of idiot would "clean" off that artwork?

[idiot @ Feb 29th 2008 4:33PM]

oh so THIS is that "sadness" game that nibris was talking about

[murray @ Feb 29th 2008 2:39PM]

How the hell could they be so stupid as to "clean" off obvious artwork?

I bet one of the repair crew actually stole his (valuable) case, and gave him one with faked remnants of the illustration. Wouldn't be difficult to do.

[murray @ Feb 29th 2008 2:45PM]

Okay, my theory fails. I read the full article, the serial numbers on the case match up. They really are just a bunch of complete fuckups at Microsoft. Holy shit. I hope he sues.

[Lewislink @ Feb 29th 2008 2:48PM]

That's exactly the kind of thing people would do. You are the correct one as far as my opinion is.

With that said, I know how evil people are so it would be no problem getting a second XBOX and returning that with the old insides. Then, when I received it back, I'd put everything correct and sell the new one. Think of it as a maintenance cost of having such a valuable piece of work. I certainly would never trust my stuff to anyone. What's Murphy's Law say?...

[Teetdogs @ Feb 29th 2008 4:09PM]

When Reading this story the phrase " Life Sucks, Get a Helmet" Comes to mind.

[tiuk @ Feb 29th 2008 4:30PM]

Here's the best part. Lots of people (myself included) have received refurbs in exchange for their RROD consoles that aren't exactly spotless. They literally would have had to go out of their way to clean off the signatures. It's pure spite, that's it.

[ck @ Feb 29th 2008 8:54PM]

@Lewislink re. case swap:

So when they receive a 360 with internals that don't match the serial on the box and void the warranty for tampering, then what? The case isn't the only thing with date and site codes on it, you know.

[dxchase @ Feb 29th 2008 2:43PM]

Red Ring Of Dumbasses if you ask me.

[Rainier @ Feb 29th 2008 2:45PM]

Damnit Microsoft, why not rub the Mona Lisa of her canvas too while you're at it! Sheesh!

[wickedpheonix @ Feb 29th 2008 2:45PM]

Couldn't he sue?