On 14/03 I paid full price for my new X-Box console (1) on launch day. As I queued up with my fellow gamers; we were very excited to be the first owners of this new gaming platform. Initially I was very pleased with my purchase as the console exceeded my expectations.
Within 6 weeks the consoles price was reduced by £100.00, which was quickly compensated by with a new controller and a choice of 2 free games. This was not expected, but it was welcomed as a display of excellent customer loyalty care.
In November I became a beta-tester for the new X-Box Live service which was due to go live on 14/03. I have been a member of the service ever since, paying for my subscription fee annually.
Unfortunately my original X-Box developed problems. Gradually at first it stopped reading discs to the point where it would not run games or DVDs at all. I applied for a replacement (2) as the console was still under warranty. However, within a few months the new console also stopped working properly, but the warranty had expired (as it only runs from the date of the original purchase and does not cover the replacement console from the date of replacement or repair) so, reluctantly I part-exchanged the new console, paying the difference and losing all my saved music and save game files, for a limited edition crystal green X-Box (3) (which currently does not work due to similar problems to the first and subsequent console).
I missed out on the launch day reservations for the new X-Box 360 console, but was surprised on the 01/01 with a new X-Box 360 (4) when the pre-orders ahead of mine were not claimed.
This X-Box 360 performed admirably for 6 months. Then the disc drive started sticking. My first mistake was to send this console, under warranty to get repaired as:
• The replacement (5) did not work with my hard drive. This was sent back.
• The next replacement (6) did work with the hard-drive but suffered the RROD within 2 days.
• The replacement (7) for this console did not work at all.
• The next replacement (9) worked for 8 months, but then started having problems. Certain games would not run at all and over a period of 4 weeks this started to become worse as more and more games would not work. A few months later and I had to reset the console several times before any game would run, and then only a select few would work this way. Today, this X-Box 360 does not work at all.
In all cases I have been very careful to keep the consoles in the recommended environments such as smoke and dust free, and on elevated shelves without airflow obstructions to aid cooling. And yet they failed, repeatedly.
As the console was now out of warranty (as the warranty is dated from the date of the original purchase and not the date of the replacement or repair), I have had no other option other than to effectively 'bin' my latest console (it makes a great door-stop). I have considered purchasing a new X-Box 360 Elite on the assumption that the latest technology will not suffer the same problems due to revision.
Now that the Sony Playstation 3 is out, I am considering switching my loyalty from Microsoft to Sony. But as I already have an extensive collection of games for the X-Box platform, it will cost me considerably more to keep playing. In addition to this are the saved games, which will be useless. The X-Box Live arcade games I have bought are unplayable. My achievements now mean nothing without a working console. I have 9 months of gold membership remaining on my X-Box live account which is going to waste, and indeed my Steel Battalion controller is now collecting dust.
My gamer profile on X-Box Live is called: CARTOON BOY. Please feel free to check this information, but this profile was the original beta-tester profile from the original X-Box.
Earlier this year I was forced to switch to another profile called: EVE MONSTER. The reason for this was that I had a period of silver membership (2 months) with CARTOON BOY because, at the time, my console was not working and I refused to pay for a service that I could not receive.
When I finally got my X-Box 360 working again the X-Box Live service refused to update properly, always signing back out of the profile when trying to apply a patch. I contacted the X-Box Live team and explained the situation, but they refused to help me without the original credit card details (bearing in mind that the card details were 5 years old). So reluctantly I switched to EVE MONSTER, which means that the achievements and game saves linked to CARTOON BOY are now redundant.
So, after 9 (nine!?!) consoles (on just 2 platforms) and 6 years of loyalty and, in excess of £2000.00 spent, I am now the owner of a un-useable games collection, a limited edition crystal green X-Box and an X-Box 360, both of which do not work at all!
I am deeply upset, disappointed, angry and disillusioned with Microsoft. I realise that my contribution may not be much in the big scheme of things, but for six years I have played advocate for the X-Box and the X-Box 360, convincing my friends, relatives and work colleagues to invest in an X-Box.
I firmly believe that the X-Box platform would not be in the position it is today without loyal and committed customers like myself firmly believing in the platform, especially in the early years, even when the product fails so often. However, I am tired of fronting my hard earned cash over and over, just to keep playing on the X-Box platform.
CARTOONBOY and/or EVE MONSTER
PS. I currently also own an original 3DO, an Amiga CDTV, a Dreamcast, an N-64 and a Game-Cube, all of which still work even after up to 15 years or more of use. It’s a real shame that the same cannot be said of my 2 year old X-Box 360!
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