Faulty Xbox 360 Issues

atothej

Hi All - I'm having troubles with a faulty Xbox 360 and even more troubles with lousy customer service staff at Microsoft... Apologies if this is in the wrong place, but I've been a lurker here for a while and you techie lot seem to know your stuff.

I bought an Xbox 360 in September last year (£300) and just before xmas I had the dreaded 'ring of death' fault you hear so much about (hardware error). I spoke to CS, who arranged a pick-up of the box, and a repair under my warranty.

I received the console about 2 weeks later to find that this wasn't my xbox at all - it had an older manufacturing date and diff serial no. It was also rattling (not a good sign). I phoned up CS to see what was going on, and the gentleman assured me that this was Microsoft's policy to send out a refurbished unit if the original one was un-repairable. I said that I wasn't too happy with this as it was already rattling and that I bought the console brand new to ensure that it hadn't been mistreated, overheated, overplayed etc... Now that this xbox I had received was effectively '2nd hand', with a history of break-down. The CS gentleman then offered me free extended warranty untill January 2009 as compensation for this, which I gratefully accepted.

Due to a new kitten, I haven't been on it much over the last month, but had a go on it last night and the dreaded 'ring of death' happened again! Couldn't believe it. So again I phone Customer Services up who arrange pick-up for repair etc... I asked for a new console to stop this cycle of events and was told that she couldn't guaruntee this. I then asked how long my warranty was listed as, and lo and behold, the extended warranty wasn't applied, meaning the original CS staff lied to me, probably to stop me from ranting at him!

So anyway, my rant is over, and my question to you all is: what are my rights with all this? Am I right in thinking that Trading Standards would want to get involved, as the product I bought isn't fit for the purpose it was intended? Are Microsoft justified in sending out reconditioned units? Can I demand a new product/my money back? Who are the appropriate governing bodies to contact to escalate this matter?

To add insult to injury, I was told by the CS advisor that there is no complaint procedure with all of this, they cannot directly communicate with the dept that fixes/replaces the consoles and theycannot confirm or deny that the extended warranty was offered to me...

If you have read theentire post: well done! If this post needs to be moved, then thats no problem, and finally, any advice would be greatly appreciated!

sco0ter

As people have said on a few threads here Microsoft do indeed send out reconditioned units. As for Trading Standards they will tell you that you have to let Microsoft repair/replace the Item first before they will get involved because the console is now 3-4 months old. Loads of people have had the same error as you as well as the scratched disk and overheating issues... I suppose this is the price Microsoft have to pay for getting thier Console out first... From other sources they have even stopped replacing the games that get scratched as well.