Dead XBOX One.....number two!

ragger69

New to this but here goes........I bought an Xbox One on Day one in November 2013 from GAME, this appeared to work fine until October 2014 when there was a noise coming from the disc drive.
I reported this to Xbox Support via their chat facility, we tried several fixes advised by them but none worked eventually they said they would arrange a replacement console to be sent out and we would send our faulty one back to them.
Fast forward to June 2015 and said replacement console starts making a horrible grinding noise from the disc drive and reverts to a black screen, the console will not work.
I've contacted Xbox Support who have advised me that the replacement consoles warranty expired in February and I'll have to pay £83 for a service repair (it lasted a total of 8 months).
That's 2 Xbox One consoles faulty or dead within 18 months? Because this was bought on Day One, it cost £429 I expected it to last more than a year for that sort of money? Have I just been really unlucky?
Do I have any rights? And who do I complain to, GAME (who I bought he console from originally) or Microsoft who sent a replacement console?
Any advice much appreciated.

DCFC79

When the first 1 didnt work did you contact Game about it or go straight to Microsoft ?

ragger69

Went straight to Microsoft, I'm not sure why we did that?

DCFC79

ragger69 wrote: »

Went straight to Microsoft, I'm not sure why we did that?

Should have gone to Game first as they are responsible.

In any case as to who you complain to now Im not sure, Id say Microsoft as they replaced the last console.

ragger69

I've tried Microsoft but can only get through to the normal customer service. I've spoken to 8 different customer service people over the past 2 day, it's like they're reading from a cue card.
It's so frustrating.
I've spoken to consumer advice who say we should get a repair at no cost to ourselves but try telling Microsoft that, they just keep quoting it's out of warranty.
Surely these consoles should last longer than this? Nobody would tell,us if the replacement was a new console or a refurbished one either. This doesn't give me much confidence in paying £83 for a repair that may not last a year either.

facade

In terms of warranty, Microsoft are correct. If you buy something with 12 months warranty, and get a replacement after say 11 months and 30 days, the warranty on the replacement is only 1 day, as you paid for 12 months warranty originally, and that is what you get.

As to whether it is reasonable to expect a games console to last more then 18 months, that is a whole other question.

Sheepster

Breaking after 18 months, that is clearly arguable under the sale of goods act, it should be expected to last longer.
Perhaps trying to argue on this line? Definitely tell them also you need to speak to a senior manager (and not the first line call centre operative who you can be completely sure will have near to zero technical knowledge or power to make a decision).

Could end up though if they dig in being a small claims, which is more hassle and expense.

Sorry can't give better advice right now (It's Friday night and posting after being out is never a good idea).

szam_

I personally would expect it to last the lifespan of the generation if used moderately, a breakdown or a faulty part is to be expected in mass produced technology such as consoles. I use mine heavily though so I don't expect it to last that long.

My first one was broken from the day I got it only it got progressively worse and I thought it was just software related at first, it turned in to a clearly corrupt/faulty HDD whereby the OS wouldn't boot either quickly, or at all, without multiple retry's. I went direct as I prefer that than speaking to a general person at Argos where I think we got our first (we have two Xbox Ones, ones mine, the other is for my OH).

I'm surprised they won't do anything about it to be honest, my experiences with Microsoft support over the last few years have been great. They don't usually need to be pushed to fix something such as the problem you are having, even if out of warranty.

Sheepster

Indeed. Not forgetting the last gen Xbox 360 had a serious fault with overheating, causing failure.
MS did in the end sort this with a redesign, and extended the warranty which pretty much covered the potential loss for couple of years.........enough time for you to get a good amount of usage out of it.

Now hard drives are known to fail (I've had it happen with a pc once, and another pc I could tell was starting to fail). It shouldn't happen that often though. As this isn't the first time I've heard of Xbone hard drive failure, it's worrying that maybe MS have chosen to source a part from a cheap supplier.

Put it another way, last gen, the Xbox fanboys were different to the PS3 fanboys during their online chat forum wars, in that the Xbox fans tended to say "yes we know it's terrible reliability, but it's made up by being the best at everything else". Last gen........be honest here - the PS3 wasn't anywhere near as good for FPS or online, plus nearly everyone in the "guy on his sofa, holding a can and playing with mates" was on Xbox.

Now though, that market is split with many moving to PS4. Xbox hasn't got that advantage anymore, and if they get a bad rep, well I suspect that is going to hurt them very badly. They need to get on top of this one.

At least with the PS3 or 4, Sony have always been very keen on owners doing DIY jobs on the hard drive, they actually encourage it

szam_

Sheepster wrote: »

Indeed. Not forgetting the last gen Xbox 360 had a serious fault with overheating, causing failure.
MS did in the end sort this with a redesign, and extended the warranty which pretty much covered the potential loss for couple of years.........enough time for you to get a good amount of usage out of it.

Now hard drives are known to fail (I've had it happen with a pc once, and another pc I could tell was starting to fail). It shouldn't happen that often though. As this isn't the first time I've heard of Xbone hard drive failure, it's worrying that maybe MS have chosen to source a part from a cheap supplier.

Put it another way, last gen, the Xbox fanboys were different to the PS3 fanboys during their online chat forum wars, in that the Xbox fans tended to say "yes we know it's terrible reliability, but it's made up by being the best at everything else". Last gen........be honest here - the PS3 wasn't anywhere near as good for FPS or online, plus nearly everyone in the "guy on his sofa, holding a can and playing with mates" was on Xbox.

Now though, that market is split with many moving to PS4. Xbox hasn't got that advantage anymore, and if they get a bad rep, well I suspect that is going to hurt them very badly. They need to get on top of this one.

At least with the PS3 or 4, Sony have always been very keen on owners doing DIY jobs on the hard drive, they actually encourage it

It's cost cutting for Sony though to encourage people to DIY, risky too if a complete amateur screws it up..

I don't follow anything Sony as I haven't had a console of theirs since the PS1. I also wouldn't go to them given their security breaches a few years back, I don't trust them to hold on to my information safely.

To me, good customer service is a company taking ownership and saying "you know what, this shouldn't have happened, we'll sort it out for you". This in the last few years has happened whenever I have spoken to Microsoft. I wish companies just for a minute would chuck the whole 1 year warranty garbage out of the window and just think about what they would feel is good customer service.

I'm trying not to sound like an MS fanboy here but it will sound like it, but the experiences I've had over the past few years with MS support and the products I've used mean I now have a Microsoft Band, Windows Phone (Nokia and probably the best smartphone I've ever had, hands down) and Xbox One, and I wouldn't mind a Surface at some point too, because I know from experience that they've always been helpful and useful when I have a problem. They won me over with good customer service and I am willing to stick with the brand unless it goes down the tube, in which I will happily jump ship.

I listen to a podcast from guys who used to be in games testing and for the last 3-4 years, play games for a living.

One of them got completely fed up with Sony (Canada) in that they took the console to their repair center, charged a massive amount of money because it was a few days over warranty, sent it back and the problem was still there. He had to replicate the problem, turned out it was software related and not hardware related, to do with a background image running in conjunction with a game or something and was able to replicate it on other consoles, and was now out of pocket and Sony refused the refund because they replaced a part that actually wasn't broken.

All in all, the whole Sony vs. Xbox, and to a larger extent PC vs. Console wars going on all the time, all over the place is ridiculous. If someone wants a PS4 or Xbox, or prefers PC, fine - just stop telling others they are inferior for playing on a different platform.

Kernow666

so my 10yr old daily played 360 is doing pretty pretty good then