Out-of-warranty 360 just died. Tips?

[TurboFool]

So I have a 360 I purchased brand new from eBay in April. It was purchased at a Target in New Jersey on April 1, and I was provided with the original receipt as part of the auction. It was manufactured some time in March of this year.

Yesterday I turned it on after a lull in use due to my Wii and Guitar Hero II only to get the three red lights. After fiddling and whatnot I eventually got it to start, but the screen glitched up soon after and the three red lights were back.

It is, of course, out of warranty by now (both the 90-day and the unofficial extension to 180 days), and was manufactured this year, so isn't part of the pre-'06 extension.

I did not buy an extended warranty as they're generally a sucker's bet, and I refused to be extorted by MS just because their system's poorly built. Of course mine had to die for this very reason.

What is my best course of action for getting my 360 repaired/replaced for the least amount of money? Ideally I know if I fight hard enough and intelligently enough I can get MS to repair/replace it for free due to the FTC's implied warranty. But on the flip side, I hear so many stories of people getting their replacements and the replacements dying faster than the originals, and by then I'd be so far out of the original warranty that I'd have a nightmare of a time getting them to replace it yet again, even if it's their crappy service at fault. Also the fact that I purchased it over eBay (although since I have the original receipt, they have no proof I didn't just buy it in New Jersey, or have a friend in New Jersey pick it up because I couldn't find any here) complicates it. Plus I suspect I'd have to go by whatever New Jersey's warranty laws are instead of California's (where I am).

So are there any good tips/methods anyone's used here to get their dead out-of-warranty systems taken care of on the cheap?

[getmyrunon]

You bought it NIB? Just register for the warranty now...it'll take some time but you save a lot more and it's better to just have the warranty in the first place.

[TurboFool]

Considering my system's already in their computer, I suspect they wouldn't allow me to buy an extended warranty now, unforunately. I just got off the phone with them and the most they were willing to do at this stage was send me a free shipping box.

[CheapLikeAFox]

I did not buy an extended warranty as they're generally a sucker's bet, and I refused to be extorted by MS just because their system's poorly built. Of course mine had to die for this very reason.



To me this is the stupidest thing I've heard. So you didn't want to get extorted out of 60 bucks or whatever the warranty cost so you'd rather pay some repair man $100 -200.

I'd rather know a system is poorly built to know to get the warranty and know my warranty will at least be put to good use.

Sorry to be so harsh, but that logic is so flawed.

As far as repair your probably better off going with MS officially, they probably offer some limited warranty on their repairs where as anyone else would probably screw you over. As with all that is microsoft you'll probably pay for repairs and be sent someone else's refurbished 360.

[The Mana Knight]

This happens all the time. MS should be making the 360 warranty an entire year, instead of making people pay for it.

[TurboFool]

Sorry, but by all review sources extended warranties ARE a sucker's bet, and I'm not going to be forced into paying the equivalent of mob insurance to "protect" my investments. It's not that I'd rather pay $100-200, it's that I shouldn't have to at all. There are federal protections over this type of thing. Besides, when I bought the system the indication was that only the launch systems were that bad (not to mention if I wasn't such a hardcore gamer I wouldn't have been aware of any of the problems at all). It seemed highly unlikely that my system would have trouble. Not to mention at the time money was still tight, and an extra $60 wasn't really an option.

Judge all you want, but I find nothing reasonable, whatsoever, about being forced to pay EXTRA money on top of the cost of the $400 system to keep it running.

And no, I wasn't suggesting a third-party repair option, but so far MS's repairs haven't been doing very well, either. And the warranty on the replacement is only 30 days. I'm not going to spend $140 for a unit that could, and quite possibly would, die on the 31st day.

[integralsmatic]

man that sucks. Too bad it wasnt a launch 360. I hear MS is offering buyers a full refund or a free repair if the system was made or purchased during the launch period. i read the article in a game magezine..i think it was hardcore gamer or something like that.

[CheapLikeAFox]

Sorry, but by all review sources extended warranties ARE a sucker's bet, and I'm not going to be forced into paying the equivalent of mob insurance to "protect" my investments. It's not that I'd rather pay $100-200, it's that I shouldn't have to at all. There are federal protections over this type of thing. Besides, when I bought the system the indication was that only the launch systems were that bad. It seemed highly unlikely that my system would have trouble. Not to mention at the time money was still tight, and an extra $60 wasn't really an option.

Judge all you want, but I find nothing reasonable, whatsoever, about being forced to pay EXTRA money on top of the cost of the $400 system to keep it running.

And no, I wasn't suggesting a third-party repair option, but so far MS's repairs haven't been doing very well, either. And the warranty on the replacement is only 30 days. I'm not going to spend $140 for a unit that could, and quite possibly would, die on the 31st day.

I understand the rationale and we'd all be better off if everyone was like nintendo and made quality products with great warranties. I have been lucky so far and my PS2 lasted 4-5 years and is only now breaking down which I consider good.

But in your case it just would have been better to get the warranty or get no 360 at all.

The 30 day MS warranty sucks too so you might be better off waiting til the 360 drops in price and rebuying another one with a two year warranty.

Honestly, that's why electronics have such a limited warranty. It's not that people make crappy products purposefully (though such was the case with early 360s and PS2s). but out of the millions of consoles put out more than a few are going to mess up so you can take your chances it'll just suck when you get dealt a bad card.

If you don't have a wii you should use the 140 you would have used to repair and invest in that. sell off your 360 games and accessories and make a new start with nintendo.

[Apossum]

Sorry, but by all review sources extended warranties ARE a sucker's bet, and I'm not going to be forced into paying the equivalent of mob insurance to "protect" my investments. It's not that I'd rather pay $100-200, it's that I shouldn't have to at all. There are federal protections over this type of thing. Besides, when I bought the system the indication was that only the launch systems were that bad (not to mention if I wasn't such a hardcore gamer I wouldn't have been aware of any of the problems at all). It seemed highly unlikely that my system would have trouble. Not to mention at the time money was still tight, and an extra $60 wasn't really an option.

Judge all you want, but I find nothing reasonable, whatsoever, about being forced to pay EXTRA money on top of the cost of the $400 system to keep it running.

And no, I wasn't suggesting a third-party repair option, but so far MS's repairs haven't been doing very well, either. And the warranty on the replacement is only 30 days. I'm not going to spend $140 for a unit that could, and quite possibly would, die on the 31st day.


The 360 is a huge exception to the rule. they seem to die randomly.

[TurboFool]

Honestly, that's why electronics have such a limited warranty. It's not that people make crappy products purposefully (though such was the case with early 360s and PS2s). but out of the millions of consoles put out more than a few are going to mess up so you can take your chances it'll just suck when you get dealt a bad card.

If you don't have a wii you should use the 140 you would have used to repair and invest in that. sell off your 360 games and accessories and make a new start with nintendo.

But as pointed out, not everybody tries to screw us like this. Nintendo, as pointed out, gives a one-year warranty. Heck, my Wii (which yes, I bought at launch) gave me an additional three months just for registering it. Epson printers, which have a lot more moving parts and break a lot easier, have one-year warranties, and they frequently replace them out of warranty for known defects. Yet companies like MS and Sony pull crap like this.

Anyway, end of rant. I love my 360, and it's proven quite invaluable not just for gaming, but for its media abilities. So I'm not content to let it go. I'm just trying to figure out how to replace it without getting screwed.

[wageslave]

Sorry, but by all review sources extended warranties ARE a sucker's bet, and I'm not going to be forced into paying the equivalent of mob insurance to "protect" my investments. It's not that I'd rather pay $100-200, it's that I shouldn't have to at all. There are federal protections over this type of thing.


Agreed. Warrenties on game consoles are a joke and MS consoles are like fiats. Xbox and PS3 are complex little beasties and MS / Sony knows the failure rate will be high, that's why they play this game. Retailers have grown smart too - recording the serial number of the console you buy so you can't swap it out. I won't pay for the warrenties either. I'll just wait until console prices are to the point where the console itsself is a little more disposable. I'm happy enough with my $99 PS2 and Gamecube.

Edit: Did you pay with a Platinum Credit Card? that may give you an additional warrenty but I don't know about the EBay part.

[TurboFool]

Edit: Did you pay with a Platinum Credit Card? that may give you an additional warrenty but I don't know about the EBay part.

I think the eBay part screws me. But even if my card does provide that (not sure, honestly about the card I used), it only doubles the manufacturer warranty, so from 90 to 180 days. Still two months shy of when mine died.

[delirium266]

I didn't get a warranty either. I'm just praying my system doesn't die. I mean, he's right it is a sucker's bet. Out of the systems that are properly cared for (we'll say post launch units), even 20% of them breaking in 2 years seems incredibly high, even for the 360. Paying half the repair cost up front to save myself another $60 on the 20% chance that it breaks (though almost certainly much lower) is stupid.

[slickkill77]

If i bought my 360 in January is it to late to do the extended warrenty...My 360 hasnt died but just in case....

[gofishn]

I'm in the same boat. I bought mine June 1st, it was manufactured on April 8th and about a week ago it froze and the red lights have been there ever since. I feel like I'm being fleeced when they tell me that it will cost $140 to fix. On top of that, when I called the guy claimed my warranty expired on June 8th, just 7 days after I purchased it, and 60 days after the damn thing was manufactured, which I thought was weird. Anyway, on eBay a broken 360 with accessories seems to sell for $200-230. I just went ahead and bought a brand new 360 Premium from Overstock for $320. At that price, I couldn't pass it up. So now I can still decide if I want to send my old one back to MS or if I want to sell it on eBay. If I do that, I could always sell the new one for at least what I paid for it. As of right now I have no idea what I'm going to do. I love my 360, but I really feel like MS screwed me.

[Zoglog]

Coffin thread =p

[ave1]

Let's think about this. Let's say you Ebay your broken 360 (along with a controller, hard-drive, headset, cables, and maybe a game that you never really got into) and get $200. Then you wait for the next "get a premium 360 for $320" deal that comes along. At this point you have been dealt a loss of around $120 plus a game. In the end you have managed to end up getting a brand spankin' new 360 instead of a refurb unit that Microsoft would've given you had you paid them their $140 service charge. You also have a new 90 day warranty automatically with that system you purchased.

I'd say go that route.

Steve

[TurboFool]

Let's think about this. Let's say you Ebay your broken 360 (along with a controller, hard-drive, headset, cables, and maybe a game that you never really got into) and get $200. Then you wait for the next "get a premium 360 for $320" deal that comes along. At this point you have been dealt a loss of around $120 plus a game. In the end you have managed to end up getting a brand spankin' new 360 instead of a refurb unit that Microsoft would've given you had you paid them their $140 service charge. You also have a new 90 day warranty automatically with that system you purchased.

You make a very good point. Almost exactly the kind of logic I was looking for on here. My only heavy concern there is the hard drive. I don't wish to lose all of my info. Yes, I know I can get an X-port, but I know that doesn't back up EVERYTHING (or does it?), and I'd like the ease of simply popping the hard drive onto the new unit. Also, I lose the ability for all of my friends to play my XBLA titles on my 360 unless I get MS to credit me the points to repurchase them, and as far as I know they'd only do that if I had it replaced through them.

The only other thing is the time. The 360's become my main DVD player, as unlike my PS2, it'll play burned DVDs. And now that it plays WMVs it's been even easier to watch videos I downloaded from the computer. I've lost all of that until I get a replacement. Now obviously I'm aware MS takes their sweet time replacing them, so that's no better. I'm just trying to see if there's any way to take care of this faster.

The sad part is that I have a strong chance of winning a 360 the end of January. My job has a national sales contest for the holidays, and the reps with the highest points in several categories win prizes. The top two reps in Best Buys win Xbox 360s (I don't know if they're core or premium, but as I'd be transferring my HDD, I don't care too much), next two win PSPs, next 13 win iPod Nanos. Originally the best and worst prizes would have been instantly eBayed, so I was leaning on the PSP (not interested in buying one, but for free, sweet). And since my previous holiday rankings have put me right in line with the 360, I was perfectly content to not sweat it that I was at least getting a PSP this season. Now I'm desparate to win that 360 and feeling the pressure. And, again, the time. I'd hate to wait it out and find out I won a PSP or, worse yet, a Nano, and lost all that time I could have been handling this a different way.

[Hush]

^^

Just pick up your new 360 and then swap the HDDs. Sell the new one with your broken unit. You might want to do this anyway, to make sure your old HDD works fine with the new Xbox and isn't somehow the root of the problem you're having with your current one.

[TurboFool]

^^

Just pick up your new 360 and then swap the HDDs. Sell the new one with your broken unit. You might want to do this anyway, to make sure your old HDD works fine with the new Xbox and isn't somehow the root of the problem you're having with your current one.

Money's a little tight to pick up another $400 unit and then wait to see how much I can sell the old one for. That's why I'm shakey on going that route.

Also I know it's not the HD, as the system won't boot with it unattached, either, and the two times I did manage to get it to boot were with the hard drive attached and the data was intact.

[Scorch]

Or you could do what I may try to do.. sell the system only for $200 then buy a core unit for an extra $100. Modders want the system and $200 isn't bad.. the only thing wrong with mine is that the drive is dead so I think I could get $200 easy from someone who just wants to mod it and replace the drive.. then i'll buy a core unit for $100, then i'll already have the hard drive, cables, etc.

[NidoGod]

Well, if you're willing to call them again, say your Xbox has been acting funny since the fall update and got worse until now it won't work. Complain enough and perhaps mention the new Fall Update lawsuit and you probably will either get it repaired free or at least half off.