This is basically a copy of today's blogpost on my site, redgopher.com.
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I love my Xbox 360 to death. The controller feels great, the design of the system itself is dead sexy. The games I own are fantastic. Oblivion runs better on my $400 console than on my $1500 PC. Achievements are nothing less than digital crack--they're bringing back the high score seeking thrill of the 80s with Gamerscore. I now own 15 Xbox Live Arcade titles--that's more than half of the entire library available through Xbox Live Marketplace--and I love each and every one of them.
On the other hand, I hate the
ing thing. More accurately, I really ing hate Microsoft right now. My initial unit crashed at least twice a day until I sent it in for an exchange through MS. My current unit crashes occasionally, mainly when it gets hot (and that usually happens when my apartment is hot--no problem when we move to someplace with air conditioning).
When I called Xbox support to ask where my $60 warranty was, they told me they had neither the original, broken console's serial number on file, nor the replacement I was sent, but a THIRD s/n which nobody can track down. "Please send a letter to our warranty department with this reference number, the current, mystery s/n and your actual, real s/n." God damn, why can't you just do it yourself? Whatever, I'll do it, this thing will probably explode in a few months anyways. But the fun doesn't stop there, no siree.
Two of my full version, purchased arcade games--Crystal Quest and Geometry Wars--are only trial versions on all other gamertags on my 360. This is, as I was told by another Xbox representative, a "security feature."
Apparently when you purchase something from Marketplace, your gamertag and either MAC address or serial number are recorded. If you take your tag to another console, you can play the full version all you want, but the other tags are shit out of luck. This is effectively what happened to me, since I did a warranty exchange, my wife can't play those two games. I spent an hour on the phone with Microsoft yesterday regarding this issue. First, the rep basically told me I wased, that "at this time there is no way to fix the issue."
That's bullshit. I paid $10 for that shit and I have the right to have these played by whoever wants to as long as they're on my system. Since I have worked big call centers before I asked if she could explain my situation to Billing and have them send me 800 MS points so I can purchase them again under my wife's tag. She talked to billing and then told me that they have no way to do this. She offered to talk to a supervisor, and returned asking me to fax in my receipt of warranty exchange, name of my wife's gamertag, and a reference number.
"Look," I said, "I'm not going to fax anything in. First off, I have no idea where that warranty exchange receipt is. It was four months ago. Second, you have no idea what kind of hell I've been through with this system." I proceeded to tell her about my initial crashes and the warranty mixup. She talked to her supervisor again, then returned and asked for the date I received the console and my wife's gamertag. I gave this info, and the rep told me I'd get a call sometime next week with a resolution and a code for some MS points to fix the problem.
You thought I was finished, but you are so incredibly dead wrong.
Today I decided to try to crank out the final two achievements in Crystal Quest. One requires that I have 30 lives in hand at any point in the game. The other requires that I kill 20 baddies on the screen with a single smart bomb. The smart bomb one is easier to do if you have it on a sky-high difficulty. The problem with the game, though, in general, is that the mines the baddies drop onto the screen are damn near indistinguishable from crystals. So I decided to drop 100 MS points on the Sketch graphics pack, which makes the game look like it is coming to life on an architect's sketchboard. By the way, 100 points is roughly equal to $1.25.
I download the pack, boot Crystal Quest, and enable it. "These changes will take effect the next time you launch Crystal Quest. Would you like to return to the Arcade now so you may re-launch the game?" Why yes, yes I would. I re-launch the game, check the downloaded content to make sure it was enabled... and it's disabled. What the.
I tried selecting "no" when it asked me if I wanted to quit immediately, and that didn't work either. Neither did deleting the pack, the game, my profile, and downloading it all over again. Yet again, I called Xbox support. First I select "question about a specific Xbox game" from the automated menu. I get this guy with a slightly foriegn accent (a very bad sign), explain my problem (Crystal Quest. An arcade game on Xbox 360 purchased from Xbox Live Marketplace. I bought a graphics pack and it doesn't work. Etc.), and wait for his reply.
Rep: "So is this for the original Xbox or Xbox 360?"
.
Me: "Uh, Xbox 360. It's an arcade game."
Rep: "And what was it called?"
Me: "Crystal Quest."
Rep: "Ok. And what was the problem again?"
I explain it to him again.
Rep: "Was this something you purchased off Xbox Live?"
Me: "Oh god, do you even know what you are doing?"
I hung up on him, called Xbox support again, and this time, went to Xbox Live support, where I got a relatively competent rep with my previous problem. This time I got somebody competent, and she actually sent me over to her supervisor, who was fantastic. The problem was I spent an hour on the phone with them, with longer than acceptable hold times, and still, they are calling me back sometime next week since they have no idea what is going on. All this for $1.25 of content. Guys, can't you just say "Shit, sorry, we'll try to fix it and here's your 100 points back, our bad," or something like that?
I'm incredibly grateful and lucky that I reached someone who had all of their brain cells intact, that I felt comfortable complimenting on what a good job he was doing. But I swear to god, he's one of two people who are worth two shits working in Xbox customer care.
I just hope this is where it ends.
Oh, who the hell am I kidding...
-------
I love my Xbox 360 to death. The controller feels great, the design of the system itself is dead sexy. The games I own are fantastic. Oblivion runs better on my $400 console than on my $1500 PC. Achievements are nothing less than digital crack--they're bringing back the high score seeking thrill of the 80s with Gamerscore. I now own 15 Xbox Live Arcade titles--that's more than half of the entire library available through Xbox Live Marketplace--and I love each and every one of them.
On the other hand, I hate the
ing thing. More accurately, I really ing hate Microsoft right now. My initial unit crashed at least twice a day until I sent it in for an exchange through MS. My current unit crashes occasionally, mainly when it gets hot (and that usually happens when my apartment is hot--no problem when we move to someplace with air conditioning).When I called Xbox support to ask where my $60 warranty was, they told me they had neither the original, broken console's serial number on file, nor the replacement I was sent, but a THIRD s/n which nobody can track down. "Please send a letter to our warranty department with this reference number, the current, mystery s/n and your actual, real s/n." God damn, why can't you just do it yourself? Whatever, I'll do it, this thing will probably explode in a few months anyways. But the fun doesn't stop there, no siree.
Two of my full version, purchased arcade games--Crystal Quest and Geometry Wars--are only trial versions on all other gamertags on my 360. This is, as I was told by another Xbox representative, a "security feature."
Apparently when you purchase something from Marketplace, your gamertag and either MAC address or serial number are recorded. If you take your tag to another console, you can play the full version all you want, but the other tags are shit out of luck. This is effectively what happened to me, since I did a warranty exchange, my wife can't play those two games. I spent an hour on the phone with Microsoft yesterday regarding this issue. First, the rep basically told me I was
ed, that "at this time there is no way to fix the issue."That's bullshit. I paid $10 for that shit and I have the right to have these played by whoever wants to as long as they're on my system. Since I have worked big call centers before I asked if she could explain my situation to Billing and have them send me 800 MS points so I can purchase them again under my wife's tag. She talked to billing and then told me that they have no way to do this. She offered to talk to a supervisor, and returned asking me to fax in my receipt of warranty exchange, name of my wife's gamertag, and a reference number.
"Look," I said, "I'm not going to fax anything in. First off, I have no idea where that warranty exchange receipt is. It was four months ago. Second, you have no idea what kind of hell I've been through with this system." I proceeded to tell her about my initial crashes and the warranty mixup. She talked to her supervisor again, then returned and asked for the date I received the console and my wife's gamertag. I gave this info, and the rep told me I'd get a call sometime next week with a resolution and a code for some MS points to fix the problem.
You thought I was finished, but you are so incredibly dead wrong.
Today I decided to try to crank out the final two achievements in Crystal Quest. One requires that I have 30 lives in hand at any point in the game. The other requires that I kill 20 baddies on the screen with a single smart bomb. The smart bomb one is easier to do if you have it on a sky-high difficulty. The problem with the game, though, in general, is that the mines the baddies drop onto the screen are damn near indistinguishable from crystals. So I decided to drop 100 MS points on the Sketch graphics pack, which makes the game look like it is coming to life on an architect's sketchboard. By the way, 100 points is roughly equal to $1.25.
I download the pack, boot Crystal Quest, and enable it. "These changes will take effect the next time you launch Crystal Quest. Would you like to return to the Arcade now so you may re-launch the game?" Why yes, yes I would. I re-launch the game, check the downloaded content to make sure it was enabled... and it's disabled. What the
.I tried selecting "no" when it asked me if I wanted to quit immediately, and that didn't work either. Neither did deleting the pack, the game, my profile, and downloading it all over again. Yet again, I called Xbox support. First I select "question about a specific Xbox game" from the automated menu. I get this guy with a slightly foriegn accent (a very bad sign), explain my problem (Crystal Quest. An arcade game on Xbox 360 purchased from Xbox Live Marketplace. I bought a graphics pack and it doesn't work. Etc.), and wait for his reply.
Rep: "So is this for the original Xbox or Xbox 360?"
.Me: "Uh, Xbox 360. It's an arcade game."
Rep: "And what was it called?"
Me: "Crystal Quest."
Rep: "Ok. And what was the problem again?"
I explain it to him again.
Rep: "Was this something you purchased off Xbox Live?"
Me: "Oh god, do you even know what you are doing?"
I hung up on him, called Xbox support again, and this time, went to Xbox Live support, where I got a relatively competent rep with my previous problem. This time I got somebody competent, and she actually sent me over to her supervisor, who was fantastic. The problem was I spent an hour on the phone with them, with longer than acceptable hold times, and still, they are calling me back sometime next week since they have no idea what is going on. All this for $1.25 of content. Guys, can't you just say "Shit, sorry, we'll try to fix it and here's your 100 points back, our bad," or something like that?
I'm incredibly grateful and lucky that I reached someone who had all of their brain cells intact, that I felt comfortable complimenting on what a good job he was doing. But I swear to god, he's one of two people who are worth two shits working in Xbox customer care.
I just hope this is where it ends.
Oh, who the hell am I kidding...
