RSSMicrosoft Extends Xbox 360 Warranty
By Ed Oswald | Published December 22, 2006, 11:11 AM
Call it a Christmas present to the nearly ten million Xbox 360 owners worldwide. Microsoft said Friday it would extend the warranty period from 90 days to one year for all consoles sold in the future, as well as those still in their first year of ownership.
The Redmond company said the move was meant to benefit customers, and those who may have had to pay for out-of-warranty repairs can expect to receive reimbursement checks from Microsoft within the next 10 weeks.
Checks would be automatically distributed to those who qualify for them, and the company has asked that customers refrain from contacting about the status of checks. Those with questions on the new policy should visit the Xbox 360 warranty website.
"In addition to jaw-dropping features such as high-definition graphics, an amazing catalog of over 160 games, and social online and entertainment experiences on Xbox Live, the Xbox 360 system now offers this extended warranty upgrade," marketing vice president Jeff Bell said.
Microsoft is locked in a fierce battle with competitors Sony and Nintendo to maintain its lead in the next-generation console race. While the Wii carries a warranty of 90 days, much like the Xbox 360 originally did, Sony has guaranteed its hardware for a period of one year.
Video game console repairs can sometimes be an expensive endeavor once the console falls out of warranty: depending on what breaks, those repairs can sometimes run into the hundreds of dollars.
Xbox 360's 90-day warranty has already gotten the company into legal trouble. One frustrated console owned filed suit against the company after an update "bricked" his console and Microsoft refused to repair it without charging the consumer.
It is not clear if these legal issues had anything to do with the warranty extension.
Even Ms bashers have to complement Ms for this. Can you imagine Wii doing the same thing?
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|TommyBall? all of us don't live in Norway though I hear the Pot is good there.
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|What's funny is Sony finally is getting lots of PS3's in the stores, and now that Christmas is over and the hysteria has died down, no one really wants to spend 600 on a console. Their plan to hold back the consoles to create a fake demand backfired.
My Best Buy has 36 in stock, the 360 is still doing well but they wont hit the 10 million mark before the end of the year. Right now they are at about 9.2, there still isnt a Wii in sight, which rivals the Sega16 bit in graphics. It's fun for kids but the graphics really blow.
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|BS, There Best Buy have some in stock, awaiting for a New Years eve announcement, they are not out on sale, as you seem to imply...
http://www.joystiq.com/2...ng-on-your-new-year-ps3/
As for the WII shipments, they failed to materialize, hence the fake demand.. PS3 shipments have been regular since launch.
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|People will always complain... I think its good news that MS extended the warranty.
Every country is different, and the fact that MS didnt HAVE to extend the warranty, but still did it, sets a good example and makes me want to buy their products more.
I cant see it any other way.
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|This is a bit funny. In Norway ANY product sold to consumers are required by law to have a minimum two (2) year warranty. If the product is expected to last for longer, the minimum warranty jumps up to five (5) years.
Nokia recently lost in Norwegian court because they refused to let their warranty on cheap mobile phones last for more than two years. The court ruling was that mobile phone warranties are required to last for a minimum of five years (as claimed by the consumer protection agency).
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|Wow. How did "Microsoft Extends Xbox 360 Warranty" turn into "You know you're a bad a** piece of Euro trash when you use a 1yr warranty as an example of your imagined superiority. "
Nah, as a Brit I merely use the fact our Armed Forces haven't lost a war for centuries whereas with the US Forces, the larger your superiority over your enemy, the more you get your asses handed to you."
Holy Wow....
Anyway, a standard yearly warranty should be enforced on all products in my opinion, so this is a good deal. 3, 4, 5 would be great too, as long as it really is a manuf. defect and not user error. One could argue however, that it's difficult to prove an item defects after 4 years on it's own - electronics do for a fact. I've seen TVs, DVD players, hard drives, motherboards, optical drives - most computer components and some electronics, even from big brands fizzle out after a year or 2, some sooner than later. But I think it's almost unfair for a manuf./retailer to foot this issue all the time. And consoles are worse for wear because we're dealing with people throwing them around and taking them all over the place, leaving them in the hot car etc. etc. I think in this case, the extension is only logical...seeing as how so many have had to be repaired etc.
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|The Brits lost against US ( get it ) , and couldnt beat Germany...twice...ur welcome motherland.
And hats off to MS, now if they just would repair modded boxes... :p
Latz, SB
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|"Nah, as a Brit I merely use the fact our Armed Forces haven't lost a war for centuries whereas with the US Forces, the larger your superiority over your enemy, the more you get your asses handed to you."
Of course you never lost a war, you always have another country saving your would be speaking german a$$e$. That comment is as pathetic as your so called armed forces.
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|PFFFFTT, you lazy American's came late into the war, if you had entered in earlier, you wouldn't be bragging about it.
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|Lots of Euro trash on this site apparently. You know you're a bad a** piece of Euro trash when you use a 1yr warranty as an example of your imagined superiority. Void your warranty and flash your 360 dvd-rom's firmware.
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|There are plenty of other examples of how European consumers are protected..
How about HD-Ready? None of this non-HD crap that American early adopters got offloaded with, everything HD-Ready in Europe does at least 720p, and has a HDMI port..
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|"You know you're a bad a** piece of Euro trash when you use a 1yr warranty as an example of your imagined superiority. "
Nah, as a Brit I merely use the fact our Armed Forces haven't lost a war for centuries whereas with the US Forces, the larger your superiority over your enemy, the more you get your asses handed to you.
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|"Centuries" So 200 years? Not very familiar with the war of 1812 are you? Course I dunno what you call it, so..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_1812
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|"Call it a Christmas present"
90 days?
American's get shafted pretty easily, don't they.
1 year is the standard, as Joey Deacon said.
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|Yawn, Europeam consumers get this on all prodoucts as standard...
It't only US consumers that get shafted by 90 day warranties...
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|I recently won an xbox360 through a pepsi contest and I am wondering if there are warranty papers inside the box? I am giving this to my step son as a Christmas gift and I don't want to open the box.
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|Yes, there are some warrenty papers in the box. I believe that they only have information on them, not anything that is required to keep.
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|Thankfuly here it's mandatory by law a 2 years warranty so Microsoft and others must comply but I surely understand everyone's concerns... a 90 days warranty is too short. Microsoft did the right thing. And for all of you who buy Sony sh*t... get smarter. Didnt their rootkit infections and exploding/flaming batteries teached you anything? HURT'em where they feel it the most... the pockets, DONT BUY THEIR SH*T
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|Here in the UK we get (at least) 12mths by default.
/me holds a glass up and toasts 'The Sale of Goods Act 1979'
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|Actually we get a lot longer than that. What we actually get is what is deemed a reasonable expectancy for the lifetime of a console as long as we can prove the failure was because of a manufacturing fault. For example, TVs are at around 6 years.
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|hence "at least".
You'll get 12mths from all places no problem. But, to go beyond that requires that the trader/seller has a good understanding of the law. Otherwise, it becomes a legal matter!
The contract being between the consumer, and the place the goods were bought from.
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|Woo hoo! I get a check. :) Merry Christmas to me! That's $139.95 made out to...
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|My PS3 caused a huge fire. There were bodies everywhere.
Here is a DaveBG post from www.thelookandsoundofperfect.com
"Dave on Dec 9th, 2006 at 3:37 AM
Stop lying the people. This is lame and too low to go.
HD DVD is dead and even those last attempts to save it wont do.
No one jumps support, and will ever.
This desperation makes more harm than it helps to save hd dvd...
Everywhere is discussed that this was sponsored by Toshiba! :)"
I think Dave spends every free minute he has joining and posting on news sites that contain any story involving Blu_Ray, his posts are easy to spot, plus he uses the name Dave on every one of them.
The story is entitled: Optical HD Battle May Be Over: HD DVD Wins
Of course this made him crazy. It's a lot different over at the official Blo-Ray forum, where all negative posts are removed and your IP gets banned when you present facts about HD-DVD's superiority.
They all sit around consoling each other and reinforcing their poor purchasing decision. You can tell they all have buyers remorse, it's like a battered wife support group. Dave, one of the biggest mouths of all, doesn't even own a BD player or a single movie.
Luckily, I have more free time than brains, so I will keep embarrassing this tool until HD-DVD wins.
Since I am supposed to post something on topic, you can find hundreds of stories about eBay disasters involving broken PS3's and Sony not honoring the warranties. It's their little way of saying screw you to the people who are actually profiting from their console.
People, don't ever, ever buy an extended warranty from BB or CC, if you read the fine print, they don't replace anything until it breaks the third time. It's the biggest scam on the planet. It's so sad that people are afraid to say no at the register. You should hear me when they ask me to purchase one, my response is "Why, is thing going to break in less than a year, are you selling me a piece of s***?"
The look on their face is classic, most of the time, it's a teen age girl who has no clue how to answer. xyzcb1, return that 360 and tell them to blow their extended warranty out their ass. Then go buy it from their competitor.
I am going to keep buying Blu-Ray players and return them on the 29th day. Plus I'll buy the longest warranty they have every time.
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|Hi Shadow Hollywood :-D
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|Get the **** out of this forum.
This is about warranties, not some b****ing match about Blueray or HD-DVD.
Who gives a **** which wins; I'm sure it won't really matter in the end.
No-one cares that Betamax was better than VHS anymore, just like no-one will give a monkey's if either Blueray of HD-DVD 'wins'.
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|If you don't like my posts, then don't read them. The only person getting upset about it you. That's pretty sad.
Maybe this will make you happy:
Does the warranty apply to the HD-DVD add on or just the 360? It's on topic and about warranties, plus I get to plug the HD-DVD add on.
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|())_Crayon_))>
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|Your crusade is getting a bit old... do Dave and Mark even post here any more?
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|Yawn, the sooner your HD-DVD format dies, the better, you will move onto somewhere else..
Looking at your site you stopped linking to, the graphs are now showing HD-DVD has only got a few months left anyway...
http://www.avsforum.com/...showthread.php?t=773042
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|They're all the same person! ;)
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|Hey dumb ass, BD's top seller is at 750, HD-DVD's top seller is at 155.
Are you just an idiot or do you want me to send you my four year olds Leapster to teach you basic math?
Moron
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|I wish they made this move few weeks earlier. I just got my 360 and paid a $40 to extended to a 1 year warranty.
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|Return it for full refund, and get a new one without extended warranty.
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|I believe your warranty will be extended to 2 years. This is based on comments left at the Joystiq post.
http://www.joystiq.com/2...airs-refunded/#comments.
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|I would rather keep it for a 2 year warrenty
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|Should go through about 6 consoles in a typical 2 year warranty period!!! Microsoft still havn't sorted out the overheating issues, and the red rings of death are still an issue. Don't even start about the bricked consoles from the recent dashboard updates...
Seems the magic bullet die shrink from 90nm is also not happening for another 8 months...
http://www.digitimes.com...ips/a20061225PD211.html
http://www.dailytech.com...x?newsid=5097&ref=y
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|"Sony has guaranteed its hardware for a period of one year."
Yeah, to the "original purchaser", all you ebay peeps better still watch out.
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|Luckily for all the Ebay peeps, as long as they obtained their consoles in a legal matter and they are the first peeps to fill out the warranty and registration card - they are covered.
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|"first peeps to fill out the warranty and registration card"
Where are those? Sony supported or is that extra money from the ebay side?
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|I dont think i saw any of those papers he was talking about either. what a wacko...
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