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Microsoft Extends 360 Warranty to One Year
Gamasutra reports that Microsoft has extended the warranty on the Xbox 360, giving consumers one year from their date of purchase to receive essentially free repairs. This is being done to put the U.S. and Canada in line with the warranty offered in other parts of the globe, and is retroactive. From the article: "... [C]onsumers who may have already paid for an out-of-warranty Xbox 360 repair within one year of purchase will be eligible for reimbursement of their console repair charges. Microsoft notes that those who have already paid for such repair charges within their first year of ownership can expect reimbursement checks for the amount of their console repair in approximately 10 weeks. The company adds that reimbursements will be automatically distributed, so customers do not need to contact Microsoft directly."
Thank goodness. 90 days just isn't long enough to find all design flaws in a product, especially if you consider that there are probably a bunch of Xbox 360s sitting around in closets or under trees for a month or so before they actually get used. I wonder how many people didn't buy an Xbox 360 because of the really short warranty. I also wonder how many people are going to kick themselves now for buying one of those ripoff extended warranties.
I got mine at Micro Center a couple of weeks ago, which is currently offering a $100 rebate on both the core nad pro systems. If I were Microsoft, though, I'd be really pissed off at Micro Center. I had one sales person on the floor ask several times if I wanted to upgrade the 90-day warranty. "Are you sure? It's a great deal! And look at what you get!..." Of course being intelligent, I turned it down, over and over, ad nauseum.
When I got to the cash register, the checkout person asked yet again. When I declined, she actually said, "You really should get it. A lot of people have been bringing them back."
If I were even the least bit paranoid, I would have simply left my $600 or so of merchandise (the system, plus a couple of games, a controller, and a battery charger) sitting right there on the counter and walked out. Why the hell would I buy a product that the store clerks keep telling me, and seem convinced to the core, is defective? If I were Microsoft, I'd be tempted to stop selling any Xbox 360s to Micro Center at all. Stores telling customers repeatedly that your product is broken is most heinously not cool.
Fortunately, I'm not as gullible as a lot of people, and I'm not so willing to part with my sixty-something dollars for something that is statistically highly unlikely to happen.
Maybe this will help to take some of the wind out of their "sales" and get them to stop trying to scare the hell out of their customers.
Still, a hundred bucks back sure does take a little bit of the sting out of having to listen to their stupidity. If I were just a tiny bit more spiteful, I would drive up there today and tell them, "Hah hah!"
Oh, and P.S., a couple of weeks later, everything's working fine. ;-) My gamertag is Skippus. Look me up and maybe we'll throw down with some Texas Hold'em.
Hehehe. That's what I originally thought the article was about. A 360 day warranty replaced by a 365 :) That was actually rather funny :)
(As for the poster: XBOX360 would've been slightly more clear....)
Coz eternity my friend, is a long *ing time.
Stores push those warranties so hard because they're pretty much pure profit.
I particularly liked when I bought an $8 universal remote from best buy and they asked me if I wanted the service plan for it for $6.
1) Its an $8 remote. I kind of expect it to break.
2) Why would I pay %75 of the purchase price for a potential replacement in one year? If it breaks, I'll just buy a new one.
The only time I ever paid for one of these was in High-School when I bought the Radio-Shack headphones ...
The headphones cost $15 and the extended warranty was $10 (IIRC) which seems expensive except that the warranty covered everything and was 3 years long; the beauty of it was that I owned a Sony Sports Walkman at the time and ran everyday, took the bus to and from school, and so on so any headphones would last 2 weeks to a month. I must have replaced those headphones 20 times in those three years so the $10 extended warranty was certainly worth it.
On a side note, even though I believe it is a rip-off, if I were buying a PS3/XBox 360 which only had a 90 day warranty I would splurge and get the extra coverage. From what I have seen too many systems which have CD/DVD/Blu-Ray drives or Hard-Drives have some sort of failure 3-12 months into the systems life to not have coverage in that time frame. (Note: I excluded the Wii because it has a 12 month warranty).
Most consumer electronics in Norway will have a manufacturer-warranty of 1-2 years on them that tend to act as no-questions-asked "get repairs for free" cards throughout the period. It is usually not problematic to get manufacturers to respect these warranties.
Beyond this period, consumer laws say that some items have a 2-year period and others (a bit poorly specified as "items that are expected to last longer") a 5-year period (from date of purchase) in which the manufacturer is responsible for any production defects. Getting manufacturers to accept complaints according to this law can get a bit trickier. At the very least, you often have to actually put down in writing what your complaint is and I am sure some people find this difficult.
These consumer laws will, of course, tend to increase the prices. We seem to be so rich, however, that we don't really care. In fact, retailers are making good profit from selling _even stronger_ insurance together with the gadgets (e.g. 3-year accident insurance etc.) so I doubt the consumer laws are holding us back any. (And price comparisons of my own vs various international webshops seem to indicate that consumer electronics are actually quite cheap in Norway - comparing intl. webshops to retail prices here I don't actually see any incentive to order from them, and that is _before_ considering customs charges.)
My own experiences with this is one time when I sent in my Thinkpad after 2 years (IBM's warranty was 1 year only) and complained that the power socket had become loose. They fixed it without giving me any grief. The other time, my dish washer started acting up (incidentally, 1 day before the law-mandated 5-year period was up). I called the retailer's appointed repairmen, a guy showed up, fixed the thing, noted the date and matter-of-factly informed me that I wouldn't have to pay for it.
But both of these were for products from high-profile, well respected companies. They tend to know the law and its practice well enough to not want to give their customers any grief over an issue that will eventually get ruled in the customer's favour anyway. If you purchase from less experienced/professional retailers, experiences may vary a lot. And if you've stumbled across one of the fly-by-night outfits you're probably better served just writing off your loss and moving on.
sigs are hazardous to your health
We tend to believe in such things as "freedom" here. If you want a longer warranty, you're free to buy from a manufacturer who offers one. Government mandated *anything* is stupid, at least anything beyond criminal acts, education, and defense-- and education is debatable.
That said, the way things are going, the US will be the same as Europe in another ten years anyway. Considering that New York recently removed the right to eat certain kinds of foods, Seattle (and other cities) have removed the right to smoke, etc.
Comment of the year
Apparently the freedom you believe in is not your own, it is the freedom to be screwed by companies that make defective products. mmm "Freedom" you must like it hot.
I have always wondered why people vote against their own interests to help companies, parties and people who's only interest is to screw them as hard and fast as possible. All your argument really proves is that you, and implicitly us Americans, are just not smart consumers or voters.
Regards,
----- 70% of all statistics are completely made up.
And indeed they probably have to. I don't know about the US but in most countries (the UK for one) your contract of sale is with the store. They have to deal with the manufacturer while it's under manufacturers warrenty, not you.
Uh, what's so terribly flamebaitish about a post informing people that in some countries it is illegal to offer such a short warranty?