Designer Builds Coffin For Xbox's Suffering RROD

angry tapir writes "The Xbox 360 RROD coffin was created by Aussie designer Alexis Vanamois, and it does exactly what it says on the tin. It's the ultimate final resting place for 'bricked' Xbox 360 consoles that have suffered the Red Ring of Death; it even has a cavity for your controller!"

Comments

Controller?

[Karganeth]

The controller isn't broken, why would I throw it away?

Re:Controller?

[Karganeth]

The same reason you'd buy a coffin for a dead person.

Re:Controller?

[Yo Grark]

Because you sure as hell won't be buying another Xbox360!

Yo Grark

Re:Controller?

[Anonymous Coward]

The same reason you'd buy a coffin for a dead person.

Because I plan to return him to God for warranty service?

Re:Controller?

[commodore64_love]

No but I might steal one. Like so:

(1) Clean, clean, clean the prematurely (less than 2 years) dead X360 so it looks new.
(2) Buy new one from microsoft.com.
(3) Put old unit in new box.
(4) Return for refund because "it doesn't turn on". Get refund.
(5) If MS refuses, then provide tracking to credit card. They will Force a refund per the contract MS signed with the credit company.

Done.

I just did this with a USB drive that went "click click click" before finally spinning up. i.e. It was almost dead before I ever used it! Even though I had just opened the drive, my receipt was a month old, so the store refused the return. Next I bought a new one, put broken drive in new box, and returned it a few days later saying, "This doesn't work." Done.

I do this everytime a corporation tries to screw me. They almost-never succeed.

Re:Controller?

[Pojut]

People are still under the impression that RRoD is a widespread problem, despite the Jasper's not even getting hot enough to cause the box to red ring? Seriously, check out a Jasper unit...a PS3 Slim puts out more heat than they do.

I should know. My Jasper 360 is sitting on a shelf next to my PS3 Slim.

Re:Controller?

[Procasinator]

I would think the Xbox 360 has serial numbers. Buying from a game store, you might be lucky and they won't check (probably only would if the process is automated).

But surely Microsoft themselves would.

Re:Controller?

[Lostlander]

See http://support.xbox.com/support/en/us/xbox360/hardware/warranty/warranty/ProductWarrantyNew.aspx

Specifically "(three years for conditions that either cause three lights on the ring of light on the front of the Console to flash red, or display an E74 error code on the video display connected to the Console)"

Re:Controller?

[Ephemeriis]

No but I might steal one. Like so:

(1) Clean, clean, clean the prematurely (less than 2 years) dead X360 so it looks new.
(2) Buy new one from microsoft.com.
(3) Put old unit in new box.
(4) Return for refund because "it doesn't turn on". Get refund.
(5) If MS refuses, then provide tracking to credit card. They will Force a refund per the contract MS signed with the credit company.

Done.

As you say, this is theft.

You can argue that it's a faulty product and you're entitled to your money's worth and whatnot... But that seems more like a discussion you should be having with technical support, over their warranty. Or maybe with some lawyer.

I just did this with a USB drive that went "click click click" before finally spinning up. i.e. It was almost dead before I ever used it!

Not trying to tell you that you're wrong here... But it's entirely possible that the USB port you happened to be using had insufficient power.

My USB HDD does something similar if I plug it into an under-powered USB port or if I use too long a USB cable. Sounds for all the world like a dead drive. But if I plug it in to a good port or use a shorter cable it spins up just fine.

I bought a new one, put broken drive in new box, and returned it a few days later saying, "This doesn't work." Done.

I've got a co-worker who does this all the time.

We had a bad thunderstorm a while back and the power supply blew on his fancy TV. He bought a new one, put the bad one in the box, and returned it.

Last year he bought a new artificial Christmas tree from SAM's Club... Put his old, smaller tree in the box, and returned it.

I do this everytime a corporation tries to screw me. They almost-never succeed.

Generally speaking, they aren't trying to screw you. It can certainly seem unfair when you're bit in the ass by their return policies... And it may not be a very fair policy in the first place... But they aren't generally actually trying to screw you.

I used to work at Electronic's Boutique back in the day. When I started there they had a virtually "no questions asked" return policy. You could even return a game if you didn't like it.

So we'd have customers basically using us for free rentals. They'd buy a game, play it, beat it, return it, and get something else for no charge. And then do the same thing with that.

So then we stipulated that it was only on non-working merchandise... And folks just lied and said it didn't work on their system.

Then we stipulated that you could only return non-working merchandise for another copy of the same thing. And folks would tell us that they bought it was a gift and had been purchased for the wrong system.

So we stipulated that it had to be un-opened merchandise. And folks will just use somebody's shrink wrap machine to repackage the game and make it look un-opened.

The end result of all this is that somebody who has a legitimate reason to return a game to the store is going to have one hell of a hard time accomplishing that. And they're going to feel like they're being screwed. But it isn't that the company wants to screw them... It's that so many people screwed the company over the years that there's no way for anyone to win at this point.

Re:Controller?

[Pojut]

The Gizmodo link you referenced (the "30% retailer" number) is from mid 2007. This was prior to the Jasper units, and even prior to the Falcon units.

Out of date numbers are relevant to Jasper units not running hot enough to Red Ring because...?

Re:Controller?

[Anonymous Coward]

Disgruntled Best Buy employee here.

We don't check serial numbers unless you get a service plan, and even then, we won't have record of it until it's first repaired.

If the item you are returning is less than 30 days old, we generally just go ahead and give you a new one. If it's more than one month and less than one year, we'll send it off to get it fixed at a service center.

You can also do what a coworker of mine did, if you work at another retail-esque store. He went to Target and bought a jigsaw puzzle that was shrink-wrapped. He opened it up at home and took the puzzle pieces out, and replaced them with cheerios. When nobody was looking, he used our own store's shrinkwrap to make it seem like the puzzle box had never been opened, and then he promptly went to return it with the original receipt and he got a full refund

Best Buy checks to make sure the electronics are working if they're expensive, but some smaller things like hard drive enclosures don't get tested or opened. You could easily replace one with a small brick, for example, and we would be none the wiser.

Re:Controller?

[Ephemeriis]

I don't consider it theft

You're the one who said you "might steal one"...

And, considering the defect rate on 360s and the poor warranty, I'm not sure I'd really argue with you on the ethics/morality of it.

a corporation like Bank of America that stole 1500 billion in bailout funds from our wallets.

Stole? Or was it handed to them on a golden platter with no requirements or restrictions or oversight?

I didn't cry when Saddam Hussein was hung dead.

Granted, he seemed to be a pretty bad guy. Maybe he deserved to be hung, I don't know enough to say. But considering the violence, death, and bloodshed that has resulted from our intervention I'm not sure we actually did a good thing there.

...and in response to your PS below, because I don't feel like clicking "reply to this" again...

If a corporation Screws you, I consider it acceptable to screw them right back.

While it may feel good... And may be justifiable... The problem with this is that it doesn't actually fix the problem.

Sure, maybe you get your money's worth in the end... But Microsoft is still selling a product with a 33% failure rate and Toyota is still selling cars with defective parts.

Which is why I suggested originally that perhaps it was a conversation better had with someone in technical support or with a lawyer - with the intent of coercing the company into fixing the actual problem.

A sign...

[thijsh]

Yesterday night my second xbox showed the dreaded RROD while watching a movie. Maybe this is a sign... and a proper burial will please the gaming gods and allow my next xbox to live a long and ever-green life.

The gods will have to pry the controller out of my dead cold hands though.

Why is this here?

[slimjim8094]

What is this crap? Chuck it in Idle. Please.

Oh wait, it's samzenpus. Carry on, I guess.

I would never bury my xbox

[Logibeara]

Instead I'm going to cryogenically freeze it untill microsoft can find a fix for it in the future.