Hardware Site Reports Xbox 360 Failure Rate

[Junaid Alam]

Hardware Site Reports Xbox 360 Failure Rate

The hardware and technology website Dailytech.com [http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7892] has weighed in on the ongoing debate over whether Microsoft's Xbox 360 console is experiencing abnormally high rates of hardware failure.

In a recent blog post, staffer Marcus Yam said the site contacted retail outlets across North America and received a decisive response. "The responses were unanimous: The Xbox 360 is the least reliable gaming console in recent history."

Dailytech.com cited as its sources current employees of EB Games and Gamestop - but said those employees "offered information under strict anonymity, as it is against company policy to reveal such information to the public."

Citing these sources, the site went on to assert that the corporate division of EB Games doubled the price of its standard warranty and stipulated that customers would receive refurbished, not new, units in exchange for their faulty ones.

The website also claimed that some former and current retail employees, including managers, saw 360 failure rates for launch units as high as 25 to 33 percent.



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[Echolocating]

I was going to buy a 360 when Mass Effect and Halo 3 comes out. But I can't justify buying an expensive space heater. When Microsoft decides to address the engineering mistakes of their console, I'll probably be able to buy those games in the greatest hits bargain bin. ;-)

It's a shame because I'm a huge fan of Bioware and Bungie.

 

[Ajar]

Citing these sources, the site went on to assert that the corporate division of EB Games doubled the price of its standard warranty and stipulated that customers would receive refurbished, not new, units in exchange for their faulty ones.

They tried to do this to me back in February when my first 360 got the three red rings. They told me they could only give me a refurb and that I'd have to wait since they didn't have any. I called their customer support line and was told that that wasn't a corporate policy, so it must have been a district policy. I live very close to the Canada-U.S. border (on the Canadian side), so I popped over to an EB in Michigan and had my 360 replaced with a brand new one, no questions asked. I got to keep my original hard drive and picked up a replacement plan for the new 360 for the same price as the first one (US$50).

I think that sort of de facto change to a warranty policy violates Ontario's 2002 Consumer Protection Act, which stipulates that any ambiguity in such a contract shall be interpreted to the benefit of the consumer. The warranty stated that I was to receive a new Xbox 360 or like product (e.g. refurb); under the CPA I should have received the best of those choices that was available. In other words, my local EB should have given me one of the new 360s I'm pretty sure they had sitting on their shelves, rather than telling me that I would have to wait for them to get a refurb in. Needless to say, I don't shop at EBs in southwestern Ontario anymore.

However, while the Ontario EBs are jerks (and possibly the rest of them if that report is accurate), I don't regret my 360 purchase. It has brought me hundreds of hours of fun.