XBOX Saga
Six days have passed since I last made contact with Microsoft. The challenge: replace a defective XBOX. The process: as long and complicated as possible.
I made mention of the experience that I had with Apple in replacing a defective component. Online access, a few data fields and, with a click of the mouse, all done. New component arrived next day.
“Unbalanced!” the critics proclaimed. “It was just a battery!”
Okay. So let’s play this out. It took over two hours on the phone to initiate the first stage of resolving this defective product. Several hours later, I received a confusing note about hearing more from Microsoft when the next stage of the process begins.
I heard nothing further. Six days go by. And, yesterday, we receive a box from Microsoft.
Yup. A cardboard box. An empty cardboard box. And it only took six days to arrive.
There was a piece of paper in the cardboard box. Barely legible, I guess their printer was low on ink, the paper directed me to pack my defective XBOX into the cardboard box, place an address sticker on the outside of the box, and call Purolator to pick it up.
Where will it go? Who knows. How long will it take? Who knows. What happens if it gets lost? Who knows.
I am willing to say that we won’t see an XBOX for at least a month from the date of the first call.
I’ll post on the progress of the XBOX saga.
LOL.
Funny, I spent 20 minutes on the phone and got my packaging in 2 days and the new XBOX arrived Friday (Total: 6 business days front to back).
They must have read your blog and got mad.
Or, of course, it could be operator error (wink)
Reading my blog and getting mad is the only reasonable explanation for such terrible service.
😉
Perhaps there was an irreconcilable error in your request, causing the system to crash repeatedly. They had to reboot into safe mode before correcting the problem. Inevitably they just reinstalled, which seemed to fix the problem. It only took another 3 days to download all of the patches and updates, fix their networking problems, and find your request using their archaic “search” system.
The physical challenge of receiving a box, emptying it’s contents, refilling it with a new Xbox and sending it back likely will not be an issue, and I’m going to guess 2 weeks. Unless Windows is required to process the request, in which case you’re likely right, another 2 weeks ought to do it.
I’ve found that people getting upset about blogs is related to terrible service, but I’m not sure I would agree with the causation 😉
That was a joke.
Well, at least they are replacing your out of warranty box at no cost to you.
But then, it is no fun to blog about that fact.
Yup. 1 day out of warranty and the machine fried. There is a statement about quality in and of itself. Although it is no fun to read about that fact.
Don’t take the blog posts too seriously. All large companies have issues with customer service.
Even Microsoft.
🙂