Xbox Saga Epilogue

A new Xbox 360 arrived last night. Faster than expected. Longer than necessary.

I admit to being a bit ticked off with Microsoft when this whole process began.

I was running a beta of Vista under Microsoft’s Customer Beta program and I had only ever received one build.

When I asked Microsoft for the RC 1 build, they provided me a copy. Unfortunately, the product key had already been used. I asked them for a new product key over two weeks ago, before the encounter with the Xbox customer support calls, and to no avail.

Zip. Nada. I guess the folks I deal with at Microsoft do not honor their commitments anymore.

So, my PC was awaiting product deactivation. The Xbox encounter, and subsequent delay to ship out a cardboard box, seemed indicative of an unresponsive, uncaring company.

I still do not have a product key from Microsoft. No big deal. A friend had a 10-license beta of RC 2 and he generously provided me with one of his activations.

We had already received a new Xbox from Microsoft last year so getting a replacement for the original unit that died was a bonus.

I had some other issues with the company and it may just be isolated to a few people on a few issues all at the same time.

Regardless, the Xbox folks asked me for feedback on the process. And I will give them feedback.