AfterDawn: News

BBC's Watchdog investigates Xbox 360 faults

A TV show aired by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), called Watchdog, has investigated a number of complaints consumers have sent about Microsoft's Xbox 360 console, particularly problems that arose shortly after the console came out of its warranty period. The show's presenters said they received 248 complaints from consumers.

The show highlighted two incidents, in which two different owners of an Xbox 360 console experienced the dreaded "ring of death" right after the console's warranty was up. Each owner had to pay £80 ($156) to get the fault fixed. Both thought this was highly unreasonable as both consoles were just about a year old.



"Most people who have an Xbox 360 have an outstanding experience and there's no common fault. Each incident is unique, and looked at on a case by case basis." presenter Nicky Campbell read from a Microsoft statement. No Microsoft representative appeared on the show.

Source:
GameSpot

Written by: James Delahunty @ 14 Feb 2007 10:32

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• 19 comments

• hughjars

  They have some serious issues with the earlier releases
  (I believe the later models have a better guarantee which implies a more reliable unit).
  
  People in the UK could also do with wising up over what our legal situation actually is.
  It seems some folks just have no clue.
  The 1 year guarantee is not the end of it (and hasn't been for years).
  
  A reasonable life-expectancy also comes into this and is ones' legal right.
  
  I expect the reliability to be even better and the 'system' to be a decent upgrade with the next version
  (65nm, quiet DVD drive & big HDD......due March?).
  
  But the XBox 360 is yet another games platform that is a total disgrace when you compare the pricing between the UK and the rest of the world - last time I looked the 'premium' model seels in the USA for $299 = £155.....which is less than the price of the core system in the UK.

  14.2.2007 11:25 #1

• Rikoshay

  Well, it seems to be more than anything a coincidence, although a bad one at that. I guess it just varies from person to person, whether you used it for an excessive amount of time or it just randomly stopped working. Even if it is Microsoft, you can't blame them for everything.

  14.2.2007 11:27 #2

• lawndog

  Well, well, well, here come the 360 slams. Figures 360 comes out gets slammed for stuff, then ps3 and gets slammed, then wii and gets slammed. So now its 360's turn again. What I don't understand is why people are surprised that a 1st generation product has problems? Yes I was stupid and bought the original xbox the night it came out, the differance is I knew I was taking a risk. Yes they could have tested longer, but they would not have been able to beat ps3 to the sheelves if they did that! The wii with the strap breakage. Well, settle your selves down a little bit people. Don't go throwing things and expect a STRING to hold it to your wrist. PS3 I haven't really heard to many problems besides the huge delay, but I believe they did that to make sure there wouldn't be future foreseeable problems.
  Who knows.....
  Most people I know that are adults haven't gotten the 360's yet because they don't want a 1st gen, because of these problems. Now spoiled little rich kids??? I myself, will not get a 1st gen ever again. The only problem I had with my xbox was that it could over heat and melt the power cord. Which xbox actually contacted me about and sent me a new 1 for free. Which was 1 1/2 years after I bought it.
  So a word of possible wisdom........ Never buy first gen., not gaming systems, not cars, not medicine, not even crappy cerals.
  Thats all for now
  LD

  14.2.2007 13:01 #3

• axemurder

  yeah got my 360 not to long ago and what do you know its freezing up already (I hear that thats the first sign right before the good old red ring of death)... I should have got a wii but i love dead rising!

  14.2.2007 13:25 #4

• Gradical

  I love xbox, but today as a last resort as i am far deep into mexico and have no other way to try to fix it i got myself straping my xbox in a towell and trying to overheat it to see if as a last chance i can get it back, that just isnt fair, too bad for M$ i dont think ill buy a 360 again, not now that i have seen how badly they hacked the psp and how much fun im having with all the crazy stuff im putting on it :D, just wishing with all my hearth the same happens to ps3 then im gona burst in flames and kill someone to have th 900 dollars it costs around here :D:D:D:D

  14.2.2007 13:55 #5

• borhan9

  Thats the problem with new tch they dont make things like they used to in the old days.

  14.2.2007 15:01 #6

• ZippyDSM

  hughjars
  
  MS did a piss poor job on the 360,the later units are more patched with tape and glue the new revision(when the hell is it coming out?) should fix the first model issues but really MS should have known better,I pry the PS3 dose not have any hardware issues but its going to take another 7 months to flesh out any real hardware issues with it.
  
  Rikoshay
  not really out of the 10 friends that got a 360 half had to return them and half of them have had trouble with the returns...
  
  Gradical
  if you don't have AC get acouple 2X4's lay a box fan on it and then put the 360 on it,t needs active cooling to keep the heat off.
  
  borhan9
  yes and no,they can when they want to but if they rush they screw up alot.

  14.2.2007 22:26 #7

• BobbyBlu

  Good to see the tables turned....
  

  
  
  
  Microsoft: Ps3 cant do 60fps on 1080p. Guess what they were WRONG!!!!!
  (11/19/05 - 9/19/06) Microsoft: Sony's 1080p support on PS3 is all Hype and Not Needed.
  (9/20/06) Microsoft: Xbox 360 to add 1080p support.
  
  

  15.2.2007 02:26 #8

• gabsta69

  [quote]last time I looked the 'premium' model seels in the USA for $299 = £155.....which is less than the price of the core system in the UK.[quote}
  
  Thats all well and true, but you forget that the UK economy is much stronger that USA right now, causing inflation to play a big part in the cost. Same goes with Ireland and the excessive EUR price tag on the PS3.
  
  The Brits earn on average more, which is why eletronics and the like are more expensive, but it works out to be very similar because of this.

  15.2.2007 02:55 #9

• hughjars

  Stop believing the propaganda gabsta69 cos it's total rubbish.
  
  Quote:Thats all well and true, but you forget that the UK economy is much stronger that USA right now - This is simply not true.
  The US economy by any credible measure is far larger, far wealthier and far stronger than the UK economy (and it has been that way since the end of WW2 - and before).
  
  Quote:causing inflation to play a big part in the cost.
  Same goes with Ireland and the excessive EUR price tag on the PS3. - Not so.
  Inflation, which has been for some time now relatviely low by UK standards, is only slightly higher here than in the USA, Ireland's is a little higher too but the continental EU inflation rate is lower.
  
  In fact the low inflation, strong £ and strong € verses the $US and the Japanese yen ought to mean our imports are even less expensive (cos our £'s & €'s buy a lot more $ US & Yen).
  
  We're simply being lied to by those who rely on most people not really being aware of the economics and what they mean.
  
  The £1 = $1,94 (and has been firmly above $1.80 since 2004)
  
  If the £1 = $2 then $600 = £300.
  If the £1 = $1 then $600 = £600.
  
  It's not so hard to see.
  
  Quote:The Brits earn on average more, which is why eletronics and the like are more expensive, but it works out to be very similar because of this. - That's simply not true, again.
  Average earnings (along with the more representitive 'median earnings') are far higher in the USA compared to the UK.
  
  We periodically get this kind of nonsense from the CE companies here, recently it was taken apart in this article.
  
  In this instance it's that idiot from Sony but it could just as easily be any of the talking head PR idiots from any of the companies importing their CE stuff here & trying to justify this cr@p.
  
  Quote:Sony: it's not our fault PS3 is expensiveBy Bobbie Johnson / Gaming 12:01pm
  
  In this week's Technology supplement, Steve Boxer takes a look at why the PlayStation 3 is so expensive for British customers - and asks Sony Computer Entertainment UK boss Ray Maguire what the reasons are. Maguire flips between the usual suspects; VAT, currency valuation and
  
  "There's a compulsion within the media to look at everything as a snapshot, and do a calculation, normally based on just the RRP in somewhere like the US and just the RRP in the UK. What you should do with the RRP from the US is add sales tax."
  
  But as Boxer points out, UK VAT would take the RRP to just £352 (*compared to the £425 they want to charge).
  So instead, Maguire says that it's actually too easy to compare RRPs without taking into account corporate currency management.
  
  "When businesses trade, they hedge. It depends what currency you're buying against. We don't buy anything in dollars, so the dollar can go up and down.
  If it were $1.40 to the pound as it was a while ago, then the PS3 would be a bargain compared to the US; if it's anything more than that, the UK price appears to be comparatively expensive. But we're dealing with euros and yen - it's about the relationship between those currencies."
  
  From the figures I'm looking at, the last time the dollar was $1.40 to the pound was six years ago (less than a year after PS2 was released).
  Maguire also blames high living costs and staff expenses in the UK (as opposed to, say, Japan?!).
  
  Update: Over on the Gamesblog, commenter Graham says "The GBPUSD exchnge rate ... has only been below this level on 15 days in the last 16 years."
  
  Anyway, here's the point: the PS3 is hugely expensive, and more so in the UK than anywhere else it's is being released. Why can't Sony - and all the other companies who cash in on "rip-off Britain" - admit that it's simply the price that the company believes we will pay for the machine?
  
  http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/a..._expensive.html

  15.2.2007 06:09 #10

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by BobbyBlu:Good to see the tables turned....
  dude.....we been pissed at MS 3 months after they launched the 360...get with it already and stop being a sony whore....oy..........
  

  
  
  FIGHT THE M.A.F.I.A.A.
  Sony has declared war on importers the consumer will be next with CD's,Videos/Games not far behind that....boycott SONY!
  http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/8062.cfm

  15.2.2007 07:41 #11

• hughjars

  I think the term is "zing"!
  
  LMAO
  
  You're on form today zippy.

  15.2.2007 08:01 #12

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by hughjars:I think the term is "zing"!
  
  LMAO
  
  You're on form today zippy.I mean really what 360 fan that has been hit by this has not been pissed,maybe the uber fan boys that like financial and techincail S&M.....
  
  MS has screwed up no one doubts that and no one should doubt Sony has screwed up as much but in different ways.
  
  have you seen the nyko intercooler thing I wonder if tis the power and port on the 360 and not the device I emna if the device is made to spec and the spec is 30-50% more than what reality is its going to fry something.

  15.2.2007 08:11 #13

• baldy43

  I would not get one of these 360 because all of the companies that put out these machines do it every 2 to3 years and the price is getting out of hand. All of these companies should make their machines so that for a small fee you can get an upgrade and keep making the games so that the person that has the first one out can play the new games.

  15.2.2007 18:29 #14

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by baldy43:I would not get one of these 360 because all of the companies that put out these machines do it every 2 to3 years and the price is getting out of hand. All of these companies should make their machines so that for a small fee you can get an upgrade and keep making the games so that the person that has the first one out can play the new games.If you are a gamer you ill get them sooner or later,I say get them when you can as soon as you can,when the 360 came out I set my spending limit about 400 then I started to hear about the hardware issues I took it off my list and am basically saving money and waiting for the 2nd revision.
  
  the WII is worth about 350 to me maybe 400 (need tog et Zelda TP and Metroid 3) waiting on MP3 to come out
  
  the PS3 is a bit overpriced but I will get one...but it might be acouple years because to me its the most offensive of the 3.

  16.2.2007 01:56 #15

• Askar

  Quote:But the XBox 360 is yet another games platform that is a total disgrace when you compare the pricing between the UK and the rest of the world - last time I looked the 'premium' model seels in the USA for $299 = £155.....which is less than the price of the core system in the UK. This in untrue. Core models sell for $299 here in the US. Premium models still sell for $399.
  
  All game systems have some incidents of failure. All products of nearly every type have failures and faulty products. It's no great shock and no company will likely ever make a game system that doesn't have any problems.
  
  I have an Xbox 360 and mine has worked well for the most part. It has frozen up a few times on 1 game. I've had it since about 3 month after launch. I may get a new one when the new version comes out.
  
  I love any great game system and don't really have any "favorite" system. I may get a PS3 at some point too but the price is a little too steep at the moment.

  16.2.2007 19:45 #16

• hughjars

  Quote:Core models sell for $299 here in the US. Premium models still sell for $399. - You're quite right, my apologies, I was wrong.
  (Swapping back and forth between currencies had me a little confused there.)
  
  But ok, the point is still valid in that a US version of the XBox 360 premium sells for far far less than the UK; in the USA it's the about same money as our core model (which is £200).
  
  Shipping and taxes do not = one third more in price.
  
  Just as the PS3 is a disgrace price-wise
  (selling in Japan at half what they're wanting to charge here)
  so the XBox 360 is a disgrace......even if it's slightly less of a disgrace by selling at approx third less in the USA.

  17.2.2007 04:02 #17

• ZippyDSM

  Quote:[quote]Core models sell for $299 here in the US. Premium models still sell for $399. - You're quite right, my apologies, I was wrong.
  (Swapping back and forth between currencies had me a little confused there.)
  
  But ok, the point is still valid in that a US version of the XBox 360 premium sells for far far less than the UK; in the USA it's the about same money as our core model (which is £200).
  
  Shipping and taxes do not = one third more in price.
  
  Just as the PS3 is a disgrace price-wise
  (selling in Japan at half what they're wanting to charge here)
  so the XBox 360 is a disgrace......even if it's slightly less of a disgrace by selling at approx third less in the USA.[/quote]
  can you post the US,UKPound stilering and japan prices of the WIi,PS320,PS360 and the 360 core and premi?
  
  Price to region USA UK Pound Yen
  WII 250 (I do not know the price per region)
  equal to US 250 = 190 = 128 = 29.807.5
  
  as you see in my above example the real price us on top and the eaqul direct conversion of US to the region is on the bottom,he UK and england have the 17% vat right?

  18.2.2007 11:49 #18

• hughjars

  £179.99 seems to be the retail inc taxes here zippy.
  
  Which at todays rates (£1 = $1.95) is $390 and (£1 = €1.485) €267.

  18.2.2007 14:01 #19