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XBox (Games)

Microsoft Extends 360 Warranty to One Year 68

Posted by Zonk from the break-it-now-if-you-can dept.
Gamasutra reports that Microsoft has extended the warranty on the Xbox 360, giving consumers one year from their date of purchase to receive essentially free repairs. This is being done to put the U.S. and Canada in line with the warranty offered in other parts of the globe, and is retroactive. From the article: "... [C]onsumers who may have already paid for an out-of-warranty Xbox 360 repair within one year of purchase will be eligible for reimbursement of their console repair charges. Microsoft notes that those who have already paid for such repair charges within their first year of ownership can expect reimbursement checks for the amount of their console repair in approximately 10 weeks. The company adds that reimbursements will be automatically distributed, so customers do not need to contact Microsoft directly."
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Microsoft Extends 360 Warranty to One Year More

Microsoft Extends 360 Warranty to One Year

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  • woot (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Does that mean it's now the 365?

    • 360-365 (Score:3, Funny)

      by splutty ( 43475 )
      Hehehe. That's what I originally thought the article was about. A 360 day warranty replaced by a 365 :) That was actually rather funny :)

      (As for the poster: XBOX360 would've been slightly more clear....)

  • Hopefully this will curb extended warranty sales (Score:4, Interesting)

    by KingSkippus ( 799657 ) * on Friday December 22, 2006 @10:58AM (#17337652) Homepage Journal

    Thank goodness. 90 days just isn't long enough to find all design flaws in a product, especially if you consider that there are probably a bunch of Xbox 360s sitting around in closets or under trees for a month or so before they actually get used. I wonder how many people didn't buy an Xbox 360 because of the really short warranty. I also wonder how many people are going to kick themselves now for buying one of those ripoff extended warranties.

    I got mine at Micro Center a couple of weeks ago, which is currently offering a $100 rebate [microcenter.com] on both the core nad pro systems. If I were Microsoft, though, I'd be really pissed off at Micro Center. I had one sales person on the floor ask several times if I wanted to upgrade the 90-day warranty. "Are you sure? It's a great deal! And look at what you get!..." Of course being intelligent, I turned it down, over and over, ad nauseum.

    When I got to the cash register, the checkout person asked yet again. When I declined, she actually said, "You really should get it. A lot of people have been bringing them back."

    If I were even the least bit paranoid, I would have simply left my $600 or so of merchandise (the system, plus a couple of games, a controller, and a battery charger) sitting right there on the counter and walked out. Why the hell would I buy a product that the store clerks keep telling me, and seem convinced to the core, is defective? If I were Microsoft, I'd be tempted to stop selling any Xbox 360s to Micro Center at all. Stores telling customers repeatedly that your product is broken is most heinously not cool.

    Fortunately, I'm not as gullible as a lot of people, and I'm not so willing to part with my sixty-something dollars for something that is statistically highly unlikely to happen.

    Maybe this will help to take some of the wind out of their "sales" and get them to stop trying to scare the hell out of their customers.

    Still, a hundred bucks back sure does take a little bit of the sting out of having to listen to their stupidity. If I were just a tiny bit more spiteful, I would drive up there today and tell them, "Hah hah!"

    Oh, and P.S., a couple of weeks later, everything's working fine. ;-) My gamertag is Skippus. Look me up and maybe we'll throw down with some Texas Hold'em.

    • Re:Hopefully this will curb extended warranty sale (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      the core nad pro systems


      freudian slip?

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by PingSpike ( 947548 )
      Stores push those warranties so hard because they're pretty much pure profit.

      I particularly liked when I bought an $8 universal remote from best buy and they asked me if I wanted the service plan for it for $6.
      1) Its an $8 remote. I kind of expect it to break.
      2) Why would I pay %75 of the purchase price for a potential replacement in one year? If it breaks, I'll just buy a new one.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by HappySqurriel ( 1010623 )
        The only time I ever paid for one of these was in High-School when I bought the Radio-Shack headphones ...

        The headphones cost $15 and the extended warranty was $10 (IIRC) which seems expensive except that the warranty covered everything and was 3 years long; the beauty of it was that I owned a Sony Sports Walkman at the time and ran everyday, took the bus to and from school, and so on so any headphones would last 2 weeks to a month. I must have replaced those headphones 20 times in those three years so the
      • EB offers extended warranties as well. They explain it's no questions asked... whether it's an accident or you drop it, you're fully covered and they'll simply hand you a new one when you bring it in. I've been sorely tempted to buy a game system, get the warranty, and then slam the system to the ground right then and ask for a replacement.
         
    • A few weeks, huh?
      My first one, lasted all of 4 hours, my second one lasted 8 months, I'm now on my 3rd.

      Sure I could have skimped and not bought the 2 year service plan that I got, but I much prefer the service I've gotten for the first 2 failures, all it took was 10 minutes and I had a new 360 ready to go, instead of waiting weeks to mail it back and have microsoft fix it.

      So, enjoy your roll of the dice... but statistically speaking the odds aren't in your favor. .... either that or I just have really, real

      • Well, your first one would have not only been well within the warranty, but well within the return policy of the store where you bought it. Just pack it up, take it back with your receipt, and get a new one.

        statistically speaking the odds aren't in your favor

        That's really hard to believe. If it were true, then these stores (and Microsoft) would be losing money for offering these warranties, and since they don't (and in fact, as pointed out, make a huge profit from them), I'd say that the odds are much

    • Nintendo offers a 1 year warrenty out of box. I was personally offered a 1 year warrenty by Gamestop. Not an additional year, just a 1 year warrenty. I didn't purchase it, but the woman behind me did. Mom probably isn't going to know or bother to check on the manufacturer warranty when she's buying Jr's Christmas present.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Lehk228 ( 705449 )
        store plans are nice fo rthings that you don't wanbt to be going without during the replacement period, I got the 1 year plan from target on my wii so if anything goes wrong i can just bring it back and get a new one on the spot.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Raenex ( 947668 )
          Good grief, you can't manage without a game system on the off-chance that it goes down?
    • Same experience at Circuit City, where I bought my 360 almost a year ago. I've probably used it almost every day since then (games & DVDs) and I haven't had a single problem yet. Keep your fingers crossed.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kelbear ( 870538 )
      You should've paid for the warranty. They weren't lying. Mine died in 6 days, my roommates in 2 weeks. The xbox has already popularized terms for its failures, "The red rings of death"(the system's indicator for internal hardware failure) and "bricked"(the heavy weight, uselessness, and rectangular shape of a dead xbox360) consoles. There are a large number of reasons for Xbox360s to die.

      They're issuing a 1 year warranty from date of purchase now, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't a smart idea to buy an
      • The xbox has already popularized terms for its failures, "The red rings of death"(the system's indicator for internal hardware failure) and "bricked"

        "Bricked" is a term for dead hardware that has been around for a long time before the 360. Its failure rates may be high, but c'mon, let's not rewrite history to claim this system is solely responsible for a totally new term for dead technology. For reference search for "bricked" and "ipod" and I'm confident you'll find articles from well before the 360 launc

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Raenex ( 947668 )
        You should've paid for the warranty. They weren't lying. Mine died in 6 days, my roommates in 2 weeks.

        Which both would have been covered under the 90-day warranty. Most items, if they are going to break, do so fairly soon. That's why the stores are happy to sell you extended warranties. They are a complete ripoff. By the way, I've had my 360 for almost a year now, still works fine.

    • Exactly my experience at MicroCenter. "There's lots of hardware failures." "These things overheat." etc. I mean, I've been talked up about service plans before, but never have I heard salespeople use such deceptive scare tactics to sell those plans.

      Do I smell a class action lawsuit?

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by DarkJC ( 810888 )
        But...there ARE lots of hardware failures, and they DO overheat. Of course, lots is subjective, so really there's nothing you can do about it.
    • This reminds me of when I bought my PS2 in 2001 at Best Buy. The person on the floor told me I should get a replacement plan because they had "allot of bad drives", then two employees at the checkout gave me the same garbage. I asked "Are you telling me you are selling a broken product?" They said no, but they were getting allot of returns. I responded with "If I taked this thing home and it doesn't work I can bring back and exchange it for 30 days right?", and they said "Oh, uhh, sure". Bastards, exten
    • To be fair, there are a couple circumstances when an extended warranty makes sense:

      1) When the warranty is offered by the same company that makes the product.
      2) When the cost of the warranty is less than the cheapest repair cost.

      I've very thankful I bought the extended warranty on my G3 iBook from Apple, since it happened to be one of those with defective motherboards... the warranty allowed me to have it repaired for free (several times-- god that thing sucked!) and then get a new laptop once it was obviou
    • Both Sony & Nintendo offer one year warranties on the PS3 & Wii respectively. The Wii (at least for now) comes with a 3 month extension out of the box if you register it on www.nintedo.com (not sure if the PS3 has something similar or not).

      They still tried to sell me an extended warranty at Best Buy. Even after I told them it had a one year warranty. It said so on the back of the box! I don't blame the cashier, I know he was required to ask, but companies have making profit off of other's gul
  • He called up this morning and they issued him a $140 refund for his previous repair bill. Unfortunately it's by check.. His experience here: http://emeraldcoasttech.com/gamut/?p=21 [emeraldcoasttech.com]
    • Be thankful it wasn't in rolls of nickels.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by dakrin9 ( 891909 )
      Here's the transcript for those who don't like to click links: My 360 Story My Xbox 360 is only 6 months old and last week it crapped out. I assume it is an overheating problem because it would persistently froze up after being idle for a few minutes. The culprit is probably a fan failure or a shoddy job at applying thermal compound that gels the processor to the heat sink. I found plenty of other folks on various forums that have had the same trouble. "They'll be issuing a full refund for the repair cost
  • And that, is by law. Consumer electronics, including mobile phones, have a 5 year warranty on fixing 'production errors'. Any equipment that fails before that time - without the consumer having done something stupid like dropped it into the water - is considered a production error.

    Apple is having quite a bit of trouble with the government for trying to ignore that law. :)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      And that, is by law. Consumer electronics, including mobile phones, have a 5 year warranty on fixing 'production errors'. Any equipment that fails before that time - without the consumer having done something stupid like dropped it into the water - is considered a production error.

      Apple is having quite a bit of trouble with the government for trying to ignore that law. :)

      And you guys wonder why you pay so much more for your stuff? (1 year is quite reasonable for a warranty for high-tech products given how f

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by bentcd ( 690786 )
        Most consumer electronics in Norway will have a manufacturer-warranty of 1-2 years on them that tend to act as no-questions-asked "get repairs for free" cards throughout the period. It is usually not problematic to get manufacturers to respect these warranties.
        Beyond this period, consumer laws say that some items have a 2-year period and others (a bit poorly specified as "items that are expected to last longer") a 5-year period (from date of purchase) in which the manufacturer is responsible for any product
        • So, to clarify, in Norway there's a 1-2 year no-questions asked warranty, then a 5 year period where manufacturers are legally obliged to fix production errors?


          We have the exact same here in the UK, except it's 6 years.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by bentcd ( 690786 )
            That is generally the case for most high-profile manufacturers. They give you a 1 or 2 year warranty (that by law has to be better than what the consumer law mandates or they're not allowed to call it a warranty at all) and the general practice is that they won't pester you about the hows or whats or whys so long as the item is demonstrably malfunctioning (I'm sure there are exceptions for obvious cases of abuse, serial returners etc).
            The 5-year period is, however, from date of purchase and not from the end

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jmorris42 ( 1458 ) *
      > Consumer electronics, including mobile phones, have a 5 year warranty on fixing 'production errors'.

      And notice that in European countries things cost more, even after you factor in VAT and currency conversion. Guess what, you ain't getting a free lunch, you are getting an extended warranty bundled with the stuff you buy. Of course everyone knows extended warranties are a ripoff, too bad you don't get to choose whether to buy one, Big Mother Government made the decision for you. At least you might be
  • giving consumers one year from their date of purchase to receive essentially free repairs.

    I don't know about the States but in the UK...

    You are entitled to your money back if there is a fault with the goods, or they are any of the following:

    * Unsatisfactory quality
    * Not fit for their purpose
    * Misdescribed (not what they are supposed to be)

    I've never bought of heard or any appliance that didn't come with a manufacturers 12 month guarantee.

    • 90 days is pretty standard for electronics in the US.

      Of course, I don't know why I'm replying matter-of-factly to this post since it's basically just a "my country is better than your country" flamebait, but I guess I'm just a sucker.

      (There's one from Norway a few posts up that's even worse. What do you guys expect us to say to that? 'Oh! 5 year warranty! I'll move immediately!')

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Duds ( 100634 ) *
        Well the thing is, we get a 12month warrenty free with our 360.

        Great.

        Except you pay $399 for the Prem + $50 or so for the 12 month warrenty (before this announcement) = $449 + tax

        We pay £238 for the Prem with the warrenty which is $470 + tax.

        So you're still paying less before tax even if you take the option to buy our warrenty and I doubt anyone in the US pays the 17.5% sales tax we then do over that.

        So even before this announcement you were still better off.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by kailoran ( 887304 )
        Uh, what's so terribly flamebaitish about a post informing people that in some countries it is illegal to offer such a short warranty?
      • 90 days is pretty standard for electronics in the US.
        Of course, I don't know why I'm replying matter-of-factly to this post since it's basically just a "my country is better than your country" flamebait, but I guess I'm just a sucker.

        I appologise if the concept of protection for consumers offends you so. Having always been afforded the option of refund or repair for faulty goods it seems strange that a company wouldn't be held legally responsible for selling shoddy goods and felt that worth commenting on

  • What tickled me last month was seeing signs in the places that push extended warranties:

    "Please be advised that all video game consoles only carry a 90 day warranty."

    This was news to me, since my Wii states quite clearly in the manual that it has a one year warranty. Deceptive advertising? Naaaaaah!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by tuffy ( 10202 )
      I think those are two different warranties: a 90 day one via the store and a 1 year one via Nintendo.
      • I was paraphrasing the signs. It very clearly states "manufacturer's warranty".

        There's really isn't any such thing as a store warranty on most things. The will possibly help you out with the manufacturer's warranty, but I've never heard of a store that goes beyond that - other than pricey "extended warranties".

        Trust me: Wal-Mart doesn't "warranty" your product. They might exchange it for you, but they'll still be sending the broken one back to the manufacturer.

        Of course, the rare exception will now be poste

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by Duds ( 100634 ) *
          And indeed they probably have to. I don't know about the US but in most countries (the UK for one) your contract of sale is with the store. They have to deal with the manufacturer while it's under manufacturers warrenty, not you.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by DarkJC ( 810888 )
      Heh, that's funny, because I've heard the employees telling people at the local EB that both the PS3 AND the Wii only have a 90 day warranty when you buy them (despite them both having 1 year warranties). I guess it's just another deceptive pitch to sell you their 1 year. Now that the XBOX360 is officially a 1 year as well, I wonder whether they'll stop?
    • "Please be advised that all video game consoles only carry a 90 day warranty."

      This was news to me, since my Wii states quite clearly in the manual that it has a one year warranty. Deceptive advertising? Naaaaaah!

      In North America the Wii has a 90 day warranty extention if you register it with Nintendo. So if you look through the pile of papers, one tells you where to go to make it a 15 month warranty.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by ClamIAm ( 926466 )
      What tickled me

      This doesn't exactly "tickle" me. I bought a Gamecube last December, and I knew for a fact that they came with a 12-month warranty. The checkout clerk tried to claim that it only had a 90-day warranty, so I should totally get that extended one.

      Aren't there laws against this type of thing? It might not be "false advertising", but it's certainly "false".
  • Its funny these extended warranty bits here in the US. In Japan where I get most of my electronics from I've never heard of or seen extended warranties in Japan. Any /.ers in Japan that can verify this?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by patio11 ( 857072 )
      I've purchased, lets see, a PS2, three varieties of gameboy, and a Wii in Japan. I've never once been offered the extended warranty. Frequently they'll have me unbox the console immediately so they can put their store's stamp on the regular, 1 year, warranty card... as a matter of fact, the only time that didn't happen was at the Wii launch.
  • My 360 has been sitting unused for at least a month now because of a 3 flashing red lights error. Conveniently for MS, it was only a few days before that my warranty expired. I decided to hold off on getting it repaired because spending half the cost of a new console for repairs seems a bit dubious at best. Now it will only cost me to ship it to them, which is far more reasonable... not to mention that the kids can now stop pestering me with their endless "When you gonna get the 360 fixed?" questions.
    :O)
    • My understanding is that Microsot has been providing the packaging and a shipping label for mail-in repairs, so it probably won't even cost you that. My 360 is still working fine (knock wood) so I have no direct experience either way.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Dameian ( 913475 )
        No, they said that I'll have to ship it to them. However, the repair and the trip back will be out of their pockets. That's good enough for me.

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