Yet another gamer relates his story of how Microsoft ruined his Xbox 360 after he sent it in for repairs. Oh, the console was fine. But - probably through some communication breakdown - they ruined the console's sentimental (not to mention monetary) values. You see, the console had signatures and custom artwork from notable members of the gaming community, all of which were erased when the console was sent in for repairs despite the steps the gamer took to assure it won't happen. Read the story in the full article.

Last month, one gamer's Xbox 360 unit hits rock bottom. Instead of picking up the phone and calling customer care, he sends an email to none other than Bill Gates himself. The result? A brand new unit in a record time of 24 hours. While it is a feat worthy of jubilation among gamers alike, Microsoft wasn't all too happy about it.

Read on to the full article to see what their official statement was about who you should contact in cases of unit failures. You canbet Bill Gates isn't one of them.

Gather 'round the campfire and strum that guitar as we share another terrible tale of customer service gone wrong, and this time it's about a staff of a popular chain of stores stopping a gamer from buying Assassin's Creed (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)) outright. Check out the full article for the entire details.

Remember that hacking incident where a hacker spirited away a Halo 3 gamer's most prized Recon Armor? None other that Microsoft's own Xbox Live director Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb's on the case, and maybe we can see a resolution to this problem real soon. More details in the full article!

According to the complaints on the Xbox Official Forums, Xbox Live connection problems are still rampant. Some find the issues that prevent them from having a great time with their Xbox 360 consoles hooked up online so inconvenient that they demand compensation. More on this at the full article.

Hacks on the Microsoft Xbox 360 can either be good or bad depending on your perspective, but  the Xbox Live service getting hacked is almost always bad news. Earlier, reports of an XBL account hacked for its Halo 3 Recon Armor circulated. How did Microsoft's customer service reps handle this? Find out in the full article.

Get ready for some bad news guys. We received an email earlier from tipster JoJaSc and it might interest some of you who are interested in the Xbox 360 Halo 3 Special Edition Console.

According to the email, JoJaSc sent an email to the Xbox Customer Care Team explaining that he was interested in purchasing the Halo 3 Special Edition console and was concerned about transferring the stuff in his 20GB hard drive. JoJaSc further inquired whether the data migration kits used for Pro to Elite transfers will work for the Halo 3 edition console. The response from Microsoft's Customer Support went like this:

Hello JoJaSc,

Thank you for writing Xbox Customer Support!

I deeply apologize for the inconvenience and as I understand, you would like to know if the Xbox 360 Halo 3 Special Edition Console's Hard Drive could be used with the migration kit.

Note: Xbox 360 Halo 3 Special Edition Console's Hard Drive memory capacity is 20GB. You can only use the Migration kit when transferring files from 20 GB to 120 GB.

We do know from previous reports that it is not possible to transfer files from a 20GB to another 20GB, which in itself is already a bummer. That would be a pretty tough decision: keep your console and use the Halo 3 edition console when whim strikes or forget all your movies, Live games, and TV shows, among other things? Does this mean that the Halo fans who purchase the Special Edition console will have to settle for two consoles?

The customer service person really didn't specify why the Migration kit can't work for data transfers other than 20GB to 120GB and it's really curious why not. We'll try and dig up more info on this so try to keep up.

Again, thanks to JoJaSc!

Remember that guy who sued Microsoft because his Xbox 360 got bricked when he downloaded the Fall 2006 software update? The lawsuit is over and done with, with the software mogul and plaintiff Kevin Ray agreeing to dismiss the case. Ray's lawyer confirmed that the the case had been settled, but the terms are confidential.

Microsoft's decision to extend the warranty may have helped, as evidenced in this quote taken from Microsoft's motion:

Microsoft's customer service records show that on January 10, 2007, Plaintiff called Microsoft again, after Microsoft announced the new one-year warranty... The next day, Microsoft shipped a box with prepaid postage to Mr. Ray to use to send his Xbox 360 console back to Microsoft for repair... On January 28, 2007, a replacement console was shipped back to him... Microsoft did not charge Mr. Ray any money for replacing or shipping his Xbox 360 console... He has not contacted Microsoft with any further complaint...

The quoted paragraph above refers to the time when the initial 90-day warranty was extended to a full year, which could have been a result of the class action lawsuit. With the warranty now extended to three whopping years, there's now less reason for people to cry foul and throw lawsuits at Microsoft.

For other people who had problems with the Fall 2006 update, don't think that Microsoft will have something special coming your way - even though the case started out as a class action suit, it was eventually settled as an individual action suit between Microsoft and Ray.

So that's one lawsuit down, and more to go. There's still that second lawsuit about the Xbox 360 scratching discs, and we certainly hope everything gets settled as peacefully as this Fall 2006 software update lawsuit.

With Microsoft keeping its mouth shut about the actual numbers of the Xbox failure rate, Daily Tech took the matter into their own hands and started their own investigation to get a hint of what the real deal really is.

Daily Tech sent out surveys to retailer stores selling Xbox 360s along with in-store extended warranties. They asked the stores who offered such in-house warranties how many Xbox 360 customers claimed the warranty. The data gathered in the study revealed an alarming estimated percentage: around 33%.

Said former EB games employee Matthieu G., "The real numbers were between 30 to 33 percent," with a higher estimated rate for launch consoles. He further stated that the store he previously worked for had around 35 Xbox 360s on its launch date, with about half the number returned due to hardware failure during the first six months and two units already "dead on arrival".

Quotes from Peter Moore, Todd Holmdahl, and EB Games after the jump!

 

We're all very, very familiar about the Red Ring of Death. It's cruel, it's sick, it's absolute torture on those of us who saved and scrimped on our very first next-gen console that lets us enjoy true classics such as Forza 2, Gears of War, and the occasional Pac-Man Championship Edition round on Xbox Live Arcade.

While there are some of us lucky enough not to get the three red light (total hardware failure) in our first consoles, and the somewhat less-luckier few who did get the red ring, but was immediately taken care of by Microsoft's customer service and replaced with a new one, there exists a gamer who's had to have his Xbox 360 replaced not once, not twice, but eleven times.

His name is Justin Lowe, and this is his story.

His very first Xbox 360 was purchased a month after the console's launch. At first, everything was peachy keen, with our young Justin enjoying some quality time with Microsoft's latest console. Unfortunately, the red ring struck soon after, causing him no small amount of distress. A quick call to Microsoft's support hotline got him a prompt response and replacement, and Justin was able to play once more, thinking the incident is behind him, and the red ring would never return to haunt him again.

After his first Xbox 360, Justin Lowe had not had a Microsoft console work for him for longer than a month, each one breaking down. The list is large, almost funny, but nevertheless cringe-inducing: three red rings, two disc read errors, two broken on arrival, several with random video and audio issues, and one that actually went and blew up. Seriously.

It got to the point that when Justin Lowe had a Microsoft Customer Service Representative read off his support/repair request numbers, the rep actually laughed - stating that Lowe had quite a large amount of numbers in his account.

What's wrong with this picture, then? With Justin on his twelfth Xbox 360 now, that's eleven failures all in all. It doesn't help much that the customer support representatives are continuously asking Justin to check if the wiring in his house is doing all the Xbox 360-bricking - all his other consoles (not to mention computers) are working fine, he had it checked by a contractor, and his father is in fact an electrician.

Despite all of this, however, Justin still likes to play with Microsoft's console. He says that while it may be unbelievable, he doesn't have any hate toward Microsoft. Cool and level-headed gamer? Definitely.

Well, how about you readers? Is it merely bad luck on Justin's part, or something else? Let us know by your comments.