Wednesday, June 27, 2007

RANT:Microsoft REALLY sucks at customer support


Like almost every other person that owns and XBOX360, it broke in under a year, and it needed to be sent back to Microsoft in order to repair the dreaded, "Red ring of Death". Having a broken console sucks, but the real lemon juice in the wound it the shameful technical support that Microsoft offers.

It all starts with a phone call, after dialing the support line you get a automated guy name "MAX" who shouts instructions at you about which console you would like to try and repair. Supposedly this phone system uses voice detection, but i have found no truth in that so far. After continually telling the system that I wanted to get repairs for the XBOX 360, and being told that it could not understand what I was saying, I decided to start screaming at the phone spurting out strings of profanity. Eventually "MAX" had enough and defaulted me to a live agent.

Well after the only Hindu woman named "Sally" answered the phone I knew that I was going to be in for a truly delightful experience. In order to get your console service you need to register the unit with Microsoft over the phone, simple enough right? Well not if the person that you are talking to has no concept of the English language. IT TOOK SIX MINUTES TO GET MY NAME, and as you will learn later on it was still spelled wrong. The registering process took about 15 minutes total, and was extremely frustrating because they spelled everything wrong every time! At this point I am getting annoyed and "Sally" is starting to see that. The rest of the process was a little bit better and they told me that they would send a box to my home with packing instructions and padding in order to send the console back to their service center for repairs. The whole process can take up to 35 business days! Oh well at least at this point the process is started.

I received the box four days later in the mail, so I unhooked the XBOX and prepared to pack it in the box. When I opened the box there was one sticker in it which is the return postage, that's it! No instructions, no padding, nothing! So it was back to the phones. After screaming at "MAX" again and finally getting a Representative, they informed me that they were very sorry about this mistake and in order to correct it I would need to get the console packed at a local UPS store or pay the shipping for a new box to be sent to my home!! Because the screwed up they are going to make me pay for it...WHAT THE F*@$!! I asked for the manager at this point in which the person that I was talking to insisted that they were the manager. Fed up, I told them I would go to the UPS store and have them package it if they will reimburse the packing fees, which they said they would.

The next day I went to the local UPS store and paid ten bucks for them to pack it and ship it, finally I felt like the hassles would end. Why am I always wrong?

Online at the XBOX 360 website you are suppose to be able to track the progress of your repair, so I waited four days and logged on to check it. It asked for your name and serial number associated with the damaged console. Remember when I said they didn't spell it correctly? Well shit, its time to talk to "MAX".... again! "Sally" managed to spell both my first and last name wrong, I'm not joking she really did! After fixing that I inquired on the status of the repair, and the Representative told me that the repair had been cancelled! Now I am livid! Eventually a new repair order was processed and it seemed it could only be smooth sailing from there. Again, I am wrong....

Five days pass and I logged onto the service center website to check the progress of the repair, and nothing has changed. So its back to the phones AGAIN! Cursed out the automated "MAX" and talked to a Representative who said that they never received the console! Now I am having a full system melt down! The representative must have been terrified and transferred me directly to the service center, which was clearly in the united states because the person I talked to spoke clear English, not engwrish. He found the console, told me that it was repaired and this it would be in the mail back to me within a day.

So this has been going on for over three weeks, I still haven't received a console, and every time I call I get the same answers, it is an endless cycle of stupidity, because of this I will most likely sell the XBOX 360 when it arrives and buy a Nintendo Wii. I hate you Microsoft, I hate you so much!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I feel you. I just went through the same process and they refused to send me a box so I had to go and get the packaging and box myself. So I sent it and it got there on a Thursday according to UPS. They did not even register that it was there until the Tuesday. After they repaired it, they had the status as "Device Shipped to Customer" and it took them an additional 4 days for UPS to receive the package. To sum it all up: Microsoft SUCKS.

Anonymous said...

I have applecare for my mac and love it. and i love my mac

Anonymous said...

Donkey,
I don't have a game box but agree with you wholeheartedly about Microsoft's non-existant 'customer service'.
You are wrong on one point though...there is a Hindu "Sally" that works for United Airlines!!

Anonymous said...

I'll never buy another Microsoft console again. Since most of the really good games are cross-platform, I'll give my business to Sony when the next generation comes out. I'm waiting for Xbox #3 to ship back to from the repair center. Why? Because Xbox #2, the one that they sent me to replace Xbox #1, had a faulty optical drive. From the day I received it from Microshit it had trouble reading discs until it conked out altogether. Of course, Microshit won't cover the repair for this one, so I got ripped off the $100 repair fee, which is actually just a restocking fee, since they don't actually repair your console; they just send you a refurbished one from the factory. Of my many friends who own 360s, all but two have sent them in for repairs, some multiple times. Microshit sucks, and I'll not give them my business anymore. Most of my friends now say the same.

node357 said...

I have had some bad times with Xbox 360, but to be honest I have not had nearly as much problems with that as I have had with Windows games. The "techs" that they assign to my cases are totally clueless. I can sum it up in just a few words for people who know about this: Halo 2 for Windows Vista.

Anyway, sorry you had so much trouble. Learn to expect no support and it gets easier.

Steve said...

their support sucks with everything they produce. my windows XP has a glitch and my powerpoint crashes every time i try to pull in clip art. are these not issues for which the developer should be responsible? certainly! are they? not a chance! buy their product and they kiss you goodbye! if i had a choice at my office, i'd use an alternative in a heartbeat!

Anonymous said...

lol, i enjoy reading everyones comments just because it has happened to practically every person on the planet. its nice to know that everyone can come together and agree on one thing...that Max sucks and so does the whole microsoft industry. if you think that is bad try talking to comcast about trying to fix something that they did when they forced the digital change upon everyone

Anonymous said...

damn that sucks i remember when my xbox 360 got the rings of death I fought them for 6 months and they finally gave up and I got another one but was rehearsed and I sold the xbox 360 and went to playstation 3. Later a find out that it wasn't microsofts fault but the UPS store apperently stole a my broken xbox 360 but Microsoft did not help much with anything. Honestly I think gamers should think before they buy the product because your paying hundreds of dollars for home entertainment and you keep getting a xbox 360 that keeps breaking why don't you stop and think why am I buying from this company? While microsoft should stop pumping money out of consumers of the stupidest DLCs for video games which are released later. SO listen up Gamers think before you buy or else your wasting your money.

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Justin Wilson said...

Just had a situation myself. It's different but has just as much bulls*** in it to make you pluck your eyeballs out. MS has updated the automated system since 2007, but the new "MAX" or should I say "MAXINE" doesn't understand what you're saying either, even if you try really hard to annunciate every work and syllable. So, I transfer to the FIRST agent who *gasp* is a chipper sounding Filipino woman - I'm already rolling my eyes in the back to my head. I thought, "great, I'll have to remember how to spell for this call". The console I have has red ring issues and I bought it off eBay knowingly (since MS has a limited warranty attached for this issue). I tried to register the console online so I could request a repair, and it didn't happen. I had to call someone and I got Filipino lady. She stuttered that it is complete and I should go online to re-register the console and check my email. No email, no difference on my Xbox account. So, I call back. This time, I get an Indian PRICK. I was calm, I rolled my eyes to myself, and he interrupted me in an obvious "I think you're an idiot" tone. He said that it had been registered to a "Spencer" of the same last name. He then asked my email and other information 3 times. THen he asked me my father's name and where I was born. I asked if it was a security question I had put on my Xbox account because I didn't see the relevance. He ignored my question and asked my father's first name again. "Do you have brother, sir?" NO! After going back and forth for a while, I finally insisted I was the customer and he shouldn't interrupt over and over. I was considered the second user (which voids the warranty for repair) to MYSELF!!!! "I don't know this 'she' you are referring to is, sir." Uhhh, the representative who screwed up my name! "No matter HOW you look at it, sir, 'Spencer' and 'Justin' do not sound alike." Yes they do, you retard! She obviously thought so! God, when are you going to stop outsourcing your customer service, corporate America? ESPECIALLY YOU, MICROSOFT!!

Justin Wilson said...

By the way, Anonymous, Comcast was a headache and still is for me too, as well as "technical" support from Dell. And Sprint? Just kill yourself instead.. Outsourcing should just be illegal so we can enjoy better service.

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