Damn You Microsoft

I have a very love/hate relationship with Microsoft these days.

-I've thoroughly enjoyed and had no problems with 64-Bit Vista on this new computer I built last year.

-But on the other side, their product design for the Xbox 360 sucks something fierce. It seems my Xbox loathes me, for it always seems to keel over and die at THE MOST INOPPORTUNE times. The first one I had croaked after only five months of having it. Mind you, I game quite a good deal, but not nearly as much as some gamers I know who truly put their xbox through the gauntlet. Not only did the first Xbox 360 kick the bucket after five months, but it died in THE MIDDLE of the Halo 3 Beta. The Beta was only for two weeks, and only about four or five days in, my 360 gives me the finger.

So I call up tech support, and luckily they had just released the news that they'd be extending the warranty for three years from purchase date and repairing red ring deaths at no charge. Awesome. Good news. Even better, when I put my repair order in, they sent me a nice box with styrofoam packing and a paid-shipping label to send it back. Score. So I send off my dead 360 and lo and behold, maybe a week and a half to two weeks later (turnaround time is quoted as 14-21 buisness days, so this was pretty good turnaround) I get a box in the mail, with what I could only presume was a refurbished 360. So instead of repairing mine they send a sorta-new one. I'm cool with that, it works good, all is well in the land of the gamer.

So awhile later a friend of mine gets the red ring, so he's getting his repaired and offers to buy mine from me so he can have one in the meantime and then have two when he gets his back, as he recently turned his girlfriend onto the world of Xbox poker. I'd been talking about upgrading to an elite console or maybe one of the Halo 3 Edition consoles, so I went about finding a well priced Halo 3 Edition on Ebay, buy it and sell him mine once my new one arrives. It ran a little louder than my old one, but it worked fine for the most part. After a few months a game might freeze on me, rather frustrating, but tolerable.

Then this Christmas I gave my girlfriend the complete band set for Rock Band 2 on Xbox 360. Drums, guitar, Mic, the whole Shebang. She was real big on Guitar Hero back in the day, and the last one I got her was on PS 2, so she hasn't really played in quite some time. It was perfect, she loved it, and together with our roommate we started our band and we said "Let there be ROCK". All was well.

All up until last night while we're calibrating the instruments getting ready for a pre-new year's party hopping jam session, and it locks up. So we turn the console off, restart, and try again, only to have it lock up on us again. At this point there was no hope. Every time I turned it off and on again, it gave me the red ringed middle finger. Alas, another one bites the dust. So I grab the trusty celly and call up tech support again. We go through the song and dance of registering my console and getting my info, and they inform me they'll be emailing me a shipping label to print out, but this time I get to find a box and pack it myself, then drop it in the mail. I guess this isn't so bad, because I won't have to wait to receive their box then turn around and wait for it to get back to them, but the one thing I'm concerned about is getting another Refurb back. I don't mind refurbs, doesn't bother me, so long as it works and it's warrantied, but now I've got a special Halo 3 edition console, they better send me another Halo 3 edition console back, or there's gonna be trouble in River City.

An interesting note though, we were at our first party last night, and one of the guests overheard what we were talking about, and rather surprisingly he says "Blame the manufacturer we contract to for the disc drives..." to which I give a quizzical look, only to learn he works for Microsoft. So whoever they contract with for the disc drives now, screw you buddy.

That is all for now, more to come later as we enter the new year, with many new problems to come. Stay tuned, for the revolution will not be televised.

-The Kirk

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