Xbox repair process leaves gamers in a fix

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Xbox 360 owner Mike Vail blogged about his experience with the Xbox warranty repair on his personal Web site, beginning July 5 when he saw the first ominous glimmer of the flashing red lights, until July 26 when he received his replacement Xbox.

He complained that Microsoft didn't fix the console he sent to them. "They just gave me a new one. How does that work? I would understand if the manufacturer's date on the one I got back was a month old or something around there but it wasn't. It was four months older then the one I sent in," he wrote two days after receiving a console back from Microsoft.

Mcullen, whose box took two months to arrive back at his doorstep, was even less pleased. He said that instead of his console, which was 7 months old when it broke in mid-May, he got back a year-old Xbox with a broken disc drive.

For others, the interaction with customer service reps has been the most maddening part of the repair experience. Jessie Lawrence, 30, of Fremont, Calif., said his back-and-forth with customer service turned into what he called an "absolute nightmare."

It began with reps not inputting his information in the computer correctly, he said, and progressed to him being told he would be contacted by a service team member and promised discounts that weren't actually available. Often, when he asked for a supervisor, he was told there was no one higher up with whom to speak, he said.

Although Lawrence's experience may be an extreme case, combined with the complaints of his fellow Xbox users, it at least suggests that the Xbox service and repair process may be in need of its own fixes.

"It felt like the whole time I had to argue to get any kind of service out of them, like I had to defend myself," Lawrence said.

Other than this, Lawrence said, he has been a satisfied Xbox 360 customer.

"Up until this point, I've had a great experience," he said. "If you ask me what's worse--my box going dead or the experience getting it fixed--it's the experience getting it fixed."