Microsoft’s Monetary Resources Are Clearly Funding An Amazing Customer Service Department

The XB360′s infamous “red ring of death” problem is well documented, and frequently encountered. I never thought it’d happen to me, but it did.

“No problem!”, I think to myself. Microsoft generously offer a 3-year warranty for this particular issue, so I can just get it repaired free and I’ll be back on Halo 3 in no time. Oh, how wrong I was.

Before I continue, let me make something clear: I love Microsoft. I think Bill Gates is a deserving man and he generously gives large amounts of his fortune to charity. The XB360 is, in my opinion, the best video game console to ever exist; and Halo 3 is the best game I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. So it is without spite, and in fact with some positive bias, that I tell you the following story.

The first call seemed so nice. I had to go through the standard process to confirm my 360 was indeed broken. There was some banter when it started booting up then freezing after 2 seconds instead of giving the red lights, but while we were discussing that it went back to the red lights again. I was informed they would apply the fix for the problem and if there were other issues with it they would phone me to discuss it. It seemed simple: within 5 working days a courier arrives to pick up the 360, bringing with him some labels to be stuck on the packaging. Happy, I hung up the phone and packaged up my 360 ready for collection.

I know how these things are, so I waited a little longer than 5 working days before phoning up again. Approximately 10 days later, I called and explained what had happened. Two things happened next. Firstly, I was told that the process of a courier arriving with labels was incorrect – either I was misinformed or I had misunderstood, but either way I was under the wrong impression. The actual process was that the labels would be delivered to me, either by email (instant) or by post (within 5 working days); together with a phone number to call in order to arrange collection of the 360. Given that I had not received any labels in the post, they tried to create the order again. However, they were unable to due to a mysterious error on their system. They told me they would look into it and to phone back in 48 hours. Not exactly impressive; but I’ve worked in customer support roles and errors do happen, so that’s fair enough right?

48 hours pass and I call back. They try to create the order again, it still errors. The issue has not been fixed. They ask me to call back in 48 hours. I guess they’re still working on it and it’s kind of a big error? That sucks but I guess feasibly things like this can happen.

48 hours later I phone back. If it still doesn’t work, then something rotten is going on here right? It’s been twice the length they said it would be, and I’d already been waiting over a week to begin with. You can see where this is going: no change. They ask me to wait another 48 hours, I tell them I’ve already done that – twice – and that conceivably this could go on forever. They tell me they have raised the priority of the case and that this time, they will call me back within 48 hours. Instantly we can tell exactly what is going to happen next, but I figure if I jump through hoops one more time they’ll be out of excuses.

48 hours later and, of course, with no phone call; I call them up again. The same process as every other time – phone up, go through automated phone system, hold for a minute or two, give reference number, answer security questions. Then they try to create the repair order again – me waiting on hold the whole time. Finally they’re ready to talk to me. Guess what? They say they’ll call me back in 48 hours.

No – not this time. They’ve raised the priority to the highest it can be, they say; and they have taken steps to ensure that I absolutely will be called back. I tell them that I’ve already waited 48 hours – three times now. One of those times I was told I would be called back, and it didn’t happen. This could go on forever, and I am absolutely not willing to wait 48 hours for a call that is simply not going to happen. I ask if, given the amount of time I have waited (over 2 weeks), I will be provided any form of compensation for this issue. The customer service representative begins to explain that I will need to discuss that with them after the issue is resolved, then suddenly the phone mysteriously cuts out.

I would very much hope that this cut out was a temporary phone issue and not me being hung up on. I wasn’t going to wait around another 48 hours, so immediately I redial. And the same dance – automated phones, reference number, them trying to create the order again while I wait on hold (despite me explaining quite clearly that they’ve tried that already and it won’t work). Eventually they decide to put me through to an escalation team representative.

This employee tells me that she has taken on this issue personally. I explain what has happened and ask if I will be receiving any compensation for the unacceptable and questionably legal service. She tells me that, even though it’s against policy, she can offer me one of four games: Kameo (budget priced and I already have it), Perfect Dark Zero (budget priced and I already own it), Project Gotham Racing 3 (budget priced, PGR4 is about to be released and I don’t like the series), or Viva Piñata. Despite being bored of the demo within about 1 minute, I choose Viva Piñata because it’s the only one that isn’t budget priced and I might at least be able to sell it on.

I am then told that she personally will call me back. Policy is within 48 hours, but she assures me she will do her best to call me back within 24 hours, and if she can’t reach me by phone she will email me. I explain that I have done this dance before and it could go on forever, but eventually I agree: after all, if she personally is responsible, it would be an extremely bad idea not to comply to her promise; as she would personally be responsible for failing to provide a promised service.

That was that was 32 hours ago.

—

25th October 2007:

Surprise surprise – no email, no phone call back from Microsoft support. So at lunch time I phone and go through the whole dance with the security questions and the reference number and the customer support representative tries to fix it. This time, though, the customer support representative reports after some time that he has successfully managed to create a repair order after trying a few things.

This was of course the bringer of mixed emotions – on the one hand I could finally be on my way to a working 360, but on the other hand exactly what have they been doing after the past 19 days if some random support representative managed to fix it within minutes during a phone conversation. I naturally ask what he did to fix it, because you just know the answer to that’s going to be good. Are you ready for this?

The address I wanted it collected from had an ‘&’ in one of the address lines, and the support rep changed it to ‘and’.

Once again, I find myself thinking: what were they doing the past 19 days? Now maybe it’s just because I’m a damn good computer scientist, but that’s pretty much the first thing I would’ve tried. It was actually almost endearing: the guy on the other end of the phone was ecstatic about fixing the issue, like he couldn’t believe he’d done it. Then again, who could believe that an issue that was the (allegedly) highest priority available and couldn’t be fixed for weeks was solved within minutes.

Fantastic! It’s been two and a half weeks and I probably should have gotten my 360 back by now, but now it looks as though I might actually get it sent out the door. There’s still loose ends of course – what happened to the escalation team member who had personally taken on the issue and I subsequently never heard from again? Why was I never phoned back? Why does it seem like absolutely nobody ever even looked at the problem unless I was on the phone complaining at them? Oh well, that’s not important now – the order has been made. It’s ever such a great day.

But wait, there’s more. This is where things get interesting.

Last night I posted this blog entry, and I linked to it on a few sites I go on because hey, it’s an interesting read. And I get a message from this guy at my University – he was a placement student for Microsoft last year and he still has some contacts. I figured it probably wouldn’t lead anywhere and told him I’d give him my email tomorrow if I hadn’t got it sorted; but he persistently found my email address from the website I’d posted on and forwarded me something from the head of Microsoft UK saying he’d look into it if he could have a way of contacting me.

Today, not long after my phone call with customer support, my phone rings and it’s an unknown number. It’s someone from Microsoft – he’s read this blog entry (thank you Mr. Microsoft man! You are my hero) and he’s seen that the order appears to have been created today. I hadn’t received the confirmation email about that order yet so he told me to email him to confirm whether or not I’d gotten the confirmation, and if I didn’t he’d personally look into getting things sorted by other means the next day and he was planning to look into why the service had been so bad. Oh boy is this ever shaping up to be an epic tale.

So 19 days on with countless phone calls, dozens of employees, and a little help from the head of Microsoft UK and the very helpful person the issue was handed down to; and finally the first hurdle is passed. Is this the end? God knows. The console is supposed to be picked up by UPS tomorrow – my dear 360 needs to go through them, then through Microsoft’s repair department, then back through UPS again before it’s over – and I’m not entirely confident that the free copy of Viva Piñata I’m supposed to get will ever arrive; so there’s plenty of potential for more fun.

—

27th October 2007:

Rejoice! UPS picked up the 360 on schedule. Finally I am the proud owner of a broken Xb360 in a new location.

—

20th November 2007

Finally, an XB360 was returned to me on about the 10th of November. From my initial phone call, this places the time to fix at exactly 5 weeks.

I say ‘an’ XB360 rather than ‘my’ XB360 because they sped up the order by sending me a new console instead of my own one with repairs. This is fine, but it also unfortunately means the Live Arcade games I bought are no longer recognised by the console and I can only play them while on X Box Live.

And there’s still no sign of that free game. I’d better phone them about that.

Still, well played for getting it back to me as soon as possible after you finally managed to collect is, Microsoft. I still love your console.

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