Microsoft finds itself the target of a class action suit in the US today, as a man with seemingly more money and time than sense decided that rather than return his faulty Xbox, he’d sue the manufacturer, a strange move that has netted him a few headlines, not least the one above this story.
Robert Byers of Chicago has brought the suit, claiming that the power supply and CPU in his and other Xbox 360 units overheat, impacting on heat-sensitive chips and causing the 360 to crash, usually due to the system locking up.
Byers is bringing a class action suit for himself and an undisclosed number of similarly disgruntled gamers, bound to end in tears for the claimants, given Microsoft offers the best customer service of any console manufacturer, offering to pay for next-day shipping to have any defects put right, then pledging to next-day return shipping of a replacement or a repaired original.
Microsoft reacted to the claims of faulty goods at the end of last month. “It's a few reports of consoles here and there not working properly," said Molly O'Donnell, a spokeswoman for Microsoft's Xbox division. "It's what you would expect with a consumer electronics instrument of this complexity...par for the course.”
Since then, Microsoft has claimed that the Xbox 360 beats the consumer electronics norm, seeing just a 2% fail rate.
Of course, the somewhat ironically-named Mr Byers has every right to receive a fully functioning Xbox 360 when he’s shelled out a lot of money for the privilege of being an early adopter, though why he doesn’t take advantage of the system in place for repairing the few bad units is somewhat beyond us. It does seem a little excessive to decide to sue over a broken console, a process far more time-consuming and costly than the process would have been to resolve the issue. There’s also the small point that sometimes new things break.
Remember the uproar with iPods a couple of years ago? Had you read some reports, you’d be alarmed at what was seemingly a failing of Apple’s technology en masse. To date, those in the SPOnG office have bought 14 iPods across all generations and none have failed. Our Xbox 360s are also pumping out HD quite happily.
Robert Byers of Chicago has brought the suit, claiming that the power supply and CPU in his and other Xbox 360 units overheat, impacting on heat-sensitive chips and causing the 360 to crash, usually due to the system locking up.
Byers is bringing a class action suit for himself and an undisclosed number of similarly disgruntled gamers, bound to end in tears for the claimants, given Microsoft offers the best customer service of any console manufacturer, offering to pay for next-day shipping to have any defects put right, then pledging to next-day return shipping of a replacement or a repaired original.
Microsoft reacted to the claims of faulty goods at the end of last month. “It's a few reports of consoles here and there not working properly," said Molly O'Donnell, a spokeswoman for Microsoft's Xbox division. "It's what you would expect with a consumer electronics instrument of this complexity...par for the course.”
Since then, Microsoft has claimed that the Xbox 360 beats the consumer electronics norm, seeing just a 2% fail rate.
Of course, the somewhat ironically-named Mr Byers has every right to receive a fully functioning Xbox 360 when he’s shelled out a lot of money for the privilege of being an early adopter, though why he doesn’t take advantage of the system in place for repairing the few bad units is somewhat beyond us. It does seem a little excessive to decide to sue over a broken console, a process far more time-consuming and costly than the process would have been to resolve the issue. There’s also the small point that sometimes new things break.
Remember the uproar with iPods a couple of years ago? Had you read some reports, you’d be alarmed at what was seemingly a failing of Apple’s technology en masse. To date, those in the SPOnG office have bought 14 iPods across all generations and none have failed. Our Xbox 360s are also pumping out HD quite happily.
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Comments
majin dboy 6 Dec 2005 17:16
1/7
this "Mr Byers'' has done us all a favor.if i bought a new console and it broke the first day a would bring it back to the shop, like most rational people.however, in doing this we are sayin to MS,Sony, Nintendo, "its okay".well its not.hopefully this case will tighten up future releases specifacaly the xbox 720, PS4£££ and the revolution HD.
Coxy 6 Dec 2005 17:24
2/7
Speaking of Xbox 360's and overheating, has anyone spotted the irony of the advert in the middle of the report?
An advert for smoke alarms, folllowed by an advert for Xbox360.
BRILLIANT!
An advert for smoke alarms, folllowed by an advert for Xbox360.
BRILLIANT!
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Coxy 6 Dec 2005 18:31
3/7
On second thourght this could be some weird advertising campaign from Microsoft, anyways the adverts gone now, so it kind of buzzkills my post, ah well.
OptimusP 6 Dec 2005 19:05
4/7
My Opera browser has its add-killer option on so i can't see any adverts in no way.
Didn't someone almost sued Apple because his screen on his new Ipod Nano (or micro don't know) had scratches after he took out of his pocket? Apple just decided to give everyone with scratched iPods nano's (or micro's don't know) a new one! yeah!
Thing is, with all these supply problems MS has how the hell can they do a customer service like that guy is demanding? And wasn't 0.5% a reasonabe fault rate with electronics?
Didn't someone almost sued Apple because his screen on his new Ipod Nano (or micro don't know) had scratches after he took out of his pocket? Apple just decided to give everyone with scratched iPods nano's (or micro's don't know) a new one! yeah!
Thing is, with all these supply problems MS has how the hell can they do a customer service like that guy is demanding? And wasn't 0.5% a reasonabe fault rate with electronics?
soanso 6 Dec 2005 19:05
5/7
at least it's not a blue screen.
Falien 7 Dec 2005 08:19
6/7
I'm a bit surprised at SPOnG's attitude in this article. What I gather from the report above is that some people are angry enough to file a law suit against Microsoft when, after paying $500 (hardly pocket change no matter how rich you are) and probably waiting in a queue, they are given a faulty product. I think this is entirely justifiable, and the fact that Microsoft has an admittedly excellent service department (of which SPOnG's article is a quite obvious advertisement) has nothing to do with it! I don't know if Mr Byers just wanted his name in the papers, but that's also beside the point, which is that customers aren't interested in good after-sales service, they're more interested in receiving goods that work, especially expensive goods which they have pre-ordered.
I believe the mark of a good manufacturer would have to be that very few customers come in contat with their service departments.
And SPOnG, please see this from the buyers' point-of-view...
I believe the mark of a good manufacturer would have to be that very few customers come in contat with their service departments.
And SPOnG, please see this from the buyers' point-of-view...
LordVader717 7 Dec 2005 15:30
7/7
I don't see much wrong with this, because there are clearly some design problems at fault here, that are affecting consumers, and probably won't change even if they get a new product.
As the article says, most crashes were caused by overheating, and many people found that for example placing the adapter on the carpet, or putting their system in their tv-shelf, would cause the system to crash frequently.
Consumers shouldn't have to suspend the power supply in mid-air, or place the system in the middle of the floor to enjoy their games.
Handing them a new XBOX and sending them on their way isn't going to change anything, and they will continue to be frustrated by these problems.
I remember Spong making a big fuss at the DS launch because Nintendo dare have systems with dead pixels leak out to the market and then actually expect customers to send them in to gert them replaced.
Spong inconsistancy at it's best.
By my experience, it is Nintendo who have the best cutomer service of any company I know (they replace a DS with just 1 dead pixel!), whereas Microsoft is infamous for their poor support on their products, particularly Windows, with support employees who often know less than the average customer.
And I kinda feel sorry for the suckers who had to pay $100 to get the hard-drive on their two-year old XBOXs fixed.
As the article says, most crashes were caused by overheating, and many people found that for example placing the adapter on the carpet, or putting their system in their tv-shelf, would cause the system to crash frequently.
Consumers shouldn't have to suspend the power supply in mid-air, or place the system in the middle of the floor to enjoy their games.
Handing them a new XBOX and sending them on their way isn't going to change anything, and they will continue to be frustrated by these problems.
I remember Spong making a big fuss at the DS launch because Nintendo dare have systems with dead pixels leak out to the market and then actually expect customers to send them in to gert them replaced.
Spong inconsistancy at it's best.
By my experience, it is Nintendo who have the best cutomer service of any company I know (they replace a DS with just 1 dead pixel!), whereas Microsoft is infamous for their poor support on their products, particularly Windows, with support employees who often know less than the average customer.
And I kinda feel sorry for the suckers who had to pay $100 to get the hard-drive on their two-year old XBOXs fixed.