Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming: My Xbox just caught on fire! (Update 2)

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Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming (Subscribe)

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

My Xbox just caught on fire! (Update 2)

Sordid History:

Update 1
My Xbox just caught on fire!

Update 2:

So, I called 1-800-4MY-XBOX (1-800-469-9269) today. A nice gal (Joelle, I think), kept giggling at how "nice and happy" (read, "non-pissed") I sounded. I'm guessing she get's a lot of irate callers.

What was funny was she read my Email ticket from yesterday, asked a couple of questions, including a second restatement of what happened, and then said, "because this is an incendiary incident, I need to transfer you an escalation supervisor."

They have support scripts for "incendiary incidents". This tells me something ...

Anyway, I got transfered to Chris, a "Support Escalation Supervisor". Very nice guy, and we bonded because we found out we're the same age (evidently, my age may be directly tied to the incendiary nature of my console).

We didn't really bond.

Anyway, for the third time, I was asked to recount what happened, in my "own words".

And then came my options.

Microsoft will send me postage-paid pickup and delivery packing for my Xbox, and I pay them in advance to fix my 'box. Seriously, $80 to fix it and get a 1-year service contract, or $40 bucks to fix it and get a 90-day warranty.

I went with "Option B" -- the Xbox 360 comes out in 2 months (I'm betting on early November), so the 90 days should get me by.

But I had to pay for them to fix my charred paperweight!

Granted, if they look at it, and they think it's defective hardware, they won't charge me for the repairs (gee, thanks, by Xbox caught on fire!. If I had turned it on and walked out of the room while the projector warmed up -- which I usually do -- things could have been very, very bad).

Call me cynical, but I think there may be a lack of accountability for determining their fault.

Let's recap, shall we?

The Xbox had not been on for several hours -- all of this happened when I turned it on. This is not the risk scenario described by the power cord replacement FAQs.
It was sitting on top of a 3-foot x 6-foot open desk (no hutch), on a monitor stand. More airflow than I get ...
It was plugged into a surge protector.
The circuit was not overloaded.
I had top-notch Monster component video cables running from the Xbox to the Projector (also plugged into a surge projector on a different circuit).
My Xbox caught on fire!

We shall see ...

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.

Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming (Subscribe)

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

My Xbox just caught on fire! (Update 2)

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