Journal: Xbox Repair Journal

This is my journal of my xbox 360 repair saga (it's turning into one and I thought I should document it somewhere).

My xbox gave me the red ring of death on December 9, 2007. This is a log of my repair process:

December 9th - Went online and requested a repair of my in-warranty xbox 360 console

December 12 - Received coffin for xbox via UPS

December 13 - Dropped off broken xbox in coffin for shipping

December 24 - Received a refurbished xbox with a new serial number. Plugged it in an immediately checked my xbox live arcade content. As I feared it was no longer registered to my console and would only work if my primary xbox live account was logged into xbox live.

Called XBOX live support 3 times before getting someone who didn't hang up on me when I explained the issue. Talked with John and John's supervisor Dain and explained the issue. Gave both of them a ton of information (including my serial number and console ID) Was given a reference number and told I would be called back in 48 hours.

December 27 - I had not yet received a call back. I noticed on the xbox live forums that Major Nelson had offered to help users with this issue so I sent him a private message with my reference number in the morning.

around 3pm: Received a call back from "tier 3" (don't recall his name). He asked for my serial number of my console again. I provided it. He then said that it would go to the next level to get done (don't know what level is beyond tier 3?!?!)

December 29 - Realized that my problem was more than an inconvenience since my wife's favorite game, Puzzle Quest won't even work right for her if I'm logged into Xbox Live on my primary account. I sent Major Nelson another PM telling him this and asking for further help

December 30 - Got a voicemail from "Aaron" who told me he would try to call again in a couple of days, but gave me my reference number again in case I wanted to call

I called back this evening and was asked for my serial number (3rd time now) and a list of all the content that is not working. Well it's not even working at all now since xbox live is down down down ("for maintenance").

Update: Jan 1. Got another voicemail (missed the call by 9 minutes on my cell phone). This time they asked for my console ID. (This was given on the 24th on my original call along with the serial number). I called back and spent another frustrating 25 minutes with xbox support getting to the point I could give them the information. Sending another PM to Major Nelson to see if I can't get further.

Update: Jan 2. Got another call. BTW, sending the messages to major nelson seems to get you bumped some in the queue since I was told I was not scheduled until Jan 3rd for this call back by the earlier level 1 rep. He asked for the console id again, (I told him he had it and after looking he found it). He then gave me 400 points and asked me to download another game to be sure that downloads to my console work. He then promised that they had all the information they now needed and that it would get pushed to the next level where they would redo my licenses. He said that this could take up to 30 days, but sometimes was done inside 2 weeks. He promised my next call back would be to tell me to redownload my content because the licenses had been fixed.

Update - Jan 12. Been ten days, no word from Microsoft. I have sent Major Nelson another note asking for help. Will update if I hear anything.

Update 2 for Jan 12 - Called XBOX Live support and gave them my reference number, was told "just today" that my support request had finally been raised to the highest level of Microsoft Support (Stephan Davis was the name I was given).

Jan 20 - No news. I emailed my support number to Major Nelson again to see if I would get any movement.

Feb 10 - I was surprised today to find that when I redownloaded my content that it started working as it should. Eventually my licensing data was updated on the Live servers to have my new repaired console as the licensee and all my content now works as it should.

Feb 18 - My last entry in this log and some reflection. While eventually I was made ok by Microsoft, it took almost exactly 2 months from the time my xbox died to the time that I could play my xbox live content again in the way it was meant to be played. In that time my wife who had just really started warming to the Xbox 360 has lost a lot of interest in playing the games anymore. It's a shame, and I know that if/when my new console dies, I'll probably have to follow this same path again. MICROSOFT, please fix this horrible customer experience!