Xbox 360 Repair

I really liked Microsoft's return procedures for the Xbox 360. This is my second return, the first being a bad disc drive and the second being, well a bad disc drive.

The refurbished one they sent me the first time had on and off problems with the disc drive. It would occasionally (1 in 10 gaming sessions) freeze up in the middle of a game and report a disc error. This happened infrequently but even with brand new games. My first 360 had problems recognizing 360 games - it was acting as if the console was a DVD player.

The worse moments was when it froze in the middle of a long gaming  session far from a save point after a difficult boss battle (RPG, anyone?).

Anyways, the return process and Web site was clear. The unit was still under warranty (1 year warranty after I paid $100 for the last repair), so I sent it back. This is just as a bunch of cool games are coming out (Fallout 3 and Gears of War 2!).

They sent a fully paid return shipment box and even outlined the procedures of the return in icons on the Web site. It had a series of 5 or 6 icons, most of them grayed out, with one in full color showing what step in the process I was at.  The instructions in the box were also clear and all I had to do was have it picked up by UPS ground (we have a mail room at work, so this was a breeze).

The disappointing part so far is that the icons of where my box is in the process disappeared when the replacement xbox was registered. So instead of seeing the repair status, I just see a new box registered under a 3 month (instead of a year) warranty with no updates on the repair, return, or anything else.

I'll give it a few more days, but I think everything is okay. Overall, it's much better than my experience with the baby's photographer.