A touching story

huynh_192265 · Yellow Belt Old Friend Posts: 356

As I surfed the net I saw this story of a gamer that got screwed by Microsoft then got compensation.
*Is this spamming? Please tell me!*
Links:
http://www.roosterteeth.com/home.php
http://www.roosterteeth.com/members/journal/entry.php?id=1976058
http://hawtymcbloggy.com/2008/03/21/microsoft-finally-makes-things-right/
http://hawtymcbloggy.com/2008/03/07/bungie-unscrews-previously-screwed-gamer/
This will change your views on Bungie and Microsoft.

3kul · Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 7:34 pm Post subject:

Whilst it's nice to hear that this person got the next best thing to having their original signed XBox back (which actually seems like a much better thing imo Razz

), I can't help but feel that this only further emphasizes how big corporations will go out of their way to help out higher profile cases, or the ones who've got enough of an audience (online or offline) to actually cause a fuss. I don't think that Microsoft would go about doing this for just anybody.

Or maybe they will? I'm not sure, is this story telling us that we need to complain more? That the squeaky wheel gets the grease? I have a MacBook that's been giving me problems since day one, maybe I should e-mail that head Mac guy about it...

(btw, it's not really spam, considering that this section is General Chat).

Cloud · Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 2:54 am Post subject:

Would anyone be able to summarise those links for me? My internet is playing up and can only get here and a few select websites.

3kul · Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 6:30 am Post subject:

Basically, this guy has an XBox 360 that (inevitably Razz

) screws up and he has to send it to Microsoft. Not exactly an unusual story so far, but he's very nervous as this XBox is quite special to him - he's got a number of signatures on it from famous folk in the gaming industry, plus a nice bit of artwork from a well-known Halo fan artist (not well-known to me exactly, but well-known to most gaming people I guess).

He calls up to make sure that even if they have to totally replace his XBox they send the new one with the original casing, as it's incredibly valuable to him. The person he speaks to assures him that nothing bad will happen, though just to play it safe he includes a long letter along with his XBox when he sends it off.

Anyways, eventually he gets his XBox back... Totally cleaned. Somebody had actually gone to the trouble of scrubbing the permanent ink from his XBox, destroying the signatures and artwork that would have made it substantially more valuable than your average XBox. The guy is pretty upset about this, and various articles are posted about in famous gaming circles.

It seems that Microsoft catches wind of this and quickly calls the guy, apologizing and telling him that they'll set things right. He doesn't know how they'll manage that, and as he doesn't hear from them again for a while he begins to think that it was just lip service, but then he gets a brand new 360 quite literally coated with signatures from all sorts of people, along with a hefty swag of 'apologies' (ie: games Razz

). As if that wasn't enough, Bungie happened to hear that he was a Halo fan and, feeling that he'd had a rough time, sent him a big bunch of Halo 3 stuff.

The whole thing almost makes you feel like it'd be nice to get screwed over by Microsoft/Bungie, considering how extravagant their 'apologies' are. I'm not even a big Halo/XBox fan, but even I'm feeling extremely jealous of this guy Razz

Cloud · Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 11:24 am Post subject:

Now that's quite a story. I'm surprised that Microsoft ended up doing that really, I thought they'd just send their apologies and be done with it.

Zerrer · Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 11:35 am Post subject:

I'm not all to pleased with Microsoft, but Bungie?

Bungie is ...

I cant explain how ...

Erm! ENGLISH! WHY DO YOU FAIL ME?!?

*Cough*

Basically, I look up to Bungie from this day. It's just mind boggling. They were not at fault, and yet they still gave the man more gaming supplies. That makes me respect Halo and other Bungie games a whole lot more.

I'd trip on my fingers if i were to try to explain more

visagepoissons · White Belt Old Friend Gameware Member Posts: 487

Yeah, Bungie appear to be epic. Although it might have been an attempt to appear in the story so that people would respect them and buy their games.

*shrugs*

Microsoft didn't scrub my Xbox, they sent it back with the same peculiar mark it came with. I kinda wish they had gotten rid of it, although I might buy a groovy new case for it now... Which would be better then a clean normal case.

Zerrer · Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 10:15 pm Post subject:

Bungie are Epic!

Thank you, VP. You have figured out what word I was thinking of.

Definition 6 in urban dictionary: Something so truly amazing that it deserves it's story to be told for years to come.

or Definition 18: Something so incredible that it can only be described as epic; few things fall into this category, but when they do, you will never forget them

That is the highest honor I can give to anything besides myself. Only three entities have that title given from me: HLS, Google, and now Bungie.

huynh_192265 · Yellow Belt Old Friend Posts: 356

The perfect setup for loving Ms and Bungie even more ^_^.

Swix · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 6:42 am Post subject:

I'm sorry, but whilst this story is touching I have personal experience with how much Microsoft sucks at customer service.

Me and bf bought the Halo 3 Limited Edition disc, you know the shiny metal casing plus book with species history plus the extras disc? This same casing had been causing problems by scratching the discs it was supposed to protect, so they had to put a free replacement service out because of the sheer number of people complaining about it. Fair enough.

We happened to get a disc that got scratched. So, bf calls up Microsoft customer service to ask what they can do about. The employee we talked to tells him he has to send them the whole thing to the European repair centre. Now, we had to send a disc back before and they said just to send the disc to them last time, so he double checks that that's right. The person says that it does all have to be sent back, the whole thing intact because of it being a Limited Edition. So, se send it off, safe in the knowledge it'll all be sent back to us as it was.

A few weeks later we get a package back from Microsoft. We think great, it's come back and it's altogether and fixed. But no, they sent us a replacement disc back. Nothing else, no case, no dvd, no book, nothing. It's just the Halo 3 disc in one of those flimsy plastic cases.

So, we call them up again. They say sorry, they'll send us the whole package back and we don't have to return the game disc because they made a mistake. We think, great, we're sorted.

Cue a few weeks later, we get another package from them. Guess what's inside? Another disc in a flimsy plastic case with an apology letter. So we call them up again, explain what happened and that it was a person from their customer service who'd told us specifically to send the whole lot back to them.

This time they say: we should only have sent the disc back, they don't cover for the rest of it. They can't do anything about it, so there's no point in us calling and complaining about it again

Microsoft service sucks if you don't make a gigantic fuss about it Rolling Eyes

Cloud · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 7:58 am Post subject:

And the moral of the story is... even if they insist that you send the whole thing to them, just send the disc in Wink

A useful tip that I'll be sure to remember.

If that happened to me I'd be complaining as much as I could, and getting really annoyed at the same time. The word 'thieves' would have probably come up at some point, and lots of swearing with possible idle threats thrown in for good measure. I suppose it depends on how much the phone call annoys me. Razz

huynh_192265 · Yellow Belt Old Friend Posts: 356

Wow...major screw over by MS! You'd think after the the 360 incident that they'd fix the system.

Swix · Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 7:04 pm Post subject:

visagepoissons · White Belt Old Friend Gameware Member Posts: 487

Oh god, I hate it when they have people from other countries on the phone. I'm not being racist, either. I just can't bloody understand them. And they don't know when to stop.

Eurgh. However, I have gotten one that managed to sort out my problem easily when an Australian couldn't. I could understand him better too.

But it was a rare case. These people actually need to be interviewed to see whether they can handle the job.

Danikat · Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2008 2:22 pm Post subject: