Hi,

I bought an XBOX 360 in November 2008 from Currys. This week (2 months outside of the 1 year warranty) the DVD drive seemed to fail - the XBOX will boot up normally but I am unable to play any games/DVDs/CDs in the drive. Ocassionally one will start up (probably 1 in 20 attempts).

After calling Microsoft yesterday they informed me that because it wasn't the 'dreaded red ring of death,' it was not covered by the extended 3 year warranty and they would charge £82 to fix it! £82 for a hardware fault I had no control over and which happens to be about half the price of the console.

I took it back to Currys (with original receipt) and the run down is:

1) They refused to replace it

2) They called Microsoft and confirmed again if I wanted it fixed it would cost £82

3) When referring to SOGA they said I would have to prove it was an inherent fault of the machine - this would require me to get an independent engineer to assess the XBOX

4) The store manager said they have no power of 'Goodwill' in the store and could not offer me anything.

5) They told me to call Currys' head office 'Aftersales Support' line, to see if there was anything else they could do for me, but did not sound hopeful of a positive outcome.

Has anyone got any advice? I want to be armed with as much information as I can before calling their Aftersales Support line.

Thanks!

someone will be along soon to offer more advice

have you tried a cleaning disk? this may resolve intermitant read issues

Hi labrat,

Thanks for your response.

Just to clarify the issue is with multiple (all) discs - Games, DVD's and Audio CD's.

I have tried using a commercial DVD lens cleaner - one of those cd's with the small brush on it - this did not help at all.

Thanks

You need to take this up with Currys.

Under the Sale of Goods act they are obliged to sell goods of merchantible quality.

I would go back to Curry's and suggest that as this is only two months out of warranty and has been used as directed that they have sold something that is inherently faulty. It should work for several years not just 14 months. (I think the guidance is 6 years for electrical.)

Under the SOGs act you should ask them to meet the cost of the repair or at least the bulk of it. If it's not economic to repair then at the very least you can expect a refund of most of the initial money you paid. They'll argue that you've had it for a year.

If they won't play ball try getting Trading Standards involved and if that doesn't work be prepared to take them to court.

This article in the guardian is quite useful: Faulty goods? You've still got rights when the guarantee runs out | Money | The Guardian

This was covered on the one show last July. They provided a nice template letter.

BBC - The One Show - Consumer Blog: Don't be fobbed off: Sale of Goods Act - letter download

Go get them.....

Hi pin1onu,

Thanks for the advice.

I managed to get through to someone in Currys CS who could help me (after being passed through 4 other areas). After speaking to the agent on the other end and after some discussion (including SOGA) this is what he agreed on:

1.) Send the xbox off for repair and pay for the repair up front (£82). Once I have received the invoice and xbox back from microsoft (which lists the fault) and assuming it is not my fault (e.g. being dropped) they (Currys) will refund the cost of the repair. If the product is beyond repair they will replace the product

2.) He will escalate internally today to the team which can offer me a refund (unlikely to be full refund) and avoid having to send the console off for repair at all. He said this would be in store credit. He also advised that he thought they would probably want me to try and get it repaired first.

I was quite happy with this outcome at this point - considering previously everyone had basically told me 'tough.'

Do you think this is a reasonable offer - i.e. that I have to pay for the repair up front and then reclaim if it is found to be a hardware fault I'm not responsible for?

Thanks again..

My son had similar problem with the machine and the drive, this escalated to it stating no disk everytime, even though one was in. He let it cool down and turned it on and got the rings of death, so it could be that your machine is working its way towards the rings of death.

Could you perhaps give it one more go and if you saw the rings of death, report it as so;) as an update to them. They would then have to repair it anyhow at no charge as this sounds a common problem.

My son has an Xbox360 and he leaves it on all the time. What is this "Rings Of Death"? And does anyone know what causes it to happen?

Thanks in advance

The rings of death is when the xbox overheats, some of the solders on the graphic card liquify and you end up with a poor connection to the card. Initially there are different sysmptoms, however usually ending up with the red ring.

There are repair kits available and fixing it is relatively simple for those outside the 3 years. However best to minimise the chance of the fault appearing.

If your son leaves his on a lot, I suggest you ensure he is downloading the games into his harddrive and playing the game from there rather than the disc. The benefits to this are the disc will last longer, the drive is used less, less heat build up in the box itself and just as importantly the xbox runs silently (its not the quietest of machines).

The rings of death is when the xbox overheats, some of the solders on the graphic card liquify and you end up with a poor connection to the card.

Not strictly true, the main two causes for RROD is :-

1. Failure of the heat transfer paste between the heat sink and CPU/GPU due to excessive heat

2. The x-clamps which are used to hold the heatsink in place from the underside of the motherboard cause huge stress to be placed on the motherboard as it heats causing the motherboard to warp around the clamps. These clamps are not needed and why microsoft continue to use them is beyond me and those like me who fix RROD on a weekly basis.

The RROD fix is a permanent fix as long as its done properly with new thermal paste & M6 bolts dis-regarding the x-clamps.

Just to follow up on this.

Eventually Currys paid for the repair of the console directly to Microsoft. There were some issues because Currys required an engineers report from Microsoft in order to clarify that the fault was not due to me (e.g. water damage) and Microsoft refused to provide this after previously agreeing to.

However, I think once Currys had made the commitment to pay for the repair they stopped caring - they never got an engineers report, I got the console back and Currys paid the repair..