XBox 360 - Class Action Lawsuit

[eDoshin]

Since when was ignorance a permitted reason for anything? I guess it is america though


Oddly enough, my house has none of this cabling mess you speak of, and yet I have multiple places I could put my Xbox360 that would A: not be prone to falling or knocking off and B: has MORE than enough ventilation all the way around it.

Actually, that is exactly the point. You CAN dictate that your DVD player requires (x) amount of space surrounding it and must be operated only within this strict room temperate tolerance. And exactly to your point, if a manufacturer is dumb enough to make such requirements go so far overboard as to be unuseable, then they DO deserve to have all their units returned and their sales plummet into the abyss never to return.

The manufacturer should not be held liable for their device failing to operate when you are using it outside of their specifications. If they say it needs six inches of clear venitlation room at the back of the unit and you encase it in glass, how is it their fault? If they say it needs four feet of ventilation in a 65F room and you put it in an entertainment center in your attic in the middle of July in your Florida summer home, how is it their fault? If they say it needs 120 amps at 10,000vdc, needs a room temperature of absolute zero and sustained airflow in excess of three billion cubic feet per minute and you simply throw it in your freezer with a 80mm 4000RPM fan and hope for the best, how is it their fault?

In all three of those ridiculous hypothetical cases I just mentioned, it ISN'T the manufacturer's fault. They told you what you need to operate their equipment. If you can't provide those requirements, you either shouldn't buy it, or should return it. And if those requirements are utterly ridiculous (as some of my hypothetical ones obviously are) then they certainly deserve to get no more business from you, or me, or anyone else in a free market.

Nobody made you buy it. You aren't required to have it. You lose nothing by NOT having it. There are other options available to you. Nothing about this device has any real bearing on your life; hell you might be better off NOT sitting in front of the TV for all those hours mindlessly blowing things away online.

There is zero reason for this lawsuit to claim damages of any sort, period. In fact, there is pretty much zero reason for this lawsuit entirely.

I don't think its too unreasonable to ask for a consumer product that is marketed as a multimedia center to be placed IN your entertainment center without worrying about it overheating. If any of my components heated up like that, I would toss it out the window rather than go back for another.

You do not build a car that is dangerously unstable above 70 mph and then put in disclaimers to never exceed the speed limit and believe that you are off the hook with the consumer. There must be a level of tolerance built in which you expect consumers to push the product they buy. You may take care of your things, but you cannot predict how the other billions of people will use any particular product that they buy.

BTW .. I'm not suggesting that the lawsuit is legit. This applies to ANY consumer device in general.

 

[AlphaWolf]

If any of my components heated up like that, I would toss it out the window rather than go back for another.

Wow that's really smart.

 

[scooby_dooby]

I don't think its too unreasonable to ask for a consumer product that is marketed as a multimedia center to be placed IN your entertainment center without worrying about it overheating. If any of my components heated up like that, I would toss it out the window rather than go back for another.

Enough with this FUD. My 360 sits in an entertainment centre and it works just fine.

You have no evidence to show that the overheating problem are any more than a very small minority.

The only thing the manual says is no enclosed spaces, and a couple of inches on each side, that's NOT unreasonable. A glass ET center with an open back would be just fine, the vast majority of ET centres would be fine I'd imagine, the most important part is keeping the powerbrick cool, and that's easy since they give you like 6 feet of cable.

 

[eDoshin]

Wow that's really smart.

Why would I waste anymore effort on trash?

 

[AlphaWolf]

Why would I waste anymore effort on trash?

I don't know maybe you'd take the unit back and exchange it for a product that meets or your needs or perhaps even get your money back. Only a complete moron would do as you suggest.

 

[jvd]

I was over my buddys house yesterday helping to paint His younger brother was playing and came in complaining that the unit frooze. Restarted it and it froze again. The system was in the et center but the power brick was between the wall and the et center pressed against the wall. I moved it and vola no more freezing

 

[Magnum PI]

for a problem that should concern very few people we see a lot of witnessing on this forum.

more than 3% of xbox360 owner seem to have problems.

 

[MoeStooge]

for a problem that should concern very few people we see a lot of witnessing on this forum.

more than 3% of xbox360 owner seem to have problems.

Using this forum (or any gaming forum) as evidence is not good.

Those with problems post loudly and often. Those without problems might not post at all. Plus, throw in the phan buoy factor and you have a very skewed sense of magnitude. I see no reason to doubt Microsoft's claims. If there is a problem then lying about statistics will just make a class action lawsuit that like the referenced one worse.


Personally, I almost hope that the fear of faulty products keeps people from buying it so that I can get one before Christmas. When I visit my family, I would like to play games on the Xbox 360 instead of more World of Warcraft this year.

 

[Slides]

I've read this a few times on these forums, but can someone tell me what's so great about Microsoft's warranty wrt the Xbox 360?

Replacing a defective unit seems common sense to me and nothing out of the ordinary. What am I missing?

 

[jvd]

I've read this a few times on these forums, but can someone tell me what's so great about Microsoft's warranty wrt the Xbox 360?

Replacing a defective unit seems common sense to me and nothing out of the ordinary. What am I missing?

Well

Basicly you call them up , they help trouble shoot it , if none of the trouble shooting helps then they send u payed next day shipping materials through next day mail . Then you send it to them(Free of charge) they replace it or fix it and send it back with next day delivery .

 

[Slides]

That seems nice, but isn't that fairly common with big name companies anyway? I thought they would offer advanced RMA or cross-shipping like Dell, Maxtor etc.

I guess this is new for consoles.

 

[jvd]

That seems nice, but isn't that fairly common with big name companies anyway? I thought they would offer advanced RMA or cross-shipping like Dell, Maxtor etc.

I guess this is new for consoles.

Last time i had a problem with my sisters ps2 they charged me 50$ to look at it and it took a week for the box to come to send it to them in . Took over a month for us to get it back. This was 5 months after launch though.

So i dunno if they improved at all .

 

[Lysander]

Why class action lawsuit? There is only 1 plaintiff.

 

[Slides]

Wow, that's horrible. One more reason to not buy Sony.

 

[nondescript]

For what it's worth:

http://news.google.com.hk/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=xbox+suit&btnG=Search+News

At the very least, this idiot has managed to get on USA Today, and Cnet News. And Reuters is one of the two largest newswire organizations in the world, the other being the Associated Press.

I've had a chance to play Xbox 360 at a friend's house (game developer) - that one is rock-solid, no problems at all. Sits in a open hardwood TV stand, the kind you get from IKEA. Some fan noise, but if you're playing games with surround sound, you're can't hear it unless you try.

 

[one]

This was 5 months after launch though. So i dunno if they improved at all .

Wow, that's horrible. One more reason to not buy Sony.

What the...?

 

[bouy]

Well

Basicly you call them up , they help trouble shoot it , if none of the trouble shooting helps then they send u payed next day shipping materials through next day mail . Then you send it to them(Free of charge) they replace it or fix it and send it back with next day delivery .

Very true, on Friday I called the 800 number and they did troubleshoot with me and gave me a Trouble Ticket number. The Troubleshoot failed and I called back. As soon as they got my ticket number the guy immediately sets me up to get a shipping box via DHL. He said turn around is 5 business days, the fastest in the industry.

I got the box at noon today and I packed it in according to specifications. Nothing fancy, just a cardboard box fitted to hold the 360 snugly within another cardboard box. You can also fit the PSU and cables in it too and the 360 goes inside a bag. I even wrote a letter of my issues to MS just for good measure.

I placed the shipping label, sealed the box, and went to the DHL website and scheduled a same day pickup. As soon as I hit submit, I put on "Feliz Navidad" and when the song came to an end the DHL guy came knocking and took my box! He gave me a tracking receipt and that's the end of it!

Talk about the power of Information Systems Technology and that whole hoopla I remember taking in my ISM class. DHL and MS stock went up in my book. I'll probably get my 360 back sometime next week (NLT Wednesday I hope). This kind of service is amazing.

I hope this guy's case get's thrown out, it's pretty much frivilous. The 360 didn't work for the both of us except I'm using the proper channels prior to taking potential decisive action, which would be to exchange it at my Gamestop.

 

[Ty]

for a problem that should concern very few people we see a lot of witnessing on this forum.

more than 3% of xbox360 owner seem to have problems.

Wha? Earlier in the CESA TGS 2005 survey thread you dismissed the poll's value...

the sample being unrepresentative, this poll has no value

And I didn't say anything because quite frankly, you could be correct, I have no way to verify or counter your claim.

But it seems like a double-standard to claim what you just said about the Xbox360 problems. Yes, you could very well be correct but the approach to your conclusion seems less than consistent imo.

 

[Dregun]

The main problem is we as consumers are too tollerant of such poor products that we allow this type of thing to happen. Anyone ever heard of the "Lemon" law? Before that law was put into place many car owners were getting vehicles that required constant trips to the service center, costing them time...and time is money. They were also buying used vehicles unknowingly that were considered "Lemons" because they never worked properly.

Don't praise MS for its return policy, yes the turn around rate is good but what other products do you have to "Trouble-Shoot" over a phone with the company before you can return it? If my new Radeon doesnt work I do not have to contact customer support and have them trouble shoot the problem with me, I request a RMA and it gets shipped back; Defective or not I will recieve another Radeon. The only difference is I have to pay for my shipping charges to them and the time I recieve my return is unknown.

The problem is not Microsoft, its the industry as a whole. I have bought many MANY defective products in my life time and have had to waste time and money getting them replaced/fixed. I have spent many hours trouble shooting a new pc setup only to find out that the ram has errors, or that the motherboard I purchased was an older revision that had bugs with certain processors but was still stocked in a warehouse when I made my order.

A victory in this case (as impossible as it seems) would open up every other company to lawsuits of a similar nature. Much like the lemon law of the past, over time we could expect to have better products that function properly out of the box without rediculous operating restrictions or DOA paper wieghts. Until then we do not expect great quality out of or products as long as we get them replaced. Its far cheaper for MS to send "questionable" products and only replace the ones that get returned then it is for them to "rework/redesign all of thier stock. They will do this until the cost of replacing units exceeds the cost to fix the problem, with only 5% (closer figure) failure rate of the Xbox 360 they wont bother. Once they catch up in the factories (2 years) expect to see a redesign of the unit..until then they will just replace them.


On a side note,

The company I work for is responsible for not only replacing defective products, but at times reimbursing our customers for down time if they lose productivity time because of us. So if our products arive at thier facility and the products are no good, if they have to send people home because they have no work for them now....our company pays those employees wages for every hour we cost them. 1 RMA for our company costs over $400 dollars to issue, no matter if only 1 part is being returned or 10,000 parts the cost is the same. Knowing this I will say that as a company if we have products that we are unsure of its quality we will ship all that we have and hope the customer doesnt return them. Do we tell our customer we might have deffective products? No, we do this to save on costs..quality in todays buisness is less important...its all about profit.

The company I work for is in the Mid Fortune 500 group and climbing.

Dre

 

[scooby_dooby]

Don't praise MS for its return policy, yes the turn around rate is good but what other products do you have to "Trouble-Shoot" over a phone with the company before you can return it? If my new Radeon doesnt work I do not have to contact customer support and have them trouble shoot the problem with me, I request a RMA and it gets shipped back; Defective or not I will recieve another Radeon. The only difference is I have to pay for my shipping charges to them and the time I recieve my return is unknown.

What part of "The return rate is under the 3-5% average for new consoles" is unclear?

This is normal for consoles.