Gearfuse

Oh, Microsoft. You love to just fuck things up royally, don’t you? You almost have a certain knack for it it seems. This time around, Microsoft is now declaring that it will no longer pay for shipping on broken Xbox 360 units. Says Consumerist reader Zach:

“My Xbox red-ringed for the second time this weekend. Which is almost a relief after hearing how bad my disc drive was sounding, but not so much after hearing the new policy. I was told that Xbox no longer ships out a box to you and you must find a box to ship it out in. Yeah I guess its not a big deal, but I think it gives them another thing to hold over your head; “We are sorry, Sir, but you didn’t back it well enough and it appears the damage was due to shipping, we cannot help you.”

See? Fucking the customer squarely in the ass once again. Get a goddamned clue, will you already, Microsoft? I’m so sick of writing about how you constantly subject the public to pain and terrible excuses. It’ll come back to haunt you fuckers one day, I’m sure of it.

Link

Whether you’re hosting a LAN party or you just have an ass load of video game consoles to power, there is one peripheral that is more important than all the rest: the surge protector. With the circular design of the SmartSockets Table Top, you’ll not only be safeguarding yours (and your LAN buddies’) electrical equipment with 1500 joules of protection, but you’ll also prevent clutter. Well, so long as all the wires go their own separate ways.

Still worried about your gear? For Amazon’s price of $47.02, Kensington offers a $50,000 connected equipment replacement warranty. C’mon Kensington, buy me my next computer. Please?

Link [via]

More and more companies are wising up to the fact that customer service is what makes or breaks customer loyalty. Microsoft is following suit of Apple and other subsequent companies and extending the warranties on the Xbox 360 from 90 days to an entire year! Jeff Bell, a VP of marketing at Microsoft said, “Customer satisfaction is a central focus and priority for the Xbox 360 system.â€? In addition to the extended warranty, Microsoft is also refunding the costs of repairs done to 360s that users had to pay for because it was after the 90 day period the previous warranty covered. Is Microsoft really serving the customer, or are they just playing follow the leader(s) with the Wii and PS3 warranties of one year each? Because they are refunding the costs of repairs, Microsoft seems to truly be making an effort, one that is much appreciated by the owners of broken 360s. — Nik Gomez

Microsoft extends Xbox 360 warranty to 1 year [ZDNet]