I’ve always wondered about how much it costs Microsoft to repair all the Xbox 360s that are returned to them. My recent experience with the Red Ring of Death produced grief and curiosity over this. The grief was related to not having an Xbox 360 around for a couple of weeks.
The curiosity was in finding out how good Microsoft was in their customer service. This answer turned out to be excellent, at least in my case.
But how much does all this "excellence" in processing, repairing and replacing downed 360s cost the Big M? It turns out that Microsoft has had to bite the big one and has forked out $1 billion dollars to foot the bill.
Of course, while there is a good deal of repairs going on everyday at the repair center, Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft, put a happy smiley face on the whole matter, but also owned up to the problems with the game console.
"The majority of Xbox 360 owners are having a great experience with their console and have from day one. But this problem has caused frustration for some of our customers and for that, we sincerely apologize."
The reference to "some" customers having problems with failed Xbox 360s seems to be a debatable point as practically everyone who has a 360 knows someone who has a broken machine or has experienced this situation firsthand.
But in spite of the bad news for Microsoft in having to spend a billion dollars on warranty repairs, it seems to be churning out the fixed consoles as fast as it can in order to keep the inconvenience to customers as painless (and as short) as possible.
In the meanwhile, Microsoft seems to be having a change in heart as to admitting that there is, indeed, a widespread problem with failed units. They now say that the reports of broken 360s are "bigger than we are comfortable with."
Microsoft says that all machines returned to customers are now "up to date" as far as them being up to specs with the latest 360 on store shelves.
[via BBCnews]
