I should have known… I mean I read that it was going to be an uphill battle if I bought one… But did I listen? OF COURSE NOT!!! Reason being, that ms has done a decent job of coming around full circle to support its products. I picked one up on saturday, and had my hopes up, thinking I’d not be a statistic. Silly Jmel.

So, I somehow manage to get it out of the package without severing a major blood vessel, and power up the 360. I turn the headset on and hear a “beep”…. COOL! I’m in business right? I fire up gears of war (love it….love it) and start a multiplayer session. Within minutes, beep….wtf?! I pay closer attention to what’s going on this time… as I am playing, I hear the players in the game start speaking out of the surround speakers near the tv, instead of the headset, then they come back again… BEEP! All within 30 seconds of the last beep.

WHAT THE HELL! I am thinking… Well, it appears I have the same problems as about a few hundred other people that are posting on the xbox.com forums. It seems that the headset’s internal radio is made out of dog excrement and is unable to have either the consistancy, distance, or reliability as the wireless controllers.

I recommend that anyone interested in buying a headset, either expect to have to call microsoft about a replacement, or enjoy your multiple trips to the store returning each one over and over again until you find one that works.

I have outlined my experiences with support here. I hope this helps someone avoid wasting 60 dollars on what could have been a pretty useful product that would make gaming with the headset more enjoyable.