Damn Microsoft. What the hell are you thinking? Jesus. For gods sake EB, what was running through your head? Wow.
Hey, it might be difficult to find XBOX 360s pretty soon at your local Gamestop/ EB/ Whatever. Know why? Because Microsoft just refused to accept the return of $10,000,000 worth of broken/ malfunctioning 360s from EB Australia!
Alright, so we all remember EB Australia recalling ALL of its premium 360s last year yeah? They did all sorts of in-store tests with their units (apparently there was a problem with a particular batch of hard drives at that time), and they’ve been out of stock just about the whole time. Fast forward a six months or so and here we are. Thanks to our colleagues in Australia, we have word is that a transcript is floating around from a person who claims that “an associate of mine who holds a high position within the EB organisation” has some info on the situation.
It seems to have escalated enough that “There have been threats of EB dropping the Xbox range all together.” The transcript goes on to speak of a large loss of money (about $85 a unit) due to the introduction of the standard three year warranty. EB AU has been trying to repair the units themselves - most being returned immediately - how about that huh?
“Add to this the fact that price matching got really cutthroat during this past Xmas, they were selling far too many units under-cost and getting a bunch back defective, but Microsoft [refuses] to reimburse for,” “The whole 360 RRoD [has] been extremely costly to EB Australia.”the transcript states.
“Feel free to believe me or not but go and ask a local EB if they have or when they’ll be getting in 360 Premiums again and nobody will be able to give you a straight answer except along the lines of ’sold out’ and ‘don’t know when they’re coming back in’.”
Microsoft has commented that they are not commenting on the subject. Big surprise.
So there it is people. The only question is which side is the bigger asshole? Microsoft for a severe lack of quality control, or EB for issuing the recall in the first place and costing everyone more money, perhaps unnecessarily? I personally don’t have much love for either these days - so to me there both assholes.
But anyways let us know what you think gamers, who sucks more?
Durka!
5 Comments
Write a Comment»I’ve always been against Microsoft. Windows is crap, they treat customers horribly, and once something new comes out, they stop supporting thier other software or w/e it is and pretty much make you upgrade, even though it won’t be half way decent for a few years… Sorry Microsoft, I’ll stick to Sony for my console and Linux for my OS.
Personally I have had great friendly service from my local EB Store. They always price match, I can take a game back within a week if I don’t like it and they always ring me to tell me something I’ve ordered is in stock. I’ve bought a 360, Wii, DS Lite and a PSP from them plus many games and accessories. Who knows maybe they were trying to do the right thing by recalling the units. Microsoft are always great at skipping issues and trying to brush things under the carpet.
First of all Swing sucks more than EB or Microsoft. And I dont really care if EB stops selling XBox, there loss not mine, I still have a million other sources to get my games. They shouldn’t have done what they did and won’t accept responsiblity. Fuck em.
EB Australia may drop 360 altogether, but given its popularity in the States, there is absolutely no way in hell that they would turn down Microsoft business in the USA.
I worked at GameStop in Florida. The thing with shipments coming in is that the store never knows when anything is coming. I worked during the Wii shortage and not even the store manager knew when more were coming. Every shipment is like a surprise on Christmas morning from your Grandmother - you never know what your going to get. So just because a Gamestop store doesn’t know when more Premium 360’s are arriving doesn’t mean they are dropping Xbox (not to say that it isn’t true, but you can’t use that reasoning as evidence of Xbox not being sold anymore at Gamestop).