XBox 360 Rally

Today is a dark day for me, as my Xbox 360 has officially died. It has served me well, of course, but this afternoon, as I tried to put in Major League Baseball 2K7, I saw it. The red ring of death. Now, I am naturally saddened by this, but at the same time I have to admit that if it had to happen, I’m glad it did at this time. With the new Xbox 30 Elite on the horizon, I won’t have to wait long to get the new console.

With that said…

When I first discovered my 360 had, indeed, kicked the bucket, I was somewhat distraught. I stared for a good minute, in disbelief that my console had actually died so randomly. But, I wasn’t too worried. I had bought the Gamestop warranty for the extra $20 or so dollars when I bought this 360 back in September. I also bought about a dozen games as well — my bonus was most fruitful. Regardless, I have since traded ALL of those games in, and my library of games that was at one time 20+ has now been dwindled down to a measly 3. 3. This is because of Gamestop’s horrendous trade-in policy, which I’ll surely touch on some other time.

So I call Gamestop, seeing if they’ll take my 360 in today and they try to give me lip because I didn’t have the receipt on me. Now, I don’t know why Gamestop doesn’t keep this kind of shit on their computer — it would only seem logical that they would keep this kind of thing on file since the receipts are little more than toilet paper with ink on it, and almost assuredly will not survive the year-long promise of their warranty. But no, they don’t. And immediately he tried to send me to Microsoft to have THEM fix my 360. Uh, no. I’m not paying another $25 for a repair that I’ve already paid YOU to do, should it ever be necessary.

So, after I hang up the phone on him, I go looking for the receipt. I find it, only to learn that the receipt has been damaged due to water, and half of the information is now gone. Just plain gone. Great. Calling back, I tell them that I have now found the receipt, and that I’m bringing the 360 up to Gamestop for them to fulfill their part of the bargain. Now, I’m getting the “Is the date on the receipt?” defense. I tell them “No, but I have a credit card statement that shows that I made a purchase from your establishment on September 26th, 2006 of exactly $864.27.” Which is also the total amount on the receipt. This, obviously, falls within the year-long warranty period, but Gamestop still insists that if the date isn’t on the receipt, that it’s invalid and the warranty is void.

So here I sit, my dead 360 in the living room, telling you all the massive screwjob that Gamestop has pulled on me. I tell you this so you all know that Gamestop will do everything in their power to fuck you over — as if you didn’t know already. In fact, I am calling all my readers to boycott these people. There are countless places in which you can buy games, whether it be Wal-Mart, local gaming shop, eBay, whatever it is — do NOT go to these people, under any circumstances. Otherwise you deserve what you get.

Microsoft, Xbox 360, Gamestop, warranty