I felt I should share this story, because its an example of a company doing the right thing to take care of its customers.About 10 days ago I took my 13 year old son to the midnight release of Modern Warfare 2. He had been saving up his money for it and he was SO excited. We got our copy and dashed home at 1 A.M. so that he could jump online with his buddies and play it for a bit before bed (a special concession on a school night).
But when he popped the game into his Xbox 360, an update was needed first. The update ran for maybe 2 seconds, then everything stopped and the screen showed a string of text in multiple languages. At the bottom of the screen it said "E 74" error. Around the power button glowed the dreaded Red Ring of Death.
My son was distraught.
It was clear that the update caused the error, but we weren't sure if it was generated by MW2 itself, or just a regular Xbox update. In either case, I had one majorly disappointed child on my hands.
I jumped online and found this PCWorld article by Matt Peckham, which helped me determine that the problem was most likely generated by a regular Xbox update. I followed his advice and found that with an E74 error I could return the machine for repairs free of charge.
The only downside, other than the inconvenience, was the customer service site said it could take up to three weeks to repair the machine.
"THREE WEEKS!?" My son wailed. It sounded like a long time to a boy who was falling more hopelessly behind his friends in MW2 every second.
I convinced him to go to bed, and then his mother and I surprised him with a new Xbox 360 the next evening. We didn't want him to miss out on such a highly anticipated social experience. I figured I would just sell the repaired one when it came back to help make up the expense of the new one.
Now here's the good part. Last night, just 10 days later, I was a bit surprised to find a package from Xbox had been delivered. I was even more surprised to find that they had sent a brand new machine to replace the old one.
Included with it was a letter that said: "Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience you have experienced...It is our goal to provide you with the best gaming and entertainment experience possible, and hope to regain your trust, satisfaction and loyalty."
Also included was a card worth a free month of Xbox Live.
Folks, that's customer service done right. Kudos to Microsoft.
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