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[GHG]

I believe the OP is referring to the straightforward nature of the process itself, when making a warranty claim. OP didn't mention how long they have owned the product

The straightforward nature of warranty claims (with perks such as free shipping) tend to only happen in the home country of the company/manufacturer. You will see this if you read the warranty contracts, in a lot of cases they will state that the return and shipping of the item for any RMA claims will be the customers responsibility.

 

[SenkiDala]

Their refund policy is also exceptionally generous.

Not anymore... This year I got refunded 3 games (the most expensive one costing 19€) and then I asked a refund for a 3€ game they said I got the maximum amount of games refunded for the year 2024. Wtf is that seriously...

 

[adamsapple]

Not anymore... This year I got refunded 3 games (the most expensive one costing 19€) and then I asked a refund for a 3€ game they said I got the maximum amount of games refunded for the year 2024. Wtf is that seriously...

I got that last year but I used 5 refunds before I got that message.

 

[SenkiDala]

I got that last year but I used 5 refunds before I got that message.

100% it was just 3 for me, I reviewed all my purchases (easy on their site). I was disappointed.

 

[coffinbirth]

MS has been better at Sony at every single thing for the last five years. Except games. And it hasn’t helped them at all. We don’t care how you treat us, just give us the games.

Speak for yourself.
Anyone bitching about a lack of games on any platform other than VR in 2024 needs to get their head checked.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

I worked for PlayStation (SCEA at the time) customer service.

Awful.

 

[cireza]

It's easy when you have fewer customers!

You sell more consoles when you have the worst customer support!

 

[Cakeboxer]

Maybe in America.

You get just a 90 day warranty with them on controllers here in the UAE, even if that controller came as part of a console purchase.

180 days in Europe from retailers and even 2 years when bought in the Microsoft store.

 

[John Wick]

It's easy when you have fewer customers!

Nothing to do with it. Sony customer service is poor.

 

[Ronin_7]

I remember when I had the RRoD. I called for support, and the very next day my console was recovered. Two weeks later, it was fully repaired and working perfectly.

 

[John Wick]

i just want to say playstation customer service is awful outside of the US.
i guess the problem is that playstation market is too big for sony to invest in customer service.

I encounted one situation whereby the PIC on the phone shouted at me the moment he picked up the phone (i contacted using the international telephone line, i live in south asia).

Btw, anyone knows where to complain on the playstation customer service if you are living in south east asia?

Your mistaken it's terrible everywhere. Horrendous in the UK.

 

[Esparadrapo]

You get a minimum 3 year warranty with anything bought in Spain.

 

[GHG]

180 days in Europe from retailers and even 2 years when bought in the Microsoft store.

The EU law for electronics is 2 years for all items, regardless of manufacturer.

 

[nordique]

This is true

 

[DenchDeckard]

You sell more consoles when you have the worst customer support!

we love to be cucks

 

[Cakeboxer]

The EU law for electronics is 2 years for all items, regardless of manufacturer.

I had this conversation with another person some days ago. Manufactorers warranty for controllers not sold by the Microsoft Store is 6 months. Retailers guarantee is always 2 years by law, but becomes useless after 1 year (was 6 months), because after a year the customer has to prove the the product was already faulty when bought and 99,9999999% of the customers can't do that. Fuck it, let's make it 100%.

But Since we are talking about Xbox's customer service and not retailer's guarantee, it's 6 months or 24 months for controllers and 24 months on consoles no matter where you bought it.

 

[GHG]

Since we are talking about Xbox's customer service, it's just 6 months or 24 months for controllers and 24 months on consoles no matter where you bought it.

It's right here in black and white man. Middle East warranty terms:

https://download.microsoft.com/download/7/6/3/76314a0c-be94-4317-8d7b-9f7b32dd8bc9/HW-WARR-EN-ME(09-23)v.1.pdf

This has been the case since the Xbox One days. I know because I had a console that was part of a launch unit run (for the middle east) and the controller that was packaged with the console failed on me within 6 months. They told me to kick rocks.

 

[Natsuko]

Maybe in America.

You get just a 90 day warranty with them on controllers here in the UAE, even if that controller came as part of a console purchase.

In Europe, it is no longer so easy to get support for a controller. The durability of these things is now a disaster. The days when you could contact support and get a new one are long gone. Like so many things, it has been exploited. Microsoft never used to have the broken ones sent to them and some people are happy because they were getting two for the price of one. Well, try to get a replacement today as an honest customer. They'll send it back to you and say it's not under warranty.

Microsoft support is still great in some areas. But it's a long way from what it used to be.

And the AI variant when the hotline is not available is a disaster. I wanted to use it recently because one of the children somehow managed to spend 10 euros despite the parental controls. In the end, we found the solution ourselves - the parental controls had to be set up separately on the other PC, they don't just apply across the board to one account. In the end, we left it at that because the AI couldn't provide a helpful answer, no matter how many times we tried. 10 euros is no drama. One of the kids now has coins for the Minecraft marketplace. The support annoyed me far more than the money lost. These days, Microsoft is really keen to have AI take care of a lot of things. Irks. Terrible.

You can also see this on the shop pages. Nobody translates them anymore. And that's how it reads. Errors, lousy translations and things that are literally correct but are translated in the wrong context and therefore take away any sense. I recently saw a shop page that was so badly translated that I couldn't interpret it. That's not even legally compliant in this country. My husband was only able to solve the puzzle by looking at the site without an account logged in. I couldn't see the price I had to pay when I was logged in. He didn't understand it either.

 

[Cakeboxer]

It's right here in black and white man. Middle East warranty terms:

https://download.microsoft.com/download/7/6/3/76314a0c-be94-4317-8d7b-9f7b32dd8bc9/HW-WARR-EN-ME(09-23)v.1.pdf

This has been the case since the Xbox One days. I know because I had a console that was part of a launch unit run (for the middle east) and the controller that was packaged with the console failed on me within 6 months. They told me to kick rocks.

I believe you, i just said how it's in Europe.

 

[GHG]

I believe you, i just said how it's in Europe.

I would love for this region to get together and agree on regional warranty terms that need to be upheld in order to prevent some companies taking us for a ride. It's wildly inconsistent here.

Some companies give us reasonable terms that are on par with what you typically see in America or even Europe, but some companies take it upon themselves to make it as if you don't have any warranty at all. Don't even get me started on the shipping situation if you happen to have to use the warranty and the nearest service center is outside of the region, it's so prohibitively expensive in some cases (and they know it) that it makes it not even worth moving forward with the claim.

 

[Esparadrapo]

I had this conversation with another person some days ago. Manufactorers warranty for controllers not sold by the Microsoft Store is 6 months. Retailers guarantee is always 2 years by law, but becomes useless after 1 year (was 6 months), because after a year the customer has to prove the the product was already faulty when bought and 99,9999999% of the customers can't do that. Fuck it, let's make it 100%.

But Since we are talking about Xbox's customer service and not retailer's guarantee, it's 6 months or 24 months for controllers and 24 months on consoles no matter where you bought it.

No, an item breaking down with regular usage is covered under the EU warranty law because not lasting for at least 2 years is clearly a faulty product. Lets say you buy a TV and the thing stops working after one year of regular usage: Of course you can claim the warranty and these go through every day.

Last time I had to claim a warranty was for a laptop charger I used for nearly 2 years and went through automatically not 4 months before the warranty expired.

 

[Cakeboxer]

No, an item breaking down with regular usage is covered under the EU warranty law because not lasting for at least 2 years is clearly a faulty product. Lets say you buy a TV and the thing stops working after one year of regular usage: Of course you can claim the warranty and these go through every day.

Last time I had to claim a warranty was for a laptop charger I used for nearly 2 years and went through automatically not 4 months before the warranty expired.

People often mistake manufactorer's warranty and retailer's guaranee. The warranty is voluntarily, the guarantee by law.

You buy a Switch (1 year warranty) at a local store in Europe and it breaks down after a year you are screwed unless goodwill.
You buy a Samsung tv (2 years warranty) at a local store in Europe and it breaks down after a year you can still go to Samsung.

Guarantees, cancelling and returning your purchases - Your Europe

How to claim the 2-year guarantee for EU purchases, get a repair, replacement or refund, how to cancel orders made outside shops (online, by phone, mail order).

europa.eu

"The 2-year guarantee period starts as soon as you receive your goods. If a defect becomes apparent within 1 year of delivery, you don't have to prove it existed at the time of delivery. It is assumed that it did unless the seller can prove otherwise."

 

[I'm nobody]

Battle of the customer service now
What new low


Automated services are funny
I rang the drugs helpline and I got a voice saying if you want information on cannabis press hash

 

[DirtyBast8rd]

No they suck just as much. First hand experience twice.

 

[Esparadrapo]

People often mistake manufactorer's warranty and retailer's guaranee. The warranty is voluntarily, the guarantee by law.

You buy a Switch at a local store in Europe and it breaks down after a year you are screwed unless goodwill.
You buy a Samsung tv at a local store in Europe and it breaks down after a year, you can still go to Samsung and use their 2 years warranty.

Guarantees, cancelling and returning your purchases - Your Europe

How to claim the 2-year guarantee for EU purchases, get a repair, replacement or refund, how to cancel orders made outside shops (online, by phone, mail order).

europa.eu

"The 2-year guarantee period starts as soon as you receive your goods. If a defect becomes apparent within 1 year of delivery, you don't have to prove it existed at the time of delivery. It is assumed that it did unless the seller can prove otherwise."

You are protected against goods breaking down with normal usage as it doesn't have to be a defect at the time of delivery prove it or not.

One day your TV works and the next it doesn't. You don't have to prove that there was a defect in your TV at the time of delivery within or after the first year and the seller has to honor the warranty. No goodwill involved, people are usually just talked out of going through with it. If you contact your local consumer rights association they will tell you as much.

That clause refers to scratches and shit like that. If you think after one year your warranty is void it's your own fault for misinterpreting that one clause applies to every fault in a product.

 

[Cakeboxer]

You are protected against goods breaking down with normal usage as it doesn't have to be a defect at the time of delivery prove it or not.

One day your TV works and the next it doesn't. You don't have to prove that there was a defect in your TV at the time of delivery within or after the first year and the seller has to honor the warranty. No goodwill involved, people are usually just talked out of going through with it. If you contact your local consumer rights association they will tell you as much.

That clause refers to scratches and shit like that. If you think after one year your warranty is void it's your own fault for misinterpreting that one clause applies to every fault in a product.

Again: Warranty =/ guarantee

 

[ShadowNate]

It's been a couple of years since I've had to make use of the MS warranty on a controller (I believe it broken down nearly after a year of use) and my experience from the process was very positive overall.

There was a bit of back and forth e-mails (not many) but in the end they shipped a new controller and the whole thing was resolved within 2 or 3 weeks time (maybe sooner).

 

[Esparadrapo]

Again: Warranty =/ guarantee

Semantics? Really?

You are wrong assuming that the two year period of guarantee/warranty is void after the first year and up to the goodwill of the seller/manufacturer.

 

[Cakeboxer]

Semantics? Really?

You are wrong assuming that the two year period of guarantee/warranty is void after the first year and up to the goodwill of the seller/manufacturer.

Buddy, come to let's say Germany, buy a Switch at Saturn etc., try to complain after a year and see what happens. Spoiler: They'll tell you to piss off.
Do the same thing with a Samsung tv and they'll help you.

 

[scarlet0pimp]

i have been happy with the service they provide. Had to send my 1X back to them after I left it uncovered in a room where a plasterer was working and it sucked in a lot of dust. I sent it in and got a replacement back within 5 days. This was from the UK. i also bought a broken xbone from a mate who left it in a bag which his cat pissed on. Sent it to microsoft had to pay £100 but they sent me a refurbished one back within the week.

 

[Esparadrapo]

Buddy, come to let's say Germany, buy a Switch at Saturn etc., try to complain after a year and see what happens. Spoiler: They'll tell you to piss off.
Do the same thing with a Samsung tv and they'll help you.

Get your local consumer rights association involved and don't be a sucker.

 

[BlackTron]

If they didn't have a streamlined process for claiming Elite controllers they would have to hire an extra department fire one less department.

 

[Cakeboxer]

Get your local consumer rights association involved and don't be a sucker.

Why would i? They're right. But let's stop this here, everything is said.

 

[N30RYU]

They need to deal with less ppl

 

[King Dazzar]

I managed to get a refund from PlayStation recently - yes I know, amazing in of itself. But alas, it literally took exactly 1 month. I also did manage to speak to someone in the UK, who have always been polite and friendly. But their refund policy isn't good enough.

Xbox have been better in general - though I never quite know where I stand for sure with their refund policy, compared with say Steam. I did have a problem accessing some purchased digital dlc once. And that had to be escalated and a complaint raised, just to get a refund for £3.

I dont think either platform are shining examples of how to do customer service.

 

[sainraja]

I've had refunds denied even with less than 2 hours of playtime by Microsoft. I have also had some refunds honored by both as long as I did not download the game and unless it has changed on the MS side recently, in order to get an automated refund, the reason you have to select is not a "no questions asked" refund (in other words, you are saying something happened that did not, a lie). As for hardware support, well, I would put both Sony and Microsoft at the same level, since when I have needed it, it hasn't been an issue (during warranty) but going by examples that the OP is citing, then Apple's a godsend in that respect. There is no separate product registration process as long as you set up your Apple ID on the device or log in with it (and of course, there is AppleCare which you can pay for to protect it longer).

 

[yanhash]

Rival?

 

[Negotiator101]

For me as a consumer, one of the metrics to value a brand is the quality of their customer service.

I don't own Xbox console this generation but I have owned many Xbox controllers, they make good peripherals. My lates Elite series 2 controller started to have face button issues, so I tried to claim the warranty as it is still valid.

I am genuinely impressed by the experience. Registering the product is easy, just go to Microsoft account and add serial number, no question asked. The warranty claiming process is streamlined and user friendly - click a button just next to the controller I just registered, starting a repair order, the dropped down menu contained all possible issues, didn't need to type a single thing.

After that the system generated the shipping label and cost zero dollar as it is still in warranty. In the entire process, I didn't need to contact a single person, phone or webchat, and the whole process took 10 minutes.

Then you have a nice order status page to track its progress, again no need to contact anybody. I have received my controller on Wednesday, the issue was fixed, couldn't be happier.

Don't want to talk about Xbox's outputs or their strategic plan, but in terms of honoring their warranty, they've done a great job.

Actually similar situation to your goodself but my controller was constantly moving down probably a d pad issue. I had the same experience as you but they sent me a new controller back with only 12 days left on the warranty, brilliant.

 

[Katatonic]

That's one thing I'll give them.
After I returned my XBONE X, I called up MS and they refunded all my digital purchases and game pass sub.

 

[Beechos]

This is one of my main reasons I listed in another thread about "Will you continue to invest in the xbox ecosystem" as to why I would and why they are the ones I have most confidence in with keeping/transferring my digital library if xbox ever went down.

 

[John Marston]

A couple of years ago I had a weird snafu where my 3 month Xbox Live prepaid card was being renewed automatically even though I had switched to the yearly plan.

Called customer service and the employee just could not understand me although I'm fully bilingual.
I tried the Frenchie option since I'm french canadian and same thing; it was like I was speaking Martian.

I tried english again and the background noise sounded like a warzone.
Finally after about 10 minutes of explaining myself I'm told I have to fill out a form. A paper form

I just hung up, deleted my Paypal & created a new one with a new email address.

A complete waste of time

 

[Esppiral]

I mean not trying to be that person but they have to have support for much less customers and less countries. They better not mess up in those fewer places and those fewer clients.

From what i see about Sony it depends really. Some people say it has worked smoothly and others complain A LOT.

Xbox has a better refund policy though.

Nah, in the ps360 era It was the same, both consoles sold the same the failure.rate was high( not only rrod) on360 and their customer service was exceptional, on the other hand I am still waiting for Sony to repair my PS3 with the yellow light of death.....

 

[Megatron]

Speak for yourself.
Anyone bitching about a lack of games on any platform other than VR in 2024 needs to get their head checked.

I’m not speaking for myself. The sales bear that out. It’s fine if you specifically do t agree but you are the outlier.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Not in Europe. And certainly not for hardware.

Yes in Europe, and yes for hardware, I've sent back 2 series controllers via the automated process just like the OP.

 

[coffinbirth]

I’m not speaking for myself. The sales bear that out. It’s fine if you specifically do t agree but you are the outlier.

Asking for lesser customer service in favor of MOAR GAMEZ is, perhaps, an opinion best left to ones self. Especially considering they are serving up STALKER 2, Indiana Jones and BLOPS6 to you on a GamePass platter to see the year out.

Was it not widely considered to the best Xbox showcase...EVER, just a few short months ago? Like, so many games it's kinda hard to keep track of them all?

I'm pretty sure I'm not an outlier there.

Search results for query: xbox showcase

www.neogaf.com

 

[Megatron]

Asking for lesser customer service in favor of MOAR GAMEZ is, perhaps, an opinion best left to ones self. Especially considering they are serving up STALKER 2, Indiana Jones and BLOPS6 to you on a GamePass platter to see the year out.

Was it not widely considered to the best Xbox showcase...EVER, just a few short months ago? Like, so many games it's kinda hard to keep track of them all?

I'm pretty sure I'm not an outlier there.

Search results for query: xbox showcase

www.neogaf.com

so your advice is ‘just keep doing what you’re doing Microsoft, things are going great”? That’s quite the take.

 

[coffinbirth]

I don't think you understand how quotes work. Or salient points.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Not just better but leagues better. Damn, Sony must speed up those remastereds or it will go out of business.

 

[Melchiah]

I rarely have to use customer service but by most accounts, PlayStation sucks. I did have an issue with MS that I was not pleased with but it was a very long time ago and I see a lot of positive comments about them now. Nintendo, while they replaced a set of Joy Cons and repaired a Switch-Lite, they caused my daughter to lose an AC save due to their overly convoluted save data policies. Frankly, I felt they were too much to deal with on the Switch-Lite controller repairs so I DIY'ed the last one. Steam seems to be top notch. I have had two refunds through them and it was basically no questions asked.

A couple of years ago, I renewed a 12-month PS+ subscription a year too early and it was refunded immediately without questions asked. Although, in retrospect I shouldn't have cancelled the purchase due to the price hike later on.

 

[Crayon]

It's rival: