Monthly Archives: July 2008

[  Mood: Sleepy ]
Today my 360 will arrive in Texas for repairs.

It seems like a long time, but in reality, I called the "helpful" Microsoft Xbox "helpline" just last week.

FIVE TIMES.

I didn’t talk to anyone in the call center depicted above. Know how I know that? The people above look HAPPY. Like they’re models, posing for a call center ad.

Five employees and three supervisors later, I got a supervisor who actually backed up her claim to help me with a service number that not only showed up on my Xbox.com repair page, but also provided a tracking number for the repair box I was sent.

Come Tuesday morning, the Fedex man delivers my overnight box (I demanded it for the phone hassles, and I got it).

On my porch sat two empty Fedex shipping boxes. TWO.

And I thought the call center employees were confused.

To be safe as possible in this situation, I decided to send my broken 360 back in the box with the same tracking number on it that I’d seen online.

I’m not terribly happy about all the confusion, and the potential for more before this is over, but at least the process has begun.

I’m trying to be zen about it, like this fellow.

Meanwhile, does anyone need an empty box for a broken 360?

[  Mood: Distorted ]
[  Currently: Listening to the ringing in my ear… ]

Oh my lord.

I am a big fan of Fox’s t.v. show, The Shield.

Shawn Ryan’s writing staff and vision for this series has enthralled and satisfied me with every season.

The cast’s acting is phenomenal, from Michael Chiklis’ determined and vicious Vic Mackey to the supporting cast, who provide in their brief moments on screen some of the most powerful performances to grace the small screen. Each episode is an exercise in excellent, if sometimes unorthodox or downright disturbing television.

Which is why my wife and I decided, in light of September 2nd’s airing of the final season, to begin at the beginning.

Five minutes into the first episode of season one, though, my Xbox 360 got different ideas.

The dvd drive on my 360 dropped out of the game in March of 2007, but I never got the red ring of death. Instead, the console decided that, as I played Crackdown, it would simply drop some of my visuals, willy nilly.

For example, instead of this…

I’d see something like this:

Microsoft, with my extended warranty, took swift care of my 360, sending me a "repaired" or "refusbished" model. Presumably, my original box was irreparable. No biggie. The one they sent me got me through the Halo 3 Beta test, numerous plays in Oblivion, Fable, Mass Effect, Bioshock, Halo 3, the aforementioned Crackdown, and over 40 Xbox Live Arcade titles. Good times.

But the good times are on pause for the next three weeks or so, folks. Maybe this will spur me to change my lackadaisical writing ways.

That, or my wife will make good on her threat to get me a Nintendo DS to play with for the next few weeks…

[  Mood: Happy ]
THIS is just one of MANY reasons I love coming HERE.