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(Editorial) Xbox 360: Full Disclosure or Total Recall
mynameisguido
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
In an interesting opinion piece posted by N'gai Croal, he writes that despite the recent steps by Microsoft to alleviate the technical problems their consoles have been having, that it isn't enough. He proposes either one of two things. 1. That Microsoft give full disclosure on the consoles problems, how many have been fixed, which batches have been affected, when the fixes are coming ,et al. so that customers can make an educated choice. or 2. (the far more controversial option) A total recall of all 360's currently sitting on store shelves in order to get the hardware with a high rate of breakage off the shelves.
An excerpt:
I, for one, think that neither option is either feasible or the right answer to the problems that the 360 is facing right now, but as always with his stuff, it's an interesting read, and something that I thought other people might be interested in reading.
An excerpt:
N'gai Croal wrote:To be clear, we understand why Microsoft is reluctant to release any of this information. Returning to our infidelity analogy, giving the offended party a blow-by-blow account of the affair is unlikely to produce a renewed bond between the couple. Not to mention the tort attorneys who are almost certainly circling Redmond with class-action lawsuits; we can see why Microsoft would rather wait for discovery, should that day ever come, rather than fully air its glowing-red dirty laundry at present. But Microsoft can't have it both ways: embracing its loyal customers on one hand, running a cost-benefit analysis on the other, while declining to give those loyal and potential future customers the facts they need to make a truly informed decision about the purchase that they've already made or might make in the future. Its execs can't remain silent about what the problem is and the scope of the problem, while still touting the same "what matters is that we're going to take care of you" line they were reciting before they would even admit that there was a major problem.
At a six percent failure rate--just one percent more than the generally accepted 3-5 percent range for consumer electronics products--that statement would still be operative. At 30 percent, it would be unacceptable. Microsoft is saying, "Trust us," but given the sheer number of anecdotes about broken Xbox 360s and customer service horror stories, gamers ought to be able to quantify precisely how much trust Microsoft is asking of them. And the fact that Microsoft won't put a number to the failure rate and won't say which batch numbers are affected--while continuing to leave flawed machines on store shelves and in consumers' homes; while not even giving people advice on how to manage their Xbox 360's life span without resorting to Microsoft customer service--to us, that is equally unacceptable. The bottom line is that the answer to "Why would you knowingly continue to sell a defective product?" should not be "We're extending our warranty program." It is for this reason that we say that Microsoft must either be thoroughly forthcoming about the Xbox 360's flaws, or initiate a recall.
I, for one, think that neither option is either feasible or the right answer to the problems that the 360 is facing right now, but as always with his stuff, it's an interesting read, and something that I thought other people might be interested in reading.
mynameisguido on
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Why is Microsoft being honest not feasible?
Microsoft should issue an explanation; they're remained tight-lipped for over a year, then last week said "Uh, yeah well, actually, maybe some are broken, so we're extending everyone's warranty" without saying why.
It's exacerbating the situation. Apple does exactly the same thing; when iBooks started dying because of dodgy logic boards they refused to acknowledge even the existence of the problem. It scares consumers into thinking they have no idea what is wrong or how it can be fixed.
One particular problem I can think of is if Microsoft releases specifics on what is wrong, you will end up with various people trying to 'fix' the problem themselves, failing and then calling out Microsoft for providing them with 'false' information.
Now, as many of you know, I'm biased since I work at MS and in games no doubt. But even if I weren't and were just a regular Joe consumer, I don't think I'd expect a product recall unless there was some safety issue associated with it.
I know I was pretty pissed at Nintendo when I bought the original GBA, because the screen lighting sucked. (I went through many, many 3rd party devices to try to improve the situation) Although I was mad, I never thought, "Well, I deserve having this be replaced with a better version, for free." Rather, when Nintendo finally offered the GBA SP, I grudingly traded in my GBA and paid the whatever-it-was extra. Same goes for the DS Phat -> DS-Lite.
Am I alone in my thinking? Or have I been drowned in too much corporate Kool-Aid?
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I think it's not feasible because either way lies a PR nightmare that they can't and won't go through. If they reveal the rate at which the things are breaking, not only will it tarnish their image, but it will make it that much more difficult to sell the existing supply (which they need to get through before they make the consoles with the quieter, cooler, more profitable chips). Not to mention the lawyers that would swoop down on this like vultures if it is indeed high.
A recall would cost them billions of dollars, destroying their image to the public at large (warranty extensions can be viewed as positive--hard to glean anything positive from a recall), to say nothing of
the money they'd lose from games and consoles going unsold. It would essentially spell their end as a console maker---they took a calculated risk with the extended warranties to control some of the damage that has been done to the brand without essentially hitting the reset button.
Not that I don't think they shouldn't do more, but seriously, while I appreciate that N'gai is willing to be very vocal on this issue, neither is ever, ever, going to happen.
i simply cannot bring myself to buy a 360 until it is confirmed that all or almost all of the products being shipped are not defective.
I'm not sure what this has to do with the situation at hand. The backlighting is something that definitely should have been in the GameBoy Advance, but not something that affected how often it stopped working. If the defective numbers are on the high end (though I doubt that they are), there could be millions of systems out there with a design flaw that will kill the system eventually.
Oh, and there is precedent for recalls in the console industry, though it was almost 20 years ago:
"In July 1983, Nintendo released their Famicom (Family Computer) system in Japan, which was their first attempt at a cartridge-based video game console. The system was a booming success, selling over 500,000 units within two months. The console was also technically superior and inexpensive when compared to its competitors, priced at about $100 USD. However, after a few months of the consoles selling well, Nintendo received complaints that some Famicom consoles would freeze when the player attempted to play certain games. The fault was found in a malfunctioning chip and Nintendo decided to recall all Famicom units currently on store shelves, which cost them almost half a million USD."
Obviously we live in a different time and a different place, but it is what it is.
must be the kool-aid
The reason people are positive about it is that it signals that Microsoft is ready to fix the problem, so if you have to send in a dead console, the replacement should no longer have the same flaws. Microsoft definitely would not just extend the warranty and leave the problem in place, since that would not be anywhere near cost effective.
i think once you've jumped in, it's hard to really get back out. once you've bought a gba or ds phat or 360, you're pretty much sunk.
but for new buyers like me, i know that im not going to risk a 1/3 chance of getting a broken product. fuck that noise.
i know that blaming lawyers is fun and everything, but lawyers can't act with out clients. clients dont exist unless there is a claim. a claim does not exist unless there is a loss. and losses result from? that's right! in this case, losses result from defective products.
don't blame lawyers for manufacturer error. lawyers are just tools used by injured people for righting wrongs.
which is nice for existing owners of the console.
but i fail to see why it should convince anyone to actually go out and buy the product.
1 in 3 burgers are made of shit patty instead of beef, but, in the event you get shit instead of beef, we'll replace your burger with one that is hopefully not shit. how excited would you be to sink your teeth in?
Wow. The DS analogy wasn't good, but this one was terrible.
Having a console die on you is not the same as eating shit. One of these would lead to serious illness and death. It also makes me gag just thinking about it.
Hint: It's not getting 3 red lights on my 360.
My point was that Microsoft, being the shrewd corporation that it is, is unlikely to give full disclosure regarding the actual failure rate because that would provide a great deal of fuel to any class-action lawsuits that people may be mulling over. As long as they keep their mouth shut, potential lawsuit instigators have little to go on except for conjecture in terms of the high failure rates.
As someone who has had 3 console deaths I think the extended warranty is fucking awesome. That's not to say I'm happy about the fact the console has fucked up, but I'm happy the MS Entity is acknowledging that this is a problem and that they are prepared to fix it for free should it happen again any time within the next two years. Two years!
I'm confident by then that if I have to send the console back it's going to be fixed proper or replaced. If I'm wrong then MS won't see any more of my sweet, sweet money, and I'm pretty sure that would be a bad thing for MS.
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i think the author means a total recall of machines on shelves, not from homes. im not sure if im reading you right, but if you were implying that ms should recall from homes, then i think that's not what the author is asking for.
if only 70% of new machines on shelves are working properly, then you've got a serious problem. personally i think it's a high enough number to warrant a recall, but then again, im a risk averse guy. still, the possibility of disappointing 1 in every 3 customers is not something i would want to risk.
the thing is, i really, really, really want ms to succeed in japan. but i just dont see that happening if ms cant provide a reliable product.