Gamestop question

[JuddWack]

So my 360 is now suffering from an E74 error which should still be covered by my warranty. The problem is I don't have a copy of my receipt, which Microsoft says they need. I called the gamestop I bought it from to see if they were capable of pulling up receipts that old. They did sound pretty busy over there, but the guy on the phone didn't really understand my question. He was finally able to figure it out, put me on hold, came back and said they only keep a history of 30 days. I find that super hard to believe and have been told one thing by employees from this gamestop before that was not actually true regarding store credit.

I know a few people here worked at gamestop. Is that true that gamestop's purchase history only lasts for 30 days? I figured gamestop would keep everything under the sun about their customers buying behavior. Is there anyway I can get this receipt from them?

[Eviltaco64X]

You might as well fix it yourself. There's a chip in front of the cooling fans (it's under the fan's heatsink). What you can do is wrap 3 or 4 pennies up in electric tape (or use a piece of copper that long), apply it to the chip, make it get hot, and it should work great.

[Nico0020]

Did a Microsoft Rep tell you on the phone that you needed your receipt? If so, request to speak to the manager of each person until you get escalated to someone actually in the states that can help you and not read lines off a monitor. Everyone I have known to get their 360 repaired (and myself) have not needed the receipt, as their system knows when the unit was originally sold. On the site the system even said my console was out of warranty according to them (which it was not) and to call customer support. When I did, they were happy to help me get it sorted out, and I did not even need to give them a receipt. They asked for the month and year I bought the console in and that was it. If they tell you there is nothing to do, don't let them shaft you. Just keep requesting to speak to a manager.

[Luriden]

I bought my 360 In January with a standard 30 day warranty and it got an E74 last month. I just went to Xbox.com, put in my serial number and requested a repair for E74. They'll give you a shipping label to print out or you can request to have it sent to you by mail. No receipt required.

Xbox's phone customer support is completely worthless for everything but a good laugh. Just do it all yourself on their website,

[JuddWack]

You might as well fix it yourself. There's a chip in front of the cooling fans (it's under the fan's heatsink). What you can do is wrap 3 or 4 pennies up in electric tape (or use a piece of copper that long), apply it to the chip, make it get hot, and it should work great.

I would never try one of these DIY home remedies for console repair unless my warranty was already expired and I had no other options. I'd rather send it to Microsoft and have a professional fix it. Besides, I'm moving this cross country this month so I'll be spending a lot of time on the road and have a lot of preparations to make so I probably shouldn't be playing to much video games anyway

I bought my 360 In January with a standard 30 day warranty and it got an E74 last month. I just went to Xbox.com, put in my serial number and requested a repair for E74. They'll give you a shipping label to print out or you can request to have it sent to you by mail. No receipt required.

Xbox's phone customer support is completely worthless for everything but a good laugh. Just do it all yourself on their website,

Wow, You didn't even get a year out of it. That's lame! I did what you said and used the website. I have a shipping label on its way to me. I emailed gamestop and they said they can't get me a receipt but can forward a proof of purchase to Microsoft, so I don't think there will be any problems.

[melancholy]

Yeah, I got a broken Xbox from on of my friends. He told me if I could fix it, I could have it. I simply called up Microsoft, had the serial number transferred from him to me, and did the rest online. So whoever said you needed a receipt didn't know what they were talking about.

[Eviltaco64X]

I got the E74 three weeks after my one year warranty ended. They wanted me to pay around $120 to fix it. -_-

Of course, this was in January or so of 2008. They may have cut the repair price down.

[DaMadFiddler]

I got the E74 three weeks after my one year warranty ended. They wanted me to pay around $120 to fix it. -_-

Of course, this was in January or so of 2008. They may have cut the repair price down.

I believe they also significantly extended the warranty, due to the high number of defective 360s. If you still have the system, you may want to check again.

[JuddWack]

So whoever said you needed a receipt didn't know what they were talking about.

From Microsoft in section B. of the product warranty information titled OBTAINING WARRANTY SERVICE:

"Submit proof of purchase in the form of a bona fide, dated bill of sale, receipt, or invoice (or a copy) evidencing that your request for service is made within the Warranty Period."
http://support.xbox.com/support/en/us/x ... tyNew.aspx

That's what got me scared.

I believe they also significantly extended the warranty, due to the high number of defective 360s. If you still have the system, you may want to check again.

Yes, E74 is now covered under the 3 year warranty.

[melancholy]

So whoever said you needed a receipt didn't know what they were talking about.

From Microsoft in section B. of the product warranty information titled OBTAINING WARRANTY SERVICE:

"Submit proof of purchase in the form of a bona fide, dated bill of sale, receipt, or invoice (or a copy) evidencing that your request for service is made within the Warranty Period."
http://support.xbox.com/support/en/us/x ... tyNew.aspx

That's what got me scared.

I would assume that would be for any service that doesn't pertain to the red ring. A red ring is pretty much an automatic fix nowadays.

[Eckostyle]

We keep purchases logged for a few weeks, but we can only reprint receipts from the last transaction, so no, you cant get a reprint.

Also, you'd have to know the exact date and approx. time and whatever else you bought, because if it's a typically busy store or the transaction happened on a busy day, looking through transactions logs is not easy.

[Lartrak]

Here's a question: does anyone have any idea how Microsoft managed to so totally botch the design of the 360? I'm not 100% positive, but I believe it is the least reliable console of the last 20 years (there's that one poll giving an over 50% failure rate in its lifetime, and anecdotally I have found this to be true as well). At the very least, the most unreliable of the ones who've had any success. I mean, WTF Microsoft? They did such a good job on the first Xbox, why couldn't they do it again?

It makes the PS2's reliability look good!

[MulletMan13]

Here's a question: does anyone have any idea how Microsoft managed to so totally botch the design of the 360? I'm not 100% positive, but I believe it is the least reliable console of the last 20 years (there's that one poll giving an over 50% failure rate in its lifetime, and anecdotally I have found this to be true as well). At the very least, the most unreliable of the ones who've had any success. I mean, WTF Microsoft? They did such a good job on the first Xbox, why couldn't they do it again?

It makes the PS2's reliability look good!

Well, they rushed the console to market in order to beat the PS3 by nearly a year. The hardware wasn't *fully* stress tested, and there were a couple of compromises with internal design and components due to this early manufacturing and launch. Once HDMI was introduced they started getting their act together, and the once the smaller processors were used they have gained a favorable reliability rating. The 50% failure rate is basically accounting for *every* console purchased in the first 2 years or so of it's lifespan... but if you buy a new one you're going to be pretty safe.

Was the massive hardware failure and bad reputation worth making it to market a year before the competition? Probably. over 30 million 360s have sold worldwide, and almost 25 million PS3s have sold worldwide. Japan is nearly ignoring the 360, so the US ratio is going to be higher. Since losing to Sony so badly last generation, MS has done quite well this one-- and despite having a huge console failure rate, it's helping that they are fixing most of them.

[Eviltaco64X]

I don't know why it took them so long to repair the 360. All the issues can be fixed within a matter of 15 minutes at home, yet it took them at least 3 years to get the hardware failure rate (of new consoles) to drop down below 15%.

[Ex-Cyber]

Well, they rushed the console to market in order to beat the PS3 by nearly a year. The hardware wasn't *fully* stress tested, and there were a couple of compromises with internal design and components due to this early manufacturing and launch.

Supposedly, Microsoft initially only licensed HDL code for the GPU from ATI and did all the physical synthesis/layout/simulation in-house. The story goes that the chip they produced had power/heat problems and they ended up paying ATI to fix it, presumably on a very tight schedule. Accounts differ on whether that initial design ever actually shipped (I doubt it would have gotten past the shuttle run stage).

I don't know why it took them so long to repair the 360. All the issues can be fixed within a matter of 15 minutes at home, yet it took them at least 3 years to get the hardware failure rate (of new consoles) to drop down below 15%.

Maybe you can get the console booting again in 15 minutes at home, but would you put a warranty behind your fix?

[Eviltaco64X]

I don't know why it took them so long to repair the 360. All the issues can be fixed within a matter of 15 minutes at home, yet it took them at least 3 years to get the hardware failure rate (of new consoles) to drop down below 15%.

Maybe you can get the console booting again in 15 minutes at home, but would you put a warranty behind your fix?

Ah, terribly sorry. I worded that all wrong. What I meant was "why did it take Microsoft so long to address the ridiculously easy to fix issues?"

In the long run, it probably lost them a lot of money. At least they take care of the unreliable consoles.