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Yanngc33

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My Terrible Kinect Experience (Part 1)

By Yanngc33 9 Comments


Hey Duders,
As some of you may have seen this weekend I posted a blog about a problem I was having with Kinect. After a while I came to the conclusion that the device was simply broken. This first blog post will be followed by others, following my steps as I search for a working Kinect.

PART 1: False hopes and Morocco


So last weekend I realised my Kinect wasn't working. This was a bummer and kind of made me regret the whole venture. But I told myself that I'd just go to my local video game store to get a new one. Sounds simple right ?

Living in France and all, I have my own little video game shop that sells me games in advance and I know the guys who work there and they usually give me discounts. Anyways I bring the Kinect back and after trying it out they too realise it is broken. They start talking about trading mine in for a new one but the boss wants to call Microsoft's customer service line just to be sure we aren't doing anything wrong.

Now I know one or two things about costumer service here in France. Nintendo is outsourced in Belgium and plays Mario music while you're waiting. Sony is based in Paris and plays Queen while you wait. Microsoft is the absolute worst: it's outsourced in Morroco with people who don't speak a lick of french on the other line. This is when things went south.

The woman on the other line didn't seem to know what a Kinect was and didn't seem to understand the shopkeeper's questions about return policies. She finally understood and headshoted my hopes of playing this next gen eyetoy down the drain: apparently Microsoft doesn't accept returns from shops.

So I get her on the line and after spelling out my lengthy long name, she kindly tells me that I'll have to ship the damn thing. When she asked me if I was happy with her service I almost chocked her over the phone. For weeks I've been trying t ship my broken Wii off to Belgium and now I have to take care of Kinect ? Well at least it won't take long, right ?

A week for them to ship the FedEx box to me, three weeks for them to get me a new one. I'll repost in a week. Who wants to bet there will be no box ?    
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9 Comments

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Yanngc33

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Edited By Yanngc33

Hey Duders,
As some of you may have seen this weekend I posted a blog about a problem I was having with Kinect. After a while I came to the conclusion that the device was simply broken. This first blog post will be followed by others, following my steps as I search for a working Kinect.

PART 1: False hopes and Morocco


So last weekend I realised my Kinect wasn't working. This was a bummer and kind of made me regret the whole venture. But I told myself that I'd just go to my local video game store to get a new one. Sounds simple right ?

Living in France and all, I have my own little video game shop that sells me games in advance and I know the guys who work there and they usually give me discounts. Anyways I bring the Kinect back and after trying it out they too realise it is broken. They start talking about trading mine in for a new one but the boss wants to call Microsoft's customer service line just to be sure we aren't doing anything wrong.

Now I know one or two things about costumer service here in France. Nintendo is outsourced in Belgium and plays Mario music while you're waiting. Sony is based in Paris and plays Queen while you wait. Microsoft is the absolute worst: it's outsourced in Morroco with people who don't speak a lick of french on the other line. This is when things went south.

The woman on the other line didn't seem to know what a Kinect was and didn't seem to understand the shopkeeper's questions about return policies. She finally understood and headshoted my hopes of playing this next gen eyetoy down the drain: apparently Microsoft doesn't accept returns from shops.

So I get her on the line and after spelling out my lengthy long name, she kindly tells me that I'll have to ship the damn thing. When she asked me if I was happy with her service I almost chocked her over the phone. For weeks I've been trying t ship my broken Wii off to Belgium and now I have to take care of Kinect ? Well at least it won't take long, right ?

A week for them to ship the FedEx box to me, three weeks for them to get me a new one. I'll repost in a week. Who wants to bet there will be no box ?    
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buft

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Edited By buft

Damn... Microsoft in the uk is outsourced to the phillipines and they are renowned for their poor service and slow response, i have had 5 RROD and most times i have choose to buy a new console but in this situation i would be stuck in the same red tape you are. what really sucks is sony will ship you a new PS3 within a week and collect the broken one same day.
 
good luck

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thebeast

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Edited By thebeast

Sounds like you're having a bit of bad luck there. You should be absolutely entitled to a full refund or exchange from the shop you bought it from, so take it back there and demand to return it, don't take no for an answer. If they won't take it, drop the name of your local trading standards organisation and that should convince them.

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Phr4nk0

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Edited By Phr4nk0
@TheBeast:
I think the fact that he sort of knows the guy that runs the store and gets discounts/games in advance means he's a little hesitent to start strong arming them. 
 
I agree that it's the path I would take if it was a random store, but in this situation I don't know what I would do. That sucks man. 
Though what I have done before, after someone telling me this ingenious scheme, is buying another one from a big department store, swapping the broken one for that one then returning it and demanding your money back from the big store. 9 times out of 10 they'll accept it no problems.
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thebeast

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Edited By thebeast
@Phr4nk0: Ah yeah, I missed that. 
 
If you know them; they should be more than willing to give you a refund if you ask them nicely - it is their responsibility after all.
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ProfessorEss

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Edited By ProfessorEss
@Yanngc33: So, I'm sorry but why wouldn't the shopkeeper you bought it from replace the broken item he sold you?
 
This should still be the store's responsibility at this point - regardless of whether you know the owners or not.
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oatz

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Edited By oatz
@buft said:
" Damn... Microsoft in the uk is outsourced to the phillipines and they are renowned for their poor service and slow response, i have had 5 RROD and most times i have choose to buy a new console but in this situation i would be stuck in the same red tape you are. what really sucks is sony will ship you a new PS3 within a week and collect the broken one same day.  good luck "
Are you saying you've bought six Xbox 360s?
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buft

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Edited By buft
@oatz:  4 bought 2 replacements, me and my son have an xbox each, its not just mine but yeh i paid for them.
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xMP44x

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Edited By xMP44x

That is a shame, OP. Try and get the guys in the local game store to swap your Kinect for another one or something. If they wanted, they could take the box, and place the broken Kinect inside. That way, you could get a new product easily and they could have a defective model replaced. While I have only had my Xbox 360 red ring on me the once, I was so displeased with the experience that I simply returned to my local Tesco and replaced it there thanks to the warranty. My experience with Sony's customer service was much more positive. It was simply a case of calling up, explaining the PS2's disc reader had stopped working and handing the console over the next day when their courier arrived. I'm lucky it was a straightforward process: since 2004, I went through six Playstation 2 consoles. If I remember correctly, Sony actually said they would stop supplying them at the rate I was having to return them. I don't even know what was wrong with them either.