Ok folks,

I think it's obvious to some who care, and I hope some do, I tend to go a
little off the deep end with this quality thing. I abhor poor quality
anything. Used to be, maybe still is, an auto parts lifetime warranty sucked
because you had to take the alternator, or whatever, back every month, if
fortunate, and get another. Though the replacement part was "free," just the
replacement effort alone, for me, was worth more than the damn part. Well, I
got sick and tired of it and changed the whole industry single handed.
Believe that? I doubt it.

With nothing happening on this site I'm reaching deep to stir the pot this
time while being bored out of my mind here in Michigan. Hell, it ain't even
snowing but the temps about nothing. Well, you're probably getting as tired
of my rants as I am writing them, but consider the following:

SEATTLE (AP) - Hundreds of people who bought Microsoft's hot new Xbox gaming
console over the holidays received defective systems, and some said they had
to wait weeks and endure shoddy customer service before their systems were
fixed.

While analysts say the number of flawed consoles is probably too small to
spell serious production troubles, they caution that the long repair times
may harm the software giant in its first major foray into hardware.

John Kreis bought an Xbox the day it came out. But the 31-year-old Chicago
man's $300 system stopped working almost immediately. Kreis said it took a
month of aggravation with Xbox customer service before he got a replacement.

``The whole thing that was so frustrating (was) just the fact that still to
this day I'm waiting for a call back just to explain to me what happened,''
he said.

The Associated Press spoke with about a dozen Xbox users who complained of a
game system that never worked or worked for a few hours or days before
freezing up. Most called the customer service response poor.

``I'm taking my Christmas decorations down and (my son) hasn't gotten to
play with his Christmas toys yet,'' Debbie Mason, of Uniontown, Pa., said
Thursday.

She had just been told in her ninth call to customer service that, despite
an earlier promise that the system would be sent back that day, it turned
out to be broken again.

Microsoft sales and marketing director John O'Rourke said fewer than 1
percent of the Microsoft units - 10,000 units in this case - have proven
faulty. Analysts say that's in line with the industry standard, and
competitor Nintendo reported a comparable rate for its new GameCube.

But analyst Rob Enderle of Giga Information Systems warned that a company's
response to those customers who do have problems often is more important
than how many units actually break.

``If 200 people have a really bad experience and they're vocal, then the
impression is the product's bad,'' he said.

During the Christmas season, Enderle added, any return that takes more than
a week is ``a horribly long time.''

For Microsoft, which shipped about 1.5 million Xboxes over the holidays, the
stakes are high. With the highly regarded Xbox, the company is battling
Nintendo and Sony in a hyper-competitive game console market.

Microsoft already has been plagued with rumors of problems at its Mexican
production plant after it delayed its U.S. launch date by a week - to Nov.
15 - and pushed back its Japan launch as well.

The company has denied any major problems.

Plenty of people who bought defective Xboxes got decent customer service.
Marc Patri, 49, said in an e-mail that his Xbox was repaired and returned
within five days - which O'Rourke called the time it should take a unit to
get repaired.

Microsoft uses outside companies, including San Antonio, Texas-based
Harte-Hanks Inc. and Sykes Enterprises in Tampa, Fla., to handle its Xbox
customer service. Xbox repairs are handled by Solectron Corp. of Milpitas,
Calif.

A spokesman for Harte-Hanks declined to comment. The other companies did not
respond to calls seeking comment.

Microsoft has seen no pattern of specific problems, said O'Rourke, and heard
of no major delays with repairs.

Kreis said it took nearly two weeks before he even received an empty box to
send his faulty Xbox back for repair.

And he got conflicting answers: At one point, customer service couldn't find
his records. Another representative told him he would get a new unit rather
than have his old one repaired. Another agent told him they never send new
units out.

Still later, someone called him and asked him how he was enjoying his new
Xbox - which he'd never received.

Finally, on Dec. 10, the repaired Xbox came back.

``I'll be loyal for a while,'' said Kreis. ``But I'm hoping I never have to
call support again, that's for sure.''

Any reactions? I mean, is 1% acceptable or what about the rest of the BS
these people put on us, or are we to blame for wanting untested stuff before
its time? What about the SUV tire thing? Does any of this really matter?


MoonMan

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