Advanced Exchange - Beware

Going thru the same situation as everyone else with advanced exchange,lost consoles, being sent non working console, talking to different support people who are, undertrained, overwhelmed, and have no real power to help you. A corporation as big as Microsoft
should be more on the ball with this whole " support " situation! After 2 months finally received new repair order for my console and sent it in. Microsoft needs to "repair" it's relationship with its customers, especially the ones with faulty consoles.

 

I've had an email response already from someone in the higher tier support saying he is looking into the situation but has assured me this IS normal, like mattattack0 said, their system simply checks if you sent your original console (which you haven't,
you returned the one they sent you) and simply charges you.

However that doesn't explain how you can be charged completely out of the blue 2 whole months later with no email warning or anything, that's unacceptable. I had actually had a higher tier support member email me over 2 months ago to get the tracking number
and he replied saying it was sorted and also gave me 3 free months of Live as compensation. He obviously didn't do his job properly.

I am fortunate I did keep a record of my tracking number, without it you have no proof if Xbox's system is so lousy they haven't kept a record themselves.

This is the 2nd advanced exchange I had to return for being dead on arrival and on BOTH occasions Xbox had to ask me for the tracking number from their own prepaid label, what on earth are they doing?

I and anyone else in this same position is essentially being robbed of a substantial amount of money for Xbox's own c**k up, despite us doing what we are supposed to do. I'm expecting a hell of a lot more than a few months of free Live this time around.
This unauthorized transaction they made has made me overdrawn with my bank and I will be incurring bank charges for that, I also find myself out of money at a time of the month when bills need to be paid. I am truly outraged at Xbox's incompetence.

 

I did the advanced exchange and I got an email saying that they had not received the faulty Xbox. I contacted support and she was super helpful. She told me they had the tracking number on file and they in fact received the Xbox and not to worry about
the email and that it was a mistake on their part. The whole process for me took about 15 days total. And that time included receiving the replacement and sending the old one out.

 

The issue with being charged for an advanced replacement occurs if you don't return the console that MS are expecting.

If you have console A at home and it's faulty, so you arrange an advanced exchange and MS send you console B, you have to make sure you send back console A. If console B arrives broken and is even worse than A, so you send B back instead of A, that can lead
to you being charged as the serial number of the console does not match up with the one that MS are expecting to receive.

I had a similar issue with Google. I bought a Nexus 5 phone. It had an issue, so Google sent me a replacement under their equivalent of the advanced exchange program, but the wireless wouldn't work at all on the replacement. I called Google about it and
they told me that I would have to send back my original phone, not the even worse replacement, then I would have to arrange for yet another replacement.

I don't know why companies do this - I guess it's a tracking issue, as they need to be able to match up serial numbers and stuff - but it needs to be clearly explained to customers in advance, so that they don't incur unwanted charges when, as far as they
are concerned, they have sent a faulty product back and that should be the end of the matter.

 

I also had Advanced Exchange issues with my Kinect. They were rather prompt about sending the initial replacement, but it was broken as well! It was escalated to the advocacy group and that is where the real issues started. Three weeks later, and three calls
wonder what is going on, I got an email from the Global Escalation Support team saying the solution was another Advanced Exchange. Now, they did refund the cost of the second Advanced Exchange which was great, but they had this in their email: "You can contact
us at 800-4MY-XBOX (9262) to create the Advanced Exchange." Now, I dialed what they had in the parenthesis instead of 9269 and it was an ADULT PHONE LINE. They gave me a free month of Xbox Live for that mistake. In all, it took a month, and an embarrassing
speakerphone call, but I finally received a working Kinect.

 

Having same problems. I sent my faulty console to Microsoft, after thinking everything finally worked smoothly for me I realized a month later I have been charged $580 for the console they "never got". I've been trying to deal with it for two weeks now.
No money of mine have been returned yet.

 

My issue has now been resolved and I have had my money refunded and also been compensated with 3 free months of XBL (Over the course of my whole advanced exchange period I've now had a total of 10 free months of XBL given to me).

What SigmaTheDJ said is correct, the system cannot cope with returning the replacement which is awful when from my own experience, the replacements they sent me were not even close to being satisfactory. However, on both occasions I did advance exchanges,
Xbox support had to contact me for the return tracking number, despite it being on a prepaid label they themselves created, so something definitely isn't right with their system.

I was told by the support agent who refunded me that this was just a random system error whereby lots of customers who had cancelled advanced exchange orders between January-March had the money deducted from their banks on the 25th April for no reason. That
is the explanation I was given along with an apology.

It's still totally unacceptable and I am still disgusted by the overall service I've received from Xbox but at least they rectified this situation quickly and although I don't feel the compensation offered is proportionate to the the distress, wasted time
and loss I've had over the last 3 months, at the end of the day I have a properly working console, my money back and 10 free months of LIVE, so I can't really complain and feel too hard done by. Hopefully this is the last of it.

 

Did you guys get a brand new Xbox?? Or did you get refurbished ones and/or faulty ones as well?

 

Did anyone receive a service fee of $15 for the advance exchange ?

 

Check out my experience. I wish I had of found this thread first!

forums.xbox.com/.../1835889.aspx

 

BEWARE settled to exchange, the deal was to send broken one back, so they new they would deffo recvive it. Then they would send a new one out. But then they come up with paying £288 before sending new one, A ask myself why would they need that if they would
be getting broken one back first has they say never give your card details out if accept this offer you have said they are ok to take this payment so you've not got a leg to stand on getting the funds back. And if dont pay the £288 they will only fixed it
odd, so really they just want to sell all the reconditioned consoles and you will not get your money back BIG FAT CON you pay all that money for console then have to pay again to get a new one

 

Oh myyy. I've just set up an Advanced Exchange... I'm hoping I don't have an experience like this. :/

 

Hey there HALE N3M3S1S and BiTrektual!

I am sorry to hear about the issue and any inconveniences this may have caused. If you would like to continue troubleshooting, please go ahead and create a new thread. This way we can provide support specifically tailored to
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