Just bought my third Elite Series 2... and guess what?

I've had basically the same experience as you.

I pre-ordered one from Amazon back when they were first announced. Within a minute of using it, just browsing the dashboard, I could tell the A button wasn't always registering a press. I swapped it out for a replacement - same thing. I swapped that one out for another replacement - same thing. At that point I got a refund and went back to my first gen Elite (which was also a horribly flawed controller).

I left it for a while and bought another one - same thing. I swapped that out for a replacement - same thing, only it wasn't anywhere near as bad, so I thought I'd keep it for a while to see if the button "wore in". Rather than that happening, the RB button started to do a double - and sometimes triple - press when only pressed once. Again, I got a refund and thought "a working one of these just doesn't exist".

Earlier this year I thought I would try again as SURELY MS would have fixed the issue by now (lol). I used MS Rewards points to pay for it. It had the A button issue sometimes, but as I used a paddle instead of the A button, I thought I'd stick with it, but after 3-4 months, RB broke.

Currently, I'm on the best one I've owned so far, as it's literally the only one where nothing was wrong with it out of the box. It's a replacement MS sent and while it was not in retail packaging, it looked absolutely brand new. I've been using that for a couple of weeks, but if it breaks before Christmas I won't be surprised.

I also agree with what you said about not being able to go back to a regular controller, nor switch to another brand - not that there is even another brand that offers an Elite-equivalent controller that is wireless, cos MS won't let them use Xbox Wireless so they can make one!

It is completely baffling to me that they will keep selling knowingly flawed products for YEARS, only ever making a change when an entirely new version comes out, but then it can be rinse and repeat with that as well. It shows such disdain for the consumer, especially given the cost of these controllers.

I've been playing around with it today, used some BW-100 on the buttons and it's been better, but still inconsistent.

Playing Destiny with a friend, mid raid all of a sudden, the right thumbstick gets COMPLETELY jammed, my dude's looking up at the sky and everything. Now I can't even set the stick straight in it's default position.

Come on Xbox.

They might even have a series 3 for that!

Just bought my Razor Ultimate which is sooo impressive I will skip the series 2 Elite.

Best controller for playing is with no doubt the elite series 2. I do not know if there is some orher type of third party controller that can have some better connectivity/personalization. But in general, series 1 and 2 of the elite are top

My guess is you bought the wrong device for the wrong console.

Can you give us some information on your sons console, the model? (white (launch, pro), black with flat black (elite), shiny weird looking (slim), shiny, looks like a book (slim 2))? For instance, a hard drive for a launch, pro, elite system won't work on
a slim or slim 2 console. Perhaps you could of bought a third party wireless adapter as well? Was it used?