Microsoft not honoring Complete Care extended warranty? Anyone else had this issue?

Hey everyone, on 3 November I traded in my trusty Xbox 360 Slim for a brand new Limited Edition Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Xbox One and got the Complete Care 3-year extended warranty. After getting it home, I noticed that I had a bad sector of memory
that was causing my games to crash to the Dashboard. In addition, my brand new Xbox had the dreaded optical drive issue and would just make clicking noises instead of playing disks.

I sent the console in and when I got it back, almost 4 weeks later, I noticed a large amount of damage to my console, including broken/warped plastic and damage to the anti-tamper sticker. A letter stating that my extended warranty had been voided due to
"evidence of tampering" was also included.

After 3 months of working with Microsoft Support, including Global Escalations, nothing has changed except for that I have wasted an additional $80 and 12 hours time on wild goose chases from Support.

Has anyone had this issue and actually gotten it resolved?

:)

 

Microsoft not honoring warranty

You've shipped your console to them three times? You're getting the same one back?

Is it possible that when they test it at their location it works without issue? If so, could it be something else - power supply, location of the console, etc.?

 

Spent $45 and never received my credit.

Anyone? How can Microsoft have a promotion and completely ignore honoring it?

 

First off..... did you tamper with it?

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Please explain this "bad sector of memory causing your games to crash to the desktop"?

 

Bad memory sectors can definitely be the cause of your games crashing but the question is....How did you determine that at home? Only way I know to figure that out is to pop your console (and if you have the equipment) test the modules yourself. Doing so
would void your warranty.

If that's what you did, I think you're pretty much out of luck.

 

Nope, did not mess with it at all. We're talking about a brand new COD:AW XBOne with a $70 extended warranty here, not messing with that with a 20' pole.

I figured out the bad sector of memory after about two weeks of troubleshooting with Microsoft Support.

Here's how I figured it out:

Downloaded COD:AW to brand new Xbox

Certain multiplayer maps crash (froze, loud buzz) to Dashboar, OS didn't freeze

Played campaign, hit freeze on Aftermath level loading screen

Deleted game and re-downloaded per Support's instruction

Still had freezing on same maps and Aftermath loading screen

Factory reset Xbox and re-downloaded COD:AW per Support

Still had freezing on same maps and Aftermath loading screen.

Deleted all game data from console and cloud, factory reset, re-download per Support

Still had freezing on same maps and Aftermath loading screen

Deleted all game data from console and cloud, factory reset, downloaded 8 GB of free games, then COD:AW

Was able to play through COD:AW and multiplayer maps with no problem

The first few re-downloads were putting the game in some bad memory addresses, causing freezes in the same exact place every time. When I downloaded the free games, they ended up being downloaded to those bad addresses and COD:AW was stored in other memory
addresses.

I talked to the guy at the Microsoft Store traded my 360 in and bought the Xbox One at (they had no COD:AW consoles to trade for mine, btw). He told me that is was probably an entire sector of memory that was bad.

I'm frustrated because I did everything right, and I've been a patient and courteous customer, but Microsoft is mistreati by me pretty badly.

I went ahead and canceled my annual Xbox Live subscription and canceled my Microsoft Office subscription to boot. I still need to ask for a refund for the digital copy of Titanfall I never got to play, though.

 

Come join the glorious PC gaming master race, where Microsoft don't punish you if you want to open up your own system. You can even buy Titanfall Deluxe Edition for £29.99.

In all seriousness though sorry to hear about the issues you are having. The anti-tamper seal does seem to be in quite a dodgy position on the girlfriend's Xbox One, I can see how it could easily get damaged while moving the console. Could the one on your
console have gotten damaged accidentally?

That would seem odd that the only way for Microsoft to tell if a system has been tampered with or not is a sticker over two uneven parts of the console's case.

 

You took the long drawn out method to determine it was bad memory sectors but you are absolutely correct that you did it the right way and it should have in no way voided your warranty.

So it appears the anti tampering sticker was removed when they received it for repair. So where it stands now they are accusing you of opening the console and voiding the warranty?

 

Randover: Yeah, the bad memory address thing didn't dawn on me until the very end. The three resets before was just following Support's instructions. The sticker was still there when I received it, but the bottom half is still affixed to the bottom half
of the case, but the top half appears to be folded under the top half of the case. I'm not sure why it came back that way. Microsoft hasn't outright accused me of tampering, but thy told me that neither the McAllen or Mexico warehouses noticed damage to the
console's shipping box.

Vaynel: I was very careful with my console for the three weeks I had it. I was extremely careful when packing it, as well. The damage is consistent with being crushed. Here's some pics:
Xbox One Shipping Damage

I took issue with them labeling the console as tampered solely from the external sticker as well. Support told me the "internal tamper check was bypassed", so they did not check the internals at all. It's some pretty shoddy work by the repair facility.

 

From the state of the sticker in the pic it does look like the case has been opened and then mashed, for want of a better word, back together.

I've no reason to disbelieve you, so its possible that the repair centre guy messed up and is covering his bottom for the damage done by blaming you.

 

I guess that is possible.

I personally think the console was crushed, then at the factory the sticker was folded under either after the tech opened the console or snapped it back together after the damage had occurred.

Either way, Microsoft isn't honoring the warranty, and even Global Escalations is not handling the issue properly. In addition, FedEx will not accept claims from anyone but Microsoft, per the shipping contract between the two companies.