On my third Elite Series 2 controller, same issues, but also new issues.

I'm sorry, what exactly happened with these controllers? It seems Microsoft spent a lot of time making sure they feel great, but not very much time making sure they function great.

So, I got one of these a few months back. I first started noticing the A button would have issues soon thereafter. It would not accept inputs from certain angles or if you pressed it too lightly. Every other button worked flawlessly. This issue was somewhat
minor in many games (double inputs, mostly, since it would think I let go of the button and quickly press it again, often skipping text boxes in games that require button inputs to continue the dialogue) but it became blindingly, hilariously obvious while
trying to play Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2. You hold A a lot in that game, and doing so with this wonderful gamepad causes you to jump randomly, making the game virtually unplayable because you're constantly jumping all over the place, ruining your combos.
I had to switch to a regular One gamepad to play the game properly.

So I send it in for repairs.

Eons later, my replacement arrives. I boot up THPS since now I know it's the perfect test case.... same exact problem. I open up the Xbox Accessories app (yes, I upgrade the firmware, I
always upgrade the firmware) and do the button test; lo and behold, I can wiggle my thumb back and forth on the A button and it registers me as tapping it at like 100 presses per minute. Any other button is solid or very close to solid (I can get it
to happen very rarely with the B button at a very strange angle, but not at normal angles) and works exactly as they should. The A button also sometimes doesn't even register my press as all, as I'm a light touch when it comes to face buttons. The other buttons
handle light inputs just fine.

I figure maybe I just got unlucky. I know a bunch of these went out with this kind of issue, and they even extended the warranty. Great! I send it out again. I get it back a few days ago... same. EXACT. ISSUE. Do they just grab a random one off the line
and send it back?? Do they not test it? I tried it before and after I updated the firmware and it's just the same thing. Except this time it's extra fun because during gameplay it'll also disconnect randomly before reconnecting! This actually happened with
the previous ones, but very rarely. With this one it's every 2 minutes or so, and better yet, it absolutely tanks the performance of any game while it's happening.

At this point I don't know what to do. Sending it in just seems to get me a random replacement that's the same or in this case worse. Is there like a replacement protection line or something where I can just know they test the gamepad they're sending for
the issues I had with the previous ones? Or is literally every single Series 2 controller infested with a non-functional A button? I see a lot of people say they don't have the issue, but I wonder if they'd be able to go to their little Xbox Accessories (or
calibration menu on the Xbox, if that's where you do it) app and just hold down the A button lightly, and rock their thumb back and forth... would it stay lit up? Or would it appear you're pushing the button at light speed?

What do I do? I don't want to continually mail this thing out over and over and over again until I hit the lotto.

:)