According to Lee Sherman (Gamertag, Toxic Daywalker), who sent us details of his horrible experience, his Xbox 360 had been sent to Prague for repair, which has extended the repair time considerably.

Lee even claims that when he asked to speak to the repair centre direct, he was told this wasn't possible because they don't have phones... However, using a directory enquiry service he was able to obtain the number for the repair centre, where he was shocked to learn that his console was actually in Prague, not Havant as Microsoft customer service reps had claimed.

Additionally, the call to the Havant repair centre revealed some other worrying stats: "A shocking statistic we found out though is that between 1,500 to 2,500 consoles get sent to Havant by three UPS lorries per day, to then be shipped to Prague for repair," Lee told us, going on to add, "[We] phoned up Nora the [customer service] supervisor again, who then admitted my console was in Prague and hadn't been looked at yet - she seemed amazed that we knew!"

Comments from users on the Xbox.com forum reveal similar woes, and some have also discovered their consoles are indeed in repair centres outside of the UK: "I just spoke to the customer support people because my 360 has been gone since the 8th of June," says forum user, LordBrown in a post dated 23rd of June. "Apparently because of the backlog in Havant they're sending 360s to repair centres outside the UK! And that because of this Microsoft are legally allowed an additional ten days to get your 360 back to you."

Microsoft now receiving 2,500 broken 360s per day in UK alone? // Xbox 360 News // Xbox 360 Gamer Magazine Online

Tempted to break mine last night.........B****y Forza, :P

phil

My sons 360 has been back for repair - twice.!:thumbdwn: :thumbdwn: The first time they sent back a different console which worked ok for a while. Then we sent it back again(I said on the phone I was Not happy. Both times the console was returned within four days. I tracked the parcels to Havant both times so I don't think they were shipped abroad. So up to now, pretty good customer services. Also, I rang last week regarding the headset which broke and was out of warranty from play.com and they sent us a new headset with no questions asked. Just gave them my console number. So all in all no probs up to now!!!! But who knows in the future.

Anyone would think that the mighty Microsoft adopt the policy of launching a product before going to quality control:rolleyes:

e.g operating system, iPod, 360 etc...

Check this link out for info on the new iPhone;)

The Daily Mash - APPLE FORCED TO RECALL IPHONE AFTER TOASTER FAULT

1500-2500 per day? sounds like horse **** to me frankly, that would mean that every year 540, 000 to 900,000 per year are repaired.

and an iPod is Apple by the way Terry

Microsoft do get issue's with operating systems but its simply down to the fact that they make the system so open to developers that there are bound to be bugs of some sort, if they didn't then it would be like a Mac. hang on they don't work sometimes either

and this quality control issue, why do you not direct it at car/fridge/tv/phone/speaker/cooker manufacturers etc as they all have issues with recalls and things breaking

Bengie...

Very good point!!

I was going to go on a rant about things that go wrong in general... and it went horribly wrong (must stop drinking the cough mixture)

cough mixture is nasty stuff if abused

stick to vodka!

I can believe these figures as I am now on my third Xbox 360. The launch day console lasted 9 months before it went away for repair, they sent a different console back as a replacement and that failed about a fortnight ago. I decided to buy a new console instead as sending it away for repair and paying

It's certainly put me off buying a 360.

I don't think I've ever had a console that's gone faulty on me

I can believe these figures as I am now on my third Xbox 360. The launch day console lasted 9 months before it went away for repair, they sent a different console back as a replacement and that failed about a fortnight ago. I decided to buy a new console instead as sending it away for repair and paying

there is no way that many consoles are being sent back for repair each day ... thats the problem with the internet all you ever hear about is faults with the 360 but there are millions of happy users out there who have had no problems with the console .. im on my second console after my first 360 died after 6 months but microsoft customer services were excellent and i got a brand new console within 5 days .on the other hand my ps3 died within 24 hours of buying it so for me personally the ps3 is less reliable than my 360 was and sony were not that helpfull on the phone either

Well mine has been ok, I have got the extra cooling fan on the back and used to get the odd lock up before I fitted that. After clearing the disk cache and fitting the extra cooling I bought from Roo it's been pretty much perfect.

They chuck out a phenomenal amount of heat with 3 cores running at 3.2ghz and I would put money on the fact that a lot of consoles that fail are tucked in a tv cabinet, with about a 10mm gap around them, a bit of a gap at the back, and a load of games / dvd's wedged on the top.

Mine has been fine... its 18 months old now

mine went wrong and microsoft got it sorted very quickly

Well mine has been ok, I have got the extra cooling fan on the back and used to get the odd lock up before I fitted that. After clearing the disk cache and fitting the extra cooling I bought from Roo it's been pretty much perfect.

They chuck out a phenomenal amount of heat with 3 cores running at 3.2ghz and I would put money on the fact that a lot of consoles that fail are tucked in a tv cabinet, with about a 10mm gap around them, a bit of a gap at the back, and a load of games / dvd's wedged on the top.

I am really happy for anybody that still has a launch console, I would love to know the actual failure rate, I am sure it is over the supposed 3% that Microsoft quote.

Mine have never seen the inside of a TV cabinet it is sat horizontally on an open Ikea shelving unit with at least 6inches either side and 12 inches above it, in fact I made little blocks that it sits on so it has about an inch clearance underneath. I know if you look at any thread on the Internet there is always a 3 red rings of death thread near the top, obviously like myself people tend to talk about things when something goes wrong.

I am basing my opinion on my experience and that of some of my close friends.

I've done days and days of high intensity folding on my PS3 and it's still holding up alright.

I don't think I've ever had a Sony device go wrong on me and I've bought a lot of crap from Sony over the years.

Ooops I tell a lie, I've had two Sony ericsson mobiles upon which the joystick has lost sensitivity.

Buy PS3! It doesn't matter that there aren't any decent games out for it, it works great!

i will be buying a PS3 but i am waiting for it to drop in price a bit and some decent games to be available

i will be buying a PS3 but i am waiting for it to drop in price a bit and some decent games to be available

hopefully it wont just stop working, like guppy's has done on more than one occation...

This and similar threads are really putting me off the next gen consoles.

I want a 360xbox but reading all this and other bits on the web it is a risky investment decision. When I buy one I expect it to last min 5 years, all my consoles are still in fine working order even my C64 and thats 20-25 years old.

Its disguisting to read that people are really forced to buy another one or an extended warrenty.

One could say why not get an accidental damage on your house insurance and then you "accidently" spill water on it and it also gets run over nby your car....

Only in theory mind...

My sons 360 has been back for repair - twice.!:thumbdwn: :thumbdwn: The first time they sent back a different console which worked ok for a while. Then we sent it back again(I said on the phone I was Not happy. Both times the console was returned within four days. I tracked the parcels to Havant both times so I don't think they were shipped abroad. So up to now, pretty good customer services. Also, I rang last week regarding the headset which broke and was out of warranty from play.com and they sent us a new headset with no questions asked. Just gave them my console number. So all in all no probs up to now!!!! But who knows in the future.

If they are in havant I know the company that will be repairing them

When I had my launch xbox360, it failed after a month. I sent it back to Microsoft and they sent me a new replacement. This one lasted until just after the warrenty ran out. To answer the post about the positioning of the console, mine had a lot of air going to it.

In the end I sold up and used the cash to buy a PS3, and it has not failedme at all.