Goldeneye
My electronics are failing at an alarming rate. My iPod Shuffle bit the dust a few weeks ago, my Xbox 360 died a week ago Tuesday, and my PC handed in its resignation last Saturday.
All is not lost. The iPod was covered by the extended warranty I got from Circuit City. I file a claim that it’s broken, then send me a shipping label to mail it back to them, they verify its failure, then send me a gift certificate in the amount of what I originally paid for it. So with that on the way and it being very likely I’ll spend money at Circuit City again someday in the future, I went ahead and picked up a lovely new Shuffle.
Peter Moore must have known for some time that the Xbox 360 was pretty flaky hardware, but my 360 dying was apparently the last straw, because two days after mine died he announced that all 360s would have their warranties extended to three years from purchase (the Xbox 360 hasn’t quite been available for two years yet), and that Microsoft would issue refunds to anyone who had already paid to have their systems repaired. For me, this new policy means longer than usual wait time both on hold with customer service and in turn-around time for mailing off my Xbox and getting it repaired, due to the sudden surge in repair claims, but ultimately it’s a painless experience; quite a relief when I was initially looking at ~$150 to get the 360 running again.
My PC faired the worst. Between unplugging it at the old apartment and plugging it back in at the new place, something in the power supply gave up and died. Nothing to do there but replace the power supply on my dime; no fancy warranties coming to my rescue. Taking it apart for repairs was almost fun though.