welcome home

well, it's been 1 1/2 months since my Xbox 360 went kaput on me, but now it's back - well, it's not back, but another came to take its place - and in pretty good shape from what i can tell.

is it refurbished or new? this is the big question. then the secondary question is does it have any new hardware inside to prevent my problem - or any other major problems - from happening again.

can i tell a difference? well if anything the sides of the system seem to be a shinier gray than the dull gray that i remember - the new shiny gray doesn't match the duller gray of the hard drive either - but it's possible that i'm remembering wrong. also, the serial number starts with a 2 instead of a 3, so maybe i got an earlier version if they're starting the serial numbers with 1 and moving up as they go. finally, it might be a bit quieter, but it still runs as hot as it always did.

now to the package itself. opened it up and right on top was a letter:

"Dear Xbox Customer. So that you can get back to playing and enjoying your Xbox quicker, we have replaced your Xbox console with a replacement unit."

it goes on to talk about how the serial number on my new unit is obviously different from the one on my old one, so they did some administrative stuff regarding my warranty and the new serial number... it's all very vague so i'm going to be calling up support to see just what the status of my warranty is on this "new" console.

the letter concludes by apologizing for the inconvenience, that they wish to regain my trust, satisfaction, and "loyalty" (wow), and as an olive branch they sent along a 1-month Xbox Live gold membership card - which is good, because i was going to call support and ask for one.

and that's it.

here's the questions i have - most of which i doubt will ever get answers:

- just what exactly was wrong with my old console?

- what happened to my old console? was it so bad that they had to scrap it?

- is the console they sent me new? refurbished? in the letter they simply called it a "replacement" unit... what the hell does that mean?

- does this "new" (new to me) console have any new hardware inside it to help prevent either the problem that happened to me or the bag of problems that's happening to other 360s out there?

- what does all this mean for my warranty?

i doubt i'll ever find out what was wrong or what happened with my old console - or maybe i'll get an answer, but it'll be vague, like the letter - or if this "new" console has new parts in it... but i do hope to find out if this is a NEW console or a refurbished one. because see, this is what i'm worried about...

what if Microsoft hangs on to people's consoles that they can't fix right away, like mine, and then send me a refurbished one from a guy that had a problem they couldn't fix right away from a few months ago? and in a few months, some other guy is going to get MY old refurbished console... and it's just one whole cycle of refurbished consoles.

the problem is, what if i get a console from a guy that had a problem a few months ago but it turns out his console has yet ANOTHER problem wrong with it, so i'll have to send in the console again in another 6 months! then that console would have been refurbished twice and possibly sent back out AGAIN and somebody's getting a third-hand console!

it just doesn't seem right, but it does seem like good business... and i wouldn't put it past Microsoft.

my only hope is that if they ARE just passing off refurbished consoles to everyone and not scrapping any, that they do a complete and thorough check to make sure EVERYTHING is working, not just fixing the problem that was making it not work and then passing it off.

at any rate, welcome home 360. welcome home.

- kawitchate