Rush job

So, I finally put my 360 in for service last night. Lucky for me that my procrastination in doing so resulted in skipping the need to wait on a phone queue for a dimwit service rep to barrage me with useless queries about the state of my box.

Over the weekend, the folks at Microsoft launched a service site for the 360 where you could register and track your console after it gets red ringed and sent in for service. Of course, it appears they rushed it as I had numerous issues using the what should be simple to use site.

The first issue was it did not properly show my 360 after I logged in. Now, I had previously registered it under my xbox.com/gamer profile, so since you use your same Windows Live ID to login, it should have found this, but it did not. I logged in and out a few times, but no joy.

I finally decided to give the “Associate a device you registered on the phone with your Windows Live ID” option a shot. What the heck, I didn’t register it over the phone, but you never know. Well, this presented me with a form to input the serial number along with my first and last name. Yeah, I’m sure you can already guess what happened.

Success!

Well, score one for thinking outside the box, but I’m still scratching my head on that one.

The next few steps involved accepting some kind of terms and/or policies that I didn’t read — who cares, it is a brick right now and can’t get any worse, right? — and filling in a single text area with what was up. Hey, pretty simple: Three red flashing lights.

After that, submit a couple empty looking pages as if I were checking out from some web store, except I’m not buying anything. Probably the worst looking, and working, Microsoft site I have ever used and it definitely seems thrown together. In fact, if anything helps strengthen that thought, it is the signature of the confirmation e-mail: “Thank you, Zune Customer Care.”

I have since received another e-mail stating that my order has been received — I already know that from the last one, thanks — and it is being processed. I’ll receive another when it reaches the next step of the process. Great… maybe instead of killing me me with phone questions, they’ll do so with e-mail.

Man, I can’t wait to receive my refurbished Xbox in another four weeks or so. I’m guessing it may even be older than the one I will be sending them. We’ll have to check the born on date when I get it back. I’m sure it will not be the new HDMI Premium hotness that is now in the supply stream.