Microsofts UK repair centre in Havant is now redistributing faulty consoles to foreign repair centres in order to clear an overwhelming backlog and keep up with the 1,500 to 2,500 Xbox 360s arriving at its doors on a daily basis, according to customer reports.
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.
He talks of how three weeks and repeated phone calls yielded no further clues to the status of his repair, with customer service representatives merely telling him that it would be returned shortly.
Lee even claims that when he asked to speak to the repair centre direct, he was told this wasnt possible because they dont 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 hadnt 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 theyre 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.
From the sounds of things it seems Microsoft is fighting a losing battle on this front, as more and more units flood in for repair. It kind of reminds of that bit in Santa Claus The Movie when all of those defective wooden toys started falling apart
We connected Microsoft this morning, however were still waiting for an official response. Well let you know the moment we hear anything.