Am I Being Crazy (Xbox 360 Support)

Last weekend (January 20) I bought an Xbox 360 Elite. My first one. I avoided previously due to hardware issues...but I've heard that they were gone.

So, I call Xbox support and they send me a new, black battery pack. Which they say will take 10-12 days to get to me.

OK, so I'll just have to use my second wireless controller that I got with the system. No go. After a little bit of play with that one, it starts doing the same thing. Loose battery pack that could come disconnected at any time and shut off the controller, leaving me a sitting duck in my game.

So, today I get my new battery pack in the mail. And it's white...and it's been used. Either that, or they used it as a hockey puck when they sent it out.

So I call, and they say sorry and that they'll send me new black battery packs as soon as I send the white one they sent me back...ETA, 2 weeks after they get the white one back.

Grumble. Terrible. That means about 2.5-3 weeks of owning Xbox and being unable to use it.

So I complain and they offer to send my new black covers without having to send back the white cover (whoopee, Im up 39 cents)....but it's still gonna be two weeks. I ask if they can expedite it.

Guy says he can't. I move up a service level.

Guy says he can't, offers me an Xbox quick charge cable or a universal remote, both of which I have no use for. I don't really care. I have no use for the remote (I'd rather use a gamepad) and I have rechargable AAs by the butt-ton. All I want to do is play Street Fighter IV as soon as possible. I don't really want a free anything, just what I paid for.

I ask if there's anything I can do. He tells me that there are supervisors above him, but they can take 24-48 hours to call me back. I don't really want to make this take any longer than it has (an hour at this point) and I think, gee, if I have to wait 24-48 hours, this is just going to take even longer. So, I say "Fine, I'll take the quick charge cable"...and he puts me on hold and takes care of it.

While on hold I think of two questions:

Does that quick charge come in black?
What comes with a quick charge cable?

So I ask him when he comes back, and no, it doesn't come in black :grumble: and what comes with a quick charge cable? Just a cable. Not a battery pack, just a cable that would allow you to charge your controller should you have a rechargable battery pack, which I have no desire to buy.

At that point I say, "You know what, I'm going to have to go with the Supervisor." They're calling me back sometime from noon until two O'clock tomorrow. I don't really care much for trinkets, tokens or baubles, I just want a controller that works sometime this week. That's it.

Consolation prize, right? I got that white battery pack, right? That'll work, right? I just got around to using it and it disconnected three times during my first half hour of Street Fighter IV.

Fuck.

I should be kinda pissed, right?

 

I don't get it; you have a black battery pack that won't hold a charge? Or are you referring to the plastic case that holds the batteries? What does that plastic thing have to do with your controller losing sync?

 

It's the battery packs that come with the wireless controllers. The ones that hold two "Double A" batteries. Any sort of intense action on the controller and they disconnect (without falling off the controller) and the controller turns off and I have to turn it back on again or (maybe) reseat the battery pack.

 

Mine did that when I first got it but the strangest thing is that over the last 2 months it's been 100% Solid. I wonder if it was odd sized batteries?

 

If you're not set on 100% wireless, in addition to charging, the quick charge cable lets you power a wireless controller without needing a battery pack.

 

Are you using bad batteries or something?

I've been using the same rechargeable pack that came with the wireless controller for almost 3 years no problems...

At least the cable will let you play SF without batteries or a battery pack. You should be playing it with an arcade stick though...

 

If your a big enough street fighter fan, the best solution would be to buy one of the madcatz d pad controllers. The main 360 controller is miserable to use anyway for that game. Then in a few months when super street fighter 4 comes out you can upgrade to a TE stick which is the best way to play anyways.

 

Ive read on the net a solution- wrap tape around the plastic of the battery holder that cis inserted into the controller to create a better connection. Try beding you springs out a bit. TBH, if its that new, fuck Microsoft, go to the store and exchange the controller over.

My 2 xbox pads have been fine but theyre so cheap feeling. The anlog stick feels 'crunch' when rotated against its edge (the O hole), I have a white one that lkeeps losing connection occasionally and I think its the batteries but cant send it back.. bought it to use with my dads xbox.. its like a year old and used 4 times..

but yeah, try the tape thing as a temp fix, and go back to the store.

 

That. There's no point waiting so long on Microsoft when you're perfectly entitled to have it replaced where you bought it. At the end of the day, the process will be the same, but the store will have to go through it by completing a RMA rather than yourself.

 

Hey! At least you don't have to play Street Fighter IV.

 

I've never had a problem with my battery packs.

also - the play and charge cable LETS YOU PLAY with out a battery pack. It makes it a wired controller. Thats why they offered it. It plugs into the TOP of the controller. IT comes in gray - like all xbox controller cables.

 

Yeah man ring them back up and get that thing instead. Comes with the wire for connecting to xbox and the pack to connect to your controller. the wire is nice and long so you arent sitting too near to the screen and its good high quality shit. Had mine for more than 2 years now with no problems whatsoever

 

It doesn't make it a wired controller in a technical sense. It's still connected to the Xbox wirelessly, it's just getting a charge from the Xbox.

In other words, wireless controllers with a play and charge kit aren't allowed at tournaments. :lol:

EDIT: @Blur Get that play and charge kit and enjoy SFIV. I dare you to be Seth with an Xbox 360 controller. lol

 

I know that (But they were allowed at that tournament we went to). but for his purposes it makes it wired.

 

Oh, I had this problem on one of my controllers. I fixed it myself very easily.

Look at your battery pack on the side that is faces the controller. You should see a small gold colored metal square in the middle. Use something to bend this outward just a bit, I used a fork, and this fixed my controller. I did this on two different controllers that had this problem and it fixed them both.

Hope this helps!

 

Wait - you had 2 essentially faulty controllers (due to ill-fitting battery packs or poor connections) and you didn't take them back to where you bought them from?

You could have saved yourself the time.

 

What can I say, I believe in the power of the warranty...And from what I've seen online, it's a common problem. I wanted to see what they would do about it. It's a matter of principle for me. They sold a defective product. Brand new, out of the box, not working, and they're going to keep on doing it, and that's the worst part.

Anyhoo...I took both the controllers back to Best Buy and got two new ones...Which do the same fucking thing.

It's bad form/fit on the battery packs. To solve my problem, I put a little slit of paper over the little metal contact on the back of the battery pack to stiffen it up. Maybe in the long term, I'll do what rika_chou suggested and bend the contact out. Should have the same effect. I just didn't want to have to do ANYTHING to it, as it's brand fucking new.

The support supervisor is still scheduled to call me back, and though I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that it's damn near impossible for them to make a perfectly working battery pack, I'm going to bitch and bitch and bitch and move up the support ladder as high as I can go to make my point that they have an issue with their product and they should do something about it.

And for the record, I do most of my street fighting with Ryu and I do OK with a pad. I'll probably build/rig up some sort of stick eventually.

 

Take it back to the shop man, quicker and easier.

 

Well, every time I take em back, they're gonna come back the same way...seem to work most of the time...but look at them the wrong way, or play a button masher...and then...blammo.

"Please Reconnect Controller"

 

Yeah, and you saw what happens first-hand when you bring wireless controllers to a tournament like that. LOL