Seriously Stat Tracker is just a dirty DIRTY whore…so is fantasy football as a whole.

According to the world of stat tracker vanlandw is apparently 1-1-0. UGH

The day of reckoning has FINALLY come. Vanlandw has defeated Final Fantasy X! This has been a long, painful, time consuming expedition but this evening I was finally able to overcome “Braska’s Final Aeon” on my third try after some tweaked buffing and a dinner of tater tots. As I sit back reflecting on past feelings brought fourth because of this game I listen to the Final Fantasy X Soundtrack and in my own way truly try to put my life into perspective after what has transpired here.

My thoughts on the game mirror on the tone of jjafuller’s. He wrote two posts (one / two) mostly as rants but rants that are all valid. After reviewing these posts I believe I agree with everything he said. The cut scenes from 2001 do not hold up with recent offerings and the stutter on multiple characters when they speak (Yuna, Auron,Lulu in particular) is borderline annoying. The voice actor for Wakka (John DiMaggio) is the lone standout but he is almost non-existent towards the final act. Also the guy for Seymour grew on me as the game moved on he played a good asshole.

The main  gripe I mean to touch on is the unskippable cut scenes and the genuine pacing of the game.  In Final Fantasy X you CANNOT skip cut scenes. Now, I love cut scenes. The Metal Gear Solid series is my favorite series of games and those games are LOADED with cut scenes. The thing with FFX is when you are having problems with bosses sometimes you will have to watch a five minute scene over and over again. Before you fight the final boss you have to go though the dreaded “Crystal Room” then sit though a long cut scene before the battle. On my third attempt on the final boss I put the controller down and made food. Earlier sections of the game I was cleaning my apartment during the cut scenes. The pacing of this game drags it down so much. There is so much time twiddling your thumbs and rewatching scenes it ruins the impact the game is trying so hard to bring. After looking at videos for Final Fantasy XIII it looks like the battle pacing has been radically changed.

Another thing to be discussed is the absolute broken combat. In this game your characters can only gain “AP“  by being “active” in combat. That can be, defending, boosting, or pretty much any action during combat. Your party in FFX can have up to seven characters. Some battles could be won in as low as three actions. There are so many times I had to have my characters be brought into battle to do nothing that required nothing to be done by them. My strategy for a large amount of the game is “how can I defeat my enemies so all my guys can do something”. This also gets you into a bind at some points. You bring in somebody to do something then one of your guys dies, then you need to bring them back to life to get AP. This drags battles way longer then needed and then in turn makes them more frustrating then need be. Keep in mind I used only three characters to defeat the final boss and swapped nobody.

There is a lot of “good” in this game but sadly to a 29 year old male this was the only game aside from World of Warcraft I’ve ever played that felt like “work”. After a point I was listening to my iPod just to make the time go by faster. Honestly I like the music a lot in this game. It’s not as “iconic” as many of the Final Fantasy soundtracks from when I was younger but the “To Zanarkand” track is fantastic and I like how throughout the game many variants of this song was used. Moreover, the “Tutorial” section at the start of the game has a very fast pace and has a great “frantic” feel to it. I wish more of these style of battles and exploration was used rather then the countless “Trial” rooms.

This all started because vanberge and vanbergs made fun of me for never defeating this game when I was in college. As a “van” part of being a “van” is being stubborn. I made it a very firm point at this junction in my life to once and for all conquer this game so I will never receive any additional grief about it EVER again. As my favorite track from the game plays in the background to a degree it makes me sad that I did finally defeat this game. As myself and everybody around me gets older will there be another game that I’m driven to the brink of insanity to defeat? Will any outside forces ever again fuel my desire if only for spite to be victorious in a electronic medium? This post and these thoughts are forever timeless. As my final image to a “vanlandw” I leave behind in my past along with Final Fantasy X I leave you my readership with this……

This morning I upgraded my PS3 firmware to the most recent version 3.00. One of the best features of the PS3 was it’s lack of advertising. With the NXE Microsoft decided to bombard you with adverts on every turn on a console that you purchased. With PS3 3.00 sadly Sony decided to go the same route.

For me the thing that I’ve always liked about game consoles was that it wasn’t television. I could turn on a video game console and get away from everything that bothers me. Now with next gen consoles with both NXE and now PS3 3.00 you are CONSTANTLY hit with advertising. It’s WORSE then television. You cannot use your dashboard without being hit up to spend more money. It’s appalling there is no opt out either.

On previous PS3 firmware there was only one link to the Playstation Store and when you selected the icon it had no advertisiung and it was located under the “Playstation Network” selection so I could 100% ignore it if i wanted to. Personally this was a huge bragging rights I could express to non-ps3 owners. Keep in mind on the 360 I have 15 “friends” and 0 ps3 “friends”.

On PS3 3.00 now they added a “Information Bar” that cannot be opt out that constantly rotates ads for the Playstation Store. Also they added Playstation Network icons under the “Games” selection and the “Video” selection right above where you would choose your movie or your game disk. Also now hovering over those icons shows ads for movies you can buy or games you can buy.

To me this is just unexceptional. If I could hide the icons I wouldn’t have a problem. If I could turn off the constant ads in the top right I would. This console cost me $500 the last thing I should have to deal with is constant ads just to get to content I already own. This blog is going to be posted on the playstation blog on the slight hopes that others dont’ want to deal with this. Regardless I’ve turned on the setting to auto play (a setting I actually don’t like) on the hopes of seeing less advertising on MY console.

Sony please don’t rip off Microsoft in this regard. Make your advertising optional because I can tell you I’m not going to give you a dime if you continue throwing advertising in my face.For some folks this might be acceptable but for me to I find it highly disappointing. When two of your first four features are rotating advertising and shortcuts to advertising I think you have a problem.

Watch the video below to watch some guy pump these new “features”.

Sorry for the rant

Update 1: I posted my comment after publishing this post on the official playstation blog and now it’s currently “Your comment is awaiting moderation.” right now. My comment should be #1158 and I will check later to see if they publishing it. Personally I”m betting they won’t. It’s nice to see many other people commenting about their dislike for this update. The Xross Media Bar was one of my favorite things about the PS3 now I just dread it because of unavoidable advertising.

Update 2: Sony decided not to post my comment linking to this post along with a calm and critical evaluation of the firmware upgrade. Utterly not shocking but still disappointing considering all the strong negative feedback they have received.Again not shockingly they closed the comments at over 1,500 strong with the following at the end…

Chris Morell replied on September 1, 2009 at 11:49 am
Sorry, but we’ve closed comments on this post for now. Thanks for all of the great feedback on this firmware update! Feel free to continue the discussion over on the forums: http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/search?submitted=true&q=firmware+3.00

Very interesting maybe they will release 3.01 that will fix what everybody is complaining about but I doubt it.

Update 3: If I could take PS3 screen shots I would love to show how this informative “bar” has slaughtered my theme and made my current wallpaper unusable. Forgot to note this.

Ugh! I was hoping my previous post would be the end of my problems with AT&T but that is CLEARLY not the case. Here’s another pointless rant of frustration nobody gives a rats ass about anymore.

8/25/09 – As noted earlier I had about a 11 day outage of service at the start of July though 4th of July weekend and beyond. That was another multiple call and multiple tech visit issue that ended up being an issue with the “central office”. After deciding it’s not even worth the effort to get reimbursed for the loss of service I let it go and was prepared to pay my full bill come the next month.

This past Saturday came the 100% unexpected. I received TWO bills from AT&T. Both with my name, and address on it. They both had different account numbers. When I was having on going problems last month I received a”new users packet” and during one of my countless calls to AT&T I was told not to worry about it. My second bill with with the new account had a charge on it for a new modem (I did not ask for or receive) and a full month of service charge. As anybody knows after reading all my previous posts support hell is coming.

Rather then giving a full account I’m just going to do a short account.

Total call time: 1:40
Times Hung up on: once
Times Transferred: 7
Times I asked for something and didn’t get it: countless

Seriously their support structure at AT&T is so stupid. There are so many people answering phones that don’t have access to other things and it makes no sense at all Also doing a blind transfer between departments is just inexcusable. One person says a Modem was sent another says it wasn’t. Apparently this modem could be from my initial setup and apparently I might have never paid for it.  After all the problems I had with my initial setup and all my bills after that I never got charged for the modem. At this point there is no WAY that I’m going to pay for it especially after this. I even asked if it was possible to combine the charges and I would pay for my last month of service and the modem and cancel my service and that did not seem possible to anybody to be able to make that happen for me.

At this point after talking to multiple reps that the second account is closed and canceled. I refuse to pay for the DSL modem at this point after all the problems I’ve had with my service and paying for service outages. Today I sent out the check for the full $45 dollars for July/August counting the 11 days of loss service. There is no way they are going to get me to pay for that DSL modem.

Regardless I really need to find a new service provider. Comcast I guess would be the best choice but I don’t want television service and I don’t want to pay more then already do. Does anybody have any suggestions seriously AT&T has treated me so poorly it’s embarrassing to still be sending them checks for what they offer me.

This was a post I really didn’t want to write and almost talked myself out of but really more of these posts need to be made. Here I am at my home for the EIGHTH straight day not having service pathetically stealing internet from my neighbors to write about my frustrations with my AT&T DSL Service. If you are new to vanlandw.com or need a refresher here is my three week plus saga of getting my service setup though AT&T from February/March 2009.

This post is going to be different then the last one. Fully expecting my setup to take ages I wanted to have a full account chronically of the experience. After going about three months with no issues at all my rage subsided and was “OK” with my service. From when I finally got my service setup I had no problems other then not hitting the advertised speeds I’m paying for. Running bandwidth tests I was never able to reach even 3MBPS even though I was paying a premium for 6MBPS.

..and it begins..

Everything started last Monday June 29th. After some “mild” weather I came home from work and noticed my internet was down. Not thinking much of it at the time I didn’t bother calling support thinking it could have been due to the weather. Tuesday June 30th my service was not returned in the  morning and again I didn’t think much of it. Driving to work I saw three AT&T trucks within an eighth of a mile from my home. Drove to work assuming my problems would be all fixed by the time I got home.

Clearly everybody has to know where this story is going, got home no service. At this point I decided to contact support and get the ball rolling. Called the “general” support number at about 7:50pm. After about a 15min wait time I got on the line with a CST. When he got on the line I told him exactly what I’ve tried (everything anybody with any sort of tech knowledge would try before calling) and I also informed him of my previous issues (I would assume their first level would have access to my entire call history) ON TOP of telling him about the trucks in my area. I gave him EVERYTHING he should need to get my problem fixed and to the right support team. This turned into about a 30 min + conversation of typical tech support. Ran me though modem reboots and actually had the audacity to have me “blow into the phone jack” while I was on the phone with him. Flat out I said “I’m not going to do that” proceeded to use compressed air just to keep things moving. After doing everything he asked me to do (and yes I understand this is their job and I did not give this tech any exorbitant amounts of crap) he finally put in a trouble ticket to the “line support” team. Mostly I believe this is transferring me from foreign support to american support.

About 15 mins after getting off the line with “support one” I got transfered to “support two”. Actually an automated call was placed to my phone that I missed then had to call customer care and wait on hold for another 15 mins. The first guy couldn’t give a shit about my frustration but the second guy was very sympathetic (actually all the AT&T people non first level I’ve interacted with are very very good more on this later) and worked with me to setup a time to have a tech come to my place. Most of the time I’ve been thinking my problems were outside the house or in the lines and was positive it wasn’t a problem in my place. Support two said I would need to be home for the tech appointment and they had no times after 4:45p. Sadly I was working all week early morning late afternoon so I would need to make an appointment for Saturday 4th of July. AKA your not going to have service for four days. Overall my first support interaction took me an 1.5 hours of hold’s and tech talk time.

Four Days Later: Saturday Fourth of July. The tech called me after morning breakfast said he was on his way. He was VERY good at his job and again very sympathetic of my situation. Before calling me to  check the house he did his job outside and needed to check the basement. Looking at my line he said that “I wasn’t getting a signal from central”. Now this is where I got pist not at the tech but just at AT&T in general. How in the FUCK don’t they know they have a hardware failure like this? I’m not a server room tech I don’t know how ISP’s work but seriously give me a break. The guy said he was going to go down to “central” and see if somebody can fix the issue. Understanding this is a holiday I assumed nothing would be done but he would call me with an update. An hour later he said he submitted a ticket with “roving support” to fix the issue at “central” and more or less I would be down till Monday. I was ok with that as I was leaving the house for the holiday and left it at that. The tech was great he gave me the number to his manager confirmed my ticket would stay open and again was very helpful.

Monday July 6th. Came home after work at 4:45p and found my service was STILL not restored. Did the typical (modem reboots reconnects blinking red DSL light). First called the managers number and left a very detailed and respectful message including  names ticket numbers and my overall issue. Next I called “customer” care. 10min wait and got a hold of a lady that couldn’t care less about seven days of service outage. She told me my ticket was closed on Sunday and I received no follow up. I told her explicitly my issue and that I was disappointed with lack of follow up and asked if I would receive follow up on my second ticket. She told me that everything was “automated’ could give me no reassurances. She told me a bunch of BS about having my issue looked at right away and I totally called her out on it (again I wasn’t a dick) asking if I would receive a callback tonight and pretty much she said to call back after 2pm tomorrow if the problem wasn’t fixed. So pretty much another incident was opened thrown in the back of the queue to rot while I get over charged on service that hasn’t worked for a week that from the start I’ve been told is an issue at “central” they cannot fix for me. UGH

Tuesday July 7th 2009: Ok well here I am posting my frustration with my service still not fixed. I believe I’m at my final straw with AT&T. After posting this I’m going to call my FINAL time to get status on my issue. My DSL light is still blinking red and I’ve recently tried a power cycle to no differences. I’m going to call customer care to check the status. I’m not going to give them till 2pm because I understand how support works that just affords them another day to fix your issue it’s not like things are magically fixed that customers need to wait till 2pm. Also 16 hours later this “Manager” has not called me back but I just assume he’s on PTO or something not shocking. OK here we go…calling customer care for status then asking to be transfered to the billing department to make sure I’m not getting charged for this outage and if I don’t like how this call goes I’m going to ask to be transfered to the “cancel your service” department.

UPDATE  1: July 7th 2009: About 20 mins after posting this I received a call back from “Chris” the “manager” I called previously to find an update on my service. Had him on the phone for about two minutes. He was pretty much a cut the chase guy. Asked me for my ticket number and that he would check into it and get back with me. That was about 11a and he called me back after 3p. I got back in return pretty much what I expected knowing how segmented AT&T support is. He said the problem is on the “DSL Provisioning side” and that “the central office is not providing a DSL signal” to my house. Knowing he works with the techs that come to people’s houses it makes sense his guys couldn’t fix it and I understood.

As I said earlier the weirdest thing was just how SEGMENTED their support is. He kept saying there was nothing he could do and nobody else he could get me in contact with other then the Customer Care number for a status update. Telling a paying customer who hasn’t had service for eight days “it maybe an internal thing they are working on” is pretty much bullshit. For the most part this was a dead end and to be honest I received more then I expected in a callback.

Immediately after getting off the phone with “Chris” I decided to call back the Customer Care number again to check the status of my WO. Waited on hold 10 mins (keep in mind I’m doing this during work time on the SILM hopes of having this taken care of today as nothing will come close to getting done after 5p) and got what sounded like a helpful and competent gentleman. Again explained my situation and my downtime and gave him my current WO number. I was put on hold twice and he apparently made some calls. After it was all said and done he said “it should be a couple of hours and you should be all set”. I also specifically requested a call back multiple times provided my callback number requesting knowledge of the resolution. It’s been almost three hours and have not heard back (not that I was expecting to but I figured it would make something interesting to write here).

For some reason I believe I relish in the pain of all this. Tonight I should be home late and right now I’m at my last straw. For the most part I’m not going to deal with this issue tomorrow and Thursday so for the most part they have a free pass till Friday morning mostly because it’s taking to much time to deal with them and I won’t have that time the next few days. Tonight I will post another update with my findings and I will make sure to post the thrilling Finale on Friday. Seriously this is pathetic AT&T should be ashamed of themselves.

Update 2 August 6th: Yeah I regret not posting the finale to my AT&T Nightmare. Mostly I got fed up of the time sink thinking, writing, and dealing with AT&T was becoming. Ultimately I was able to get my service restored. Rather then account everything it took about 10 days and two tech visits to decide it was an issue at the “central office”. A few weeks after that I had another single day of downtime that only required three phone calls and one tech visit to get repaired. If I had more time to deal with this and if I could find a good deal on another provider I would switch without reservation. AT&T had done nothing to earn my business and in the month of July I had over 10 days of downtime that I was fully charged for. Honestly it’s not worth the effort to do anything about this anymore.

The only thing I’m curious oabout anymore is if anybody has any “inside knowledge” about how AT&T’s internal support structure works or if anybody can provide me firm knowledge of what the “central office” is. Mostly I’m just worried about ongoing issues at this location and would like to know as much as possible. If anybody reading can give me any information I would find it very interesting. Also if any random readers have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me I would be more then happy to share my full experience and help if requested. brb

Tuesday April 21 2009: Today before work I decided to try playing an original Xbox game on my Xbox 360. The game played fine and I decided to stop playing. Before turning everything off I put in a Xbox 360 game just to put the disk I had in there previously rather then leaving it out. I come to find that now the 360 will not read any disks at all. I tried a music cd, a dvd and multiple 360 games. Music CD’s not read at all. DVD’s read where it notices that there is a disk in the drive but won’t play any content just goes to a black screen. 360 games kinda spin and make a clicking noise from the drive and take me to a screen that looks like THIS. If you don’t want to click the link it says “to play this disk please put it in a 360 console”.

I’ve had the console for less then three months so I’m hoping I’m under warranty. For the most part I’m guessing the drive motor has gone bad because the disks hardly spin. Doubtfuly anything is stuck in the drive I’ve tried meticulously cleaning all the disks I’ve played in the drive with a soft disk cleaning cloth and using compressed air on the disk and the drive. Also I’ve tried multiple power cycles and removing all cords and letting it set for over an hour with no power connected. Tomorrow I will contact Microsoft support and see if they have any ideas or hopefully my warranty is in effect and I can just send it in and get another console. This post will be updated with all findings.

UPDATE 1 April 21: Alright lets get shit started. Had a crappy day at work and to make matters worse Grand Rapids is a gloomy rainy place. I get home from work and find my recept to the 360 grab all the stuff I  can find regarding it. Also tried playing games on it one more time. Got some extra compressed air from work and grabbed an flawless disk from my collection. Also blew some air into the DVD drive lightly to see if maybe it was just a hair or some fuzz stuck in there. No dice, the console still clicks away and will not read a disk and will take me to the same message I posted above.

Charge my phone get all my ammo ready and call Microsoft’s support number. Right off the bat it plays that silly 360 startup noise and I’m irate because I’ve heard that thing like 35 times today troubleshooting this piece of crap. The lady starts talking and told me to make sure I registered my console online prior to calling. Of course I didn’t do that so I hang up and proceed to register.

Apparently you can do a repair request online. Microsoft could care less if you are bullshitting them or not they just know their consoles are broken and it costs them less to repair them rather then doing anything else about it. The registration process is simple. Seems the warranty on my xbox is longer then I thought.

Oddly enough there is a part where you can “explain your issue” but they only give you 1000 characters to do so. Here is what I put in the box for good measure but if you read what I wrote above it’s mostly just an abridged less bloggy version of the same stuff.

I decided to try playing an original Xbox game on my Xbox 360. The game played fine and I decided to stop playing. Before turning everything off I put in a Xbox 360 game just to put the disk somewhere rather then leaving it out. I come to find that now the 360 will not read any disks at all. I tried a music cd, a dvd and multiple 360 games. Music CD’s not read at all. DVD’s read where it notices that there is a disk in the drive but won’t play any content just goes to a black screen. 360 games spin and make a harsh clicking noise from the drive and take me to a screen that says “to play this disk please put it in a 360 console”. I’ve had this 360 for two months with light usage. Doubtfully anything is stuck in the drive I’ve tried meticulously cleaning all the disks I’ve played in the drive with a soft disk cleaning cloth and using compressed air on the disk and the drive. Also I’ve tried multiple power cycles and removing all cords and letting it set for over an hour.

After doing all that it shows me at least one bit of good news.

Also made sure to grab a copy of the “Terms & Conditions” to give a proper read though. Oddly enough you have to be 18 years of age to have Microsoft fix your bunk console or your SOL. Weak…

After that I got to a confirmation  page telling me they are sending me my shipping box and pre-paid packaging (should take four days). Also they provide a link for Download packing instructions an exciting PDF of how to send Microsoft your worthless console (no disks, no cables, no face plates, remove the HD).

For the most part I’m pretty sure I will not be returned the same console that I send in. Before shipping it out I’m going to use a sharpie and put my initials on it just to see if I do or not. Also I’m very concerned that I’m not going to be returned a console with HDMI. Moreover getting somebody elses refubished box doesn’t sound that appealing to me. At least I know the usage of the new Xbox I purchased. The machine I get in return better be prestine. Also just the day before I applied an extra year of Xbox Live Gold access on this console and I’m going to lose a month of it reparing the console.

Currently I’m sitting in “Repair order submitted” status and that is about it. So far no nasty tech support calls pleading for help. Got my repair order in and will make sure to keep everybody up to date with how this goes. Would have loved some extra characters on the “explain your issue” section so I could have told them “I’m blogging this experience on http://vanlandw.com/ and you better return me a 360 with a bloody HDMI port and give me three months free of XBL”.

Update 2 April 23: Another day another reason why I shouldn’t spend money. Today driving home from work I received two phone calls from 1-215-441-3000. On the second call I figured I should answer it just in case it was something important. I get a greeting from a Korean guy.

I am from xbox and I need to confirm your address.

Like an idiot I just blurt out my entire address without asking him why he needs to confirm my address or even who he is. Blindly trusting Microsoft with my information I just gave my home address to “Mr. Xbox”.

Curious about what the ’215′ area code Wikipedia once again for the billionth time answered my question. Finding this odd that Microsoft would call me from Philadelphia I struck up a conversation with jjafuller. Told him the number that called me was 1-215-441-3000. He sent me along THIS link in return.

First thing I see is this…

ONE OF AMERICA’S WORST COLLECTION AGENCIES!

NCO Financial Systems, Inc. ****
( Also goes by the name of NCO Portfolio Management)
507 Prudential Rd
Horsham, PA 19044-2308
Phone: (215) 441-3000
Fax: (215) 441-3923
Web Address: www.ncogroup.com
Caller: NCO Financial Systems
Caller Type: Collection Agency

For awhile there I figured I just got totally scammed or somehow I forgot to pay Obama enough in taxes. Looking a little deeper I see…

I was called from this number about my xbox repair, it seemed a little sketchy, but i called the xbox customer support number and they confirmed that i was called by them and didn’t have anything to worry about. I’m not sure why they would share a phone number with this NCO company.
Caller ID: 215-441-3000
Caller: XBox Customer Support

I guess I understand why they use a service like this but still if you look into it all just feels very very bizzare and bush league even for Microsoft. The guy on the phone did say that my “pre-paid shipping box” should be sent next week but still not a very nice experience and I just wasted two hours blogging this experience online. Beware…

Update 3 April 24: Last night at about 12:23 AM I received an email from UPS…

This message was sent to you at the request of MICROSOFT/UPS SUPPLY CHAIN SOL to notify you that the electronic shipment information below has been transmitted to UPS. The physical package(s) may or may not have actually been tendered to UPS for shipment. To verify the actual transit status of your shipment, click on the tracking link below or contact MICROSOFT/UPS SUPPLY CHAIN SOL directly.

Looks like my pre-paid shipping is on the way and the cardboard to send my dead 360 to the Lords of Videogames is being sent to me. My status is “Shipping Information Received” presently and I don’t have much else to say about this right now.

Update 4 April 25: Got a message from my friend Thomas when I was slumbering.

farquja: got the rd rin

farquja: not under arranty yet their sedin me a free box to shit so IDK

The most important fact is Microsoft is going to send Tom a free box to shit in. Mostly they should just let him keep an extra 360. Yeah Tom’s original warranty has probably elapsed but in response to the RROD Microsoft extended the warranty on all 360′s to three years for every Xbox 360 console that experiences the “general hardware failure” indicated by three flashing red LEDs on the console. It’s shameful how much these things fail. Worst investment for the future ever. At least they got them covered but when Xbox 720 or whatever comes out MS is going to give a shit less about that $300 investment you made. Buyer beware without question on these things.

Update 5 April 28th: I swear I’m not making this up. I’m getting ready for work today hoping the shipping box comes today so I can take it to UPS before work and get it out ASAP. After shave/shower I went to the mail depot at my place and sure enough the return box came. I was going to take a picture of it but of course my camera doesn’t work (kills brand new batteries if you leave them in and of course I left my last set of batteries in there). While I was packing up the 360 for shipping I get this message from my friend vanbergs (dead truth no embellishing in the least).

vanbergs: guess what vanlandw
vanlandw: what
vanbergs: my xbox just red ringed
vanbergs: it’s dead
vanlandw: lol

That is THREE Xbox 360′s in my miniscule social inner circle who have had Xbox 360′s die in the past SEVEN DAYS. Just insanity what a piece of garbage Microsoft should be ashamed. Keep in mind my Original Xbox is still running strong even with modifications. On my way to work today I’m going to get this shipped out by UPS. If anything interesting happens in the next few weeks I’ll make sure to post it here. This whole saga is a lot more interesting then I would have ever thought it would be. Any of my other readeship have any techincal problems with their 360′s I would love to hear about it.

Update 6 April 28th: Ok first off a note from flo on google reader..

a guy at works xbox died as well…..i was thinking of buying one, but not anymore

I don’t know this person but seriously these things are dropping like flies. Also I’m glad to see somebody after seeing all the recent problems deciding “NOT” to give Microsoft money. Personally I should have known better. I resisted for years but figured after waiting for so long I wouldn’t have any problems. I bought my 360 in Feburary 2009 I believe 3+ months after the most recent revision of the Xbox 360 was released called the “Jasper”. After reading this guide I come to find I’m one of the unlucky consumers who received a “Zephyr” release. Pretty much the first tech released (and most faulty) modified with HDMI support. Weak so weak…

Also as I stated earlier I drove to UPS before work. I walk into the customer center and the guy says to me the following immediately as I walk up to the counter..

Xbox?

Just by looking at the box I had in my hands the dude knew what I was sending. I ended up talking with him a little bit he said that he has scene “dozens” of these boxes recently and talked to me a little bit about the “red ring of doom”. Regardless if the UPS rep just knows what I’m sending by looking at the box that is pretty crazy.

Update 7 May 4th: Alright I let this disaster rest for the weekend. Sign on this morning to check the status of my UPS shipping. Really weak Microsoft they don’t even want my console. They should have had it Friday looks like they won’t get it till today at the earlest. This is the “status” of my delivery.

THE RECEIVER REQUESTED A HOLD FOR A FUTURE DELIVERY DATE. UPS WILL ATTEMPT DELIVERY ON DATE REQUESTED

So I sent my console in last Tuesday and it looks like I lose another week of my “Gold Subscription” of Xbox Live in shipping limbo. Two weeks of dead Xbox and Microsoft still don’t have my Xbox yet and looks like they don’t even want to fix it. Yeah this saga is going to be another month long “ugh” for vanlandw.

Update 8 May 4th: Well apparently my xbox got delivered somewhere on 5/2/09. Looking closer at some of these things are just really bizarre. On xbox’s support page they list the following as the address for the “Repair Center”.

Ship to:
Repair Center
5700 South International Pkwy.
Door #18
McAllen, Texas 78503

Looking on UPS’s site it looks like my 360 got sent to MESQUITE,TX,  US. A simple google maps shows that apparently McAllen TX and Mesquite TX is 517 miles away from one another. Wonderful now if I even get my 360 back it’s going to have Swine Flu as Mesquite TX is right on the US/Mexico border.

Update 9 May 4th: Ok disaster diverted. Checking my repair status on xbox.com states I’m on the fourth step “Repair on Progress”.

We have received your console at the repair service center.

Who knows what happens from here. More or less a two-three week wait.

Update 10 May 12: Checked my repair status on xbox.com today and it looks like my repair is complete. The console is shipped and looks to have left MESQUITE  TX on 5/12. Oddly enough during this process I received no emails or status updates, phonecalls nothing at all. I haven’t checked my status in awhile so it’s nice to see it’s on it’s way back. The bad thing is I’m working a crap ton all week so I’m not going to be able to sign for the 360 when UPS sends it back. Looks like I should have it before the weekend that is great. I will make sure to keep everybody up to date on how this ends up.

Status:	In Transit – On Time Your shipment is moving within the UPS network and should be delivered on the Scheduled Delivery Date. A shipment can remain in this status until it is delivered. Other than time-definite air deliveries, shipments are generally delivered anytime between the hours of 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. to residences, and by close of business for commercial addresses. UPS cannot schedule a specific delivery time within that window. What should I do if I’m expecting a delivery? This is the most up-to-date information about the status of your shipment.  For residential deliveries that require a signature, you can leave instructions for the driver if no one will be home. For example, you can ask that it be delivered to a neighbor who will be home. Shipments that don’t require a signature can be left in a safe place at the driver’s discretion. In Transit – On Time
Scheduled Delivery:	05/14/2009

Update 11 May 14th: 5/14/2009 6:21:00 AM OUT FOR DELIVERY WYOMING MI More coming soon…

Update 12 May 14th:

Type:	Package
Status:	Delivered UPS has delivered the shipment. Residential deliveries that do not require a signature may be left in a safe place, out of sight and out of weather, at the driver’s discretion. This could include the front porch, side door, back porch, or garage area. If you have instructed the driver to leave the shipment with a neighbor or leasing office, this would be noted on a yellow UPS InfoNotice left by the driver. Delivered
Delivered On:	05/14/2009 3:57 P.M.

More when I get the “EF” out of work

Update 13 May 14th: The update everybody (maybe two people) have been waiting for. My 360 was returned today. April 21′s was the day my Xbox died and May 14th was the day it was returned to me. Overall the turn around was what I expected. Luckily somebody in my building signed for the package so I was able have it today (it was a signature required UPS). Quick notes upon receiving my console.

1) Included is a very nice note addressed to “Dear Xbox 360 Enthusiasts”. Clearly I didn’t know that multiple people owned this Xbox but I understand what they are going for. Mostly it confirms they have replaced my 60 day old console with a history I knew 100% with one that I have NO clue what this console has been though prior to being shipped though UPS. New serial number. Also on the note are “apologies” and reassurances all that don’t make me feel that good knowing that the console I now own even “refurbished” I’m sure to some degree could have been sodomized by some insane person in their “man cave”. The note says “replacement” console not “new” or “refurbished”. Who knows what this console lived though.

2) They did give me a “one month Xbox LIVE membership card as a gesture of their appreciation”. My account has pretty much been worthless for three plus weeks so I’m glad to see they have reimbursed me for my subscription.

3) They also sent me a “Xbox Quality Survey” that I’m going to be sure to send in ASAP. For the most part I will be 100% fair and when I get a chance to fill this out I will make sure to post my responses on vanlandw.com

4) Massive ugh here. Apparently now having a  new console I need to re-download all my previously downloaded content from Xbox Live Marketplace. The steps aren’t difficult but clearly I’ve downloaded quite a few addons and games so this might take awhile on my slow DSL. (UPDATE this wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be it doesn’t re download the content it must just authorize it for the new console it just takes a second per download)

5) The main thing that REALLY pisses me off is the condition my Xbox was returned to me. CLEARLY this is a refurbished box. There are scratches and smudges all over it. I have been able to use a swab to remove many of them but there are some that will not come off. There is sticky crap on the front panel I’ll need to really work hard to remove (Goo-Gone should do the trick). On the HDMI port you can clearly see the alterations they made to this Zephyr returned unit (I posted this link earler but it confirms the revisions of xboxes). Yes they gave me a refurbished first release MODIFIED for HDMI support Xbox in return. Personally I was hoping to get one of the newer models but that is not the case. I wish I had a camera that worked I would love to share photos of this. The manufacturing of this console compared to my PS3 and even my Wii is really shoddy. The metal encasing around the HDMI port doesn’t even match on both sides. Really bizzare. The HDMI cord fits but not as snug as it did on my first console.

Alright I’m going to test this sucka to make sure it even runs. More later….

Update 13 May 15th: Well I spent an hour with my refurb 360 last night. For the most part everything seems alright. The DVD drive try is not as “stiff” and smooth as my first xbox. Just a light push will close the tray where you had to use the button to close it on my old one. I played Half Life 2 Episode 1 for about an hour yesterday and left the system running for another hour with no problems. Operational and functional. Next week or maybe this weekend I will post the “finale” to this dark dark saga after hopefully being able to spend some more time with the console.