• Go to xbox.com and sign in
• Go to support and click on the repair agent box (right side of the screen)
• Click on register a new device and enter your Xbox 360s serial number (found next to the USB ports, under the white falp on the front right of the console)
• Now click on your newly registered device (under manage devices) and click request a new repair
• Follow all the on screen instructions to “order” a repair from Microsoft
• Ignore the bit about being sent a shipping box as you will never be sent one (in the UK anyway). I confirmed with Xbox customer support that Microsoft doesn’t send out shipping boxes. You will only recieve an email containing the UPS pre-paid shipping labels



• Now check your email address (the one attached to the Xbox Live account)
• You should see an email called UPS delivery label. Click on the “retrieve UPS returns label” link and print it
• Also click on the “get the receipt” link and print it too (more about this later)
• Now find a box and pack your Xbox 360 inside it. Obviously use packing materials to protect your Xbox 360 during transit
• Attach the UPS delivery label printed earlier to the top of the box and make sure its either in a plastic pouch or covered to prevent damage. UPS need to scan it after all
• You can either request UPS to pick up your package, or you can go to a UPS drop off location
• Important: If you go to a UPS drop off location don’t forget to take the receipt that you printed out earlier. The UPS person will stamp this as proof that your Xbox 360 has been received by UPS
• Wait 2 weeks for the console to be repaired and sent back

Our repaired Xbox 360 came with a 1 month’s free Xbox Live gold membership and a letter identifying what the fault was and what they had done about it.

I hope that Microsoft has corrected the inaccurate and misleading information relating to sending you a shipping box. It caused a 2 week delay in getting our Xbox 360 fixed as I was waiting for a pesky box that was never going to arrive.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Popularity: 11% [?]

Microsoft has now made the Halo 3 Heroic map pack available free of charge on Xbox Live Marketplace. Originally released in Dec 07 this triple map pack previously cost 800 Microsoft points.

The Heroic map pack consists of the following maps:

STANDOFF

FOUNDRY

RAT’S NEST

How to download the Heroic map pack:

• Sign into Xbox Live
• Go to Marketplace
• Select Game Store
• Find Halo 3
• Select the Heroic Map Pack
• Select confirm download

The next Halo 3 map pack (called Legendary) will be released on the 15th April 08 for 800 Microsoft points.

Popularity: 9% [?]

You may remember that last week I found out that Microsoft were still charging me for my Xbox Live Gold subscription, even though I cancelled the debit card they were using back in November, at the behest of my bank. I stopped by a branch the morning after writing my previous post and spoke to a “Personal Banker”. She told me that customers have been known to sign up for goods or services and then cancel their cards in order to avoid the charges. She then claimed that Barclays sometimes roll over the charges to the replacement card in order to prevent customer fraud of this sort. I asked if it was a certain type of charge that would be rolled over. This would explain why my web hosting companies had sent me invoicing emails when their charges to my old card were rejected. She said that that information was confidential to prevent people gaming the system.

Personal Banker then got rather shirty and started interrupting me with phrases like “Well, there’s no official policy” when I tried to repeat this back to her for confirmation, so I called the telephone banking team to verify her given reason. According to Barclays Debit Card Services, companies can set up charges based on the first 12 digits of your card number, ensuring that they still get their payments when you change cards. Debit Card Services Woman said that this is what Microsoft would have done, whereas my hosting companies would have been charging the entire 16-digit card number.

Make of that what you will.

Popularity: 9% [?]

As Weefz has previously reported, the Play.com LIVE! show starts tomorrow from 10am at Wembley Stadium. Weefz (sporting her new blonde look) and I will be there, so feel free to say hi. Heck, I’m going and its the final weekend of the RBS Six Nations Championship and I love rugby.

Essential show information:

• Tickets - Phone 0845 270 1669 (9am - 5pm)
• Times - Morning session - 10am - 2pm, Afternoon session 2pm - 6pm on both days
• Location - Go to the Club Wembley entrance next to the Bobby Moore Statue
• Restrictions - Under 16’s must be accompanied by an adult

Also if you order tickets at this late stage, then Play.com say:

COLLECT YOUR TICKET AT WEMBLEY STADIUM: Please bring a print out of your order confirmation and the credit/debit card for proof of purchase to the Play.com Live information desk at the show for entry. For lost tickets please call Customer Support at 0845 270 1669.

Now some more show information. According to ThreeSpeech (semi-official Sony blog) the following games will be on show:

• GT5 Prologue - playable code
• Everybody’s Golf: World Tour - playable code
• Time Crisis - playable code
• Echochrome - playable code
• Killzone 2 - trailer
• LittleBigPlanet - trailer
• Play TV - trailer
• Buzz - playable code
• God of War: Chains of Olympus - playable code

It’s a real shame that we can’t get to play LittleBigPlanet or Killzone 2. Ho hum. As long as I can play Ghostbusters I’ll be happy. Also ButtonBandits are reporting that there is no boothbabe ban, if you needed any more incentive!

See you all at the show.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Way back in October last year I was playing Team Fortress 2 quite a bit. Somehow, even though I don’t actually know my own gamerscore, it seemed to make sense to unlock the achievements on my own gamertag, instead of playing on someone else’s. So… I duly signed up for a monthly-paid Gold Membership and added my Visa debit card details.

One month later, my boyfriend and his flatmate are sick of me sitting on their couch playing TF2 all the time. Also, Mass Effect was released so I got my own Xbox 360 and flew off on the SS Normandy. In the meantime, I had to get a new debit card because the UK banks have moved away from the wish-it-was-two-factor authentication to actual two-factor authentication. I ordered my new debit card and cancelled my Xbox-Live-known card even though it doesn’t technically expire until September 2008.

There isn’t actually an option to move back to Silver membership from Gold in the Xbox 360 interface. I figured that hey, I can’t use the card in shops any more (I actually tried this), so next time Microsoft try to bill me for the Gold Membership, the charge will get rejected and they’ll downgrade me to a Silver. No problem. My home internet connection is too crappy to play TF2 online anyway.

For Christmas, TheFluffyFist kindly gets me a 12 month subscription card to Xbox Live so that when I do resume playing TF2 I don’t have to give them my new card details and be unable to remove the card info later.

In January, I notice in passing that I still appear to have a Gold membership. “Hmm. That’s strange” I say, but since my two-factor authentication device isn’t in the building, I can’t check my accounts. I forget about it.

Fast forward two months to tonight - I finally got around to looking at my bank statements in detail. Right there in the middle of the month:

“Payment to Microsoft Axbox [sic] Luxembourg This transaction was for GBP 4.99 at exch rate 1.000″

Arse.

Question 1:

How the hell can they continue charging me every month, even though this card was cancelled in November? I shall speak to my bank tomorrow.

Question 2

Does this mean I have to go through the obligatory 3-phone-call ritual and then wait for my non-valid card to be blacklisted before I can stop paying Microsoft for a service I don’t even use?

FFS!

Finally, I’ve been reading Microsoft’s Privacy Statement, which contains the following extract:

“Personal information collected on Microsoft sites and services may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which Microsoft or its affiliates, subsidiaries or agents maintain facilities, and by using a Microsoft site or service you consent to any such transfer of information outside your country. Microsoft abides by the safe harbour framework as set forth by the US Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use and retention of data from the European Union.”

In other words, data submitted to Microsoft is NOT fully protected by the Data Protection Act (1998). If it were, under the core principle of not keeping information longer than is necessary, you would (probably) have the right to have your credit card details removed from payment methods after going through the multiple phone calls that it takes to persuade Microsoft that you no longer want a Gold membership. (Disclaimer - I am not a lawyer.)

Under the Safe Harbour Agreement there is some mention of having the right to delete information where it is inaccurate in Safe Harbour FAQ 8 - Access but… I don’t know how that is applied. Any ideas?

Popularity: 17% [?]

Over the past few months you’ve probably heard a trickle of information about Play.com Live. For those who haven’t, it’s a games expo being held in the UK. Yay! Technically, they’re calling it a “Games and Home Entertainment” show so you can probably expect lots of exhibitors flogging their televisions and other expensive home gadgetry.

It’s very soon - 15th and 16th March 2008 - and will be in Wembley Stadium. Yes, once again, it’s in the South.

According to MCV, Microsoft, THQ, Ubisoft and Activision will be there. Play.com itself doesn’t have a dedicated site but I did find the following description on the VIP ticket page:

Packed full of top titles including Lego Indiana Jones, Ghostbusters, Soul Calibur 4, Condemned 2 and Rock Band you’ll be able to get hands-on time with this year’s biggest game releases before they hit the shops. There will also be live music, celebrity appearances and massive competitions, plus a whole lot of surprises!

Upcoming also has a tiny bit of info: goodie bags for all attendees! :) Hopefully there will be new playable demos and fun stuff. I’d hate to be paying money for a bunch of videos and stuff that’s already available on Xbox Live. Wish I could tell you more but the supposed Play.com Live PR contact didn’t respond to my email a few weeks ago.

No matter. Lego Indiana Jones and the concept alone are reasons enough for me to go. I am very happy to tell you that tickets are now on sale. Hooray! Buy Play.com Live tickets from Play.com (No! Really?) There were VIP weekend tickets available but as of today, it says “Currently unavailable, please check again soon.” No word on whether or not they’ll be on sale again.

If the trickle of info suddenly becomes a deluge, I’ll be sure to post it. Otherwise, see you at Wembley!

Update 6th mar 08: TVG has a Q & A with the head of games at Play.com, which contains a few more bits about what you’ll be able to play and see at Play.com Live!

Popularity: 9% [?]

At approximately 22:15 this evening, our Xbox 360 froze whilst browsing the Xbox Marketplace. Upon reboot the dreaded red ring of death (RRod) appeared, with a message on the screen to contact Xbox Support. Great.

I suppose should be reasonably happy as our 360 has lasted since March 2006. Wow, that’s nearly 2 years. Hang on a minute, our 360 sits next to a working Gamecube and that’s 6 years old! Not forgetting my working PS2 (7 years old), PSOne (12 years old) and BBC Model B (22 years old).

Thoughts that crossed my mind when I saw the RRod:

• Arse, arse, arse.
• Wait, rebooting the console should sort out the problem, it is Microsoft after all.
• (After reboot) Arse.
• Eeek, what about my Xbox Live profile and my achievements/saved games?
• Phew, they are on the HDD, should be safe.
• But what if the HDD has died?
• Oh hell, Xbox Support. Weeks, maybe months without a 360, aggghhhh.
• Wait, my PS3 and Wii will do instead. Yay.

After further investigation using the Xbox-scene.com forums error code guide our secondary error code is 0102 which means:

Error in the “Digital Backbone” (CPU/GPU/RAM), this is usually caused by a cold solder joint between the GPU and the mainboard

Looks like I’ll have to get Microsoft to fix our console. Problem is that to date my experiences with Xbox Support have been awful. I’m still waiting for the saga of removing credit card details from my Xbox Live account to end.

Has anyone else had a 360 fail as it could involve up to 30% of consoles according to this RRoD article?

Update 21st Feb 08: 8.30am - Reports of our Xbox 360s death have been greatly exaggerated. Lazarus-like, it’s ALIVE! Woke up this morning, poked the power button and the 360 booted up fine. No RRoD, just the green ring of life. However, I’ve placed the 360 on death watch as I think it may fail again pretty soon. But for now, the 360’s back baby.

Update 21st Feb 08: 9am - Its died again. Sniff. I quickly downloaded some XNA creators club demos, turned off the 360 and then when I turned it back on the evil RRoD was back. Boo.

Update 26th Mar 08: It’s back from it’s trip to the Xbox repair centre and it’s ALIVE!!!! It took 2 weeks from sending it off to getting it back. Pretty speedy. The problem was the motherboard, as I suspected, so it has been replaced. Although the Xbox does sound different now, and emits a sound like a slightly asthmatic duck sleeping when you turn it off. Oh, and Microsoft included a free 1 months Xbox LIVE gold membership to sort of say sorry for the crappy 360 build quality.

Popularity: 11% [?]

So 30 days have now passed since I was called by Xbox support. Have they removed my card details as they promised? Err, no they haven’t.

To be honest I didn’t expect them to have either. Maybe they had their hands full dealing with the rather shoddy provision of Xbox Live since Xmas and forgot about my support call?

It has now been 53 days since I first asked Xbox Live support to remove my credit card details. I’m now wondering if they actually are able to remove my card details? At this rate the card will have expired. Very, very poor service Microsoft.

Check out part I and part II of this ongoing saga.

Update 26th Mar 08: They’ve been removed. I can’t believe it. Microsoft have FINALLY done what I asked them to do over 3 and a half months ago. When I examine my LIVE account on my 360 there are no card details at all! Upon reviewing my LIVE account at http:\\billing.microsoft.com my card details have been flagged as removed (only there for historical purposes) and can’t be used or viewed. About bloody time Microsoft.

Popularity: 31% [?]

As a kiss-and-make-up gift for Xbox Live being generally rubbish and unusable for weeks now (personally, it’s been ok recently) Microsoft is giving away the Live Arcade game Undertow (think Geometry Wars but underwater). Yep, that’s a full game free of charge, but ONLY from 10am Wed 23rd Jan 08 till 8am Monday 28th Jan 08. So grab it while you can. Incidentally this offer is open to all gold and silver members.

Some features of Undertow:

• 16 player multiplayer battles and 2 player co-op with Team Conquest and Deathmatch modes
• 3 different playable races, each with 4 unique upgradeable units
• 15 level single player / co-op campaign

Update 22nd Jan 08: If you’ve already bought Undertow, you can call you local Xbox Support number and get 800 Microsoft Points credited to your LIVE account. Assuming they can find evidence of your purchase (so don’t try blagging it).

Popularity: 19% [?]