Micro Center Protection plan scam Santa Clara California
I bought an Xbox 360 in December of 2006 with a bronze protection plan. The manufacturers warranty expires after a year the the protection plan is supposed to take over at that point for an additional year.
My Xbox recently broke so I called the number on the protection plan and was told that since Microsoft voluntarily extended their warranty to three years for certain problems due to manufacturer defects, I would have to contact microsoft about repairs. I asked if the protection plan would be useable at the end of the three years and he said no, it expires on december 2008.
This is an obsurd situation. The extended warranty doesn't start until the manufacturers warranty ends. Microsoft extended their warranty until December 2010 so I can not used the protection plan until then. The protection plan expires in December 2008. What that really means is the protection plan expires before in becomes active. Pretty good scam.
What really makes me mad is I was told by the salesman that XBox's were known to break frequently so the protection plan was a good idea. All I had to do is bring in the XBOX and they would exchange it on the spot. I never buy these things but this time I did. Now the fact that the xbox breaks frequently is being used to deny me the protection plan.
The Xbox will be fixed by Microsoft, but I wanted to used the plan that I paid for because Microsoft will just send me a refurb.
Shawn
milpitas, California
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
A.h.
Malden,Massachusetts,
U.S.A.
Micro Center Replacement Plan now covers manufacturers warranty too.
#3UPDATE Employee
Tue, June 24, 2008
As of Spring '08, as a courtesy to customers who have purchased a replacement plan, Micro Center will now cover the manufacturers portion of the warranty in addition to extending it the additional 1 or 2 years.
If you don't have a plan, you still have to go through the manufacturer, and they don't cover damage or abuse of course.
Sean
Lenexa,Kansas,
U.S.A.
How Service Net protection plans work.
#3UPDATE Employee
Sat, May 31, 2008
The service plan you bought is called a "Replacement Plan". How it works is it will replace the unit if it stops working do to manufacturer defect, for example say your hard drive went bad after the 1 year manufacturer warranty, then the unit could be checked in to verify the problem and issue you a gift card for the amount you paid, minus the protection plan and taxes. The Replacement Plan would then be considered fullfilled and if you used the gift card to buy a new unit you would only have the manufacturer's warranty and would be offered the option to buy a service plan again.
With XBOX 360s the situtation is different, every except the three red rings would be covered by the replacement plan after the 1 year warranty as the only issue that has a three year warranty is the three red rings. Service Net in this case can not warrant the issue as it is covered by the manufacturer warranty. All other hardware issues would be warranted by Service Net if they were the result of manufacturer defect and a warranted item as stated in the Terms and Conditions.