Geez. What the hell is Microsoft using to punish misbehaving Xboxes? This thing looks worse than the one attacked by a crazy chick and a golf club. But we're certain that if Nic contacts Microsoft and shows them these photos of his naughty Xbox, they're sure to send him a replacement. Possibly even one that works. (Provided, of course, that this damage wasn't caused by Nic when he got the unit back, unrepaired, or by yet another nutty girlfriend.) [Flickr via Nic H]

Last week I called Dell Technical Support about my Dell Studio 1537 Laptop and a DVD drive which was making loud noises and ejecting all cds. I had the basic "mail-in" warranty which required I ship them the laptop back. After my phone conversation with overseas tech support I received an empty box with a prepaid packing slip to mail the laptop back. A couple days ago I received both an automated email and phone call that my laptop was coming back to me. This morning, Fedex delivered a refurbished hard drive - yes just a hard drive.

I began my calling spree this morning and spoke to 7, yes 7, different Dell reps who transferred me between technical support, customer service, and back to technical support. After about 90 minutes of phone calls, hold music, and redialing I'm stuck with a 250gb hard drive but no laptop. Who do I call for help?

Oh, so he expected the whole computer to come back to him. I see. Perhaps this is some sort of new "you'll get a hard drive and like it" approach to customer support Dell is trying out. I don't see it working. Incidentally, Consumerist suggests sending emails to michael@dell.com in situations like this. Apparently, the messages are routed to an executive relations team that has been helpful in the past. [Consumerist Image via 60 in 3]

A Consumerist reader complained that after his Xbox red-ringed – again – he called Microsoft to get a shipping box to mail his console in for repairs. But the customer service rep told him he'd need to find his own box. As he pointed out, this gives them a possible out. Who's to stop them from claiming the box was damaged in the mail?

My Xbox red-ringed for the second time this weekend. Which is almost a relief after hearing how bad my disc drive was sounding, but not so much after hearing the new policy. I was told that Xbox no longer ships out a box to you and you must find a box to ship it out in. Yeah I guess its not a big deal, but I think it gives them another thing to hold over your head; "We are sorry, Sir, but you didn't back it well enough and it appears the damage was due to shipping, we cannot help you."

Bummer move, Microsoft, especially over something that's very much your own fault.

Update: Microsoft is saying that they do in fact still ship boxes to customers with broken Xboxes (if the customers ask for one), according to Kotaku. Which would mean this whole debacle is just one case of one employee being terrible, rather than the entire company. Unless you count how people wouldn't need to ship their Xboxes in anyway if the company had bothered making them right in the first place.

[The Consumerist]

I connected with Apple Tier 2 support and we conference called into AT&T. They claimed that it was my device (never had a problem until this point) and that before they would put in another ticket I had to test my SIM card in another non iPhone 3G AT&T device. If that behaved properly then they said Apple should replace the unit. If the problems returned with the new iPhone then and only then, will they submit it to "voice tech" whatever the hell that is.

They claim no known issues, but I asked a stranger at Starbucks today whom I noticed had a 3G if he was having the same issues, and before I could even finish my question he described the same symptoms had been happening all week. This is along with five collegues/friends. So far this has gone under the radar and AT&T is denying any problems. The last tech insisted it wasn't the network but instead a slew of "all-the-sudden" faulty iPhone 3Gs. He claimed since my phone rang on his end and that he could leave a voicemail "it was there" the phone just wasn't getting it, yet somehow that's not a network problem?

It seems like this isn't a nation-wide thing, but there's enough complaints out there to determine that this probably isn't because of the iPhone either. How's it looking to everyone?

-Thanks Eric and Aaron!

The email came from Frank Eliason, whom the NY Times has a great story on this morning. He's a Comcast rep who constantly monitors blogs, forums, Twitter, Facebook comments and everything in between for gripes about Comcast, then responds directly to the complainer to "clear the air." He's done this well over a thousand times in the 7 months he's been on the job.

Direct one-on-one service sure beats spending days of your life on hold with support only to find there's no cable being run to your house, and definitely no hard feelings for Frank, who is just doing his job and doing it well it sounds like, but leave it to Comcast to instill what could be a good thing with such overt Orwellian creepiness. [New York Times]

The CE Customer Support Contact List [Techlore]

Also see:
PVRWire's Post holiday support guide (US edition) [PVRWire]

–Noah Robischon

The magic word? "L3," referring to Level 3 tech support, putting you in touch with those anointed ones who can not only help you figure out what's wrong, but authorize a truck roll or give you a refund. If you recall, it took us a couple of weeks of going through Road Runner hell before we could talk to someone who could do this. Maybe someday they'll put these people on the first call instead of fobbing us off on those worthless louts whose only trick is to tell us to reboot the modem. – Charlie White

HOWTO: Get Actual Customer Support From Time Warner Cable [The Consumerist]