360 Warranty - Can someone explain why its so short?

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elk5432

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I'm admittedly a xbox fan. I've had the original xbox for 5 years or so and bought a 360 about a month ago. Hell, I own MS stock.

I'm trying to figure out why the warranty on a 360 is only 90 days. I've had zero problems with either the xbox or the 360. As a matter of fact I think MS products are usually above par. Why only offer 90 days? It almost as though it is assumed that the console doesn't have a long life span.

Almost all manufactures of electronics warranty the parts for at least a year. I didn't really look into the warranty when I bought either of the systems, I just assumed it will have at least a year. I do almost all the IT purchasing at my company, and a sub 1 year warranty is just not something that comes up often.

What components in the 360 make it likely to fail? Every single part in a 360, from the processor to the hard disk and dvd-rom all comfortably last 5+ years. What makes giving a 1 parts warranty such a liability??

Someone please enlighten me.
 
I believe they do it that way so that it is a chance for them to make that much more money. i put down the 40 dollars over the phone to MS because I felt insecure of the 90 day warranty. So instead i have it extended for 2 years for only 20 dollars a year. its really not that bad.
 
elk5432 said:
I'm admittedly a xbox fan. I've had the original xbox for 5 years or so and bought a 360 about a month ago. Hell, I own MS stock.

I'm trying to figure out why the warranty on a 360 is only 90 days. I've had zero problems with either the xbox or the 360. As a matter of fact I think MS products are usually above par. Why only offer 90 days? It almost as though it is assumed that the console doesn't have a long life span.

Almost all manufactures of electronics warranty the parts for at least a year. I didn't really look into the warranty when I bought either of the systems, I just assumed it will have at least a year. I do almost all the IT purchasing at my company, and a sub 1 year warranty is just not something that comes up often.

What components in the 360 make it likely to fail? Every single part in a 360, from the processor to the hard disk and dvd-rom all comfortably last 5+ years. What makes giving a 1 parts warranty such a liability??

Someone please enlighten me.
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You live in America. There are holes in the warranty laws they can exploit, and do. X360 warranty is 1 year in Europe, cause the law does not allow them to do that.
Not the 'moral' decsion, but they have the 'right' to do so.
 
Viper16 said:
I believe they do it that way so that it is a chance for them to make that much more money. i put down the 40 dollars over the phone to MS because I felt insecure of the 90 day warranty. So instead i have it extended for 2 years for only 20 dollars a year. its really not that bad.
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That seems like a good deal. Still, 5% a year is, percentage wise, a decent amount.

If it is so inexpensive though, why not just include it and gain the benefit of consumer confidence?
 
elk5432 said:
That seems like a good deal. Still, 5% a year is, percentage wise, a decent amount.

If it is so inexpensive though, why not just include it and gain the benefit of consumer confidence?
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Because they would then pass that cost onto the consumer on the initial purchase anyway.
 
well, it may be inexpensive to us... but... to them, its a considerable sum of money... for example...if a 1/10th of the ppl who own a 360 got the extended warranty... (600k peeps paying 40 xtra bux)... thats an additional 24M... doesnt sound like much but it definitely works toward their 'profit'

and then out of the peeps who didnt get the extended warranty, im sure that there are a number of peeps who have issues with their 360 and may end up having to send it in for repairs or get a new one... so... all in all, more cash to them...

and regardless of the warranty, if someone plans to purchase a 360, that person will...seems like a win win deal to me...
 
l177l3d said:
and regardless of the warranty, if someone plans to purchase a 360, that person will...seems like a win win deal to me...
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It possible there is a very large customer base that looks at the warranty as a factor in their decision to buy a 360. Even if someone doesn't really pay attention to the warranty but listens to the news, it could easily become a big issue if CNN played a blurb that said "360 goes against standards and offers very short warranty. News at 11."

I'm of the mindset that the money for MS is in the software and XBL, not the hardware. Thats the way MS has operated for a while since it started, with a few exceptions. A one year warranty, and at-cost repairs would bring a larger install base... and thats what's most important (although I do believe repair costs from MS have been quite resonable, so maybe they are following that principle) . To get as many people on the 360 as possible is why MS sells it at a loss in the first place.

More than likely the console isn't going to break anywhere near the first year, so giving the warranty probably won't cost much but can prevent a possible PR nightmare.

I feel like I'm missing something that will explain the 90 days, like a specific component they are worried about replacing.
 
90 days is standard for the majority of electronics. Ipods, laptops, etc, etc. Most have 90 days.
Of course manufacturers will do the absolute minimum amount required by law. Why shouldnt they?
 
The wii and ps2 also have a 90 day warranty. I'm too lazy to google for the ps3. 90 days seems standard in the states. Europe is more because of damn comunist hippy consumer protection laws they have over there. I believe it might even be 2 years in the UK.

One possible factor here in the states is the big box retailers - I could imagine them encouraging manufacturers to offer shorter warranties so they can push their own extended ones/product replacement plans, which have gigantic margins compared to the actual hardware.
 
LeviathanZERO said:
You live in America. There are holes in the warranty laws they can exploit, and do. X360 warranty is 1 year in Europe, cause the law does not allow them to do that.
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3 years... as is all consumer electronics in Europe as an absolute minimum. Doesn't matter if they put 1 year on the box (I don't know if they do) the law says 3.
 
4saken said:
90 days is standard for the majority of electronics. Ipods, laptops, etc, etc. Most have 90 days.
Of course manufacturers will do the absolute minimum amount required by law. Why shouldnt they?
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TVs, DVD players, appliances, and almost all PC components usually have at least a year warranty. Dell notebooks are 1 year (just checked), as are most of their PCs (with $350 PCs getting the 90 day).

Although short warrantys are allowed in the US, I haven't seen tons of accessories like remote controls and random crap carry anything less than 1 year.
 
It's because almost all of them burn out in less than a year. Sad but true, I had a 360 console that ran fine for a year and finally just recently crapped out. If their warranty was more than 90 days they would meke absolutely no money at all.
 
IanG said:
The wii and ps2 also have a 90 day warranty. I'm too lazy to google for the ps3. 90 days seems standard in the states. Europe is more because of damn comunist hippy consumer protection laws they have over there. I believe it might even be 2 years in the UK.

One possible factor here in the states is the big box retailers - I could imagine them encouraging manufacturers to offer shorter warranties so they can push their own extended ones/product replacement plans, which have gigantic margins compared to the actual hardware.
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Amen. Now that is something I can sink my teeth into. Retailers make HUGE profits of these warrantys. I wonder if thats what is going on. Although I'm not sure MS would sacrifice its own profits to fill other retails coffers.
 
Zinn said:
It's because almost all of them burn out in less than a year. Sad but true, I had a 360 console that ran fine for a year and finally just recently crapped out. If their warranty was more than 90 days they would meke absolutely no money at all.
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They didn't make money on your system.

90 days is the norm in the us for electronics. Hell computer makers are starting to switch to 90 day warranties for some things. Most of them are at least 1 year on the hardware other then the battery(which many only warranty 90 days or 6 months).

I personaly don't care about it for cheap things like 50 dollar dvd players. For a 400 dollar system I wish it was a year. On my system I already voided the warranty on mine though so it doesn't matter.
 
Ya probably didn't need to dig up this older thread just to post a link to a new thread that's already at the top of the forum...
 
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