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The fall update class-action lawsuit continues |
Listed in: Xbox 360 Tags: Google, Major Nelson, Microsoft
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Here are details from the lawyer of Kevin Ray - representing everybody else suing Microsoft for bricking their 360s after the October 31 fall update. Ray filed the class action lawsuit on behalf of everybody else who got bricked 360s since there were lots of complaints about it in blogs and forums everywhere.As we said earlier, it's for breach of contract, violation of Washington's Consumer Protection Act, and negligence. Brian Kabateck, senior partner at Kabateck Brown Kellner who are handling the case, said that MS promised to pay for all shipping, repair and/or replacement costs for affected consoles. But, that is not the case, he said. "Unfortunately, all the reports we're getting is that Microsoft is saying 'Send your Xbox in and for 140 bucks we'll fix it.' In our opinion, they're turning their screw-up into a profit center."
It's not sure how much money they'll end up demanding because there's no clear data yet on how many people were affected. Still, the case was filed asking for at least 5 million US dollars - so that the case would get into the proper judicial jurisdiction (remember that cases are handled by different courts depending on the amount).
If you want Microsoft's side, they released a statement (you can read that here) - they just haven't responded to the law firm as far as we know.
The toughest part in the drama so far: Kabateck joked about what the MS defense would be: "We're Microsoft and we can do anything we want." His point was that's really all they can say because otherwise MS would have to admit that they "screwed up" - "there's no question" that the bricking problems happened. "My firm has been contacted by almost 400 people since this became public."
Finally, Next Gen reports that "some onlookers have criticized the lawsuit as frivolous and lacking in evidence, as the complaint cites shaky sources such as independent bloggers, message board posts, Google search results..." But, the only evidence that Kabateck is going to use are "first-hand accounts from live witnesses that experienced the problem" and from subpoenas - yup, they're going to demand records from Microsoft (this is the part in the movies where you see people running around and shredding all the "internally-kept complaint documentation").
The only blog entries that would be useful: entries from Microsoft employees like Larry "Major Nelson" Hyrb. That's because these entries are "an admission of the problem" or "acknowledged this problem."
For the record, Kabateck said that Ray's Xbox 360 was not modified or hacked. And if it's true that MS did the brick-job on purpose to punish modders and hackers, well, Next Gen has this from Kabateck:
There are two issues here. First, that's your property. You bought it, you own it. The other issue is that our justice system has ways to deal with people who steal software or modify a piece of equipment in an illegal or inappropriate way. [Microsoft] canÂ’t take the law into their own hands.
Well, since we independent bloggers and forum-goers are "shaky sources", we're free to run with this news. Everybody thinking this case should push through because MS is guilty, say "Aye." Everybody opposed to this lawsuit and say that MS is innocent, say "Nay."
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I called the 1-800 number, and the rep on the oher end told me that the system was more than 90 days old, and was therefore out of warranty even though I had just purchased it. Furthermore, if I wanted to fix my system, then I could mail it in for repair at a cost of $140. Luckily, I was able to send it back to my retailer, but if I wasn't able to, I'd be part of this lawsuit as well.
This isn't about modders who broke their systems. It's about honest consumers who, by a screwup on microsoft's part, now have to pay $140 to continue using the system they purchased. Seems pretty cut and dried to me that MS should pay for this particular repair...
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Now I am Really pissed, and f ked .9 month old paper wait-called waly mart,got a store manager-explained fully my dilema,and out of sheer luck and kindness I get a new 360 and a 1 year warrenty from Wal-Mart Canada. I have no knowledge of the hows behind the sticker,Ms did not explore further to see why the sticker was broke. WAL-mart was the only saving grace in this mess. And i am still waiting for my 14.99 shipping fee to come back from MS-and I am sure it won't. Anyway this is for people like you Mr. Common Sense....Bite me!
I win,
people like you get everybody srewed for 1 reason,even when the causes are different.
you lump everything into little categories because it's more convenient for YOU.
there are all kinds of occurances,with the 360's
The fact that Ms did not even want to deal with
me their customer and that WAL-mart did more than 3 times -90+ days after puchase,and that we have a sticker issue with no resolve,pisses all over everything you have said
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When i called tech support, they said that it had been over 90 days since they had shipped the item, and so it was out of warranty, even though I had only had the system for one day. I asked them "so this system used up its warranty by sitting on a store shelf?", and she said yes, that's correct, and that I could either a) get a replacement from the retailer, or B) ship it to them for a $140 replacement fee.
The retailer i bought it from happily replaced it with a new one. That new one works just great, and I'm happy with it. If I couldn't return it to my retailer, then I wouldn't have paid and would have just left it broken, because the whole deal just stinks of something illegal. This is just the sort of thing class action lawsuits are designed for: to give wronged consumers their money back when the producer won't on their own accord.
Whether you choose to believe this all is up to you, but this did happen, and I
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