My husband is distraught this morning. He ordered an X Box 360 back in August from Play.com and has been dreaming and fantasizing about its arrival ever since. The European release date for this wonderful machine was today, and in giddy expectation he rang Play yesterday to confirm he would be receiving one. He was told…
“Sorry Mr. Wilson, it seems Microsoft have not made enough to meet the number they committed to us and so you will not be receiving one tomorrow. We have sent on your Quake 4 game (only playable on the 360) and you will receive a console when the next batch is ready (most likely mid 2006).”
“But I ordered all the way back in August!”
“Yes, but those who ordered back in May will be receiving the consoles we have.”
Then because they obviously could hear the trembling of his bottom lip over the phone…
“Perhaps if you call back tomorrow morning we will have some more information for you.”
Now that he knew there was little chance he would be receiving his console from Play he proceeded to ring around various shops in Ireland. Xtravision, Game, Gamestop…all sold out. This served to fan the flames of his anger towards Play since he had decided not to put his name down in any of these other places thinking he had it in the bag. Finally at about 5:30pm he got onto Tesco Ireland and was told their store in Dundrum was expecting a delivery at midnight. With ideas of camping out at the store he jumped in the car and battled the rush hour traffic to get to Dundrum. Instead of a long line of waiting customers all was normal in Tescos with no mention of X Boxes anywhere. He inquired of two young male shop assistants whether they were getting any in and was told yes but he could come back tomorrow and needn’t wait.
This morning at 8:30am he rang Tescos and was told two had come in at midnight but they were already gone. Hmmm, I wonder who might have bought those?
When he rang Play he was given a slightly different excuse than yesterday: it seems the consoles didn’t go out on a first-come-first-served basis. Presumably they’ve been distributed on some kind of customer loyalty basis.
So, he’s walking around like a child with nothing but a stub of coal in his stocking on Christmas morning, cursing Play, Tesco shop assistants and Microsoft. In his words he’s “Gutted.”
3 replies on “X Box 360 Blues”
If it makes you feel any better, Shannon has decided against XBox 360 – several of his friends managed to get them and are returning them due to bugs. Since Matt has had to wait, maybe those bugs will be worked out.
Oh wow–I’m sure by now Microsoft has corrected the problem and you’ve received your xbox 360. The question is–has it broken down and succumb to the infamous “red ring of death”?
It did go by the way of the big red ring.
They shipped it away and back. I was eager having heard some of my mates tell me that they’d been given a new unit with HDMI.
But then mine returned fixed but in a sorrier state then it had left me…
Still they did fix it. I wish they’d sent it back in the pristine condition it had left me though. 🙁