Both Consoles Back, How Did MS and Sony do?

Well about 3 weeks ago I lost my PS3 to a bad Blu Ray drive. A week later my Elite got the three lights that turn the color of the devil. So over the last couple weeks I have been able to see how each company handles the repair service.

Sony- 
Called the night of the death to my console and was on hold for over an  hour so I gave up and called in the morning. Once connected the pleasant woman on the phone spoke perfect English and had me off the phone in 15 min.  Four days later my boxes arrived, yes for some reason Sony sent me two boxes. Not a big deal, I picked the one I liked best and sent it back with all the paperwork they requested. Sony requires a copy of your original receipt even if you have it registered on their site. Was not able to track progress on a website, waited till an email informed me of the shipping number.  16 days later I had received my PS3 from UPS. I received the same unit I sent in, no notes were in the box. Because the PS3's harddrive is built into the unit I had to backup important game saves to a USB thumb drive. This worked just fine but can be a bit annoying when having to move over many saves. Perhaps I could have saved them into folders to make the process easier but I was too excited to play a game of MLB The Show to care. Overall solid performance by Sony  and so far the fix worked perfectly.

Microsoft
Called the night of my red rings (laughing at the fact that both my systems died within 2 weeks of GTA), the person on the phone was very hard to understand but I pushed through it.  One thing MS does is pull all your info from their website when you register your console. They ask you to confirm info and that is it. Box shipped out and received 4 days later.  Packaging was not quite is good as the PS3 box but it did the job. No paperwork required as MS uses the bar code from the consle to scan in and gather info.  This is very handy as you can track the progress of your console right on their website. Both consoles were shipped to Texas which I find odd, must be something in the water down there that helps them fix electronics.  14 days later my package was delievered.  Opening the box MS did in fact send me a black console , I was a bit worried that perhaps my black Elite console would turn into a white premium. The plastic was tight around my consle as if it were new, the front of the console covered in the tight plastic from new electronics. There were  a couple things inclosed, one describing how to re-connect my controller to the console (duh) and a letter from MS letting me know they shipped me a new console so that I could get back into the game sooner. Along with this was a free month of Xbox LIVE for my trouble.   Since the 360's harddrive is external I snapped it on and it instantly pulled all of my settings over to the new console. Profiles, saves and settings were good to go.  Overall well done MS.

So final grades.

Both companies performed great and actually got me gaming sooner than they quoted. Microsoft showed a bit more sympathy for the dead system but perhaps that is because they have had plenty of practice.  Sony had better customer service on the phone but MS shined with the up to the minute web status.

I am happy to report that both companies came through and performed at a high level when their product breaks down. 

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