EB Australia to stop stocking 360s?

geordie10

geordie10

geordie10

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http://palgn.com.au/article.php?id=...rosoft+Australia+feuding+over+defective+360's

The Xbox 360 isn't the most reliable console around and has caused many a gamer a problem - seeing those red rings is enough to make any gamer sad!

A post over on Kotaku AU is claiming that there is a standoff between Microsoft Australia and EB Games Australia. According to a transcript sent to the website, EB Australia has $10 million worth of defective Xbox 360's that Microsoft will not take back. EB are quite obviously frustrated by this and apparently they will no longer be stocking the Xbox 360, except for second-hand units.

"There have been threats of EB dropping the Xbox range all together," says the transcript. To recoup their losses, EB is said to be trying to repair the units and sell them second-hand. The transcript also goes on to state that EB is frustrated about losing $85 per console sold since Microsoft introduced the standard three year warranty, as EB is now unable to offer their own. The three year warranty was introduced in response to a lawsuit.

Kotaku contacted Microsoft for a comment, but were met with the following non-comment: "We're not going to comment on this." We checked out the EB website and no brand new Xbox 360's were available in our area.
 
http://palgn.com.au/article.php?id=...rosoft+Australia+feuding+over+defective+360's

The Xbox 360 isn't the most reliable console around and has caused many a gamer a problem - seeing those red rings is enough to make any gamer sad!

A post over on Kotaku AU is claiming that there is a standoff between Microsoft Australia and EB Games Australia. According to a transcript sent to the website, EB Australia has $10 million worth of defective Xbox 360's that Microsoft will not take back. EB are quite obviously frustrated by this and apparently they will no longer be stocking the Xbox 360, except for second-hand units.

"There have been threats of EB dropping the Xbox range all together," says the transcript. To recoup their losses, EB is said to be trying to repair the units and sell them second-hand. The transcript also goes on to state that EB is frustrated about losing $85 per console sold since Microsoft introduced the standard three year warranty, as EB is now unable to offer their own. The three year warranty was introduced in response to a lawsuit.

Kotaku contacted Microsoft for a comment, but were met with the following non-comment: "We're not going to comment on this." We checked out the EB website and no brand new Xbox 360's were available in our area.
Click to expand...

Pretty bad news for Microsoft if it rings true, but if they refuse to own up for their own failings and miserably-made consoles, they deserve every bit of pain going to them. It's no doubt going to sting their potential future revenues as EB is quite a large chain in Austrialia. Oh dear me Microsoft.
 
$10 million sounds like a lot (If we are talking US dollars).

I don't think MS will care that much tbh. I am fairly sure that Australia is a very very small market (for hardware at least), and it is just 1 vendor (I have no idea how big EB are down under, obviously if it was EB usa or the company that now runs EB in UK then I would see a problem as they are a big vendor here and in USA).

I can't recall the site but I saw some stats of ps3s sold in Australia, and they sell more than 360, and it was a really low amount, per week.

I assume these are pre 3 year warranty consoles so EB are stuck with them. Make me wonder what other shops had to do with the old consoles (in Australia and other countries, I just assumed that MS has to take them back as they broke within a year). Maybe laws are different down under?


rp2000
 
Interesting. I'm confused though as I assumed that if a console is defective and is returned to the shops, it would get sent to the distributor, who would send it back to MS, thus the only people out of pocket would be MS?
 
it's about £4.4 million, about 15,880 consoles if you take them as £280 each (about 18,000 if you take them as £250 each).

I suspect there is more to it than the article states, as it also mentions that EB aren't happy about losing their $85 per unit extended warranty (although surely if so many are faily EB Aus would be happy not to have to keep paying out on that warranty?).
 
It does sound too bad to be as straight forward as the article suggests..

What if EB did a deal with MS that they would handle warranties for a reduction in wholesale costs which sounds more likely..
In which case, EB took a 'gamble' and it backfired on them.. however, I'd expect MS to do a deal over the RROD..

I assume that the 'threat' of not stocking the 360 only relates to the console, they wouldn't be daft enough to pass up the revenue stream of the games..
 
Werewolf said:
it's about £4.4 million, about 15,880 consoles if you take them as £280 each (about 18,000 if you take them as £250 each).
Click to expand...

I wonder if those consoles are included in Microsofts sales totals and how many other retailers are in a similar situation ?
 
I can't even remember how many of the machines I got through, if it wasn't for all the great games on it then I would have got rid of it all a long time ago instead of only recently doing it.
 
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