Microsoft does a 360
Finally! Microsoft
This is the second time that Mr. Softy has gotten soft on enforcing the Pottery Barn rule. The original units shipped with manufacturer warranties that lasted for just a few months. Last year, Microsoft extended it to a full year.
I can feel the pain here. I got the dreaded three-flashing-red-lights error -- the complete failure warning that has plagued early versions of the 360 -- last year.
"It's a common flaw," I wrote at the time. "Microsoft even has an entire page devoted to it, and it's also one of the prompts on its customer service line. I've owned just about every major console since I was old enough to earn an allowance, and this is the first one that went bonkers on me within the first year of ownership. Thanks to what I see as a pretty skimpy warranty -- and my boneheaded ways for not looking into an extended warranty -- I'm out $139 plus shipping. I still don't know if I'll be getting my original unlucky machine back or some other refurbished reject, but at this point, my faith in Microsoft is about as buggy as my 360."
I was under the grace period of the revised warranty, yet Microsoft sent me a check for less than half of what it billed me for the original repair.
With Sony
Going around the block, buster
It's great to see Blockbuster
I have no idea what a Blockbuster store will look like in a few years, but it's unlikely to continue under the same tired model that it's operating as today. It has to evolve. If the company can be saved, someone like Keyes with a data-gobbling convenience store mentality is just what Blockbuster needs to survive.
Forget about making it a Blockbuster Night. In one swift move, the chain may have secured what it takes to make it through to the morning after.
Until next week, I remain,
Rick Munarriz
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Longtime Fool contributorRick Munarriz recommends windshield wiper fluid when trying to look back. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. He does not own shares in any of the companies in this story, save for Netflix. The Fool has a disclosure policy.