I finally made the decision to purchase the Xbox 360 when I found the following promotion: If you own an original Xbox and currently have an Xbox Live account and you purchase a 360 between November 1st and December 24th and transfer your live account from your old Xbox to your new 360 Microsoft will send you a free copy of Halo 3.
I was waiting for the right sale/incentive to make the jump to purchase the 360 and this was definitely it. A free copy of what amounted to this generation’s version cabbage patch kid? I’m so there. So on November 27th I picked up an X360 pro. I went home and registered on the Xbox.com site for the promotion and transferred my Xbox live account to my new 360. Woo Hoo! Now I just had to wait “through January 18th” to receive my copy of H3.
Nearly two months later and by January 16th I still hadn’t received my free copy of Halo 3. I had what I guess you’d call a premonition that I wouldn’t be receiving my game on time so I decided to call 800-4MY-XBOX to see what the status was. The long and short of that first call is that it took them forty minutes to tell me my disc would be arriving on the 18th.
As you might have guessed, the 18th came and went and I’m still Halo-less. I called Xbox customer support on the 20th and spoke to a very nice service rep. I’m going to stop right now to mention that everyone I’ve talked to at 800-4-my-xbox is frighteningly polite, which is fine because I’ll take unnaturally nice over commonly discourteous any day. They also keep referring to the free copy of Halo 3 as a “replacement disc”. During each call I have to inform them at least once that it is not a replacement disc but a free promotional disc. Anyhow my call then gets forwarded to a supervisor named Miss Chiqui (pronounced cheeky) who graduated with a doctorate in warm fuzzies. She is extremely polite, sweet, and helpful (I’m fully convinced that Xbox customer service reps are the direct descendents of the Stepford Wives). She tells me that she’s extremely sorry that my replacement disc hasn’t arrived and will send out another one. I decide that if it’s easier for them to say “replacement” instead of “promotional” then who am I to correct them? I thank her for her kindness and understanding.
I also decide after getting off the phone that should I end up with two Halo 3 discs that one will be auctioned off to benefit small animals.
So about a week goes by and I still haven’t received Halo 3. I put in another call to the Xbox help-line and after being put on hold for a merciful 5 minutes or so I’m told that it will take up to six weeks for my disc to arrive. Hoo Ha Marines! Looks like I’m Call of Duty bound for another 6 weeks or so. That’s ok because I can hone my much need-to-be-honed CoD4 skills.
I’d love to hear from others who participated in this promotion. Have you received your free copy of H3 yet? I will update as soon as 1) I get Halo 3 or 2) I call customer service again. Stay tuned.
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