They haven't even started a warranty countdown!

[Qweets]

Talked to one of the Tech guys on the phone asking about my replacement order and I was like "what happens if this new guitar craps out and dies?" hes like I wouldn't worry about it we haven't even begun the warranty countdown he said even if your instrument breaks months from now we will probably still replace it because we want everyone with a working operational game and we are trying our hardest to remedy the problems that people are having. So thats good news I suppose!

[admanimal]

I figured that would be the case. With so many people not opening their stuff until Christmas who are also going to end up with broken stuff, it would be an even bigger nightmare for them if they were sticklers about the warranty length. I wouldn't be surprised to see the warranty effectively last 6 months or more.

[MixPlus]

I bought my RockBand at Best Buy and they offerred me the 2 year performance plan warranty for $29.99. Based on all the issues people are having with the hardware seems to me it is a good idea to get the warranty plan. Best Buy says that if I have ANY issues for two years they'll repair and/or replace the hardware for free. I wonder if I'd be able to get RockBand II for free by the time this current stuff wears out. :D

Anyone have thoughts on this?

[albinousrex]

they wont give you rock band 2 for free

[MixPlus]

they wont give you rock band 2 for free

Maybe you misunderstand my question. I am not referring to game software (which doesn't go bad) when I say "RockBand II". What I am suggesting/asking is that if a year from now the hardware breaks one would assume that I would be getting as replacements whatever the latest and greatest hardware is at the time? Best Buy is not in the business of fixing game hardware are they?

[Jaacar]

Did you happen to get that gentlemans name by chance? If not, I'd think he was waving the white flag to stop angry phone calls with a statement like that. But then again he may be right, with no official statement from anyone, it's anyones guess.

[lordkemo]

The thing is... best buy will replace it or refund Your money. Thats the key. they won't have extra guitars or drums laying around to give you a new one. Nor will they extra copies of the game to give you right away. i'd say beware.

[Bakkster]

Assuming this was a consistent issue (either in manufacturing or in design) this is definitely in everyone's best interest. I think as long as they aren't getting peripherals back that were obviously abused, they'll probably keep repairing them until any systematic problems have been flushed out of the system.

I'm most interested to see if the problem was design or manufacturing related...

[MixPlus]

The thing is... best buy will replace it or refund Your money. Thats the key. they won't have extra guitars or drums laying around to give you a new one. Nor will they extra copies of the game to give you right away. i'd say beware.

Ok...so if in two years the RB gear is totally worthless I guess I can return the broken items for a full refund? Not bad if you ask me.

[Otheradam]

For the Best Buy warrenty, I think you have to return everything in the box and they exchange it for a new set. So if one of your instruments break, you have to return the entire package and they give you a new package. You can't just bring the broken guitar in and expect them to give you just a guitar. Also, it only works once. You have to pay $30 everytime you bring in a broken one to exchange.

[Comedian]

For the Best Buy warrenty, I think you have to return everything in the box and they exchange it for a new set. So if one of your instruments break, you have to return the entire package and they give you a new package. You can't just bring the broken guitar in and expect them to give you just a guitar. Also, it only works once. You have to pay $30 everytime you bring in a broken one to exchange.

I specifically asked about this at the Best Buy where I purchased my bundle. They also indicated I would need to bring the entire bundle back to exchange it in the event of hardware failure. Also, they stressed that only "normal wear-and-tear" would be covered, with that term defined by them. I could foresee endless hassles with arguing over broken foot pedals and what constituted normal use, so I decided to just forego the whole thing and depend on Harmonix's replacement policy.

If you are thinking about going with Best Buy's service plan, I'd recommend first having a talk with the manager of the service department of that store to confirm what would be covered, and what you'd have to do to take advantage of it. They didn't indicate there would be a one return limit to me, but they could have forgotten to mention that as well.