This story has been floating around the inter-tubes all day, and quite frankly I’m sick of hearing people go on about it. So I will now go on about it myself, but with a twist viewpoint in which I will not bash Microsoft. I’ve seen the details, heard the second hand accounts, and read the comments from other blogs and can only assume that this guy, along with the majority of the internetz must have little to no common sense. And as a quick helpful hint to those who do not know what it means to send your system in to get refurbished, I provide you with this little bit of knowledge:

American Heritage Dictionary -
re·fur·bish (rē-fûr’bĭsh) re·fur·bished, re·fur·bish·ing, re·fur·bish·es:
To make clean, bright, or fresh again; renovate.

He says he called Microsoft to ensure that they would not be sending a replacement system, check. He packaged carefully with a note to make them aware that he art and signatures were there as collector pieces and asked them nicely to be careful about smudging. What he did not do was realize that none of this would really have any impact on the process that his system was about to go through. I DO NOT KNOW FOR FACT, and if someone does I would love to have clarification so I can have my viewpoint here swayed, but if Microsoft return/repair centers are like anyone else’s they are basically assembly lines of techs all doing a piece of the work for your item. I can tell you that the phone rep has nothing to do with the actual repair crew or is even located anywhere near it for that matter. And the person that opens the box probably does so, removes the unit, and trashes everything else. Why would he look for a note, does this hourly waged Joe even speak English? Doubtful. Then he puts it on a cart or shelf for some other hourly waged Joe to diagnose, then on down the line and so on. At some point it probably comes to some other hourly waged Joe who’s job is to go the extra step for the customer by cleaning up their dingy system as a courtesy. That’s right, this poor shlep, who probably has no real interest or knowledge of actually being a gamer just does his job, wipes off dirt, and grime, and in this case ink (by the way their are several industrial cleaners that will take sharpie right off, just ask our buddies who pass out at the New Years party every year) and is probably thinking this thing belongs to some little kid who trashed the expensive toy their parents bought them. Then they pack it up all nice and new like and send it off to the customer hoping that their work will be appreciated, or more than likely just collecting their paycheck.

While this may not be the exact scenario, and it is possible that one of said hourly waged employees was just a jerk, there is still one other reason that this young man is basically an idiot. If this was a prized collectible, which I would say it was because those sigs and artwork were pretty impressive, then why even send it out? If this alleged hardcore gamer, who brought this box around to different events to collect these treasured assets was truly hardcore, why not just buy another? A base starter unit isn’t that expensive, and he could set the dead collectors piece on a shelf for display. I mean really, what did he think was going to happen when he sent this thing out? Microsoft is a company like any other who deals with this stuff en mass, not on a personal level. It would be absolutely asinine to think he would get some kind of special treatment by taping a note to his system. Should we be mad at the big bad M$ for ruining this kids prize, or mad that this kid is a hot news story representing gamers as naive whiners who don’t have the sense to understand how big companies work. Yes it sucks that the system failed in the first place, but that horse has already been beaten to death. This is just some jerk who is crying because he probably realizes how stupid he was for sending it off in the first place and figures M$ is an easy enough target to turn into the bad guy.