Backwards compatible PS3's in Europe have long waits for replacement
by Nick Doerr 
{ Apr 2nd 2008 at 4:00PM }
Here's a wake-up call for all you early PS3 adopters: months of waiting to replace a broken backwards-compatible unit. At least, in Europe for one guy. Member "oo Kosma oo" over at the NeoGAF forums posted a story about his busted 60GB PS3. He sent it in for repairs a month and a half ago, called up Sony, and got this message: "Sorry we don't have any stock of the 60GB left and we don't know when a shipment will arrive to replace your unit. Call back in 2/4 weeks for an update." Uh-oh. All we can say is: take good care of your backwards-compatible units, guys and gals. Keep them well-ventilated, buy something to clean them with (compressed air should suffice), and as tempting and harmless as it may sound, don't leave it on all the time. You never know what will set off an error or damage something. We wouldn't want you to have to wait around 3 months to even know when you'll get a new PS3. That's torture.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kenneth H. @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:09PM
WTF?!?!? This has been my worst nightmare...I had this same realization a couple months ago...was thinkin that with them fazing out the 60 gigs how would they replace mine if anything happened to it. THIS IS UN-F******* ACCEPTABLE!! You don't pay $600 to be treated like this. So much for "all PS3 owners are ELITE"....I wish Sony would do this to me...I would raise so much H***. SONY GET YOUR SKUs TOGETHER!!! And be very clear this is from a self-confessed PS3 Fanboy!!!
ruibing @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:31PM
You are overreacting. The PS3 is probably the most reliable console of this gen, so by the time it breaks the PS3 and PS2 would drop in price enough that you should be able to get a 40GB PS3 and a slim PS2 for less than what it cost you to get that 60GB PS3. At least, that is my plan.
Microswirl @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:55PM
@ruibing
You missed the point. Having your broken PS3 replaced is FREE... as in $0.00. So, even if PS2 were $50 and PS3 were $200... that would still be $250 more than FREE.
Phileoca @ Apr 2nd 2008 5:04PM
@ micro... it's free until it's out of warranty. Then it's not free.
Not everything you buy has a lifetime warranty.
Although the failure rate has been less than 1%, I'm not worried.
Microswirl @ Apr 2nd 2008 5:26PM
@Phileoca
How does that even BEGIN to refute what I've just stated? Ok, so if it's out of warranty it costs $150 to fix/replace. That's still falls well short of the price of a new PS3. I agree 100% with Kenneth H; he has every right to be pissed off about this.
Robbie @ Apr 2nd 2008 6:19PM
I had to get my PS3 60 gig sku replaced about 6 weeks ago. After sending my faulty unit away for testing i got a replacement 60 gig just a few weeks later. Top notch service from Sony after i had a completely unique fault which no-one else on the planet (to my knowledge) has also suffered.
mattclarkie @ Apr 4th 2008 11:39AM
I am on my 3rd. First DOA, second Dead within a few days.
I am not saying they are badly made, but I haven't had a good experience.
seamonkey420 @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:28PM
hehe.. i have a 60gb that had some issues.. however, since my warranty was up last week.. i decided on sunday to take it apart and cleaned it out..
since doing so, my ps3 has not had any previous freezing issues after its left on for 20 hours or more. :)
yay! :)
Aaron @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:15PM
Whats the big deal here? Everyone knows 60GB PS3 are no longer being made. Who cares how long it takes at least I would be happy getting another 60GB from Sony whenever they get more in.
Popfrogs @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:52PM
If that happens to me I'll just head to Costco and get a 40GB while I wait. When I get my 60 back, I'll return it or ebay it, no harm no foul.
Microswirl @ Apr 2nd 2008 5:12PM
"Who cares how long it takes"
What?! Seriously? Apparently you don't care, but the rest of us (y'know, people with standards and expectations and a sense of entitlement that comes with handing $400+ over to Sony) want our PS3s replaced ASAP.
Lars @ Apr 2nd 2008 8:19PM
Micro, you've obviously never been in a car wreck. You don't know what "undue pain and suffering" is until you've been slammed into by a convict driving a stolen car with no insurance while fleeing police. A year later, things still aren't sorted out.
Having said that, I do think 2 months is a bit long to just replace a broken PS3. I would think they'd be tossing him a new 80 instead of fussing with the out of stock units.
James @ Apr 3rd 2008 10:09AM
"Justice delayed is justice denied."
- William Gladstone, British PM
wisconsinista @ Apr 3rd 2008 2:54PM
Wow. I'm nervous because mine has never been the same following the patch released last week. I've read of similar issues with other 60g launch rigs as well. I'd push it alot further down the line than the customer service phoner. It's just a knob on the other end with no authority or knowledge of the matter whatsoever.
Volomon @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:19PM
They have to supply him with an 80GB if they can't find a 60GB. Thats what they were suppose to do. The only reason for the wait is if they are coming out with another unit thats more like the 60GB. Cause under your warranty it says they will replace it with something of equal or better value.
He had to have made a big deal out of it to not immediately get a 80GB.
paul @ Apr 2nd 2008 6:00PM
dey cnt cos he is from europe nd da 80g nver cam out over here
Popfrogs @ Apr 2nd 2008 6:26PM
I couldn't find a google translator for that comment.
paul @ Apr 2nd 2008 6:55PM
Okay then popfrogs i said that sony cant give the man in the article a 80gigabyte PLAYSTATION 3 system because they were never released in Europe and that is where he is from is that clear enough for you good now go learn how to read text you fool and cut me some slack I'm writing this from my PLAYSTATION 3 system
Volomon @ Apr 2nd 2008 8:48PM
Oh that's right they never did get any did they. Well hell then the guy should have waited till MGS4 bundle came out. Would have been a nice upgrade.
mattclarkie @ Apr 4th 2008 11:43AM
MGS bundle in Europe is 40GB.
SSG @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:22PM
I love my 60 gig and have not had any trouble with it... yet. It's funny because I bought it when it first came out and was bummed at the fact that i missed out on the summer blu-ray rebate, but i decided to send in one of the most recent holiday forms anyway. To my surprise, I got 5 free movies about 3 weeks ago. So, I applaud Sony for not totally dissing me and 60 gig in terms of the movies.
hey_big_dck psn:fuliano626 @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:46PM
my ps3 frezzes almost everyday but only when i play cod4 and a simple turn off turn on works but if it ever stopped i would gladly take the 80 and sell and buy a used 60gig
Wayne @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:49PM
Wait, how much warranty do we have on these things? I thought it would be at least 3 years.
I don't want to end up like an xblocks owner.
Popfrogs @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:54PM
It's a year from purchase date from Sony. Repairs for the 60GB out of warranty are running about $150 which is a bargain if you consider the alternative of buying a 40 or 80GB.
Volomon @ Apr 2nd 2008 8:42PM
The Xbox isn't reliable that WHY it has a three year warranty to prevent people from suing them. Nearly ever and all electronics come with a one year warranty. Welcome to the world.
Bryan @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:50PM
That sucks big time. I guess you shouldn't leave it on all the time and then you wouldn't have these kind of problems. I have an 80gig and I love it. I have a PSone an a PS2 and they still work great. I just now got a disc read erro on the very first PS2 but all you have to do is put in a memory CD and it will start to work again. I think SONY stands behind all of there products and I have a lot of them and I have had nothing go wrong so far. So in saying all of this GOOD JOB SONY for making great products that last a long time unlike them PROD360 machines that are out there. Peace out all!!!
JimyD @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:57PM
Great, I just sent in my 60GB due to a dead Blu-ray drive so it looks like it's going to be awhile. I bought a damn DualShock 3 from Play-Asia early so I could use it for my new copy of MLB 08: The Show and now they're just sitting there, still upopened.
What am I doing during my downtime? Playing Xbox 360. Oh, the irony!
Kodros @ Apr 2nd 2008 5:18PM
I doubt it. The dude never said what was actually wrong with his PS3 that required him to return it. If it was the PS2 chip or the motherboard (maybe), then that would explain why it's such a long wait. A dead drive is easy and quick to fix since they still make them.
wonway01 @ Apr 2nd 2008 5:15PM
If it is in warrenty then you would be mad but out of warrenty they have zero obligation to have any or do anything with it. I believe very few are still under warenty any longer anyway.
Microswirl @ Apr 2nd 2008 5:30PM
"they have zero obligation to have any or do anything with it"
Yeah, that's a good way to run a business... into the ground.
Zombie Huggles @ Apr 2nd 2008 6:05PM
It sucks they're taking so long...could they not just "slide" you an 80 gig? I mean, it still has BC and the extra 20 gigs make up for the not-so-sure software BC. My warranty is already gone, but I personally like having PS2 hardware.
RVCA208 @ Apr 2nd 2008 6:05PM
Yeah a bunch of people are getting disc read errors after the new firmware update. looks like I'm going to have to send mine off as well, unless someone knows how to clean the Blu-ray scanner.
gwizah @ Apr 2nd 2008 6:16PM
I own a launch 60 Gig and it stopped loading discs when you slide them in. Even if I force the disc, all that ends up happening is the disc gets spit back out. However, When I power the unit down and power it back on, it actually loads the disc!
I was thinking of sending it back for repairs, but now Im worried about not being able to get a working u nit with an EE chip inside it within a reasonable amount of time. Also, I already had ONE unit die suddenly in january. How in the hell do I get two bum PS3's?
Emophia @ Apr 2nd 2008 6:27PM
That's terrible customer service.
Learn a little something from Microsoft Sony...
Lars @ Apr 2nd 2008 8:27PM
Microsoft only extended their warranty in regards to the RRoD. My nephew has a 360 which won't run for more than 15 minutes without an external fan and it likes to scratch discs. Microsoft won't do anything about those problems.
why not the LS2/LS7? @ Apr 2nd 2008 6:34PM
Sony didn't think far enough ahead. Dumbos. You're telling me if my NTSC 60GB (with nearly 100% compat) dies, I'm completely screwed?
Sony. Get with it.
Zombie Huggles @ Apr 2nd 2008 6:39PM
Learn from Microsoft? HD-DVD not internal, Wireless not internal, wireless controllers not a standard, and then 30-40% failure rate? Though I'm worried about how Sony's going to handle this, the last thing i want is them to "Learn from Microsoft."
Carlton @ Apr 2nd 2008 7:09PM
I think he meant learn by not making the same mistakes they did.
KingDzee @ Apr 2nd 2008 6:44PM
That story is prob bull anyway. Yup, im right, its bull.
Robert @ Apr 2nd 2008 6:52PM
About 6 months ago i had a failure to read error on my blue ray disks and sent my 60 gig in and had it back in 1 week. In the forums at sony playstation i have read a few others have had the same quick turn around time. So i believe this may be a european thing sorry for the friends on the other side of teh pond. but here in the usa this doesnt seem to be a problem yet.
never$$hort @ Apr 2nd 2008 7:44PM
This exact nightmare started to become a reality for me last monday... Got the the traffic light of death.. if you ever see a yellow light on your power bar, you are screwed... Luckily got mine at Costco so I was able to return it, but yeah Sony wanted $150 and I was only outta warranty for 3 weeks..
xino @ Apr 2nd 2008 7:55PM
I just had my 60 gig die last week. I really wish PS3 Fanboy had a post about CoD3 sometimes frying out the power supply of the 60 gigs. In fact, the only place I've found any information about that "error" is on the official PS3 forums. I wish they would just fix what's wrong and send back my original 60gig. For some reason I prefer that over the 80 gig. *shrugs* I do NOT look forward to redownloading all the stuff I have on my HD. I don't see why they can't just copy or install my data to a new drive.
Sorry for the long post. I just had to vent. Hopefully I'll get my 60gig back within the next week. At least nothing is coming up on the store anytime soon. ;)
Lars @ Apr 2nd 2008 8:25PM
The first thing I did when I got my PS3 is put in a 250GB drive. So, in the unlikely event of hardware failure, I can just pop out my 250 and hang onto it until my replacement comes.
Aragami777 @ Apr 2nd 2008 8:49PM
I'm not sure about this, I had my 60gb BC PS3 die on me less than a month ago, I called Sony and they replaced it, they tried sending me a 40gb at first to which I was outraged. However a few days later I got a replacement 60gb a few days later and have been mostly playing PS2 games on it.
Bad news for me is this replacement has stopped reading discs after the update, I called Sony but was waiting for over 15mins on hold before I hung up and emailed them, instead of having a huge phone bill at Sony's cause. Now if I have to wait longer than a week I will call trading standards or some other legal body as this is disgusting that I payed over £400 at the time and they can't cover it competently under warranty, time will tell if this story is true. I hope that it is not.
Derevartives @ Apr 2nd 2008 10:00PM
I can confirm this, it happened to me a while ago (BD disk drive read error) and after around 2 months of waiting i called up my distributor and was told it would take another 2 months to replace it for this specific reason.
It's all good though since i had bought the bundle with motorstorm, resistence and 2 sixaxis controllers for 6000kr and got my money back without ever retuning the bundled products, so i essentially got 2 games and 1 controller for free.
I ended up buying a 40gig PS3 2 games and one 250GB harddrive for less money then my original purchase, and i still have my 8 year old PS2 anyway.
never$$hort @ Apr 3rd 2008 2:11PM
Same here bought a PS3 bundle for $754 at Costco during Xmas of 06... when my 60gig overheated last monday I returned it got all my cash back and went and bought a 40gig(BC doesn't matter to me, 2 USB ports sux tho), anyways still had $350 left over!! So I bought a 200gig HDD for $100 and pre-ordered 2 DS3 controllers and still was able to put over $100 back in my pocket!! So it was a blessing in disguise even tho losing my game saves sucked...
Fireball @ Apr 3rd 2008 5:24AM
reply to "Lars" @ 40
That HD trick wont work sadly. I did that with my UK 60gig, but when i put the drive into my new replacement 60gig, it said the HD was locked to another PS3 and had to be formatted. HD's are hardware locked, so unless they send you the SAME PS3 back, the drive will need formatting. Best thing to do - plug in an external HD and back up all the installs. That works really well, just delete all the trailers and demos first to save some time/space with the back-up
jorgiex @ Apr 3rd 2008 5:48PM
some people think it is ok to wait for a repair but it isn't you wouldn't want to buy a car and after you get it when you call the dealer up and say my cars not working can you replace it and you get a message that they don't make that model any more and that the most they could do is give you something of equal or great value. Like if a 60Gb unit is replaced with an 80Gb unit. For me that's not good enough. Considering that the 80Gb model is not 100% backwards compate comapered to the 60Gb units. I better start babying my 60Gb unit even more but placing it in a clean room..like intel's clean room
robert @ Apr 4th 2008 9:39AM
it's not just europe... sent mine in (60gb) because the drive quit loading discs and it looks like i'll be waiting a while for my replacement.
http://www.us.playstation.com/support/repairstatus