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OH BOY!!
Story of my life – and of my current gaming
career…..Since the inception of the 1st Xbox – I have never bought a
brand new Xbox or system. The first XBOX that I ever got I received as a
gift from my current wife. Then when the 360 came out – my brother, who
worked at a Blockbuster at the time, got me a refurbished one for my
birthday. Needless to say – as many of you know – the 360’s had this
GREAT problem the RRoD (Red Ring of Death). Well from the time that my
little brother (tF Adex) got me my first Xbox – to just recently I have
gone through 6 Xbox 360’s. The first four I had sent back to Microsoft
for free repair – but the last two I could not get fixed because of the
fact that they wanted to charge me money to have them fixed. But then news came…..news of the BRAND NEW, black, sleek and SEXY Xbox 360. Once I
saw the thing – my jaw dropped, and I was ready for one. But one small
problem – I had a functioning Xbox at the time. This is a story of how I
managed to lose my 6th Xbox and get the brand new sleek black
one…ENJOY!
It was early Saturday afternoon – and I was playing some
games with fellow members when my game decided to freeze. Knowing that
it did this from time to time – I just shut off the Xbox and proceeded
to turn it back on. But to my utter surprise – I saw my old friend the
RRoD. Upon seeing this – I got upset and excited at the same time. Upset
at the fact that I now did not have a box to play on – but excited in
the fact that now I have a REASON to get a new Xbox. Upon speaking to my
better half and convincing her that the money spent in the last 3 years
for old Xbox’s and the money that I would spend on the new one – well
the fact is I would save money in the long haul for the new one – with
the warranty – and Microsoft had stated the reason for the new one was
to eliminate the RRoD (HURRAY!!!) – SHE AGREED to me buying the $299
BRAND NEW BOX!! Boy was I excited!!! But before I rushed out the door to
buy a new one – I decided to call ahead – just to make sure they had
one.
Well needless to say – EVERY GameStop, Best Buy, Target and any
other retailer in my surrounding area was sold out. In fact a GameStop
in Time Square already had a list of pre order 90 people deep!!! Luckily
I called the GameStop that I frequent and they informed me that they
had NO one on the wait list and that they are expecting TWO to be
shipped next week. NEXT WEEK?!?!?! I couldn’t wait for NEXT WEEK!!! In
any case I hurried down to the street to the GameStop to put my money
down so that I could at least have one sometime in the next week or so.
While
I was in the elevator going down my building a light went off in my
head:
“What if I find out exactly how much after taxes the new
one costs – then “buy” a used arcade and deduct the money that is used
for that, that is being put toward the new 360 – and when the new one
comes in – I will bring the old 360 back and have the new one paid off?”
If
that thought process was hard to follow – let me explain it easier:
GameStop allows you to purchase used items from them that you can bring
back. In 7 days you can get your full refund and in 30 you can get
monies toward anything IN GameStop. This method would have allowed me to
prepay my new 360 (minus the expense of the old arcade) PLUS give me
access to a 360 that is functioning in the interim.
Once I explained
this to my friend at GameStop – he 110% understood and even stated:
“Shit dude – never thought about it – but yea that a fucking great idea –
gamer with brains….gamer with brains…” So the first steps were complete
– I had my reservation in (1st on the list!!) and I was walking home
with a functioning 360 to play on while I waited – CRISES AVERTED!!
Sunday
came and went – and I knew that I was not going to get it then, so
Monday was the day, or so I had hoped. The manager had instructed me to
call HIM to ensure that when they got the 2 in that he would ENSURE that
it went to me. So I did at the time he asked me to….my heart racing,
and my head expecting an answer – he told me it was not in…..My heart
dropped and I was UBER disappointed….but hey – at least I still had a
box to play on.
Tuesday rolled around and luckily I was busy at work
all day that I just didn’t notice the day fly by. But as I was talking
to a co-worker, my pocket felt a buzz around 5:00 pm. I reached to my
pocket to see what it was – but it did not show WHO called only that I
had a message. I quickly ran upstairs away from the basement of my
office and proceed to check my voice mail and this is what I heard:
“Hey
Chris – its Leo from GameStop – just like I said I would I am calling
to let you know that I have….”
CLICK
I didn’t need to hear
the rest – the “I HAVE” was good enough for me! I proceeded to call Leo
back and he told me that I would need to be in soon – and I told him
that I would be in the store in 1 hour and 15 min. The time that it
would take me to get home, grab the old box and run to the store.
Like
clockwork I was in the store at 6:15 pm with the old Xbox in hand and a
smile on my face. Leo looked at me and returned the smile and gave me
the “one second” hand signal and proceeded to go to the back office. He
couldn’t move fast enough for me – but as he came out from the back room
– there he was – the most beautiful man holding the most beautiful box
that I had seen. This was the FIRST TIME that I was buying a BRAND NEW
XBOX and I felt like a kid in a candy store.
We do the return, he
sells me the HDMI and Transfer cords and says – have a good day. As I
hurried home I could not have griped the bag any harder to ensure that I
was still holding my prize and that no crack head would try to steal
it. I got home and took all of the stuff out of the bag. There it lays –
the box that held the box – the transfer cord and the HDMI cable. What
to do first what to do first!!
I first unpacked the HDMI and TRASFER
cord and laid them to the side. Then I proceeded to open the box that
held the box. Once I opened the box I was staring at the new system. I
was giddy! As I pulled it out I looked at it in awe in my hands – the
smaller size, the sexy black, the SUPER fans and vents all around the
cassis. It was MINE. I carefully put the box to the side and began to
unpack the rest of the equipment. With the Xbox came a Headset (crap)
power cord and AV cords (both lighter and nicer then the predictor –
smaller too) and a BRAND new Blacked out controller. The only thing that
had color on this controller was the 4 buttons and the GUIDE button –
which was metallic silver and reflective (SICK).
After everything
was plugged in and the transfer was made – I was up and running – all
the same views – but now I just didn’t hear the Xbox working (sick) and
all the buttons on the face of the box were “touch screen” so no more
REAL buttons. This was a good and bad thing – because the sliest
movement round it could turn on or off and open/shut the DVD slide. But
on the plus side – it does make a sweet sound now when you do open/close
the DVD tray and when you turn it on and off.
All in all – I am
happy with this and happy that I now have a new Xbox.
OH BOY!!
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