I bought an elite controller not even 7 months ago the right bumper broke. Its hanging by sliver of plastic. I thought to myself, thats cool, I'm sure a $150 controller will have a 1 year warranty and if not, microsoft usually stands behind their products anyhow. Boy was I wrong. Not only does your new $150 controller NOT have a warranty longer than 3 months, but they wont even service the controller if the bumpers break. The only thing covered are the machined, solid aluminum pieces that cant break anyhow (d-pad, paddle triggers, and thumbsticks)! Imagine that... the cheapest quality components in the elite controller are the very thing they wont fix. Whats worse, is that their way of resolving the issue is to guide you over the the xbox store to BUY ANOTHER [Mod Removed - Profanity] CONTROLLER THAT WILL JUST BREAK IN ANOTHER 5-7 MONTHS (after the new warranty is gone, mind you). This isnt a standard "business practice," its a scam and a slap to the face to the people who devoutly stand behind xbox and play on their platform. People are willing to pay a whopping $150 for a controller if that controller is quality. Thats why I got one. I expected it to not only work, but to outlast the generic, basic controllers that are included with the xbox. These controllers arent quality and the skimpy 3 month warranty and lack of service options prove my point.
I have read on several other forums, thread after thread, of the exact same issue happening from regular usage from tons of different people. All having the same issue of a failing bumper component (the right and left bumpers are just a single piece of cheap plastic that spans across the entire controller). Guess what? All of these people have went round and round with microsoft in hopes to get these controllers fixed and got the [Mod Removed - Profanity] instead. I dont get it, Instead of doing a recall and fixing the garbage bumper system, MS is letting them fly off the shelves hoping they last just long enough so that they dont have to honor any kind of warranty and then not even offer a way to repair the $3 part that is problematic and consistently breaks on so many of their controllers. Instead, they milk the consumer for another $150 for a controller that is MAYBE worth half of that.
I get that Microsoft needs to make money. Every business that wants to stay in business needs to. But when a company starts bidding out jobs to get the lowest cost for a product to sell, they need to stand by that product when it falls apart because it was made with inferior parts. This should HARDLY fall on the consumer. Especially when the product is made with shoddy craftsmanship and sold at a premier price point.
I will not buy another elite controller until mine gets replaced or repaired free of charge (which probably means that I will NEVER buy another since we all know what their warranty and service looks like). And now, I'm actually considering going over to playstation as soon as my family's two Xbox One's fail. I hate when people get screwed over by big companies like this and especially hate it when I'm one of said people.
My advice? Dont support this type of business practice by buying an elite controller. And, if you HAVE to have one, buy it straight from best buy or walmart and tack on the 2 year warranty they offer for $10. At least with them, they'll replace it when it fails (and it will fail way sooner than you think it should). If i could do it again, I would do it like that. But since I'm already out $150, I def will not be giving MS another $150 even though having an extra 2 yr warranty would make it worth it. I'm not giving MS any more money to distribute garbage to their consumer. It isnt right and they shouldnt be rewarded for putting garbage like this on the shelves without at least standing behind their products with a reasonable warranty or affordable service options.
I'm curious to see the numbers...
How many other people have had their elite controllers fail under a year? Under 6 months? If you have, leave a quick response stating what failed on the controller and roughly when it did after the purchase.