Microsoft has said that it will not charge the owners of XBox 360 consoles, manufactured before 1st January 2006, and that it will refund any fees already paid.
The company has stated that it noticed an irregular number of problems with a particular batch of XBox 360 consoles. The company stated that ...returns for repair are coming in for a variety reasons and it's a higher rate than we are satisfied with... Microsoft also added that, We've made the decision to comp repairs for consoles manufactured before January 1, 2006, and provide refunds to the small group of customers who have already paid for repairs.
Xbox 360 owners who have already paid for such repairs should expect a refund within 3-4 weeks.
This news comes as many owners of Microsoft's next-gen console were complaining about having to pay for such repairs and as the company was claiming that there were no XBox 360 hardware defects.