It was a little stunning to learn last week that at least one disgruntled Xbox 360 owner had decided to skip the regular channels when dealing with a burnt out 360 and instead went straight to Bill Gates. Even more stunning, Gates apparently knocked some heads and got the guy sorted out in record time (24 hours).

While Consumerist reader, and Xbox 360 owner, Jon was delighted with the outcome, it seems Microsoft was not so much. Today they've dropped us a friendly note to remind everyone that Bill really isn't your go-to guy for Red Rings of Death:

Bill Gates or Microsoft executives are not an appropriate escalation point for customer service issues. Customers experiencing issues with their Xbox 360 console should contact Xbox Customer Service. Our customer service team is well equipped to ensure that the repair process goes smoothly.

That said, Microsoft stands behind its products and takes responsibility to ensure that every Xbox 360 console owner continues to have a fantastic gaming experience. We are continually improving the design and performance of the Xbox 360 consoles to decrease the likelihood that a customer will experience the three flashing red lights. In the event they do, they are covered for three years under our extended warranty.

Wow, can you imagine the tongue lashing the likely tsunami of angry emails spurred? Gates, I suspect, may be retired, but he's not THAT retired.

Emailing Bill Gates Results in New Xbox [Consumerist]

USA Today ran one of those no-brainer stories today about how people won't, in fact, pay anything for electronics and do have limits for how much they're willing to spend. The story was spurred by last week's announcement by Steve Jobs that he was dropping the price of the iPhone by $200 (Hey, it suckered me into getting one.)

After citing an analyst saying that most consumers will only pay about $400 for a "typical electronic item" the story goes on to list "several recent cutting-edge devices (that) have struggled to find buyers" among them, both the PS3 and Blu-ray players.

•Sony in July lopped $100 from the price of its $599 PlayStation 3 video game system, even though researcher iSuppli estimates it costs more than $800 to make. Sony's move came after being outsold more than 2-to-1 by rival Nintendo's $250 Wii. (Microsoft's Xbox 360, starting at $280, has also outsold PlayStation 3.)

•Blu-ray players were expected to dominate the new market for high-definition DVD, but sales are falling short of expectations, says tech analyst J.P. Gownder with researcher Forrester. The players, made by Philips, Samsung, Sony and others, start at about $450. Players using a rival technology, HD-DVD, start at about $250. Despite Blu-ray's powerful backers, HD-DVD players are outselling it, Gownder says. (Exact numbers aren't in yet.) That's because the average high-definition TV owner only wants to pay about $204 for a DVD player, he says.

Double whammy Sony, ouch.

There was a bit of a flutter last week on the Intertubes when Tiger Direct started listing Gears of War for the Xbox 360 as in-stock and shipping.

People were speculating like crazy about the chance to grab the game almost two months early. I quickly hopped onto the site and ordered it.

Today, I hit up the site to see if the game was shipping yet, as promised. I was not too surprised to find that the order said that the order had been sent to another company for "fulfillment." Suspecting that was double speak for "We screwed up and this was really a pre-order." I hit Tiger Direct's live chat to try and squeeze the truth out of a rep.

My not so friendly rep took forty-five minutes to first feign confusion about my direct question, then, then lie to me about the reason for the delay and then finally admit that the order, which minutes before he was saying was delaying because of heavy orders, was in fact always a pre-order.

Way to go Tigers Direct. Love the lies. Keep it up. Brian Crecente

Hit the jump if you'd like to read the full transcript.
Please wait while we find an agent to assist you...
You have been connected to Sasha T.
Brian Crecente: Hi there, I just wanted to confirm my order is going to be shipping in three to four days as the site said, not next month.
Brian Crecente: I5951584
Sasha T: GIVE ME ONE MINUTE SIR AND I WILL HELP YOU WITH THIS
Brian Crecente: thanks
Sasha T: ok what seems to be the problem with the order
Brian Crecente: ?
Brian Crecente: when am i receiving it
Brian Crecente: will it ship this week as the page stated or not?
Sasha T: let me look into it
Brian Crecente: is that what you were doing for the last ten minutes?
Sasha T: yes sir but I don't see when it will be sent out. it does tell me that it will take from 7-21 business days to reach you.
Brian Crecente: well, is this a preorder, or is it an order for an item you have in stock, as you said on the site?
Sasha T: the reason the item is taking long to send out to you is because the item was on heavy back order and we ran out of stock
Brian Crecente: it was listed as in stock when i ordered it and now it says that it's been sent to another company for fulfillment. What does that mean?
Sasha T: that means that at the time we had it, but the product had more of a high demand then when had in stock so we had to order more to fulfil all the orders placed for it
Brian Crecente: and you have no idea when it will become available?
Sasha T: it should be out by 11/07/06
Brian Crecente: thats in a month and a half, your site said this was availabe. It sounds like you guys just lied about the game, saying it's available when in fact your just doing pre-orders.
Sasha T: I apologize for the misunderstanding this is a preorder item and please advise if you want to cancel
Brian Crecente: i want to cancel
Sasha T: ok sir give I will do that for you
Brian Crecente: please send me confirmation of the cancellation and I am very displeased with the misrepresentations made on the website
Sasha T: our system doesn't provide us with conformation emails. we internally cancel the orders
Brian Crecente: Is there a way for me to confirm the order is canceled?
Sasha T: yes if you check the order status on tigerdirect.com it would show cancelled with in 3-4 business days
Brian Crecente: thanks
Sasha T: you welcome
Sasha T: We'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for your business, and for this opportunity to assist you.

Have a great day, and thanks for shopping with TigerDirect.com!
Thank you for using TigerDirect Chat. You may now close this window.
Your session has ended. You may now close this window.

I finally got around to re-ordering the missing CPU for my soon to be built computer. A few months back I ordered a bunch of pieces and parts to build a new PC. I went with NewEgg for everything but the CPU. And wouldn't you know it, WiredZone decided to screw me on my CPU order. I had ordered an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Dual Core S-AM2 from them because it was listed for so little, but after waiting for a month they emailed me to say that the order had been canceled. When I contacted them they claimed that the chip has been canceled by AMD.

Hello Brian,The AMD shipment never came to us. AMD is not providing us with ETAs. We have several backorders for this processor and your order will be one of the first to ship when this arrives. Unfortunately we depend on AMD to ship the products and they haven''t been able to keep up with the demand.We value your business and look forward to answer any questions you may have.

That's right, AMD had decided to stop making their top of the line CPU for their brand new socket a month after launching it.

I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I suspect the truth is that AMD is having trouble meeting demand and everyone is price gouging because of it.

WiredZone, I suspect, wanted to take part in the fun.

So I went back to NewEgg, head in hands and shamefully ordered the 4600+ CPU instead.

I expect it to him my house later this week.

I've put everything else together, so in theory this should be a pretty quick operation.

Speaking of computers: A funny thing happened last month.

You may recall my post about Microsoft's decision to hand out free computers to review publications as part of their launch of Vista.

At the time I said I understand the reasoning, that it's a lot like giving out consoles to reviewers, but that it still left me feeling uncomfortable.

Well, the day I received the parts for my new computer (sans the CPU) I also received a big-ass box from Microsoft.

I opened it up to discover a top of the line Voodoo computer inside.

Turns out that I was among the 25 or so reviewers they sent the computer out to.

After a longish conversation with a Msoft rep and Chris Donahue, director of Windows graphics and gaming, I went to my editor at the Rocky to discuss whether I should return the PC.

The final decision was that I should keep it as a loaner, meaning it remains the property of Microsoft and not mine partly because it was loaded with an advanced copy of Vista and there were no rules about my reviewing or writing about the operating system early. Msoft also said I would be getting software updates for the computer as time went on. So I went ahead and ordered the new CPU for my personal computer and hooked up the Voodoo computer to my big screen downstairs. My desktop will be my personal computer and home to an immense stash of illegal music and video files.

Hahahaha, just kidding Microsoft, you know I love you.

I will be keeping my personal computer and its contents separate from the loaner sent me by Microsoft.

Later this week I'll be posting up a feature about my lengthy interview with Donahue about their push for Vista and the issues that I think could be caused by loaning the main PC reviewers in the country identical computers.