Last night I got an email from the xbox service account telling me that any resolution would have to be reached by phone.  

This morning, I called.  I talked to a guy who was pleasant enough, but completely useless.  He got a "specialist" for me.  She was also pretty useless. First, she tried to insist that I couldn’t do anything till I got the xbox back, because it might be possible that they mailed me the wrong one.  But eventually she said she could "escalate" my complaint now, instead.  That means that I can call back in 3-5 business days and they might have gotten some info from the service people about why they’re accusing me of tampering with my xbox.  Why it takes them 3-5 days to get that information is another great mystery.  

Also, I haven’t tampered with my xbox.  I know people who suggested it, who might actually know a thing or two about modifying consoles, but I decided not to let anyone mess with the xbox because I liked it well enough as it was and I felt that it would be a good thing to follow the rules.  Silly me.  

I tried to find out what the best thing that could happen if I called back and found out exactly what they were accusing me of.  The woman flatly refused to answer that question.  From what I can gather, the best I can hope for is their permission to send the xbox back in to Microsoft AGAIN and they’ll let me PAY THEM TO FIX IT.  

This whole mess is so stupid and annoying that it’s almost beyond my comprehension.  I can’t see any reason for them to make me jump through so many hoops.  My only thought is that they want me to give up.  

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m pretty stubborn.