# On my 3rd PS3...Thank heavens for Costco!



## Rancho5 (Aug 20, 2009)

When the lady at Costco told me that they did not consider the PS3 a computer and it therefore was covered by their regular "satisfaction guaranteed" warranty and not their "90 day warranty", I had no idea how grateful I would soon be for their policy.

First one had a hard drive issue and locked AFTER Sony warranty expired. Returned no questions asked.

Second one had wi-fi issues. All of a sudden stopped recognizing my router. Returned no questions asked.

Third one picked up yesterday. I did have to kick in an extra $20.00 because they now sell the 160gb rather than the 120 gb but totally worth it.

I shudder to think where I would be if I had bought it online.

I do not work for Costco. I just happen to love their return policy and their polish smothered in kraut and deli mustard.

Just my $0.02 but if you are considering a PS3, I would not go anywhere but to Costo to get it AND keep EVERYTHING!!! ALL receipts, paperwork, boxes, packing, etc. They glanced at mine for 5 seconds, saw I had it all in order and gave me an immediate refund.


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## MatrixDweller (Jul 24, 2007)

Mine went YLOD about a year ago and I haven't purchased another one (got a stand-alone instead). If I do I'll be sure to get it at Costco. 

I heard they are the same way with TV's and Projectors. Too bad they didn't sell higher end ones.


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## engtaz (Jul 9, 2010)

Congrats. I didn't know PS3's were failing that much.


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## Ares (Nov 23, 2009)

Glad to here that Cosco took care of it for you Rancho.




engtaz said:


> I didn't know PS3's were failing that much.


They usual don't, the last number that was thrown out there was 3% of course this was some time ago. It was a report done by ars technica comparing the failure rates of the three consoles back 2008, I believe the industry standard for electronics to fail is 15% within 3-4 years after purchase.
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## recruit (May 9, 2009)

Sometimes you can just be unlucky and I believe that most of Sony products even the PS3 to be quality products and I never have had any problems with any of there kit which I have bought over the years, you certainly are lucky to be able to be covered via Costco and there policy is pretty good in comparison to other retailers which might not do the same.


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## waldo563 (Apr 26, 2009)

My son's 60GB PS3 just experienced the dreaded yellow light of death. The YLOD apparently indicates a general hardware failure which can be caused by multiple issues but the consensus on the 60GB models is that they are overheating, the main board warps and the softened solder breaks connection with the CPU and/or Graphics chip. In any event, this failure seems to be not uncommon and mainly hitting the 60GB models. My experience with Costco returns has been positive as well so buying failure prone electronics from them may not be a bad idea.


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## Moonfly (Aug 1, 2008)

I wouldnt call PS3's failure prone electronics, although its very positive your store made the experience so easy. To date I have personally bought 5 xbox 360 consoles and 1 PS3. Out of the 360's only 2 (60% failure rate for me personally) are working, and 1 is a slim so it really should be. The other white console has recently begun showing signs of disc read failure and if it goes I will be at an 80% failure rate within 4 years. My PS3, although granted it gets little use, has never missed a beat, and even my slim console has started to give me doubts.

The PS3 is a rock solid piece of kit with a very low failure rate. I think this actually helps retailers respond more positively when things do occasionally go wrong. Its always good to hear of good customer service.


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## waldo563 (Apr 26, 2009)

Dan,

Agreed, "failure prone" was probably a poor choice of words and to be honest, I actually have never dealt with this retailer for a gaming console return but have returned other electronics. I still have my original 40GB PS3 working just fine. Although it is used mainly as a Blu-Ray player these days and sees significantly less operational time than my XBox 360, I am on my 4th one of those. So, at least from my perspective, the PS3 is absolutely more reliable than my XBox. Since I haven't bothered to gather any statistics to back this up so this is pure conjecture, it seems that game consoles in general (with variations within the group by manufacturer) have a higher failure rate than other consumer electronics.


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## Rancho5 (Aug 20, 2009)

I was a little nervous about buying a PS3 as a BR player for my HT so I at first bought a Panasonic, also from Costco. It was all about price to me then. I loved it but the unit broke, so when I toyed with the idea of the PS3 the lady at Costco basically told me it would be the last one I would ever buy so I bit the bullet and have loved it ever since. I don't think I can ever go back to a stand alone player after the PS3 and we hardly ever game with it. I just love seeing that huge family photo we set as the screen every time I fire her up.

Maybe we have the curse of failed electronics which I why on some items I always get that extended warranty. For some things not so much but if it's hundreds of dollars and the warranty is cheap, I'm in.

BTW, my brother in law has some funky magnetism thing with his body. He goes through cheap wristwatches like crazy, doctors can never get an accurate reading when they test him, and his cell phones, or blackberries only last for a couple of months before they are fried. No worries though because they always fry before the warranty is up so he just keeps getting new ones. Weird. He was also pronounced dead after a motorcycle accident and woke up naked on a gurney when they began slicing him open for his autopsy. But that's another story for another day. :gulp:


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## GranteedEV (Aug 8, 2010)

waldo563 said:


> Since I haven't bothered to gather any statistics to back this up so this is pure conjecture, it seems that game consoles in general (with variations within the group by manufacturer) have a higher failure rate than other consumer electronics.


Disagree, I've never had a gaming system die on me as far back as the the good ol "blow on the cartridge" days. I used to be a big time gamer growing up who always kept up with the magazines as a kid, and never did we hear about the type of ridiculous stuff that like the RROD. I think the x-box 360 is just plain shoddy build quality.. lots of cost cutting by microsoft. I've owned sega gear, nintendo gear, sony gear, and none of that stuff has ever died on me. 

Put this into perspective - the PS3s cost more than Xboxes, yet sony for most of its lifespan was losing money for every PS3 sold - with the intent on recouping that with things like the blu ray remote, controllers, and first party games. 

On the other hand, the less expensive 360 was always profitable for microsoft.

I love games, but I can't justify paying for an xbox 360. It's the modern day equivalent of those old emachines. Then again, I'm a different type of gamer and the only xbox games that ever piqued my interest were Bayonetta and Tales of Vesperia, so it's not entirely about build quality. Still, I own a wii and ps3 and there's a gap on the tv stand for another system.


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## bambino (Feb 21, 2010)

I'm going on 4 years with mine. I am not a gamer (too much) more for movies and picture slide shows and music.:T


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## Ares (Nov 23, 2009)

I have had my 40GB for three yrs going on four this coming February, I game daily a minimum of three hours and on the weekends with friends were looking at least 6 hours. Never had any issues to speak of with the hardware but did once have that HDD issue with firmware update 3.41.


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## recruit (May 9, 2009)

It always used to niggle me when buying from certain retailers and there push for extended warranties trying to make some more money out of a sale, but in this members case it would of been certainly needed, and for once I could say it would of been worth while taking out the extended warranty, so it is nice to know that in some cases where you have been unlucky and had problems it has been certainly worth it.


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## Moonfly (Aug 1, 2008)

Notice though, just how hard it is to get an extended warranty on an xbox. Stores only offer warranties on things they know wont break that often.

I do think an interesting poll could be put together though. 

Is you console reliable:


I have never had to get a replacement 360, its within a year old, and is still working fine
I have never had to get a replacement PS3, its within a year old, and is still working fine
I have never had to get a replacement Wii, its within a year old, and is working fine
I have never had to get a replacement 360, its 2 years or older, and is still working fine
I have never had to get a replacement PS3, its 2 years or older, and is still working fine
I have never had to get a replacement Wii, its 2 years or older, and is working fine

I think those results would tell a story, and quite possibly the truth. I also wonder if any has ever managed to get an extended warranty on a 360.


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## recruit (May 9, 2009)

Well I have had so many consoles spanning well over 20 years now and never had a problem with any of them, and there were also some Japanese imports and US imports in the mix too, so from my experiences it is very rare for consoles to break down and I still own some of them and they still work to this day :whistling:


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## Rancho5 (Aug 20, 2009)

UPDATE: Just got my 4th!! Number three stopped accepting the discs. I tried to put in discs and it would take it, make a horrible growling sound and stop half way. I'm lucky it didn't swallow my blu-ray.

The plus is that the day after I got #4, Costco dropped the price $50.00 so I took in my receipt and they gave me $50.00 back on a price match.

The sage continues...

I envy you guys who have PS3 "fats" because hardware-wise I'm not impressed with the slims.


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## bambino (Feb 21, 2010)

They must have changed something dramatically in the slims to make them so unreliable, unless you are just one of the unlucky winners that keeps getting lemons. That would get frustrating after awhile. On the bright side you did save $50.:T


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## recruit (May 9, 2009)

And I have been looking at getting the new PS3 slim in the January sales if there are any bargains, but will have to check out this so called reliability issue if it is a problem :scratch:


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## gsmollin (Apr 25, 2006)

Well I'm on my third laser fot a 20 GB PS3. I would be on my third PS3 if I had bought it at Costco. I don't think it has been reliable, because it has only been used for BD playing, which means it failed at about 200 hours of use the first time, and 300 hours the second time. It was easy to track that with my Netflix history. I think that is a pretty bad failure rate, don't you?


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## bambino (Feb 21, 2010)

I would say that it is very high considering i've had my fatty for allmost 4 years and countless hours of movie watching, very little gaming and a ton of streaming.
I think it's a shame if the failure rate is high because of all the features it has.:rolleyesno:


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## gsmollin (Apr 25, 2006)

I removed it from the rack and installed a penny bd player. Now it has an HDMI cable coiled at the side of the rack so I can play a game. We played Rock Band 3 yesterday. The PS3 might have another 100 hours on the third laser.


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## Rancho5 (Aug 20, 2009)

They are awesome for what they do, don't get me wrong. I love mine! I am just SOOOO glad that I bought it at Coscto. I could not fathom the hassles I would have to go through if I had bought it online. As far as I'm concerned these things can break once every six months and I'll keep getting new units and free hardware upgrades.


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## BrianAbington (Mar 19, 2008)

Most of my friends are on their 2nd or 3rd 360. 

Mine is 2 years old...only problem it had was a few months ago occasionally when I would turn it on the picture would be shifted 2 inches to the left. I was thinking the video card may be going out...however...the new dashboard update completely fixed the issue.

I had heard rumors that the update would kind of do a master reset without making you lose any data to kill the hacked consoles. What ever was involved fixed my problem.

I dust mine often, I have it sitting up on some Iso pucks to allow more air to flow in through the bottom vents (it also absorbs the vibrations from the disc drive, it used to make the shelf in the cheap tv stand vibrate.

I also turned a 200mm case fan into a USB fan that is installed in the back of the TV stand and plugs in to the USB port in the back of the console. Its close to the 3 fans in the back of the unit and pulls all of the heat out.


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## recruit (May 9, 2009)

The 360 can be a noisy beast when the action is hotting up or streaming video and found it very annoying but never had one fail on me, if you are going through PS3's like hot cakes then I would seriously look at where the PS3 is located and enough ventilation is around the unit or else it will just keep on happening :dontknow:


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## Rancho5 (Aug 20, 2009)

Each of my components sits on it's own shelf that slides out to gain access to the back if needed. Each shelf is 15 inches deep in a cabinet that is 20 inches deep. Therefore 5 inches behind each shelf for ventilation. Then each shelf is 15 inches apart. I have plenty of ventilation.


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## recruit (May 9, 2009)

Rancho5 said:


> Each of my components sits on it's own shelf that slides out to gain access to the back if needed. Each shelf is 15 inches deep in a cabinet that is 20 inches deep. Therefore 5 inches behind each shelf for ventilation. Then each shelf is 15 inches apart. I have plenty of ventilation.


Maybe you are just unlucky with the fact that the PS3's that you get keep breaking down, very strange to have had so many problems :scratch:


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## gsmollin (Apr 25, 2006)

Rancho5 said:


> Each of my components sits on it's own shelf that slides out to gain access to the back if needed. Each shelf is 15 inches deep in a cabinet that is 20 inches deep. Therefore 5 inches behind each shelf for ventilation. Then each shelf is 15 inches apart. I have plenty of ventilation.


The shelf should be open in the back for a PS:heehee:3 to get enough cooling air. This console generates too much heat to be enclosed.


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## MatrixDweller (Jul 24, 2007)

Rancho5 said:


> Each of my components sits on it's own shelf that slides out to gain access to the back if needed. Each shelf is 15 inches deep in a cabinet that is 20 inches deep. Therefore 5 inches behind each shelf for ventilation. Then each shelf is 15 inches apart. I have plenty of ventilation.


If you read his original post it's not an overheating issue. The hard drive failure could have been, but most likely it wasn't. The WiFi issue could have been a firmware problem or a multitude of other things, but not over heating. 

I had mine out in the open with 2 feet to either side and 7 feet above it. Ventilation was not an issue. From what I can gather it most likely failed due to all of the heating and cooling cycles in conjunction with an inferior soldering technique on the CPU and GPU. This caused the chips to separate from the board. Rancho's problems were minor in comparison and could have been fixed fairly easily.

I think Rancho's point as to Costco being a good place to buy a PS3 is pretty valid. I've had friends return other electronics after owning them for a over a year and having no hassle. Even the 90 day refund on computers is impressive considering Costco would incur a loss by taking it back.

*Costco Electronic Return Policy:*
http://www.costco.ca/Service/FeaturePageLeftNav.aspx?ProductNo=10045100


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## gsmollin (Apr 25, 2006)

MatrixDweller said:


> If you read his original post it's not an overheating issue. The hard drive failure could have been, but most likely it wasn't. The WiFi issue could have been a firmware problem or a multitude of other things, but not over heating.
> 
> I had mine out in the open with 2 feet to either side and 7 feet above it. Ventilation was not an issue. From what I can gather it most likely failed due to all of the heating and cooling cycles in conjunction with an inferior soldering technique on the CPU and GPU. This caused the chips to separate from the board. Rancho's problems were minor in comparison and could have been fixed fairly easily.
> 
> ...


If your CPUs solder joints failed from thermal cycling I submit that you had an overheating problem, regardless of the open ventilation. What I am saying us that the PS3 is designed without thermal any thermal margins which may account for its poor reliability. Any restriction to the air cooling is just asking for trouble.


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## Picture_Shooter (Dec 23, 2007)

engtaz said:


> Congrats. I didn't know PS3's were failing that much.


Yea it is not common. I have the 80gb older model PS3. 3-years running strong and only thing I hate about it is the fan is too loud. Not matter what USB fans I have in the cabinet, that fan will just pick up a notch and run loud. With that being said, no more movies on it, just games. lol:bigsmile:


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## Rancho5 (Aug 20, 2009)

Costco still makes tons of money off of me despite me returning PS3's every six months. We shop there so often I am sure they have made their money back from me ten fold.


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## recruit (May 9, 2009)

Is Costco like a supermarket chain or is it dedicated to AV kit? (sorry for my ignorance but I am from the UK) :bigsmile:


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## gsmollin (Apr 25, 2006)

Costco is a membership retailer. Memberships cost $50-$100 /year. Check em out here: http://www.costco.com/


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