Topic: (Left) Thumb(stick) Down: Elite Controller 2 Drift Issue

Hello! First post! Sorry it's not a more positive one.

I bought an Elite Controller 2 in January.
It's a very nice controller. The packaging is super 'Luxe. Good feel, lots of options for those who need them.

Over the course of the past few months I've been gaming more often. Go figure. I'm a teacher and a dad of an 8 year old, and he doesn't get to see me play my killin' games. So I've had the controller for 200-ish days, but I know there have been many weeks the Xbox wasn't turned on in my life pre-Covid.

So I started noticing the left stick drifts. When my Outer Worlds character stood still, he'd creep up a little bit. Same in Borderlands. And Prey. Easily fixed by pulling back on the stick, but annoying. No way to re-center the stick either.. THe Nintendo Switch provides it for their non-Elite controllers, but not the $180 Xbox model.

Today I was in game menu and the cursor started vertically moving through the options while the controller was sitting on the table, untouched. Then it stopped. Then it started again. That was it. I reached out to Xbox Support on Twitter. They directed me to MS Support web page, and gave me very specific instructions on who to contact and how to get to them. Only problem is that when one calls support anymore, I find it VERY rare that I talk to the person I need to talk to on the first try. This was no different. I left the chat and started over, this time I needed to get a phone call. They called, and after a brief hold (because, hey, they called ME to make me wait on hold), I spoke with someone in Hardware support.

Hardware support let me know that, when you get an Elite Series 2 Controller, you have to register it. Using it with a specific console or linking it to your gamertag doesn't do that. So he registered for me. Thank heavens, now we're ready to solve a clear issue!! I was advised to update the firmware. Already had done that. Well, that's that: I need a replacement. Warranty check time. My $180 controller was 20 days out of warranty. I bought it January 6 and it went out of warranty May 18?! Anyway, I could get it serviced for the low low price of $99 plus shipping.

Then the s**t hit the fan in the conversation.

I couldn't believe the BEST a company with a known and publicly acknowledged issue (Google is my friend) with this premium product wanted me to pay $100 more dollars to have it function as expected. To their credit, my local MS store swapped out my overheating XB1X for $50 while out of warranty shortly before the holidays, which I thought was pretty decent of them. This $99 replacement fee (for what is a known and acknowledged issue) was highway robbery. So for the cost of a new non-Elite controller, plus a digital game (on sale), I could have my premium controller working properly 6 months after I purchased it. Keep in mind, the 6 month mark is July 6 for this product. WTF kind of warranty is this?

So, anyway, I can't recommend this product nor MS support. Buyer beware.
-jmelrose

MS Aware of Drift Issue Source: https://www.trueachievements.com/n39672/xbox-elite-controller...

@jmelrose ah that sucks! I had a similar issue with the x360 RRoD here in the UK. Since then though, they have introduced laws that protect consumers in this sort of situation, though it's still not easy to tell a company they are breaking (an albeit civil rather than criminal) law and actually have the grapefruits to follow it up if they continue to palm you off.

I'd want you to fight it if you were in the UK but I just don't know what the rules and law is in the states. Just seems mighty suspicious that something breaks 20 days out of warranty which is basically what happened with my 360.

I guess it depends on the country. I just got a new controller for my camo special edition one after 2 years of using it. Charge port got broken and batteries didn't work on it anymore. The support said they don't have that exact model anymore so I can choose another special edition one. I chose the cyberpunk one and that was ordered. It didn't work out as the repair center in Germany had the same camo one so they sent that. In Finland and in The EU the minimum warranty is 2 years regardless what the companies say.

Urgh thats harsh! I had this on a XB1 controller a month after the warranty ended. There was a huge thread on xbox.com about it...which conveniently got 'closed as resolved' by MS without a solution!

MS has been pretty disappointing about controller warranty, I'm not sure what replacement stick I could even solder on, and soldering is not user-friendly.