They advised us to mail it back and it would be 2-3 weeks for repair. When I took it to my local UPS store, the guy there said he sees about 12 per week being returned for repair, with some people saying it takes 2-3 months, not weeks. I am sorry that my in-laws wasted their money on this piece of @#$$%!

Also lets not forget that the xbox 360 is the only game console where you have to pay a yearly fee to play online AND the only game console that will not allow any business besides their own to make repairs. This means that you will have to pay about 30 dollars to ship a broken system back to the company and in addition to that a average repair fee of about 50 dollars so not only are they producing a cheap quality system they may also be profitng from it. Just incase you wont take my word on these problems just try googgling it yourself.

However, because of console only titles, I bought this system. Despite the light usage the XBox 360 finally died with the famous "3 Rings of death" red lights. I sent it in for repairs (which were at least under warranty) and despite the fact that Microsoft said it would be fixed or replaced in 2 business days they had it for over a week before sending it back.

Imagine his disappointement when he set it up, turned it on, inserted the Guitar Hero (for XBox 360)and it would not read the disk. Or any other disk. After numerous phone calls to tech support we were advised that they would send the packaging to return the item for repair/replacement.

One machine has been exchanged 3 times and still locks up after 5 minutes of play time. The other one has been exchanged twice - it doesn't work either. It takes about a month to get your hands on a replacement - which doesn't actually work any ways.

I opened the box plugged it in and played for about 20 minutes when suddenly it stopped working. I took it back and received another one. This one worked well for about 6 or seven months until one day out of nowhere the dreaded "red ring of death" happened.

After having my DVD drive go AWOL after about 1 week from opening the box (and talking to my brother who was also in the process of sending his in for repair on the red ring of death) I did some Googling on "XBOX 360 Defects", if you haven't heard the news, these things are reportedly failing at a very high rate. Just the fact that there is a well known euphemism for a dead XBox and an acronym, you know there is something to it. MS seems to be doing the right thing and handling issues efficiently, but some of these people have returned their systems 3-7 times within the first year or so.

I purchased this unit and I am now sending it back to Microsoft Service Center for the THIRD TIME in 7 months. I just received the XBOX from the service center last night, played a game for 20 minutes and BAM!!!the game froze up and RED RING OF DEATH appeared again! I am quite discouraged with this product, the custom support service center, and Microsoft for cutting corners in the manufacturing of this product.

Thank goodness for buying the extended warranty, I will be attempting to return it and get a PS3. Failing that, the extended MS warranty for this hardware failure should cover me.

I just wish it were operational more often. I bought my 360, it broke, I got a refurb from MS, traded it in for an Elite, it broke and I have since sent that one in for repair. When it arrives I will be on my fourth 360 in 14 months.

Took it out of the box, plugged it in, and it immediately froze up. Restarted it and it seemed fine, but then froze up repeatedly. We followed all of the advice on the support website, and finally called tech support.

Upon further looking into the problem online and through friends I have learned that 1 out of every 3 xbox 360 consoles will suffer a major problem within a year. The 1st and most common problem being that the console just scratches up and destroys every cd you insert, the 2nd most common is that the console just shuts down and just dies, and lastly my CD tray problem. I suppose I should be somewhat greatful that I have the less damaging of the 3 problems but all in all whatever problem you may encounter will just result in a 300 dollar waste of money.

I was pretty upset having to go through all of this yet once again but I figured they know they have a problem and are trying to fix it with the new waranty. So again after about a month I got my 360 back. For several months it worked just fine, then all of a sudden it started freezing at the loading screens.

I talked to their support person(that could barely speak English) and they told me that since the "red ring" hadn't occured I was going to have to pay $99 to have my 360 fixed. I have spent well over 2 thousand dollars on games, xbox live, and xbox live content and how am I repaid for my troubles? I'm told I have to pay even more money on a product that is obviously very flawed.

I called xbox support and they sent me a box to ship it off for repairs. After about a month my 360 was returned to me and everything seemed to be working great. Six months later once again the "red ring of death" paid me a visit.

every time i send it back i have to wait a total of a month before i get it back. the only up side is that they include a month free xbox live. but that isn't enough considering that i lost that month because they manufactured a crappy piece of hardware.

it now says to play this disc please put into an xbox 360 which was about the same message i got from the original one. Also got the red rings a few times but they said it is not eligible for repair yet!!! I finally just said forget it and bought a ps3.

I feel betrayed and now am stuck with a system I cannot use. As soon as I can save up the cash I am buying a PS3. Skip this piece of junk and spend your money on a product you can actually use!

Microsoft has done the right thing by extending warranties for all 360 owners to cover the mysterious "Red Ring of Death", but this does not change the fact that you will be inconvenienced when it breaks. You will be without your system for however long it takes Microsoft to fix it and some of the content you bought on the Xbox Live Marketplace may not be accessible to anyone else in your household.

Xbox Live is the standard all other gaming services should be measured against. People who have not experienced XBox Live often gripe about how they refuse to pay for something that should be free. While online gaming is free in most other gaming environments, what you pay for isn't solely the ability to play online.

Also lets not forget that the xbox 360 is the only game console where you have to pay a yearly fee to play online AND the only game console that will not allow any business besides their own to make repairs. This means that you will have to pay about 30 dollars to ship a broken system back to the company and in addition to that a average repair fee of about 50 dollars so not only are they producing a cheap quality system they may also be profitng from it. Just incase you wont take my word on these problems just try googgling it yourself.

However, because of console only titles, I bought this system. Despite the light usage the XBox 360 finally died with the famous "3 Rings of death" red lights. I sent it in for repairs (which were at least under warranty) and despite the fact that Microsoft said it would be fixed or replaced in 2 business days they had it for over a week before sending it back.

I feel betrayed and now am stuck with a system I cannot use. As soon as I can save up the cash I am buying a PS3. Skip this piece of junk and spend your money on a product you can actually use!

Microsoft has done the right thing by extending warranties for all 360 owners to cover the mysterious "Red Ring of Death", but this does not change the fact that you will be inconvenienced when it breaks. You will be without your system for however long it takes Microsoft to fix it and some of the content you bought on the Xbox Live Marketplace may not be accessible to anyone else in your household.

Microsoft's answer was to repurchase the content, delete/recreate accounts for my wife and son or to allow the to access the content while I was logged in. This is a problem for a few different reasons which I will not get into here. I will only recommend that you buy this system with your eyes open to the fact that you may be in for a frustrating experience.

You pay for a cohesive communications system that allows you to maintain a buddy list and instantly (and easily) connect to your buddies regardless of what game they are playing. The service is so helpful and so much a part of the experience that $4 a month hardly seems like an outrageous fee...especially compared to the fees users pay for an individual experience like Everquest or World of Warcraft. Now for the bad news:

Once you are out of warranty (1 yr on system, 90 days on accessories) the options get limited. It is about $60 for the 2 year security blanket.

I would strongly encourage first time buyers to do their market research, consider a different gaming system and not purchase this product.

Also lets not forget that the xbox 360 is the only game console where you have to pay a yearly fee to play online AND the only game console that will not allow any business besides their own to make repairs. This means that you will have to pay about 30 dollars to ship a broken system back to the company and in addition to that a average repair fee of about 50 dollars so not only are they producing a cheap quality system they may also be profitng from it. Just incase you wont take my word on these problems just try googgling it yourself.

I purchased this unit and I am now sending it back to Microsoft Service Center for the THIRD TIME in 7 months. I just received the XBOX from the service center last night, played a game for 20 minutes and BAM!!!the game froze up and RED RING OF DEATH appeared again! I am quite discouraged with this product, the custom support service center, and Microsoft for cutting corners in the manufacturing of this product.

The major thing was that it wouldnt play xbox 360 games. It would come up with an error-type message that said to insert the game into a counsel(wich it was already in one) It seemed as if the supposively new console had been played on before and had some of the little perks taken out of it. I am currently in the process of sending it back.

I will say, that when this junk works, the graphics & gameplay are excellent....even if you you can't hear the game audio over the painfully loud fan. Lots of screen freeze, red rings, disc read errors, etc. Go with the Ps3.

When my 360 was struck by the Red Ring of Death I had to send it in to Microsoft for repair. Microsoft would not guarantee that I would receive my original 360 and acknowlegded that I would probably receive a refurbished model. When I received the refurb (I was told to expect it back in 6-8 weeks and got it back in 5 weeks) I plugged my hard drive back in (you are told to keep your hard drive so that you keep all of your game saves and downloaded content) only to find that I was now the only person that could access the arcade games, pictures, TV shows and such that had been purchased from the Marketplace.

You pay for a cohesive communications system that allows you to maintain a buddy list and instantly (and easily) connect to your buddies regardless of what game they are playing. The service is so helpful and so much a part of the experience that $4 a month hardly seems like an outrageous fee...especially compared to the fees users pay for an individual experience like Everquest or World of Warcraft. Now for the bad news:

However, because of console only titles, I bought this system. Despite the light usage the XBox 360 finally died with the famous "3 Rings of death" red lights. I sent it in for repairs (which were at least under warranty) and despite the fact that Microsoft said it would be fixed or replaced in 2 business days they had it for over a week before sending it back.

Thank goodness for buying the extended warranty, I will be attempting to return it and get a PS3. Failing that, the extended MS warranty for this hardware failure should cover me.

Once you are out of warranty (1 yr on system, 90 days on accessories) the options get limited. It is about $60 for the 2 year security blanket.

I am a "never buy the extended warranty" kind of guy, but I bought it for my 360 for Christmas 2006 based on the initial reports of hardware failures.

Thank goodness for buying the extended warranty, I will be attempting to return it and get a PS3. Failing that, the extended MS warranty for this hardware failure should cover me.

every time i send it back i have to wait a total of a month before i get it back. the only up side is that they include a month free xbox live. but that isn't enough considering that i lost that month because they manufactured a crappy piece of hardware.

My 360 is freestanding vertically, with plenty of air circulation and it still croaked after 12 months of light use. That's pretty pathetic hardware design. So, are you feeling lucky?

MS even took the time to design the gargantuan and grotesque adapter in such a manner that it doesn't resemble the Xbox hardware at all, a seemingly devious deception to distract you from the fact that it's the Xbox's baggage. * Next time you revise the hardware, actually test out the possible home theater configurations. Want to send video to your TV by HDMI and sound directly to your receiver by optical?

I am a "never buy the extended warranty" kind of guy, but I bought it for my 360 for Christmas 2006 based on the initial reports of hardware failures.

Since the DRM is linked to the hardware or the gamertag of the person who bought the content my family was locked out. They did not purchase the content (I did) and we were on different hardware (the refurbished 360) so now all of the Bionicle pictures, arcade games and much more that were purchased SPECIFICALLY FOR MY SON could not be accessed by him.

Thank goodness for buying the extended warranty, I will be attempting to return it and get a ps3. Failing that, the extended MS warranty for this hardware failure should cover me.

it now says to play this disc please put into an xbox 360 which was about the same message i got from the original one. Also got the red rings a few times but they said it is not eligible for repair yet!!! I finally just said forget it and bought a ps3.

I feel betrayed and now am stuck with a system I cannot use. As soon as I can save up the cash I am buying a ps3. Skip this piece of junk and spend your money on a product you can actually use!

I will say, that when this junk works, the graphics & gameplay are excellent....even if you you can't hear the game audio over the painfully loud fan. Lots of screen freeze, red rings, disc read errors, etc. Go with the ps3.

I gave both platforms a try and found blatant lapses in design integrity with the Xbox that bothered me enough to sell it at a loss and get a ps3. Here are some parting words for the Xbox and Xbox design team that I've just posted on craigslist:

Sorry but after owning an XBox 360 for over 6 months, and a ps3 for less time, I have decided that the XBox 360 is the inferior product.

Imagine his disappointement when he set it up, turned it on, inserted the Guitar Hero (for XBox 360)and it would not read the disk. Or any other disk. After numerous phone calls to tech support we were advised that they would send the packaging to return the item for repair/replacement.

I purchased this unit and I am now sending it back to Microsoft Service Center for the THIRD TIME in 7 months. I just received the XBOX from the service center last night, played a game for 20 minutes and BAM!!!the game froze up and RED RING OF DEATH appeared again! I am quite discouraged with this product, the custom support service center, and Microsoft for cutting corners in the manufacturing of this product.

Took it out of the box, plugged it in, and it immediately froze up. Restarted it and it seemed fine, but then froze up repeatedly. We followed all of the advice on the support website, and finally called tech support.

I talked to their support person(that could barely speak English) and they told me that since the "red ring" hadn't occured I was going to have to pay $99 to have my 360 fixed. I have spent well over 2 thousand dollars on games, xbox live, and xbox live content and how am I repaid for my troubles? I'm told I have to pay even more money on a product that is obviously very flawed.

I called xbox support and they sent me a box to ship it off for repairs. After about a month my 360 was returned to me and everything seemed to be working great. Six months later once again the "red ring of death" paid me a visit.

Once again I called Xbox support and was on hold for over 30 minutes and got to experience the joy of an automated message telling me that due to the "red ring" they had extended there waranty on the 360 to three years of coverage.

I opened the box plugged it in and played for about 20 minutes when suddenly it stopped working. I took it back and received another one. This one worked well for about 6 or seven months until one day out of nowhere the dreaded "red ring of death" happened.

After having my DVD drive go AWOL after about 1 week from opening the box (and talking to my brother who was also in the process of sending his in for repair on the red ring of death) I did some Googling on "XBOX 360 Defects", if you haven't heard the news, these things are reportedly failing at a very high rate. Just the fact that there is a well known euphemism for a dead XBox and an acronym, you know there is something to it. MS seems to be doing the right thing and handling issues efficiently, but some of these people have returned their systems 3-7 times within the first year or so.

I purchased this unit and I am now sending it back to Microsoft Service Center for the THIRD TIME in 7 months. I just received the XBOX from the service center last night, played a game for 20 minutes and BAM!!!the game froze up and red ring OF DEATH appeared again! I am quite discouraged with this product, the custom support service center, and Microsoft for cutting corners in the manufacturing of this product.

I talked to their support person(that could barely speak English) and they told me that since the "red ring" hadn't occured I was going to have to pay $99 to have my 360 fixed. I have spent well over 2 thousand dollars on games, xbox live, and xbox live content and how am I repaid for my troubles? I'm told I have to pay even more money on a product that is obviously very flawed.

I called xbox support and they sent me a box to ship it off for repairs. After about a month my 360 was returned to me and everything seemed to be working great. Six months later once again the "red ring of death" paid me a visit.

Microsoft has done the right thing by extending warranties for all 360 owners to cover the mysterious "red ring of Death", but this does not change the fact that you will be inconvenienced when it breaks. You will be without your system for however long it takes Microsoft to fix it and some of the content you bought on the Xbox Live Marketplace may not be accessible to anyone else in your household.

When my 360 was struck by the red ring of Death I had to send it in to Microsoft for repair. Microsoft would not guarantee that I would receive my original 360 and acknowlegded that I would probably receive a refurbished model. When I received the refurb (I was told to expect it back in 6-8 weeks and got it back in 5 weeks) I plugged my hard drive back in (you are told to keep your hard drive so that you keep all of your game saves and downloaded content) only to find that I was now the only person that could access the arcade games, pictures, TV shows and such that had been purchased from the Marketplace.

It has more good games than the other current gen consoles and an online service that delivers, but the specter of the red ring and all of it's frustrations lurks just around the corner. If you are willing to deal with those possible frustrations you will enjoy your experience, but odds are that you will be effected by this issue. Consider yourself warned.

Once again I called Xbox support and was on hold for over 30 minutes and got to experience the joy of an automated message telling me that due to the "red ring" they had extended there waranty on the 360 to three years of coverage.

I talked to their support person(that could barely speak English) and they told me that since the "red ring" hadn't occured I was going to have to pay $99 to have my 360 fixed. I have spent well over 2 thousand dollars on games, xbox live, and xbox live content and how am I repaid for my troubles? I'm told I have to pay even more money on a product that is obviously very flawed.

every time i send it back i have to wait a total of a month before i get it back. the only up side is that they include a month free xbox live. but that isn't enough considering that i lost that month because they manufactured a crappy piece of hardware.

Microsoft has done the right thing by extending warranties for all 360 owners to cover the mysterious "Red Ring of Death", but this does not change the fact that you will be inconvenienced when it breaks. You will be without your system for however long it takes Microsoft to fix it and some of the content you bought on the Xbox live Marketplace may not be accessible to anyone else in your household.

Xbox live is the standard all other gaming services should be measured against. People who have not experienced XBox live often gripe about how they refuse to pay for something that should be free. While online gaming is free in most other gaming environments, what you pay for isn't solely the ability to play online.

The provided and ONLY breakout cable that provides optical completely obscures the HDMI port. * Yes, Xbox, you have some really decent games but I can't help but think that the console is simply disposable. Your reliability is awful, there's no indication that you're here to stay for more than a few years before Xbox 720, or that you will live long enough for me to show off the ancient visuals and control schemes to the son I may have in the next fifteen years.

One thing you should know when You buy the XBOX 360 that says free 30 days of GOLD XBOX live is they do everything to make you pay for it. They do not tell you anywhere in the box how to get the freee GOLD 30 days. The only way you can get it is to say all you want is the SIlver then they will offer you a gold for 30 days free.

I ordred this one but when it came, the box was mutalated. when i opened it up it lacked instructions and papers such as. The free xbox live for 30 days was also missing.

We have HughesNet and it is NOT compatible. I have spent over 6 hours on the phone with XBox, Linksys and HughesNet. I have a compatible router but XBox live canNOT be played if you have satellite internet!