This past Saturday, my son pressed the power button on our Xbox 360 and received this in return…
For the unlearned among us, that is the infamous “Red Ring of Death”. I’ve heard about it for the past couple of years now, but had never actually seen one in person. Until now, that is. Strangely enough, my buddy (and neighbor) EJO was also recently inflicted with the RRoD. My X360 was a tried and true “launch” console, and EJO purchased his shortly thereafter launch.
Wacky.
Anyhoo… Microsoft has extended support for the Xbox 360 to 3-years in cases involving the RRoD. That’s a good thing, since my box (a gift from my brother, I might add) is over 2 1/2 years old! Certainly well out of the standard 1-year warranty. To take advantage of this extended warranty, simply go to Xbox.com, click on the Support link, and then click on the ‘Repair Your Console’ graphic on the right-hand side. It’s just that easy! Well, it should be.
To be perfectly honest, I ended up contacting the Xbox Support team five times. For 3 days in a row, their support ticket system was down for “updates”. Not cool. Equally as aggravating is their voice-activated phone system which makes me feel like an idiot for talking to no one, while simultaneously extending my hold times. Thanks, Microsoft. For whatever reason, I’d have to reiterate the entire issue + my steps to resolve it each and every time I called. Perhaps that was due to the “updates”, but it’s still frustrating. All that said, my final call to Microsoft was easy and well-handled. A prepaid shipping label was emailed to me — you can also opt to have a labeled physically mailed to you, or an entire shipping box — and I received it within hours. I packed up the Xbox — minus my custom faceplate, wireless receiver, and harddrive — and shipped it off. I should see it again within 2 weeks, or so I’m told.
I guess we’ll see.
Lastly, I’m curious as to whether or not I’ll received my same X360 back, or some refurbished unit. I’m assuming a refurbished one. Here’s hoping it works well for years to come! I’ll check in after the replacement arrives…
Y.I.P.C.A.N.J.O 
Sorry to hear you joined our “club.” I got the ring o’ death last year and had a very tough time forcing EB Games to honour the replacement warranty I bought from them. Good fun!
Best of success with the new Xbox.