I bought my 360 way back in January (when they were supposedly sold out all across the nation yet my Meijer was sitting on a stack of em for three days before temptation finally ruled the day but to be fair, I live in a college town and guess who's gone for early January?). Within a month, I started getting overly consistant lockups. Called up Microsoft and unfortunately, had to do the three week thing (but it only took 2) and got the exact same console back with the exact same problems. While on the phone with the rep to tell them the console consistantly locked up on 5 of my 7 games, I finally got the dreaded red rings. So I sent it back after they mailed me an updated label for the box.

Got the new system (with the super cheap looking disc tray) in another three weeks but they refused to extend the warrnty but offered an extension at an additional charge. Thankfully, I purchased the Meijer extended warranty, because this would most certainly not be my last endeavor with 360. Within 4 hours of Oblivion, the second console began locking up. Sure enough, lockups lead to red ring and I was forced to call Microsoft. They told me it was beyond warranty but repairs would be $180. Fortunately for me, $180 was what I spent on the extended warranty that began as Microsoft's ended.

Meijer was much more helpful. Got my replacement unit in 5 days and got to keep the HD with all my saves and game downloads (I'm a big fan of downloadable games ala Playstation Store and Live Arcade).

It was another 4 months before my third 360 began acting up. Or rather had a single act up. While charging three wireless controllers in standby mode, I heard a small popping sound before I heard a loud pop as a small plum of smoke arose from the console. This is not indicator of 360 as a whole, I think this was just a fluke. Regardless, Meijer was right there with my fourth console and it's been working ever since. But get this, since the warranty through MS was extended, so was the warranty through Meijer.

All in all, I don't consider this indicatory of 360 as a whole but rather possibly my own bad luck. I never get a single defective console, it's always a run on them. And of the defective consoles I've had, NES, Saturn, GBA SP, Nintendo DS, and 360 were the ones I had issues with. Don't know why, but only recently had my first PS2 die (and it was heavily modified with LEDs and shit). But I tend to ALWAYS buy the extended warranties.