Blankenthoughts

Attention all Xbox 360 owners! If you bought your 360 prior to January 1, 2006, you are one of the lucky few that got yourself a 1-year warranty on your machine. For those that purchased after that date, I believe the standard warranty is 90 days. However, there's some information you should know about the next 30 days that you may be interested in:

Microsoft offers an 1 or 2 year extended warranty to the initial manufacturer's warranty, and it only costs $30 a year.

You are only eligible to purchase this warranty if you are still in your warranty period. Once your warranty expires, this offer is null and void.

I only discovered this by having a "General Hardware Failure" on my Xbox this past weekend. The "Ring of Light" around my power button turned red in three of the quadrants, and after following the specific instructions on perhaps fixing the situation, I called Microsoft at 1-800-4MY-XBOX to work on my repair options, at which time they told me about how I was still in my warranty period, and how I was still eligible for the extended warranty. (BTW, they were incredibly helpful with the issues I was experiencing, and assured me that I would have my machine (or a new replacement within two weeks).

I'd be interested to know of any other issues people have encountered related to warranties with the 360, hardware failures, return issues, etc. Feel free to comment!