In shock

So my Xbox 360 died. Surprisingly enough, it wasn't the Red Ring of Death, which is the Xbox version of the blue screen of death for Windows. The DVD drive started making horrible noises when it was spinning up a disc and it was no longer able to read the games. This of course happened ON Thanksgiving.

Now when I bought my 360, Best Buy asked me as they always do if I wanted the 2 year in-store replacement warranty. Normally I don't bother with this kind of thing. The technology gets faster and cheaper so quickly that if you get year out of something its probably cheaper and better to buy a new one when it dies than it would have been to spend the extra on the warranty and get it replaced. There are a few items however that its worth putting this protection on. The 360, which is notorious for RROD and other problems, is one of those. So I paid the extra 30 bucks for the 2 year warrant figuring that if I had to pay insured shipping back to Microsoft if there was a problem, it was going to be close to that anyway.

So, I was happy in the fact that I knew I could just take my 360 down to BB and get it exchanged. Problem was it was T-day, so BB was closed. Also, since it was T-day, it meant the following day was Black Friday.. and there was no way in hell I was going anywhere near the mall on that day. So we had to wait til Saturday. I called though to ask what was involved and I was told to just bring my 360 down with the warranty receipt and they would take the hard drive off my old one and put it on a new 360 for me. So thats what I did.

I got there on Saturday and waited about 10 minutes in line. I got to the counter, explained the situation, and the conversation with the girl goes like this:

BBGirl: I need all the cords so we can test it and duplicate the problem.

Me: You need my specific cords? I was told on the phone to just bring the unit.

BBG: Yes, we need your cords to hook it up to test it.

Me: Are you trying to tell me that in all of Best Buy there is not ONE set of Xbox 360 cords that you can use?

BBG: No, we don't keep them around.

Me: You have at least 75 360s under the counter here.. right by my knees and if you are replacing my unit you are going to have to crack open a box anyway. Can you just use the cords from one of those to test it?

BBG: You have to bring your own cords sir so we can hook up your 360 and test it before we can replace it with the warranty.

Me: Ok, I will go home and get all the cords and accessories. Oh, and my you find a growth on you that not even the vast knowledge of science can identify. I will also bring back with me a Yule Log. Being that I am trying to stay with a festive holday theme, I can no longer use a frozen turkey to pummel you about the head and neck region and I will instead use a yule log. Not as quite as satisfying as a shovel, but hey, tis the season!


Ok, I didn't really threaten to beat her with a stick.. but I wanted to. I angrily drove back home to pick up all my cords. This time I brought EVERYTHING. Cords, manuals, headset, network cord, controllers, box, original packaging. EVERYTHING. I even brought one of my 360 games to test with in case BB decided to claim they didn't have any 360 games in the store to use either.

Stood in line .. again. Different girl this time. She took my 360 back to be tested. I told her what was wrong with it. She apparently didn't tell the tester so he hooked it up, turned it on and was playing with the menu system. Well that was of course working fine since it was a DVD drive problem. So he comes over and tells me its working fine. I gave him my game and told him to try and play it. 5 minutes later he comes back and tells BBG2 (Best Buy Girl 2) that the drive is indeed bad and will need to be replaced.

So here is the conversation with BBG2:

BBG2: Ok, if you will grab me one of the 360s under the counter there, I'll get going on the swap for you.

Me: You mean you have 360s right here? Oh wow.. you have a LOT of them. Right here at the testing / exchange are. Convenient. Here you go.

BBG2: *scans new 360* Ok.. looks like the price has dropped on these. In order to do this right, we'll have to do a refund on the original unit, prorate the warranty and then basically "sell" you a new one and put the warranty on that unit.

Me: Whatever you have to do, just make sure I get my original HD on the new unit so I don't lose my downloaded content for Rock Band.

BBG2: No problem, I will have them do that when he bring is over here. Lets get this switched out. *works her magic*

BBG2: Ok, with the unit being cheaper now, that lowers the cost on the 2 year replacement plan. So I am going to have to give you store credit for the difference on the 360 and the lower cost on the replacement plan. You will have a gift card for 51 and change.

Me: So, to clarify, you are giving me a new 360 with my HD on it AND 51 bucks on a gift card?

BBG2: Yep, you will have a whole new unit, so you'll have all new cables, controller etc. as well. Also, since we basically sold you this unit today, you get a full 2 years on the replacement plan on this new unit.

Me: *stares .. patiently waiting for the punch line*

Me: Am I being punked? Where's Ashton? Is he behind the counter?

I couldn't believe it. Other than being misinformed about the need to bring EVERYTHING with me. The procedure took less than 20 minutes and I had a brand new 360 with my HD on it, a new 2 year warranty on said unit, all new accessories and cords, and a 51 dollar gift card. Needless to say, I decided that BBG2 was my new favorite person and I gave the Yule Log to G to hold as we weren't going to need it after all. So we took that gift card and went and picked up the new wireless drum kit for RB2 as once again our RB1 drum kit had broken.

So there we are at the register. I show here all the warranty and replacement documentation for the 360 I have and then she rings up my new drum kit. She jokes about how she is seeing a lot of those being sold both for the fact that its wireless now for RB2 and because the drum kits have a horrible track record for breaking. She rings it up, applied my 51 bucks that was on my gift card and then looks at me and says "Would you like a 2 year replacement plan on this drum kit? It's 12 bucks, but I highly reccomend it as they only have a 90 day warranty and are known to break pretty often".

I couldn't believe it. I didn't even hesitate. The only thing that is more prone to breakage than the 360 itself is the Rock Band instruments. I have been through 2 drum kits already for the original game. I know people who have been through 4 and 5 kits in a year. After my 360 replacement experience, I knew the extra 12 bucks was well worth it to be able to just come in and swap the drums out should they break.. which is quite likely in the next two years. And hell, when they drop in price I can make money on the deal again. :P

Now don't get me wrong, normally those warranties are a waste of money and unecessary, but they can be good values on the right items. So we went home happy and the boys and I rocked out on our new drum kit which is killer by the way. The kit is at least 50% quieter, more repsonsive and has a METAL bass pedal. It's wireless and the pads are velocity sensitive, meaning they play quieter when you are tapping them and will give you loud pounding drum sounds through the game if you are wailing on them. Very cool.

So I left BB a satisfied customer. G looks at me and says what am I supposed to do with this log? I thought how dissapointed I was that I didn't get to try out my new seasonal beat stick, so we went to the movie gallery and asked if they had any employees that like and would reccomend a movie with Kirsten Dunst in it. I am happy to report that while a tad on the unwieldy side, the yule log is an effective melon smasher. Sure, it wasn't Snaggletooth herself, but I considered it a step in the right direction if there is one less delusional person in this world telling people that she is a good actress.