Our XBox 360 started suffering from the dreaded red ring of death last week. I made sure there was plenty of airflow (and their was). Checked and cleaned the disc. The red rings didn’t reappear but it locked up. Occasionally at first, then increasing over a few weeks until it wouldn’t stay running for more than five minutes at a time.

We bought the XBox on a whim earlier in the year. We were shopping at Sams Club in April and Dena spotted a lone 360 sitting under a display. She knew I’d want one, so she ran and grabbed it. The extended warranty on it was ridiculously cheap (something like $39 for 3 years) so we got it.

After lots of Googling and trying various fixes, I broke down and called Microsoft. I walked through all of my troubleshooting with the tech and she confirmed my fears: it was dead. I could either send it in to Microsoft to be repaired (and probably end up with a refurbished unit) or take it back to Sams, the obvious choice.

It took fifteen minutes, half of which was them finding and printing out our receipt (we knew the exact date but didn’t know where the original receipt was). No questions asked, no pressure, no bullshit. Dena stood in line and I grabbed a replacement system (their last). Having dealt with the hassle of other extended replacement plans. Sams went far above my expectations.