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Finally, a whole 22 days after my Xbox 360 powered on to show the dreaded “Red Ring of Death”, which renders it into nothing more than a $400 paperweight, I get this e-mail from Microsoft Support:

Your Xbox Service Request
Good news, your Xbox console has been shipped! You can expect to receive it in 3-5 business days.

Finally!  You’d think with all the bad press they’ve been getting about the reliability of their machines, they’d work a little harder to turn these cases around in a timely fashion.  I’m just glad I didn’t have to pay for the repairs.  Hopefully the new box they are sending me will have the improved cooling so I won’t have this problem again.  And hey, if they decided to send me the HDMI version, I won’t complain…

To give you an idea of the turn-around time:
7/18 - Contacted Xbox Support for the first time, Xbox freezes after just a few minutes of play.  Support charges me $99 for out of warranty repair and sends a box.
7/22 - Contacted Xbox Support for the second time, now receiving the RRoD.  Support sends another box and refunds my money.
7/23 - Second box shipped.
7/30 - I received the box, packed my 360 and sent it back.
8/04 - Xbox Repair Center received my 360.
8/12 - Repair completed, 360 shipped back to me.
8/17 - Xbox received, much rejoicing???  I can only hope…

Overall though, the process wasn’t too bad.  The worst part of the whole process was waiting on the phone… there was a lot of hold time just to get a technician, and then even more until my case was processed.  The manager that I ended up talking to was actually very nice and understanding, even showing concern for how much time I had already spent on the phone, and attempting to make small talk to at least try and keep me entertained.  I will say that the automated system that answers when you first call is just frustrating, until you figure out how to get right to a live person.  Once the case was processed though, I got regular e-mail updates about the location and status of my Xbox.  I’m anxious to see if they actually sent me a new box or if they just replaced the internal hardware…  a check of the serial number when my system returns will tell the tale.

Either way I’ll be glad to get back to rockin’ some Guitar Hero II and Gears of War!