Jay knows his tale of having gone through six Xbox 360s isn’t all that unusual, but he rightly expresses that it’s pathetic that stories like his are common. The poor guy even bought an Xbox 360 Elite in hopes that the redesign would be more reliable. But alas, his Elite and its replacements now broken as many times as his chain of launch consoles.

He writes:

I know Xbox 360 horror stories are pretty common now, but I’m still fuming and just want to get this out to anyone who may care. I’ve had a 360 since the console launch. I had my first red ring the week before they extended the warranty and refunded everyone’s money. They announced the refund literally 2 days after I’d paid over the phone. So, I got to wait several weeks for a check to come back. At least I got it back … but that’s where my frustration begins.

I’m definitely not a hardcore gamer. I’m a working professional who currently works 6 days a week for 50+ hours. So, I like to pop in a game every so often when I actually get some leisure time. So, the failure rate is just baffling to me. I’d really love to see a class action lawsuit at this point, and this is why:

1) Launch console died after about a year. My first replacement took about 3 weeks and I got the RROD within 30 minutes of hooking it up. So, it was immediately sent back …

2) Second replacement arrived and worked fine for over a year … until the Halo 3 release date. Imagine how angry I was to pick up the newest blockbuster game right after work just to have my system break. Now here’s the kicker: it didn’t get the RROD. It still functioned, but the graphics were completely distorted. I’ve worked on enough PCs to recognize and overheating GPU based on the video output. This is when I learned that Microsoft would only honor the extended warranty if it the system is suffering specifically from the RROD. So, I was basically told that I’d have to pay $120 and wait weeks before I could my new game.

3) I immediately went out and purchased an Xbox 360 Elite instead. I’d read all the rumors that the systems were “finally fixed” and wouldn’t break as easily. I assumed my original console would eventually RROD yet again and this would be a more permanent fix. So, over a year later, my original 360 fell out of warranty and only then finally gave a RROD error. Then, my Elite received the RROD.

4) I received a replacement Elite. While waiting on this, I bought one of those self-repair kits to attempt to fix my original white 360 … which actually worked.

5) Present day … Elite #2 and the original 360 died within 2 days of each other. Go figure, right? I successfully did a self-repair on the original again, and received my third 360 Elite yesterday.

6) My replacement Elite is now dead. It died about 24 hours after hooking it back up to my TV. I never even got to play it myself. My brother used it for a few hours last night no problem.

To summarize … I’ve gone through 3 Xbox Premium systems and 3 Xbox Elite systems… and probably sending out for Elite #4 soon. (Not counting the 2 failures I’ve repaired myself) All of these have had very light use in normal environments.. I think this is completely unacceptable. I’d really like to see a class action lawsuit at this point.

I, too, am on my 7th 360. But I’m sure there are people out there who can top me and Jay.

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