For those not “in the know”, RROD is the acronym for a phenomena that plagues almost a third of all XBOX360 gaming consoles. It is the “Red Ring Of Death”, and denotes three red blinking lights on the front of the XBOX telling you there’s a problem… a BIG BIG problem. It’s the equivalent of waving a white flag on a battlefield.

Here’s my tale of woe and glee.

I got a call at work from my wife today asking me to walk her through the process to take one of our videos off the computer and put it on the XBOX. After she got it all set up, I made sure the console was on by asking her if she saw the green lights blinking from the console. She said they were blinking, but were RED, not green. My little heart sunk. I had been struck with the RROD.

After I got home, I went online and started looking at possible solutions. There’s a well-known “towel” fix, a lesser known “squeeze” fix, but I didn’t want to make matters worse. I remembered I had gotten the warranty for the system when I bought if from BEST BUY. I was glad I remembered, because the warranty wasn’t just a “fix it for you” warranty, where you take it in and wait months to have them fix it. It was a “REPLACEMENT” warranty; meaning I could take it in, and they would give me a NEW one. Whoo hoo!!!

I called the 1-800 number on my warranty card and spoke with “Agent Mertz” who told me he could send a box for shipping, but that I could also call the store I bought it from and see if they were set up to just switch it out there. Since I would have to wait longer with the shipping method, I opted to call the Airport Way store in Portland, Oregon. I was extatic to learn that I could, in fact, come in and pick up a brand spankin’ new console for absolutely free.

After driving down to the store, I was greeted by a very nice, very understanding woman who helped me grab a new console.

I’m home now, just 4 hours from the time I started dealing with the RROD with a new XBOX, and I couldn’t be happier. The Best Buy employees were pleasant and eager to help, and I wasn’t made to feel like I was a bother to anyone at any time.

Kudos, Best Buy, Kudos. You “Turn[ed] on the fun”. Thanks.