I wonder what kind of treatment the failed 360's have gone thru? How old are the owners?
I haven't had any issues with mine. I didn't pay 600$ for it and I had it a full year before the PS3 came out. I don't feel on the "loosing side" of the equation here!
I'm 33. I've babied it. Once I hooked it up to my home theatre, it hasn't been moved. I dust regularly. It isn't within 2 feet of another component and that is a 5-disc cd changer that is never on. It has never been part of a marathon gaming session (4+ hours) and lays horizontally plugged directly into the wall.
It has regularly froze on me since I first set it up...some months more than others and some games more than others (the 2k series sports games froze up more for me, on average).
If you add up all the freezes I've had with an Atari 2600, Intellivision, ColecoVision, NES, Genesis, N64, Playstation, PS2 & Xbox they don't come close to how many I've had in 9 months with my 360.
Then it died.
My refurb has frozen up on me about 4 times and I've had it back for one week today...it is only a matter of time before my refurb dies and there is nothing I can do about it other than sell my 360 and my games and accessories and accept the losses.
Lame.
This is the last MicroSoft console I ever buy.