On wednesday i got my repair back from Microsoft, 6 days in total from the time i called them about the 3 red rings of death....not to bad. I have heard a lot of horror stories about Microsofts customer service and the repair process in general but for me it was as painless as possible and was very very fast.
What I did notice is Microsoft gave me a different console. From looking at the console from the outside it looks brand new, the casing, the usb inputs and the video and power outputs look brand new but who knows it could be a new case with refurbished parts inside but i will never know because i will not take it apart.
I hooked up the console and it works fine, it sounds a little different when it is running though and when the dvd drive ejects it sounds different..but i digress, it probably has a different dvd drive from what i had before.
So, from all the horror stories that i have heard about the repair process mine was really good, and i am very pleased.