My first step to figuring this thing out was to call Best Buy and see if I had actually purchased the extended warranty. Again, working in the tech industry I have a good understanding of how the Support and RMA processes of these types of companies work and typically opt for the extended warranties provided by the retail chain.

I call Customer Service pose my dilemma and they quickly transfer me to the Receipts Department. Because I almost always pay for everything with my debit/credit cards Best Buy pretty much has a record of every purchase I’ve ever made. They identify the appropriate receipt and tell me all the information I need.

I am then transferred to the Claims Department. I am actually unsure if this department was within Best Buy or if this is the company that Best Buy partners with for these types of warranties (I believe it to be the later however).

Long story short, I’ll be sending my defunct Xbox back and they’ll be sending me an in-store gift certificate for the amount of the original purchase. I was hoping for something along the lines of taking my console to the local store and them giving me a new one off the shelf but the way its being handled isn’t too bad either. In fact I don’t even have to technically buy another xbox with the gift certificate … but I will because M$ occasionally puts out a game I want to play whereas Sony doesn’t.