At Least You'll Know That Warranty Was Worth It...

So now that I have finished the 7th Harry Potter book, I can finally get back to letting my life get slowly sapped away by the evil force that is my television. Specifically, my television in conjunction with video game systems of some sort. I have recently added to my somewhat sizable collection an Xbox 360. Now let me say that as far as game libraries go, the 360 has the market cornered. Hell, Gears of War and Dead Rising alone make your purchase worth it, not to mention titles like Crackdown, Call of Juarez, and the aforementioned The Darkness. Why then, with this library, am I ready to tear my damned hair out?
Well, it seems that the infinite entrepreneurial spirit at microsoft has led them to design sub-par systems (insert spooky music here). Most gamers have probably at least read about, if not experienced the 3 red lights of death. This is when three red lights around your power button light up, signaling that your CPU has just been fried beyond repair. This has been happening to approximately one in every four 360's. Why is this happening? Microsoft decided not to spend the extra 50 cents to use cooling gel that didn't harden into a heat conducting crust. No problem though, I've bought an external cooling unit, so hopefully that at least prolongs the damn thing's life span.
My gripes however, much like my balls, are twofold. Apparently, the skimping has not stopped with cooling gel. The disc trays being used are faulty as well. How do I know this? Well after owning the game for less than a week, my copy of Gears of War ceased to work, saying the disc was "unreadable". The game had been precisely two places: in its case (where it was purchased brand new), and in the system. Suddenly, after playing the game for about 10 hours in total over the span of about 5 days, it will no longer play. When the games cost up to 70$ apiece, this is about as pleasing as waking up to find my kidneys gone. Lucky me I can get the disc replaced for $20 If I send it to Microsoft. God forbid they do something like own up to their shitty workmanship and not nickel and dime me to death for something that I have absolutely no control over.
I Like my 360, really I do. It lets me play some fantastic games. But so help me god, I just know that once my warranty is up, I'll have like 6 months before I am left with a 400 dollar paperweight. Oh well, they've been having to extend the warranties so long to avoid lawsuits, maybe that day will never come. Oh right, it's Microsoft I'm dealing with...never mind.