Zune HD Warranty Service?

[LordJim]

I realize that at this point that not many folks will have taken advantage of the Zune HD's warranty, but perhaps you have experience with warranty service on previous models.

Before we go much further, I'm a first time Zune owner and until this morning I couldn't have been happier.  However, I woke up today to discover that the device is plagued with horizontal flickering lines throughout the screen.  There are a cluster of blue-ish flickering lines towards the center of the screen, a big white one near the top, and a few more above that.  In short, the screen is toast.  The player, however, still functions just fine.  Everything worked perfectly before I went to bed and there are no external signs of damage or abuse.  (nor should there be, I've been pretty gentle with this thing so far)

Anyhow, so I'm pouring through http://www.zune.net/service and I've not found too much that's incredibly helpful with returning the Zune HD to Microsoft for repairs.  I came across a generic screen that lets me enter a problem and print a label, but I'm a little hesitant to just ship off my new baby without any confirmation from a human that I'm doing the right thing, that the warranty will be honored, etc . . . So . . . am I doing the right thing?  Do I just fill out an online service request and ship it off to Microsoft and wait?  Is there a way to actually contact Microsoft prior to shipping it off?  (The 1-800-GET-ZUNE line wasn't too helpful).

What's been your experience in the past with Zune warranty repairs?  In an ideal world I'd happily explain the issue to a service rep at MS, pay for them to ship me a new one, return theirs when the new one arrives, and have them credit me when the defective device is received at their end.  Is that too much to ask these days?

Or . . . does anyone know if Best Buy will let me exchange it there?  Purchase an extended warranty 3 days later and do it that way? 

Sorry for all the questions, this is the first electronic device in ages that's given me problems.

Finally, since I'm a first time poster:  Hi, everyone!

[LordJim]

Here's an interesting little update:  Now, all but the top 20% of the screen is gone, yet I can still use the dead part of the screen to scroll.

Guess it's going back. 

[xx nevamore xx]

id reccomend trying to return it to were you purchases it from first, that would be the fastest route, if they say no then you can try th microsoft warrenty repair way, ill try and find you an email address

[airmaxon1]

You would think because it is so soon that Best Buy will just take it back for an exchange. They will just send it back into Microsoft anyway if you tell them it was defective out of the box.

[vindrus]

I have used the warranty service before, although in this case you would be better off exchanging it where you bought it, but the way it worked when I used it was that after filling out the online repair request Microsoft sent a FedEx shipping box and I shipped the unit to them in the box they provided.  It was fairly quick turnaround time for the return but I was glad that I had my Zune 30 to fall back on while it was gone.

[LordJim]

This is getting somewhat interesting, so I figured I'd share the history of my strange screen problems.

Phase 1) Between 5 and 8 horizontal lines through the center of the screen.  The lines were mostly different shades of blue and flickered.  The screen is still 'touchable' everywhere.

Phase 2) Same lines in the center of the screen, but now a few more, including a bright white one near the top of the screen.  The screen is still 'touchable' everywhere.

Phase 3) Approximately 80% of the screen appears to be dead (read: no display, just a gray-ish color).  The top 20% of the screen has some lines, but there's a little bit of the interface shining through.  The screen is still 'touchable' everywhere.

Phase 4) The entire screen is back, but with the flickering lines almost everywhere.  As usual, the entire screen is still 'touchable'.

I tried exchanging the device at Best Buy, but all the local stores are sold out.  The Zune is now off to the repair (replacement?) depot and hopefully will be back sooner rather than later.