I never once had any problem with my 360.
It works fine, and the games run great.
Not only that, my 360 is not new, it wasn´t even second hand, but third (i´m the third guy to have it), and it was originally bought back in nov 2005.
Never had a problem with the previous owners, and the same goes with me, it works great.
After reading some bits and pieces here and there, i came to the conclusion that, the region with the must problems with the 360 is America.
Well, i´m not american so...it sucks to be you
Now, for real, it´s weird because the console is from MS and MS is american, so, it doesn´t make much sense...