Hardware insurance
I've recently been in the market for an xbox 360, and both game and gamestation seemed more interested in making sure that I bought their own insurance with it.... to the extent that even though I'd politely said I don't buy after sales insurance.
In both stores, the salesman was on either his 3rd or 6th machine, and had been without it for over 3 months while microsoft repaired it. After refusing to believe I was foolish enough to think that UK consumer law gives me adequate protection in both instances I decided on a different tack... "Is your warranty insurance backed? Only with the recession I don't necessarily trust that you will still be here in 3 years to honour the promise". Both times I walked off after telling them in front of prospective customers that I wouldn't buy a console they seemed to be promising me would almost certainly fail.
Now I'm no fanboy of any of the current gen consoles, I love xbmc on my gen1 xbox too much, but... I can't help wondering how much this sales policy contributes to the RROD story... I mean honestly what are the odds that the two salesboys I spoke to had required multiple replacements??
Oh and about the bundles - neither store would give me a price on a 60gb xbox on its own - "the bundles are fantastic value" - "not if I don't want the games on offer!"