My PS3 had a case of "Yellow Light of Death" and I had to weigh my options: A) pay $150 to ship it to Sony, and lose my saved games because you don't get the same machine back (you get a refurbished PS3); or B) take it down the street to these guys.
"B" is an appealing option for many reasons: you get your machine back with your game inside and your saved games (as long as your HDD wasn't the problem); you don't have to ship it anywhere, get an RA number from Sony, or wait weeks on end; and last but not least, the repair cost is scaled according to what went wrong, opposed to $150 for Sony.
PS3 Repair Carlsbad is one of several locations that take in PS3s, XBox 360s, and laptops for repair at a central location. It would be nice to be able to go to a lab full of people in clean suits and have them repair it while you wait, but the system they've got seemed to be the best option. After all, you'd be waiting at least as long if not double for Sony to do the same thing.
I called right before close and explained that I was still several minutes away, and they were kind enough to stay open a couple extra minutes for me. I filled out the paperwork and away I went. Less than a week later I had - my - PS3 back in working order, complete with saved games intact, and with my copy of Modern Warfare 2 safely inside. My repair was just over $90, which was over $50 less than it would have been through Sony. It could cost you nearly $150 but at least you won't have to ship your machine; and while they can't recover your saves 100% of the time, you stand 0% chance with Sony.
Recently, I had the PS3 get a case of YLOD again from over-use. I called and explained my limited warranty was up, and this time they were kind enough to prorate the repair based on my warranty having recently expired. The staff returned my phone call in a timely manner, and was very polite.
I would recommend this business to anyone, and they have already earned my return business. I have upgraded from my launch model 60GB to a 250GB PS3 Slim in the meantime, so hopefully I'll never have to use this business again...but if I do, I know I'll be taken care of.