OK. My wife and I both own iPods, and both are 3rd Generation. I took my iPod in a month ago, because it was skipping, freezing, wouldn't sync, yada yada. So, I took my iPod into the Apple "Genius Bar" (an overstatement..but fun nonetheless), and they took my iPod and docked it to one of their Mac laptops. It docked fine. I was given a "we hope you have luck" and a foot up the ass. I came back a week later, when it was still having these problems, and was again shoved out the door. A week later (each weekend basically meant a trip to the Apple store, a 45 minute drive on the crazy interstates of Minnesota) I brought it in again. This week was the weekend before Christmas, and the Genius Bar had a sign up: "We are closed to accomodate the holiday rush. Please come back during the week." So great. About 5 people were standing there with me, with their broken Mac equipment, sighing at the sight of the sign. So I turned around and walked out the door. Another week goes by, and the “lets attempt to repair the iPod” weekend comes. I come in, wait for 45 minutes in a overcrowded Apple store, and finally sit at the Genius Bar. The guy gives me almost a half an hour of runaround, including “can you bring in your PC so we can look at it?”. I gave him a blank stare, and explained in the simplest terms possible about how I have a XaserIII (a beast of a case, the steel version too) and how I have a switch and USB router modded to the top, a million wires coming out, and that to drive back home, and back there in day-after-Christmas crazy shoppers traffic, and to load my beast of a computer up in the back of my computer, in sub-zero weather was both a pain in the ass, and not particularly good for the computer (ok, so it’s no different than taking it to a winter LAN, but I can bitch and scream as much as possible), but hauling a >60 pound computer through the Mall of America (4 stories, and just plaing f***ing huge) isn’t on my fun things to do list. So, the “Apple Genius” and I continued to argue back and forth until he finally decided to replace it and get me out of his “bar”. I went home happy, as I had a working iPod again. About 3 days later, my wife comes to me with her iPod, telling me the battery is dead and won't hold a charge. Great. More Apple store, and more arguing with the Apple Geniuses. So, today I dropped by the Apple store, my wifes iPod in hand. I walk in, and am greeted with another flood of people, another half an hour wait. So, I put my name in their system and wait. 45 minutes later (15 minutes past my scheduled “appointment”), I sit down. The Apple tech (different one this time) stands there and flat out argues with me, telling me I’m wrong, that I don’t know about iPods and their battery life, that I don’t know what I’m talking about. Now, how on earth would I know the exact tech specs of the inners of an iPod, without filing through Google pages trying to find one with a brief list. Why would I do this...? I told him that all I know is what I’ve experienced, that I’ve owned 2 iPods, and both have had serious problems. I told him their 0 for 2 on having a working product, and about 5 for 5 on giving me hell while trying to get my Apple products serviced. Another 15 minutes of arguing go by, and he finally agrees to take the iPod in and check the battery. He explains the procedure to me: they take the iPod and dock it overnight to charge. Then, in the morning, they transfer an 8 hour playlist to it, and time how long it takes to run out. If it turns out that the battery is in fact bad, I get charged 30 bucks, because even though the iPod is within it’s 1 year warranty, anything past 6 months costs 30 dollar. If the iPod passes the test, and they say the battery is fine, I get charged 39.50, because the test is “such a labor-intensive test”. Now wait just a minute...they put something in a dock overnight, let it set, come back in the morning and hook it to a computer, and let it set while it transfers songs. Then, they hit play, and let a program track when it dies...it sounds to me like my iPod is doing more work here than they are, but if it turns out that there is nothing wrong with my iPod, I’m charged almost 40 bucks?! That’s absolutely rediculous. I gave it to them, simply because I know it will fail and my wife hates not having her iPod working, and I get the repercussions of this. A Google seach reveals that this isn’t anywhere near the first time this has happened. In fact, nearly 1/4 of iPod owners have had battery problems, and most have happened right outside of their warranty. 1/4?! There have been 4 and a half million iPods sold. That’s over a million faulty iPods, and however many have been out of warranty, that’s still a ton. So, I just wanted to warn people of my problems, to see if anyone else has had these problems, and mostly just to rant. Sorry, but I needed to get this out. If you made it all the way through this, congrats . [/rant]
Apple service sucksm, well known fact. Try living in the UK, where the best you have is a phone lackey telling you you're an idiot. Good one for making it through
Best rant I've read in a long time; and one of the longest posts ive read in a long time too I managed to specifically persuade my mate to go Creative instead of an ipod, and that was before I really even knew just how many are faulty. If this was Microsoft, there'd be plenty of stupid lawsuits in the pipeline by now. (btw does anyone actually know what happened with the xbox DVD drive suit?)
Hi, First of all, I believe your story. But here is Mine. I own a apple 3th gen 20GB iPod. Had it for olmost a year now. Mime still works surber untill this time, but I did have some problems. My iPod included: iPod dock, iPod case, iPod remote now the first thing that broke was the remote, to my knowledge this isn't covered by the warranty.. I filled it out on the website and I received a brand new remote, without any questions asked, or having to send in the old, broken one. I was very happy by this, because I use it each day, and it would have cost me 50euro to replace it. Now a few monts later my earbuds broke.. cuz I stepped on them, again these arent covered by the warranty, but I filled out the form on the website ounce more, and I recieved brand new earbuds the following day in the mail. I added in the notes that I would like the old earbuds and now the new ones, and I received the old type, not the in-ear new ones. I'm terrible pleased with my iPod, untill now. It costed alot, for me, a student. but their service has proved great to me, and my iPod still works fantastic untill today. so I'm very greatfull for their service L PS: I'm having huge problems with pc hardware atm , my 9800pro died a week after I bought it, and its has taken up to 4 monts now, to get a new one, still waiting for my replacement card.
Mine works great and looks like it just came out of the box, had it for over a year now I think. Not any trouble at all and battery life it great, Although I do handle it with kid gloves. 'doc
amen to that! my zen micro is by far better than a mini ipod, and everyone agrees, even ipod owners!!!!
Ahhh, god bless the internet. I own one of the 3rd gen ipods, and ive only had to have it replaced because the case opened up on one edge ( only a1mm gap, but i could see the main circuit board down there , and NO i didnt try and open it to have a look inside ) So i filled a form out on the internet, bout a week later an empty padded box arrives from UPS, i slung the ipod in, gave ups a call to pick it up thenext day and away it went. About another week later a brand new one arrives problem solved. I did this also with my ipod earbuds, for which i actually recieved the newer in-ear design ( it was my error on part as there were 2 options i just selelcted the first one i saw ) They did however charge me for this... or well tried, sending an invoice ( infact they sent two ) a quick letter to Ireland and they stopped pestering. The 2nd time they broke... ( yes the replacements broke about 4months later ) And i did the same thing..only the replacements never arrived , after all i recieved a time-out error while filling out the form, so i guessed it didnt go through properly, although i could never fill out another form because the first one was still in 'progress'. Apple also changed their policies, in which after 28 days of the replacemetns being sent, and the broken ones not arriving back with them they would charge you for the replacements, not a bad idea, untill they charged me that is. So a quick phonecall, to a very helpful and friendly member of staff, explaining the problem, he did say that the service request had gone through and replacements have been sent, i checked my old email box and there it was, UPS was holding it somewhere in my town..for over a month. So he refunded my monies, got a new pair sent to me ASAP, said sorry for UPS's 'delay' and i was a happy chappy All in all, i prefer using the internet than visiting a store because the websites not smart enough to talk back yet.. Also have to say after previously owning an ipod i knew how easy they are scratched, and sine i got the replacement it was straight into an iskin case w/ screen protector.
from what ive read it looks like apples sevice is only any good though the net. (had to write that about 3 times cus i was still laughing at stickeys avatar)
From what I have heard, that being not personal experience, quite a few times is that if you have a problem with Apple deal with them directly. Their service is good but the stores that usually sell the equipment will give you the runaround trying to save money.
Apple have no concept of customer service, when was the last time you saw apple doing a dell/hp like SLA! its why they are used by people with goatee beards who drink mini-expresso-latte and people who just don't know better. Well done for making it through to the end thou In the UK i'm 99% sure that if a battery fails, and it costs money to replace it, while they are allowed to only give it a 6month warenty, they aren't allowed to charge for labour. The Zen jukebox is way better imo, and the sony in ear headphones are the only ones worth wearing. But creative's tech support isn't exactly world leading.
I've had several problems with my ipod, first the case split open down one side, then the battery wouldn't hold charge for more than about an hour, and finally it started crashing all over the place. Filled out the form on the net, and couple of days later the box came to ship it back. That was about a week ago, so hopefully my new ipod will be here sometime so i can flog it on ebay. It was just under a year old, but the side split open after about a month. Dunno what the new 4g, ipod colour or ipod mini's are like but if i were anyone, i'd stay away from 3g ipods. Unless you want to have to replace it in 6months time. Creative Zen Touch here i come!
zen jukebox = hughe, if your swaying away from ipod try iriver, their iHP series is awsome as long as you get one of the new ones.
The dodgy tech support/breaking + the fact EVERYONE has one was the main reason for not getting one tbh... Dont really see what all the fuss is about, they dont look massively nice, and they are an odd shape... Just dont feel right when you hold them... Plumped for a Hi-MD instead, tis very impressive, dont have any need to be carrying 20 gigs + of mp3's everywhere, + this acts as removable media without drivers which iirc the Ipod cant do... The sony network mp3 20gb jobby looks well nice too
Sony = shocking software. Because Sony bought Sony Records to help launch the audio cd with phillips (after saying that the failing of BetaMax was lack of titles). Now Sony Records makes more than Sony Electronics, as such OpenMG (the software used on NetMDs etc.) was scaring sony records, the idea of allowing easy and fast transfer between devices. So OpenMG was known as harmony or something internally, it was ment to be a compramise so they have this whole check in/out thing, you're only allowed to copy a track 3 times without checking the tracks back in peroid. (enless you re-install the software). So no matter how nice those Sony media players look you have to be careful with the software. (i like the archos things myself, portable video)
All of these are good points. When my iPod works, I love it. I use it as a removable media device as well, (and that I have 12.7GB of music) and the FireWire interface is nice and fast. The interface of the iPod is sleek, I like it's design, and there are tons of cool options for it (I have the Altec Lansing inMotion, a portable speaker set/dock for the iPod, and it's awesome. Small, but absolutely amazing sound, and runs on either batteries or an AC cord. Has an Aux in, headphones out, I dunno, I just find it extremely handy). Plus, even though I have a 3rd gen iPod, when I got mine there weren't many other options, and no one had one. Now, everybody and their grandmother has an iPod, and there are 5 or 6 different companies offering portable media players. IMO, the iPod Mini's and the like are a waste. The whole reason I got an iPod was because I had another mp3 player with 128mb internal memory+128mb SD card. Now, I rip music at 190kbps, so each song is decently big. I could fit around 2 CD's on that mp3 player, and it became more of a hassle to re-sync it and transfer whatever songs I wanted to listen to for the day onto it. I'm kind've picky when it comes to music. I'm a music freak, in fact music was what originally got me into computers. I'll go from 80's pop to classic rock to jazz to 90's to contemporary to new age in 30 minutes, I just like a wide variety of music. With my iPod, I just leave all my music on there, at the touch of my fingers. When I want a song, it's there. I'm not complaining about the usefulness, or options, or anything about the iPod. I'm simply voicing my dissatisfaction with the way it has broken, and even worse, how poorly Apple handled it. Everyone's entitled to their own opinions, of course. This is just mine
ya. I had an iPod, broke 2 weeks out of the 1 year warranty. Apparantly, if your computer restarts, even accidentally, when it is docked, it can break the hard drive. Apple wanted $300 to fix it. I said F*** you to the Apple Store guy, storm out, and buy the zen micro 2 stores over.
And people ask me why the F*** i bought an Archos I'v droped the thing 6 times onto wood or concrete and it still works Had to get new batteris once but thats just like 6 screws and then 4 normal rechargable batterys. Cost me 10 bucks and 20 mins at the kitchen table
That's definentally one complaint I have about the iPod. In order to open it up, it has to be carefully cracked open. Now, I know that Zap sucessfully did this, but seeing as I'm not even on the same planet as him when it comes to electronics, he blows me away, I wouldn't ever try this...If it were just screwed together, this would definentally be a plus, both to let people repair them on their own, if they can (while risking voiding the warrantee), and to curb certain curiosities
