R.I.P. iPod. never again.

boi

official breaker of macs.
well, after several problems, my iPod is now officially out of commission. Kudos to Apple for not offering service on any of it, even though it was under warranty:rolleyes: :mad: .
after about 3 or 4 months of usage, the battery wouldn't last any longer than 3 hours. i called Mr. Apple and told them about the problem. they said that i could send it in and pay $30 shipping to have them look at it. but he warned me that "if the case is scratched, they'll deem it as abused and would not service it". after ranting about the fact that the back scratches after i breathe, look at, or even talk about the ipod, i finally gave up. i just got a car charger and went on with my musical life.

next i decided "hey, i'll get a cool new remote thingie. that'll be neato". so i got one. it was apparently DOA. i called Mr. Apple yet again and got the sound advice to "push it in hard and wiggle it around. trust me, it will work". neat! i love easy fixes. wiggle wiggle push push wiggle wig-- SNAP. $#@%! that little round thing around the headphone jack snapped in half. terrific. by then the Apple store near me opened up, so i took it there. the Apple Geniuses? wouldn't take the headphones back or even look at my now tattered ipod.

two months later. it's now 2 weeks before the one year anniversary of my iPod and i's bittersweet relationship. like clockwork the iPod decided to self destruct right before the warranty went out. the firewire port won't work at all. i've got ONE cd on the ipod right now that i'm pretty tired of. sigh. off to the Apple Store?. after an hour and a half drive, i arrived to some happy, healthy employees and Geniuses?.
"hmm..." the Genius? said as he made a frowny face. "how long have you had it?"
"almost a year now. it's still under warranty" i said, making sure to speak the last four words very slowly and intently.
"hmm..." the Genius? repeated. "let me take it to The Back."
so back he went, where the employees hide and talk about how sexy their computers are and read magazines with naked G4s. i sat on the little round chair meant for kids and waited. waited. waited.
waited.
i felt like i was waiting for my mother to come out of surgery.
finally the Genius? emerged and handed me the iPod.
"well fella" he said, putting his hand on my shoulder as if he really, truly, deeply cared for me.
"you see these hairline fractures here?"
"no"
"they're right there. see?"
"uh, okay. yeah. i see em."
"those are signs of abuse."
ding ding ding! there's that word again! i think it's the only thing they teach their tech guys concerning products under warranty. for all i know they took into The Back to abuse it themselves. i bet they tied it to a chair and whipped it for the entire time i sat on the kiddie chair. anyway, the conversation had to go on.
"since these fractures are here, we can't send it in because Apple will probably deny service"
"couldn't you try?"
"it would be better if you shipped it out. that way we could eliminate the middle man and you have more of a chance to get it fixed under warranty"
"but it costs me $30 and costs you nothing. go ahead and ship it out for me."
"nono, we can't do that. blah blah blah blah blah"
i stopped listening. i didn't care any more. i knew i was just beating my head against the $400 brick i was holding in my hand. there was no use.
it's all very sad. i expected Mr. Apple to give me a little more respect because i purchased the $400 iBrick, but no. i suppose he thinks i got my moneys worth because i had the opportunity to use his amazing product for almost a year. he probably feeds them to his dog.
anyway, yeah. i'm through ranting... has anyone had a similar experience? :)
 
That is really horrible. I do agree thought that the iPod does scratch much too easily. Hairline fractures...HA! Remember the cracks in the G4 Cube.....

Anyway, you should copy your 'rant' and mail it to apple. Although, I doubt it would do you any good. It sounds to me like it was really apple's fault when they told you to push it in harder, the headphones that is.

Best of luck.
 
hmm...I'm wanting to get an iPod, but now I'm worried. Does it really break that easily?

Fractures? Did you ever drop it by accident or leave it in a bag that you dropped? You mean it just get's cracks in it through normal use? I can see scratches here and there...

I'd hate to throw down this kind of cash and then have the same experience.
 
I've had a similar experience (not as bad, but...)

I got my 5GB iPod for christmas 2001. That is, I was supposed to get it by then, it was supposed to arrive in November, middle of December at last. February 2002 I had a brand new iPod...I loaded it with music, ran OS X off of it at school, carried it around everywhere for months.

As many have experienced, it crashed. No biggie, a little Menu+Play and it was fine.
Same thing happened again nopt long after, now I left it for 24 hours and then rebooted. Great!

January 2003 (when warranty was expired cause Apple said I would have it in November) the battery ran out and refused to recharge. Now I have to send it back to Apple to even hear if they want to fix it for me...at my expense of course.

May I suggest Creative Jukebox Zen, boi? 20GB HD, lower prize, about the same size and support MUST be better...
 
Whoa I totally know how irritating, frustrating, downright awful that feels. Like voice, I got my iPod weeks too late, too. Now, Everything is starting to break. The plug on the iPod is broken.
But, it stull works fine. But when I plug my under 2 months old remote control in, 80% of the time all I get is *chrssssssgggghhhhhh*. I call them and they say it's the iPod, but when I just put my headphones in it, w/o the remote, it works fine!

btw= I know this is not your priority right now, but you write really funny. :)
 
Originally posted by voice-
I've had a similar experience (not as bad, but...)

I got my 5GB iPod for christmas 2001. That is, I was supposed to get it by then, it was supposed to arrive in November, middle of December at last. February 2002 I had a brand new iPod...I loaded it with music, ran OS X off of it at school, carried it around everywhere for months.

As many have experienced, it crashed. No biggie, a little Menu+Play and it was fine.
Same thing happened again nopt long after, now I left it for 24 hours and then rebooted. Great!

January 2003 (when warranty was expired cause Apple said I would have it in November) the battery ran out and refused to recharge. Now I have to send it back to Apple to even hear if they want to fix it for me...at my expense of course.

May I suggest Creative Jukebox Zen, boi? 20GB HD, lower prize, about the same size and support MUST be better...

The warranty starts at the day you receive it, not at the day you order it or the day you are supposed to receive it.
 
the little round thing for my headphone plug also broke.
i've resorted to surrounding my headphone plug with a thinly slice piece of eraser.
would the remote be of any value? does it sit better?? right now, if i touch the jack (without the eraser slices), it'll either make a static sound, play thru one side, or just stop producing sound...
 
maybe writing a letter is in order? perhaps a petition? i'm really sad that this happens because the iPod is a very cool device. there's got to be something we, the consumers, can do about this.
 
I think multiple letters will do the trick.

It's so frustrating, even though I really want to hate the iPod and smash it down really hard, it's too cool and expensive to do.:mad:
 
boi,
I feel for your aggravation and frustration. But by the way, your ability to write about your troubles with a wonderful sense of humor that (sorry) gave me a few chuckles is really wonderful!!! Seriously, consider putting some of your frustrations into writing not only about ipods, but quite possibly about your life experiences in general. (Then in your first book, you can put Apple in your acknowledgements as having started you on your road to fame and ..)

I know that doesn't help with the pod stuff.

I do want to thank all those others who put their 2cents in. I have been wanting an ipod for a while but now at least if I do purchase one I WILL FOR SURE also purchase Best Buy's 4 year warranty for their $40. I'm also waiting for the new models to be released, hopefully soon.
 
iPod oh iPod...

I can't wait until I see what the new ones are like... If they have 40 gd harddrives I can't wait. I'd buy one before I could blink. But let's hope there are interesting new features in 'em also. ]crosses fingers[
 
Thanks to the two who have commented on my humorous writing. sometimes my sarcasm and blunt-ness get me in trouble.
by the way, all those '?'s after 'Genius' should be the little trademark symbol (option-2). so just pretend they are when you read ^_^.
i'm going to try and get the CompUSA extended warranty this weekend. i was told that it was possible, so i'm going there with my $30. hopefully CompUSA isn't so picky about their warranty claims.
 
Good luck boi. Or you could always try a different apple store if that's possible. I had good luck with CompUSA and they have an upgrade option too!
 
I like you have the original ipod. I bought it Februrary 21 2002 from one of the local store here. In Janurary I started having the battery problem. I was told by an Apple rep to take it back to where I bought it and they would give me a new one. The store said no but to send for warranty work. I contacted Apple on their website. They told me I was still under warranity and they would be sending me a shipping container to ship to them in.

That week I went out of town for training I told my wife what to do when the shipping container came. I could not access my email that week I was gone but was confident my iPod would be taken care of. My wife told all week that nothing came.

When I got back to work I found an email from Apple saying "Authorize payment of $45.75 for shipping" so that we can process your order. I already spent $400 on the damn thing in the year I've had it it worth less than that now.

I tried calling them and email them about why is it $45.75. No one returned my call or emails. I decided that $45.75 was too much and found a possible fix for it over the internet.

I have had Macs since 1984. All my Macs worked without a problem except for my Wallstreet powerbook and this iPod. Both times Apple support put me through hell.

Calliex
 
Here's an easy fix for any iPod problem:

Take a screwdriver, take off the case and start fiddling with the insides of the iPod.

When that fails to fix anything, shoot yourself in the head. :)

Seriously, though, you could try starting a petition at www.petitionanything.com, or boycotting the iPod until Apple promises to do something. Just some suggestions.
 
alright, i did it. i took it apart.
and i fixed it.

well, for the most part anyway.

while i was at it, i sanded the metal case on the back. everything's semi-peachy. firewire port works now, but the remote still doesn't. oh well. better than an ibrick.
 
Man I hate to hear all that. I had a really good experiance with mine. I got it and after like a week it stoped working. It would not even boot at one point. I sent it back to Apple (free of charge) and it had two HUGE scratches on it. The next day they sent me a brand new one.

I have had no problems with the new one. THe battery started to hold less of a charge, but after the newest update it is fine.

It makes me sad to hear your stories. I know how upset I would be. Here is hoping it all works out.

Mathew
 
Originally posted by boi
alright, i did it. i took it apart.
and i fixed it.
Boy (boi?), I wasn't completely serious about that. What exactly did you do?
 
i know you weren't. i had actually forgotten you mentioned it, honestly.
i took off the back, battery and hard drive and noticed the firewire port was carefully installed with a very small piece of scotch tape. brilliant.
i took a soldering iron to the ibrick and voilá, it's an ipod again. that firewire port isn't moving any more. i have to elevate the firewire cord a little bit, so it goes into the port at an angle, but it's a small price to pay. i'll eventually fix that with some tape or something.

now my ipod has... character ^_^.

i also sanded the back of it to give it a brushed metal look. it looks fantastic. now all i have to do is get rid of the scratches on the plastic, somehow fix the discoloring of the wheel (spraypaint maybe? i wonder how silver would look...) and fix my little remote port on the top. now that apple has denied me warranty, i'm no longer afraid to customize my baby.

i'll snap some pictures of the whole process once i find the charger for my digitical camera. i found the number of guides on the internet for taking an ipod apart to be extremely insufficient. i need to pass on the help, because i know a couple other people here have ipods with broken firewire ports. it's really a pretty simple fix. it was my first time with a soldering iron (thanks for the help blake!).
 
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