What is Digg?37 Comments
- doce, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2not really crazy, no. but i doubt it's the disk armature. i'd think it has something to do with the seating of the cable, as I pointed out in another article being dugg.
http://digg.com/apple/Fix_your_dead_iPod..._for_Free_ - thinkdifferent, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Warranties exist for a reason. Sure sometimes you're lucky & they continue to work beyond the warranty, but that's the point, it's not guaranteed (warranted) to last longer. Same thing applies to anything. If your $25,000 car stopped working after the warranty, would you be surprised when the manufacturer says, sorry you have to pay for the repairs yourself?
- sarusa, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Noooo, not really. Like Steve said, if you're an Apple Person you have to buy a new one every year.
- doce, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I'm a former Apple Employee, both as a Mac Genius and at one of Apple's corporate campuses, but I'm hardly an Apple apologist or fanboy. Six years ago, before I entered those hallowed halls, maybe. But it's funny what six years inside the beast will do for you.
That said, the wisdom I have to impart actually harkens from my life before Apple, when I worked for a major national advertising agency. Our major clients included a major, international cell phone manufacturer and a (now defunct, but at the time) regional cellular carrier. I sat in a great many meetings with the clients about this very issue. This comes down to a couple of issues: what do you want to get, and what do you want to pay for it? Note: I have no idea if this happens at Apple (even having worked there), but I would shocked beyond belief if it didn't.
We, being the marketers for this cell phone company, thought the product would sell best if we could offer a two year warranty. In a face-to-face meeting with their executive team, we brought up this fact and pointed out that we felt their existing warranty would hurt them in the market place. On the flip side, they had fairly hard data showing what extending their warranty would do to their bottom line. In order to keep margins about where they needed to be for this project to be profitable, the price of the handset would have to be raised by $25 per unit.
We had hard data showing that a significant number of customers would be turned off by the short warranty. We had even harder data that the market for this handset would shrivel up and die a premature, abortive death if the price were any higher than it already was. Guess which option the phone went to market with?
Should a $400 device last more than 12 months? I hope so, and so does Apple. But the end of the story is that you paid for a one year warranty. You got a one year warranty. If you want more... pay for it. - Osjpr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I support dkp1971. You can want to live in a country where everything breaks after one year, but I won't and haven't been for the past decades. The warranty is a device to make consumers pay more for something they already paid once for.
- elvissinatra, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Update: the original article has been updated to point out that the disk failure can be corrected by "smuck[ing] the unit on the side lightly in the direction of the disk armature on the HD." Does that seem as crazy to everyone else as it does to me?
- Southernlad, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3This is where Im glad I live in the UK! Americans actually seem to have been brainwashed by corporations that its there problem, their fault, they are to blame. After $300 on an ipod (made in china and giving apple tens of millions of profit) the should accept that a guarantee is minimum LEGAL requirement. It does not make it acceptable that a product should break immediately after the 12 months safety net. Corporations profit even more of "apple care" or whatever other extended guarantee they try and force on you. Thankfully in the UK extended gurantee or not we wont let companies screw us over, why shoud we pay even more £, on top of the initial purchase??! You buy an ipod (which costs more than many competing MP3s) for the state of the art technology, and useability, so I think apple should ensure this is what the consumer gets (at least for a reasonable time (3years?)
- Eldoo77, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2... And if this was a Microsoft product there would be hundreds of replies in the thread. Micro$oft screws little guy again, Bad Bill Gates Bad Bill Gates, etc Since this is an Apple product, watch the Apple Fanboys become Steve apologists!
- Osjpr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2That's not quite true. I believe a company should not make a product that is known to break after the warranty expires more often than once. If Apple said it would break as much as it has after the warranty I'm sure that NOONE would buy an iPod. But they won't explicitly state the high chance the product will break so early.
Apple is burning consumer trust that has slowly built up over the years and saying screw it. They invented AppleCare to make customers pay for something they got before for free. It being, a product that works for a decent amount of time. - dkp1971, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2And so I guess expecting a piece of equipment that expensive to last beyond 18 months is too much to ask, is that right?
Think different, indeed. - elvissinatra, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Actually, it was TWO cases of hard drive failures. Both were bought on the same day, and both died within months of each other. You know, just to clarify what it says in the article (and in the description)...
- elvissinatra, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2The main reason I posted this link is to raise the question: Is one year long enough of a warranty for a $400 item? Seems awfully short to me.
- trollenlord, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Where I live we have this law that mandates that the seller of a product is responsible for that the product lasts for the time it is REASONABLE for a customer to expect. It is called product responsibility and is handled upon complaints to the authorities individually case by case.
It doesn't actually generate more than a few cases per year. The companies and customers are in practice meeting a reasonable middle meeting point thanks to it. In the end it most likely benefits both parties.
What would have happened in your case? Hard to say. Possibly Apple gives up usually on those for couple months past the 12. Not many, and not many are making a case over it. The reason is the iPod has got an actual spinning hard disc. The common sense says those are putas in devices and that's what the officials would think as well.
They would make evaluation how you had been handling your device and try to count in all the possibly relevant factors and from experience I'd say your 18 months around here would be roughly on the 50-50 chance line. - dkp1971, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2"Don't submit stuff like this to digg, no one cares, you're not unique in your suffering. You won't get a new iPod complaining about it on digg."
And yet there are 24 comments, many of which are my own, granted.
But I'm just baffled why anyone would defend Apple on this. Set aside the fact I didn't buy the warranty, we all agree that's a bad idea. I concede. But shouldn't Apple be held to higher standards? And what's with giveing them a pass because hard drive technology isn't the best option for a portable media player? THEY'RE the ones marketing it as portable. I guess because I was dumb enough to take their word for it, hurray for Apple. That's some strange sense of justice you have.
And thanks for your input on this, but I think lots of people might be interested in my problems with the iPod. In fact, from the looks of it, it's a common problem that may cause thousands, if not millions, of people headaches. Including your brother. - dkp1971, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Of course, I'm not expecting them to cover "every little thing" I just expect it to work--at all.
- dkp1971, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3"Oh, don't compare your problems with my brother's problems. He was smart enough to get AppleCare, unlike you."
My point, and the one you made with your comment, is there's something clearly wrong with these machines. To blame their defect on my not getting a warranty makes no sense.
"Not to mention they were all hard drive problems."
Just as were my problems. See a pattern here?
"So how about we make this "anit-iPod" thing you got going, and change it to an "anti-hard-drive-mp3-player" thing, eh?"
I'm hoping Apple will care about their customer satisfaction and win me back. I don't WANT to be anti-iPod, but if this is common across their entire product line, then I'd have to be dense as lead to continue purchasing them--with or without an extended warranty. - Osjpr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I know I'm not going to buy Apple products after reading this. Their proprietry crap always pissed me off anyhow.
- dkp1971, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Wow, even a defense of corporate "philosophy." Classic.
I've already acknowledged my own failure to purchase the extended warranty so cancel that Whambulance, thanks.
But I am shocked to see people actually defending shoddy merchandise and a coporation's (and let's remember that Apple is a CORPORATION) disregard for their customers.
And I know all you Apple freaks are fully aware that my TWO dead iPods aren't out of the ordinary. A simple Google search for "ipod disk failure" brought up plenty of others. Too bad I didn't do that search before I bought mine. - trollenlord, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Considering the item has a mechanic moving parts it sounds near reasonable to me. They are more sensitive and you can never know what everything the users will do. If it was flash based (like this Nano here..) I would expect couple times more instantly.
- dkp1971, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2If it's not a problem, then why discontinue so many models? And why only a one year warranty?
Feel free not to answer Shrimp, but I'd love to see someone else's response. - dkp1971, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Just for clarity and full disclosure, I am the author this letter.
I can't believe the "Think Different" crowd is so full of such coproate shills. You don't believe in consumer protection?
But you're right, I was wrong to put so much faith in a company that's built a reputation for customer satisfaction over the last couple of decades. I should have known better than to buy anything that doesn't have the confidence of its manufacturer to last beyond 12 months. That should have tipped me off.
But if Apple wants to maintain the market share they've established with iPod, they better be the ones thinking Differently. - dkp1971, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I wish people weren't so hung up on the warranty. The fact that I have personal knowlege (and apperently, so do others here) of several of these machines crapping out within two years. That's not just bad luck, that's a lemon.
- HobbesDoo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Dude, warranty is over, it's your problem. This applies to any companies out there, not just Apple, not to mention this is ONE case of a hard drive mal function. I would not generalize. Just because it bears the brand Apple doesn't mean it's protected and covered by "god". Sure the product is supposed to last way longer 1 year, but you were unlucky and didn't get a good one out of the batch. Very unfortunately, but hey, that's life. Nobody said it's fair. Get over it.
- netburnr, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2dkp1971, you might as well give it up now. As you can tell by ALL of the comments your lousy letter has received, noone here gives a flying F*** about your problem. Apple has sold tons and tons and tons of iPods, are all the iPods that were sold still working, of coarse not. I personally have been through 4 iPods. Out of those, one battery wore out, and my 2nd had the HD die. The other 2 still work perfectly, years outside their warrenty. I replaced the battery in my first iPod for $50 bucks while everyone was crying about the battery life being to short, and gave it to a freind, for the failed HD one, I just chunked it in the junk drawer.
Just because you are aparently hard on the HARD DRIVE based players doesn't mean the product is defective. I have had my iPod in my pocket, in my car, in my backpack, even dropped them a few times. The one where the HD died was my fault most likely because I kept it in a backpack with my spare powerbook batteries, and no doubt they came into contact a little too hard and scratched the platters.
If you can't treat your iPod well, then get the extended warrenty, simple as that.
And ALL iPod owners should purchase the Invisishield, its the best purchase I've ever made for keep my iPod scratch free...it will however not protect the HD if you drop it, so don't go crying to them either, lol - zimm, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1got exactly what you deserve. buying apple is paying for an image and a style. not relibable hardware.
and the image and style says you must buy new apple products every year.
your broke ass obsolete ipod doesnt matter to anyone. least of all apple. - doce, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1then you're full of *****. apple plainly states - on the box, on their website, and if you ask any of their employees - that the warranty is for one year. if you don't like it, then don't buy it.
you weren't getting the warranty "for free" - the original one year warranty is included in the price of the device. you can stick your fingers in your ears and say "that's not true" all you want, but if you truly believe that you're deluding yourself. I can tell you, as 100% verified truth, from experience, that this is the case, after suffering through careers in marketing (as detailed above) and within Apple's actual AppleCare division. There is no debate on this. The cost is included in the price. Period.
as a bonus.... extended warranties only make the companies profits when you don't make claims. if this product is as flawed and failure prone as you say it is, Apple is losing money hand over fist on all of the customers who actually bought AppleCare for their iPod. - dkp1971, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2"He sent it in about 5 times because it had problems."
Case in point. - FunkyWitDaSysTm, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1you're forgetting the most important part of the "think different" philosophy: THINK
you're complaining because you warranty wasn't long enough? i'm skypeOuting the whambulance as we speak. you should have gotten an extended warranty (almost everyone has them, including apple's applecare). if you do have a warranty, and it's still apple's responsibility as agreed to WHEN YOU BOUGHT THE IPOD, they typically just take your ipod and give you a new one as a replacement. that's better customer satisfaction than i've found anywhere.
but to complain about something you very well knew about when you bought the thing... instead of being a little bitch about it, why don't you just learn your lesson, move on, and get and extended warranty next time. sheesh.
btw, i just checked creative and sony, and you only get 1 year warranty from them too, so STFU! - FunkyWitDaSysTm, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1wha! your warranty expired. it's your fault for not getting an extended warranty.
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