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September 26, 2005
R.I.P iPod 4, Hello iPod color!
My 4th generation 20 gig. iPod became a vital part of my everyday life; at work, at home, at the gym, in the car - I always used my iPod. I couldn't imagine life without it. Prior to my iPod, I looked at a number of other mp3 players, but none came close to the iPod, so I purchased one. I was really happy with it for about a year until about a month and a half ago when it started acting up on. Soon after, Electro's 3rd generation iPod passed away from a hard drive failure. A month later, my iPod started to show the same signs - symptoms that it was slowly on it's way. Symptoms are freeze ups, interrupted data transfers and desktop mounting problems. It became apparent that hard drives were not meant for the tumble and turns it experiences in a portable device.
I decided to take my iPod to the Apple store. I'll refer to this particular store as "X" since I promised not to mention this to everyone. ; ) But with all do respect to Apple, I do believe what they did for me should be granted to everyone with the same hard drive issues.
I took my dying friend in to store "X" last week hopeful that I would leave happy, aware of Apple's highly regarded customer support, I had no doubts. The Mac Genius examined my iPod and determined that it was in fact hard drive failure. To my surprise, I was given a refurbished iPod as a replacement. It wasn't the fact that I didn't get the upgrade to the "color ipod" I was hoping for, but more over that I did not receive a new iPod in general. And as I fearfully predicted, this "new" iPod did not make me happy.
The iPod did not mount to the desktop and more importantly, it wouldn't even read or write files so once again, it was back to the Apple store. On the way over I thought of different arguments in an attempt to get a new iPod as a replacement but realized it would probably be tough to get anything else but another refurbished one. It took some coaxing but I'm glad they proved me wrong.
As I told Mr. X (Genius desk employee) my story he explained my choices - I should say my only choice, because he told me that there was nothing he could do but to exchange my broken iPod replacement with another refurbished one. I decided to ask for the manager and told him that it was actually my second time here for the same problem. I also explained and petitioned my request for a new color iPod. I like Apple. I've always been a good customer. I've only received exemplary service in previous dilemmas etc. Yes, I was being a little overwhelming but I stayed to facts and I was polite. As electro will explain further down, the 3rd and 4th generation iPods work great but they cannot withstand too much "portability".
"Apple's 3rd and 4th generation iPods were marvels of engineering as Apple managed to thin them down even further. The new "skinny" came by way of thinner hard drives, compliments of Hitachi. Problem is, they were/are not as durable as the hard drives used in the 1st generation iPods. With the amount of movement we put our iPods through, it is only inevitable that they would eventually malfunction and fail. They may be the same hard drives used in larger devices like laptops but we don't jog with our laptops nor do we toss them into our bags."
The manager gave it about 10 seconds of thought before he told me " - You do seem like a good customer and we do want to keep things that way, so I'm going to go ahead and give you an upgrade to a new "color" iPod.
Ecstatic I walked out of store "X" more than satisfied, solidifying my belief Apple has some of the best customer service around. Once again I was a happy iPod owner! I will miss my previous iPod who was with me for a year and served me well but now he's reincarnated into a color version and doing just fine. Thanks Apple!
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