Rotten apples

I'm having problems with my iPod. Again. Worse, my warranty expired nine days ago.

This is the third iPod that my wife and I have had in the last two years. It's also the third that has developed problems within or just outside the one-year warranty period. The first was a third-gen iPod, the second was an iPod mini, and this is a fourth-gen iPod. I'm now getting seriously pissed off.

My wife took the damn thing to ACT today to see if they could do anything to help. They were great when we had problems with her mini, arranging for a replacement with no charge, even though we bought it in the US. However, that was still under warranty. Today my wife was was told that Apple prohibits them from dealing with malfunctioning iPods outside the warranty period (why?), so we've been given a 1-800 number to call instead.

The main problem is that my iPod is now only holding its charge for about an hour. But on a couple of occasions in the last month, it refused to turn on until I did a forced reset. My PC is also occasionally refusing to recognise it.

Is it worth the cost and hassle of trying to get this thing repaired? If not, what should I buy to replace it? With reliability like this I'm loathe to give any more money to Apple, but are any of its competitors any better? And would I have to rip my entire music collection again?

Comments

[loki on 24.01.06 at 18:51]

Honestly, Phil, I've never met anyone with so much bad luck with ipods. I've had mine for two years and it's never given me any problems at all. Other than you, I don't know anyone personally who's had problems, either.

[david on 24.01.06 at 18:57]

Maybe the ipod is sick of having to listen to your awful tastes! Had mine for over a year. Its seems to run out quicker (the juice) when it gets cold, suck as being in the car. I always warm it up when it says no battery life and I'm honest it suddenly finds more juice when its warmer. Try it

[Kate on 24.01.06 at 19:03]

You can get a new battery for the iPod from the web and install it yourself, it's supposedly quite easy and costs arounf $60 (plus shipping and duty). I could look up the details in my little book on iPods if you like (I am aware of how very sad it is to own a book on iPod, I have 2)

[Silencio on 24.01.06 at 19:14]

Statistical chances of Limey getting three bad Ipods? Hmmmm

I kid, I kid ;-)

[peter j on 24.01.06 at 19:30]

Please!!!!! Had two go phut already and took the back off and replaced the batteries (with limited success). Just for your own interest, now it is out of warranty, take the back off and have a laugh - remember blue peter and sticky back plastic ? it is crap build inside with a capital C !!

Just go online and do a google under any combo of 'battery, ipod, problem' etc etc !!
Well known that the build quality on these things is appalling and apple have been marketing them without a)disclosing the known battery problems and b) wont do a product recall as in the good ol days. They have had some whisltleblowers internally who have split the beans on the known problems they have with battery life and thats where the class actions are winning i understand.

You can sign up with any one of several class actions in the USA to get your costs refunded for a new battery or get a credit note etc.

Word of advice for you....... go to UK, go to Dixons and buy the best ipod u can get/ afford. Take up the in store offer of 5 yr replacement insurance. It costs approx GBP75 and covers you for either damage, loss or malfunction and the best part is they will replace it with the brand new equivalent model at time of loss. We got our son a new one on this basis, took up the insurance and the sales assistant said they have had loads coming back already - he said to be honest with an ipod within 5 yrs you are guaranteed to have it go wrong so just bring it back !!

et volia....

[Simon on 24.01.06 at 20:06]

But Peter, you are paying twice the price in the UK anyway so what's the point?

[Simon on 24.01.06 at 20:07]

KAte, or you just get your husband to buy you a new on for Xmas - right sweetheart??

[SmokingGun on 24.01.06 at 20:34]

I bought an iPod for my girlfriend for her birthday last year. I also gave her a voucher to download a bunch of songs. It's been sitting in my desk for two months waiting for "me" to fill it up with songs that she can enjoy. I knew I shouldn't have got her the bloody pink one.....

[Sketchy on 24.01.06 at 20:37]

Replacement battery $29.95 (in US), includes tools and instructional DVD and claims to be a better battery than that provided by Apple -. Probably worth it just for the tools so you can find the 'probable' damage inside yourself.

I take it when you (peter j) say "capital C" you mean China (as in "Made in ..."). The phrases "consumer electronics" and "poor build quality" have become more and more synonymous as time goes by. It seems to have followed the trend of outsourcing manufacturing to the ROC. I get sick and tired of listening to everyone jump on the bandwagon of "Company A" builds over-priced cr@p when most stuff out there is and it's getting worse as everyone demands more for less.

Just my $0.02

[Sketchy on 24.01.06 at 20:45]

Batteries 101

"My iPod battery died after 12-18 months"

Consider the following, a Lithium-Ion battery (as used by Apple) needs replacing after around 500 charges. If you use and recharge your iPod every day, how long will it be before you need a new battery?

"My battery works better when it's warm"

The capacity of a battery to provide power has a very defined relationship with temperature - higher temperature, more battery life. At 0C your average battery will only have around 20% of thes capacity it would have at room temperature (20C).

[SmokingGun on 24.01.06 at 21:13]

"It seems to have followed the trend of outsourcing manufacturing to the ROC. I get sick and tired of listening to everyone jump on the bandwagon of "Company A" builds over-priced cr@p when most stuff out there is and it's getting worse as everyone demands more for less."

In my humble opinion this will have Adam Smith crusaders scratching their heads a bit. Wal-Mart used to pay $6.00 for a Chinese Factory made fan which they sold for $25.00. Now they want to sell a fan for $22.00 so they can be "cheaper" than everyone else so they demand the Factory produce it for $4.50. All the while the price of raw material and transport is rising so it ultimately comes out in shoddy quality and undermines the whole concept of building something that might last. We are quickly becoming a society that is willing to put up with crap just to save a buck, which we spend on over-priced coffee. Which ultimately ends up as.......

[Two Cents on 24.01.06 at 21:28]

In-Store Sign

An IPOD a day
Keeps the repairman in pay

[sLimey Guy on 24.01.06 at 22:04]

I have several friends who have iPods and use them with 'Windoze XP' and they all seem to have problems. Some have problems downloading music to the iPod, some have problems with them just freezing up...and others can't even get their computer and iPod to talk to each other at all....

I, on the other hand, use a Mac and have had no problems with any of my iPod's.... :-)

I've said it before and I'll say it again; As soon as people stop using Windows...............

[Uncle Elvis on 25.01.06 at 00:07]

I have a shuffle and my bride has a Nano.
I've NEVER had any trouble getting music to and from the devices, even though I'm one of those horrible Windows people... 'cuz Steve Jobs is so much better than Gates. Thanks for the Intel chip so soon after a major launch of another product, Steve... and I've been fortunate enough to not have any problems with battery power.

No big surprises, though. A big-ass company puts out a shitty product and doesn't back it up. We're shocked why?

[hotspur on 25.01.06 at 05:15]

And it’s not just the iPod you have to worry about… There’s the matching shoes, handbags, jewelry, kitchen-ware, pets, furniture etc, etc. We’re talking about a major change in life style here. What’s an honest metrosexual to do!?

Get yourself a manly Archos unit. They’re well built and the one I have (which is a couple of years old) doesn’t ram DRM technology up your ass. Various accessories and trinkets are not optional. It just plays music quite well.

[Adjustah on 25.01.06 at 06:45]

Doh! Actually, yesterday I finally went down to ACT after my good ol' iPod Mini finally started to cry out for a new battery after many moons of faithful service.

While I drooled over the Nano, I was impressed by the capacity of the iPod Video and the opportunity to purchase shiny new TV shows (fake US address not included - just incase Osama has an iPod).

...I think today I will go pick up the iPod Video, although Phil's battery woes have given me cause for concern.

What to do? What to do?

[sandgrownan on 25.01.06 at 08:47]

I have an iPod Video, no problms as yet, in fact it's really really impressive, though I keep falling off my bike trying to watch videos on my way to work.

Hotspur - don't forget, you need to get VW Beetle Cabrio to complete the look!

[Chris Broadhurst on 25.01.06 at 09:35]

I gave up on my ipod and returned to Minidisc. Takes a regular AA battery.

[Git on 25.01.06 at 11:03]

I don't personally have one, but have purchased two as gifts for family members - both have had to be replaced within the first year. I wouldn't touch anything 'pod' with a barge pole after those experiences.

[Chris Broadhurst on 25.01.06 at 11:18]

Ah yes, but there's never a barge pole around when you need one.....

[SmokingGun on 25.01.06 at 11:31]

For sale: One iPole.

[Git on 25.01.06 at 12:22]

I got yer pole hanging low...

;-)

[44-40 on 25.01.06 at 13:17]

ipods are pieces of crap, this has been know for awhile but people still buy them because its trendy to be seen with one. If you want a mp3 player that won't break down on you buy one from Dell, you can go on their website and buy one with equivalent memory to an ipod for $100 less then a ipod.

[sandgrownan on 25.01.06 at 13:24]

but if you buy the computer from Dell, it will be crap, and you'll have to deal with some bloke in Mexico City who learned his English watching TV for help.

[SmokingGun on 25.01.06 at 13:45]

RG Poll shows 83.9% use a PC. 11% use a Mac.

11% of Bermudians are way smarter than everyone else.

Invest in a Mac or Infest in a PC.

[Uncle Elvis on 25.01.06 at 13:51]

to paraphrase (read: 'steal') a line from Bill Hicks...

"Fuckin' Mac owners. I'd buy one if I didn't think I'd turn into one of you!"

[SmokingGun on 25.01.06 at 13:53]

Now that's not very PC.....

[tong on 25.01.06 at 14:00]

Ahhh the taunting of the underdog MacO'philes,

I have an Ipod that works fine with my germ free XP totin' PC, however if I were to upgrade i would probably go for an MP3 player such as ones put out by Sony or Dell, they are just more practical, not so pretty but at least they aren't snotty and let you download AND upload.

As for macs...11%... proof is in the consumer pudding I guess. If they could own the market they would, then you'd have the same issues. Unfortunately they lost the battle so far.

[SmokingGun on 25.01.06 at 14:16]

MacIntel will tell.

After all a WindowsPC is just a MacWannabe.......

Bill's famous qoute being: "Quick, toss the dos and make like a mac!"

[Andrew on 25.01.06 at 14:49]

Just like a PC, many problems go away when you wipe it, format it, and reinstall.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60983

It won't help your battery life any, but might solve the flakiness issue.

[Adjustah on 25.01.06 at 15:21]

Uncle Elvis:

" I'd buy one if I didn't think I'd turn into one of you!"

ROTFLMAO! By God that's funny!

[Marcus on 25.01.06 at 16:11]

If you've ripped the cds to mp3 then most (if not all) popular players will play them.

If you've ripped to the other itunes format then you can change them to mp3, as long as you've ripped them. If you've downloaded them from itunes music store then you can remove the drm by using jhymm (as long as you didn't download them using itunes 6.x)

Currently syncing my ipod is the only reason I boot into Windows. Everything else I use Linux for. There is a ipod syncer but the only time I've tried it odd things happened. That might have been down to the stuff i downloaded from iTunes (the stuff with fairplay drm still in)

[Marcus on 25.01.06 at 16:15]

Adjustah

Bill Hicks was talking about non-smokers. Bill was, in my not at all humble opinion, the funniest man alive.

Oh and Dennis Leary nicked all his material off Bill.

You should hear what he had to say about pro lifers. ;)

[sandgrownan on 25.01.06 at 16:32]

Saw Hicks at The Queens Hall in Edinburgh many years back. At the end of the show there was a question and answer session. Some chick in the audience asked if he could "suck his own whatsit?"

"Damn near broke my back trying"

"If men could do that, you women would be stting here alone"

"watching an empty stage"

Simply Priceless. He wouldn't have owned an iPod.

[SmokingGun on 25.01.06 at 16:52]

"Bill Hicks was talking about non-smokers." - Marcus

Being a MAC user I'm starting to understand what it must feel like to be smoker....

[Slowhand on 25.01.06 at 17:53]

I think all MAC users should have to declare their allegiance.... here and now.....

[Marcus on 25.01.06 at 18:11]

sandgrownan

urm I'm not sure about Bill not owning an iPod but I do know that he wouldn't have advertised them. (A special place in hell for marketing and advertisers). Also it has been scientifically tested to be a really bad idea to listen to Bill on your ipod while shopping in the local supermarket. People tend to back away when you just start laughing un-controllable.

And yes the blowing yourself joke still makes he laugh so much.

The man was a legend.

SmokingGun

After looking at my brother-law's ibook running tiger at Christmas I was getting serious want issues. But SUSE Linux is still cheaper ;) if not quite as shiny

[Uncle Elvis on 25.01.06 at 18:37]

Greatest comic no-one's ever heard of.

"As for macs...11%... proof is in the consumer pudding I guess...

Just an interesting note on this, one that's become a pet peeve, 'cuz I'm anal about stuff like this.
The actual quote/phrase/whatever is:

"The proof OF the pudding is in the eating"

Which makes sense...

*grin*

Oh, yeah... the on-topic portion, so Phil can't delete...

Um. Mac sucks (but so does XP, so...). Disney's buying Pixar, so... um... I guess you're going to have to... uh... reboot your Mickey Mouse phone every three months and change the battery out-of-pocket every six.

Yeah... that was on-topic...

[hotspur on 25.01.06 at 18:57]

You Maccies! You crack me up!! You're not all really like Comic Book Guy off the Simpsons, are you? That's just a rumor right?

[Two Cents on 25.01.06 at 19:00]

Worst Thread Ever !! (a la Comic Book Guy)

[SmokingGun on 25.01.06 at 19:05]

Marcus - I am a Mac user only for the reason that I have very little idea about how to run a computer. As much as I like the idea of Linux I wouldn't know where to start. A close friend of mine set me up with a Mac LC back in 1992. I am proud to say that the thing still sits on my desk and of the 40,000K on the hard drive I still have 705K avialable. The computer has never crashed. (I hope I didn't just jinx it...)

Many a friend has laughed at the sight of it but I got hooked on Fullwrite, one of the simplest and best word processing packages ever put out. I still use it to bang out simple stuff for faxing etc. I also have a new iMac and a PowerBook G4 which allow me to be at least a little more efficient in the real world. I may have more computer power than existed world wide in the 40's but trust me I probably only use 3% of it, if that.

Uncle E - The Mac Mickey will be on store shelves in April. Batteries included.

[Marcus on 25.01.06 at 19:13]

tong

iPods let you upload and download. Just turn on the acting like a hard disk bit. (or whatever it's actually called) then walk into work plug your 60Gb harddisk into your usb2 port and download all the stuff they would prefer you didn't take off site.

Admittedly downloading songs is a pain as the tracks aren't stored in easy to understand directory format. But you can do it. Not sure about stuff bought from itunes. you can probably get them down as m4p and then rip out the drm and convert them to mp3.

Hotspur

You're mixing up your stereotypes the comic book guy is more likely to running freeBSD on his playstation, just cause, you know, he can. While dripping pizza over his Ultimate Watchman edition.

Mac people are more "look at that, it's beautiful", "yes but what does it do" , "it doesn't have to DO anything"

have fun

[Marcus on 25.01.06 at 19:24]

SmokingGun

If you want to learn about linux (and computers) just go to www.openSUSE.com or http://www.ubuntu.com/ and download the cd images. (I would suggest ubuntu as it's only 1 cd image)

However if you just want to use a computer to do stuff with, then keep using the mac. For me half the fun of playing World of Warcraft is that I'm doing it on Linux and I had to get it working on there. (ok it's was very easy but still)

Bearing in mind that this is also my job (so I get paid to be a geek) I have a reason to work out how computers actually work and interconnect. People with lives shouldn't have too ;)

have fun

[SmokingGun on 25.01.06 at 19:39]

Marcus - I used to be able to pull a car apart and put it back together with enough parts left over to make a toaster - today's cars baffle me.(sic)

I'm always impressed with people who really do have the inclination/know how to do what you do. I think this web-site alone is impressive and must take a lot of work. I have a friend who's young brother is a techie genius with both Macs and PC's so he handles all my dirty work.

The only thing I work on these days is a guitar. No batteries necessary.

[Marcus on 25.01.06 at 19:46]

Oh I might have implied that this web site is my job.

Nope. I'm nothing to do with this. And it's very good. My blog is http://marcusbrain.blogspot.com (quite a long way from here, in both content and quality ;) )

My current job is providing IT support to about 1200 people across Europe at www.lgc.co.uk

I'm moving to Bermuda in May.

Have fun

[SmokingGun on 25.01.06 at 19:52]

No I know this is Limey's site. I just think it's a good example of what can be done with a computer when one has a knack for how they work. I just took a look at the Novell SUSE site. Interesting. I'll dig into your brain later.....

[Billy McCann on 25.01.06 at 21:22]

Marcus - you are moving here in May? Then there will be two NMA fans in BDA! drop me a mail!

[Phil on 25.01.06 at 23:23]

Chris

I gave up on my ipod and returned to Minidisc. Takes a regular AA battery.

Alas, you can't listen to podcasts on a Minidisc. And that's probably most of what I use my iPod for now.

[Steve on 26.01.06 at 00:04]

Who are you coming to work for Marcus??

[Uncle Elvis on 26.01.06 at 00:37]

Smokes... Do I know you? Not trying to "out" you... just curious...