Thumbs Up for Apple

I just quickly want to say a big thumbs up to Apple and their Southampton Apple Store – thanks to them, I have a working and highly shiny iPod once more, for the same cost as a new shuffle.

How? Why?

Aw, since you asked so nicely, I’ll tell you.

My beloved iPod is an old 3rd gen model which I got way back in the mists of time (April 2003 to be precise) and it has served me wonderfully. The battery has never caused me a moments grief, managing to hold a full days charge up till the end. Yes, it got all scratched and dented to hell and back, but they were honourable scars. I loved my iPod from the moment I brought it.

Yes, I admit I grew stupidly attached to a lump of metal and plastic, but it just fitted into my life so well and kept doing what I needed it to do so flawlessly that I started to take it for granted and got seduced by a prettier model.

More fool me.

This past week the poor iPod finally admitted its age and started randomly loosing ten minutes of time a day. Not a big problem till you remember I use it as my alarm clock… Then the alarm clock randomly decided not to work and my heart sank.

One trip to the Genius Bar – free help with your Mac products, how great is that?! – and it had been muttered over by the helpful Genius. I wasn’t reassured when he told me he’d never seen this problem before… One hard restore later, I toddled back home hoping against all commonsense that that would have done the trick. Alas, it was not to be, so tonight I took myself back to the Apple Store for another meeting with a Genius.

This Genius was even more helpful and candidly admitted there was nothing he could do for my poor iPod bar administer it’s digital last rites. As my face fell and I started to do the sums in my head to see if I could afford a new video iPod, he uttered words that were music to my ears –
“Of course, for £49.99 I could just do a straight swop and give you a new iPod. It wouldn’t be a new model though…”

I could have kissed him then and there, but I restrained myself. Just.

You see, I don’t want a shiny new video iPod. Don’t get me wrong, they are sexy and shiny and lovely and great, but I don’t like the click wheel. It just feels, and I know this is silly, but it just feels too clicky. On my old iPod you just brush the buttons, no pressure required – it’s like you’re activating a computer in Star Trek or something. With the new video iPods, you have to push the button and it feels so tacky and twentieth century somehow. Plus, with a screen that big I’d be petrified of scratching it! At least with my old black/white screen all I’m going to obscure with a scratch is the track name.

Yes, a shiny new video iPod would be shiny and new but… well, everyone has one! Mine still has some retro chic going on 😉

So we did a swop. My old 15gb 3rd gen iPod got packaged up and marked for recycling and I got handed a worryingly shiny new 15gb 3rd gen iPod. All for £50 and ten minutes of my time.

Not bad going really.

Kudos to the Apple Store in Southampton. Yes, one of your operatives ran away from me last Saturday, but you’ve done good by me and my iPod. You didn’t once try to sell me something I clearly didn’t want – you listened, tried a fix, and when that didn’t work straight up offered me a replacement. For a gadget so old in tech-terms it should be getting it’s bus pass.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to scratch the back of my new/old iPod some – I’d forgotten how disconcerting the mirror brightness is!

Oh, and if you’re thinking of trading in any of your Mac products for new ones, take them into an Apple store for recycling and you get 10% off the purchase of your new toys. Again, pretty good.

7 thoughts on “Thumbs Up for Apple

  1. Just another reason to love Apple. 😀

    I had a similar experience I keep meaning to write up…
    I had a season pass to Stargate SG-1 and they incorrectly uploaded an episode of Stargate Atlantis (which I also hold a pass too, obsessed much? No…) anyway… I didn’t even notice until I got an email from Apple a few days ago apologizing for the mixup. I thought that was nice of them.
    Then I read further down and saw they had credited three videos to my account (3 $1.99 purchases) and was blown away.
    They went above and beyond service and not only apologized and gave me the proper download in my queue, but gave me three additional video credits.
    That is why I love Apple. 🙂

  2. That’s pretty cool that they do that. I’ll have to remember this if/when my 4th gen iPod starts to go kaputt. Thus far I’ve had no major problems; I had to restore it a few times because when I’d plug it in to charge, it would freeze, but besides that, it’s worked great.

  3. Oh, I love the genius bar too.

    We actually have the same iPod, though I haven’t been using mine so much lately thanks to last.fm, pandora, and reading books on the bus instead of listening to music.

  4. meowkaat – sorry 🙁 I shall see what I can do to rectify the situation tomorrow.

    Josh – one thing I learnt from over hearing the Genius dealing with someone else yesterday is that lithium batteries really don’t like running all the way down. When they do, just charging them from the USB won’t be enough to kick start them into life. Either use a Firewire charger (if you have the wire) or plug into a wall outlet. That tends to give it the juice necessary.

    Abi – how dare you admit to reading books instead of using your iPod! To be honest, most of the time the big iPod doesn’t do much beyond acting as my alarm clock each morning. The shuffle takes care of my travel music requirements – at the moment though I’m having severe “I can’t decide what to listen to”, so I NEED the full iPod with my full library on it!

  5. P.S. Love the hair. I have a fond hope that all of the gray in my hair will somehow migrate to become the most fantastic Rogue-style forelock ever.

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