Rant... Sorry....

Note: Skip this if you don’t want to read a rant. I’m a little annoyed and its long. I also wrote this rant a few days ago, but never posted it.

I’m seriously pissed off at apple. I used to be that person who was like “Oh, apple is so much better than the other companies” and I don’t even have a Mac. I have a PC because all of my software is for a PC and I’m too broke to buy a new photoshop and everything. But I love my ipod. I’ve loved every iPod that I’ve ever owned, and I had three so far, so that tells you something. So I got my newest one for Christmas because my parents surprised me with a replacement for my old one. I was so excited. But after only a few weeks after getting it, I started to notice that my frickin’ ipod would freeze occasionally. And not be able to turn off. My computer started to give me messages that my ipod was corrupted, and I thought that was just some stupid thing. Nope. It slowly got worse and worse, till it was about once a week! I’d try to open a game, or even just listen to a song and suddenly it would go all weird. Sometimes it would freeze, other times it would give me an error message saying “This game can’t launch. Your iPod may be full.” WTF!? I still have 130 GB left open on my iPod. I shouldn’t be getting messed up messages like that. 

So I go to the apple store in the mall, and they were really nice, and trying to be helpful, although you could tell that they had never experienced what was happening to me. They didn’t have any replacements in store, so they wrote down everything I said and told me that if I mailed my ipod into their HQ then they would replace it there and mail the new one to me. Cool. The perfect answer. I’d get a new ipod that didn’t get all f***ed up every time I tried to play it, and they’d keep me as a customer. (and my family. We have 6 ipods in total in my immediate family.) I may be a broke college student, but my parents aren’t. So I get the box over a week ago, mail it in, and then I get this e-mail…. 

“Dear Rachael,

Thank you for choosing AppleCare Service. 

Our technicians have performed full diagnostic checks on your IPOD CLASSIC and have been unable to reproduce the symptom(s) you reported when you requested the repair. As a result of our tests, we can confirm that your product meets Apple specifications for performance, usability, and functionality.

As a part of our assessment and test procedures, your product has had the latest software and firmware updates installed. It is now being returned to you, and you should expect to receive it within two business days along with a letter that provides details about our assessment as well as useful troubleshooting tips."

What. The. Hell. Sending my ipod back to me? Umm.. how is that going to help anything? At all?

But maybe them installing new firmware will make my ipod all better, and it’s the best of both worlds the optimistic part of me said. (Hah. Remind me not to listen to that side ever again)

So today at about 3 I get my ipod back, totally wiped, and physically looking a little worse for wear… They probably just handled it too much and got ugly smudges everywhere. So I plug it back into my computer and re-loaded everything back onto it, before running to class with all of my stuff for going home for the weekend, ipod and laptop included.

Fast-forward. I’m sitting in Union Station, wanting to listen to music, and so excited because I had been going through ipod withdrawal. So I turn the ipod on, and listen to like 2 songs. All good. Then, because I still have more than 30 minutes to my train, I decide to play a game. Because, as my optimistic side is saying, “they probably fixed it!”

So, I click on games and try to open one. It starts thinking… and thinking… and thinking.

So now my brain is going “oh shit” because this is what it used to do. Then, right on schedule, the message of doom popped up.

So, I’m getting pissed. I just spent two weeks without an iPod, to have them tell me that there is nothing wrong with my ipod. THEN, it does the EXACT SAME THING that it used to do!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got my dad to get me the apple number because, remember, I’m in a train station. With no internet, balancing 2 bags, a cellphone, a ticket, an ipod, a piece of paper with a phone number number AND and venti shaken ice tea lemonade from Starbucks. So finally I get through to apple, and go though the whole “talk to the computer” process. Which is annoying me too because this guy next to me is talking FAR too loudly on his cellphone, and the computer thinks its supposed to listen to him, and is getting all confused. Finally I got to a person, Ryan I think his name was, who was very helpful. Was nice and waited when I had to shuffle everything to get to my ipod number. I told him everything, and he pulled up my name. This is what he tells me.

“Oh yeah, you had a repair, but it was cancelled. It says they found nothing wrong with it.”

So I explain it all again, and about how now that I got it back 3 hours ago, its doing the same thing. He says, “Well, I can schedule a repair. We ship you a box and then we try to repair it.” Umm… that’s what just happened… AND IT DIDN’T WORK!

“Then he said that he’ll make a note to them to request replacement.

Me: “That’s what the other guy did to, but they didn’t send it to me… how can you guarantee that I’ll get a new one?”

Ryan: “Well, we can’t. They typically only replace ipods after the third time it was sent in for repair. It’s policy.”

So after a little back and forth, I finally agree to send it in for “repair”. Again. We go through the same thing.. address, location, yadda yadda yadda. 

So now I’m pissed off. What could and should have been solved at the beginning has now turned into this. A back and forth between me and apple.

So I tell my dad, and now he’s pissed at apple because I’m pissed, and now he’s informed me that he doesn’t want a new ipod for his birthday. (he’s probably still getting one… I’m sure my pissy-ness will go away and we’ll still get it for him). He says apple has lost him as a customer forever. I kinda feel that way about apple too, but the problem is that I live off of my ipod. And ipod basically has a monopoly over the market. Plus, I don’t think my movies and everything that I bought from apple will transfer to anything else. So that’s another 60 bucks right there I’d lose. Plus accessories, speakers and everything.

I know ranting about it rarely helps, but I’m so annoyed right now, anything will make me feel better.

 I hope that they will fix it, because if not, I’ll have to send it back for a 3^rd time, and there will be hell to pay.

I go to the apple store tomorrow, so I'll see if they can replace it.

 There’s a nicer post coming after this about crafting, so sorry about the length and the rant, even though I doubt anyone actually reads this…