iPOD

Well thanks for the kind thoughts you two.

I will try posting it off, as I simply cannot waste another two and a half hours on a pointless trip to Regent Street.

I can't help noticing, however, that despite being fairly convincing apologists for them, you have both had, er, things go wrong with Apple stuff.

I can perhaps add two more to the "everyone I know ... has had things go wrong" group.

Sorry, but even when/if they put it right, and apologise for their crap service, the fact remains that their product went wrong desperately early, and they treated me more like an inconvenience than a customer.
I shall not be buying their brand again.

My own iPod is going on six months with no problems. Even if that were not so, I find the sound with Apple Lossless compression so good, via a Porta Corda amp and Etymotic ER4S cans, that even if it were to go down, I would put up with the replacement procedure to make it right. I think the support via posting it off actually was quite convenient.

Norman

My household has four iPods: 60Gb Photo; 1Gb Shuffle; 2Gb Nano; 6Gb Mini. Other than some minor irritations with updating software there has been no downside at all.

As to the Apple shop in Regent St, on which I've posted my views before, it's a user disaster zone. If they want to have a Church of Apple where people can go and worship, that's fine by me; but please can they get the area where people go for help, and to see, select & buy products sorted out, i've seen better organisation and layout in the Bankok floating market.

Maybe it's just that shop then.

They are not doing themselves any favours by offering post-sales support and then failing to provide it in such a disastrous fashion IMO.

I've filled in the form online and they are going to post me their packaging material for me to send it off.

Perhaps I shall learn to love it again if this version of their service is quicker and more efficient than in person, as has been the case with ROTF and Norman's experiences (thanks for the tip).

I hope so, but this is not the first time it has gone wrong, and as I said it is under three months old. Maybe I just got a bad'un...

Have to say however, I have never seen such brand loyalty (à la "I would put up with the replacement procedure to make it right") attached to something that lots of people have problems with.

Normally this would result in "don't touch it" posts in places like this, but Apple seems to be able to conjure forgiveness from everyone - quite remarkable.

I even heard someone describe their ipod's propensity to freeze-up every so often as an "idiosyncrasy". I reckon most manufacturing companies would be over-the-moon to have their products' shortcomings described in this way.

I'm quite glad my Naim stuff has yet to show me any of its "idiosyncrasies".

The upside of course is that my Peugeot is now merely idiosyncratic.

quote:

Originally posted by rodwsmith:
Have to say however, I have never seen such brand loyalty (à la "I would put up with the replacement procedure to make it right") attached to something that lots of people have problems with.

Normally this would result in "don't touch it" posts in places like this, but Apple seems to be able to conjure forgiveness from everyone - quite remarkable.

Yup, I reckon that about sez it.

Norman

Rodwsmith

Current Apple ownership consists of Mac G5 with 21 screen, Powerbook G4 and 4 (various iPod's). Never had a hardware problem....software works very well (s/ware is never faultless..).

Just to balance up the equation.....sorry to hear the reatiler treated you so shabbily.

Jim

I recently had a problem with my iPod, where it was connecting and synching ok, and appeared to be powerering up, but failed to hold its charge for any length of time.

I took it in to the retailer as it was under guarantee for repair. It came back with no fault found (Note: They only take in the unit, not the accessories to check).

As a result of playing it throught a friends speaker and dock thingy, I subsequently discovered that it charged up fine. It turned out that the fault was with the usb cable, which was replaced by John Lewis foc.

When I first got my G5 it developed a fault within a couple of days. The unit was picked up the next day, and new one delivered the day after. No fuss from Apple, very pleasant and efficient customer service, which was excellent (all those Irish accents and laid back attitude helps). No problems since.

The initial switch to Apple was as a result of being fed up with PC's always crashing. Despite the odd tething problems, I'm a total convert now, as are the kids. Even though there are two other PC's in the house, everyone wants to use the Mac.

Regards

Nic