James Galvin

To think that I was amazed by that wooden and leather laptop a few days ago. Now BoingBoing have linked to EcoGeek - an article about wooden computing. Wooden monitors, mice keyboards… this guy even has a wooden iPod:

Unbelievable… check back here in six months because I will surely have my own modded masterpiece well underway by then, this has inspired me.

The worst customer service since Soundstore in Blackpool. My brother’s 40gig iPod was dodgy from the day he got it. He tried to make do with it for awhile, before opting for tech support. Apple in Ireland wouldn’t talk to him, as the iPod had been bought in America. Apple in USA told him that he needed a replacement, but they wouldn’t send it to an Irish address. A lot of hassle, but another brother in San Francisco was able to help out. It took a very long time, and more trouble. Apple were a disaster; it would be easier to talk to a banana.

Time passed, and seasons changed, and George Best got sick, and George Best got better. Then George Best got sick again - only this time he did not get better - and then my brother in Ireland finally received the iPod replacement. But anytime he did something stressful to it, such as attempting to load songs onto it, it would freeze and lock up.

This time, the tech support call didn’t last quite as long. “Did you try it on a different PC?” - “Yes, same problem” - “OK, Send it in to us for repair”. Apple then informed him that his warranty was expired by two days and that it would cost him $319 to get this fixed.

He gave it to me to see if I could make it useful even as a portable hard drive or something. I downloaded the latest firmware, reflashed the iPod, and problem solved. How difficult would it have been for Apple to say this on the phone?

How can they honestly expect someone to pay $319 for repair on a product which is not even worth that much new? Do they really expect you to go to the hassle and expense of shipping a blank iPod to them when you could just buy a new one, and maybe use the old one as a paper weight or something? I would be up in arms over this - the original support request was opened well within warranty, its their fault if the replacement was a dud… just lucky that it was so easily fixed. I wonder how many people would have shipped it back and paid for the repair.