Let me tot it up for you (because I know you're interested). We've had five iPods in the house, no, six if you count the shuffle*.
The fifth was present from his Dad to small child (the one who is not of my DNA) 'cos he's been, well, brilliant recently and deserves something really nice.
Up to today's one, of the four, three have been back to Apple for repairs. One was declared irreparable, replaced and then that broke. Two have 'time expired' on their guarantee, despite interim repairs, and are now non-functioning and redundant.
And small boy is dying to become a DJ. Music is his passion. And with two professional musicians as as parents there is little surprise there.
So the excitement surrounding the new iPod was immense. And it was significant too. He's really brought himself back from the brink and it's really important that his Dad recognises this. Here was that recognition.
So when it came out of the box and was found to have a fault - the screen, again - it was crushing.
I think Apple are a company who is all puff and wind. They base their appeal on being trendy and 'designery'. They have worked the PR to the max, creating appeal. But bloody hell, their quality is really really poor.
I mean below what one expects from the cheapest, nastiest Far East electronics. Unbelievable. But when will everyone wake up to this?
*Which has been fine. Two out of six. Seventy percent failure rate. Good grief! Imagine if that were a medicine. Or a hoover. Or a car. We'd shun them. And fast.
5 comments:
That's such a shame.
You could maybe write them a blistering letter (I bet you're good at those).
They might respond helpfully? (with a box of replacement ipods)
Or have you done it already?
It's not really my place as they all, apart from the shuffle, belong to the children of the OH. My own young chap has had a Creative Zen that I won in a competition. He faces it with some pretty extreme abuse, but it has sailed through it all, working tirelessly and perfectly for twice as long as any ipod we've had. Of all of them, only one has managed to come through a year unscathed. An extraordinary record. And I should also add that these kids are reverent towards them: they are careful because they are so damned important to them; her two boys look like making careers in music. So the heartbreak when they break is massive. But we are a mac household, to my regret.
So now, can you believe this, we are talking about getting a laptop specifically so the boys can have non-mac MP3 players. How ludicrous is that?
I curse apple almost daily. Not just because of that: there are other reasons too.
That is indeed an appalling track record (is there a pun there?). Aside from one panic with mine, it's been fine (which, of course, it won't be now). I agree with Mig - blistering letter required, irrelevant of who it's come from.
I opted for the Zen Creative
because I liked the colour! (I'm such a girl. . .)
a few months down the line the sound no longer came out of the earplugspeakerthingies; could I buy new earpulgspeakerthingies without buying a whole new package? no
so I used some non-Zen Creative ear thingies and the sound still didn't come out
I gave up
however, having a not-an-Apple/itunes-MP3-account I stupidly bought child number one a Zen, when he wanted an MP3 player, cos for some reason I thought that made sense
der
a few months further down the line he didn't get any sound out of his earplug thingies either, and then a friend of his had a similar problem with her Zen
turns out the sockets are faulty, not the ear phone thingies (that's the word I've been searching for - ear phones!)(is it?)
we've totally given up on Zen now
bugger
this means if he gets an Appple something for xmas ("not the anorexic one!" he screeches in his just broken man/teengage/boy voice) he has to buy all his music all over again on itune format
doesn't it? maybe I don't understand the technology
whatever happened to simple vinyl, 7" and 12", sometimes in lime greeen or with a picture on it, and making tapes of your favourite tracks using your parent's record player? that's what I want to know
oh, more importantly, well done for being such a good influence on the difficult one!
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