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iPod iPod labelled a 'lemon'

D

Dissident

macrumors newbie
Original poster
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20609557-661,00.html

"CHOICE has listed Apple's iPod in the top ten of its 2006 Shonky Awards citing faulty hardware and warranty issues as the product's weak points.

The Apple product was awarded The Choice iShonk for Dual-level Shonkyness prize today.

It joined such products as a Black And Gold meat pie, a NUK dummy considered a choking hazard, and the Life Miracle magnetic laundry system that claims to clean your clothes without detergent, in the 10 worst products reviewed this year.

In a media release today Choice listed the reasons for the Apple product's selection.

"An iPod is a significant investment, so you don’t want your Apple to be a lemon," it stated.

"And if there is something wrong with it, you’d expect an easy repair and warranty service. Podluck.

"Several readers complained about cracked screens, faulty batteries and problems with sound reproduction."

Choice then outlined the second reason for awarding the iPod, which qualified it for the Duel-level Shonky Award.

"Apple doesn’t allow retailers to handle complaints under warranty (which is their obligation under Fair Trading laws) — you have to send your faulty iPod to Apple yourself via Australia Post.," Choice said.

"And if they decide the fault isn’t covered by the warranty, you’ll have to foot the entire bill."
 
They should have done a survey on creative mp3 players, i've had two of them go back in 2 years. Disgusted with the quality of the products. Built like bricks, aren't nearly as long lasting as one.
 
Osarkon said:
They should have done a survey on creative mp3 players, i've had two of them go back in 2 years. Disgusted with the quality of the products. Built like bricks, aren't nearly as long lasting as one.
Click to expand...

Wait till the Zune comes out. 😛

They chose they iPod simply based on its popularity, nothing else.
 
Cracked screens would be a users fault, I would think. Since when is you dropping it on the pavement Apple's fault? As would "sound reproduction." If the song is under 128kbps, don't expect it to sound great! I don't find any problems with sound reproduction with my iPod.
 
If there're two things we agree on around here, it's that Australians are crazy (or mad, as the case may be), and Roger is hot. 😀
 
extraextra said:
Cracked screens would be a users fault, I would think. Since when is you dropping it on the pavement Apple's fault?
Click to expand...
Well, some early nanos had faulty screens that would crack without outside forces.
 
I have a friend that works at a large tech store, and the staff have been advised to discourage the purchase of ipods because of the lousy customer support apple is giving them. The store is basically getting a bad name because angry customers come in with faulty ipods, then because apple have their awful policies on returns/refunds/repairs, the customers have to wait weeks for their ipod to be repaired or exchanged rather than just being able to swap it on the spot.

I can personally vouch for apple australias awful customer support,
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/227417/,
since then my macbook, has been in a second time for repair (that made a total time of 5 weeks from the fist time i took it it) and its just started to randomly shut down again (only twice so far)
 
NicP said:
I have a friend that works at a large tech store, and the staff have been advised to discourage the purchase of ipods because of the lousy customer support apple is giving them. The store is basically getting a bad name because angry customers come in with faulty ipods, then because apple have their awful policies on returns/refunds/repairs, the customers have to wait weeks for their ipod to be repaired or exchanged rather than just being able to swap it on the spot.

I can personally vouch for apple australias awful customer support,
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/227417/,
since then my macbook, has been in a second time for repair (that made a total time of 5 weeks from the fist time i took it it) and its just started to randomly shut down again (only twice so far)
Click to expand...
But poor customer support isn't really a reason to call a product faulty.
 
Do they take into account that the there are a lot more iPods than say, Creatives?

It's like when people said that the PS2 was a lot less reliable than the Xbox. I agree to a degree, but I think it was a lot smaller, because the case was that you had a lot more PS2s than Xboxes, and thus a wider field of units for defects to rise from.
 
The CHOICE 2006 Shonky Awards page is faulty, too, as it doesn't seem to display the awards. 😀

I've noticed a lot of anti-Apple press from Australia for whatever reason. I've not noticed a lot of people having problems with iPods. I know that some have complained about various iPods and I've had a complaint about mp3 VBR playback but I can't imagine that iPods have come from the factory with cracked displays. If Apple doesn't replace such an iPod, it shouldn't be a surprise.

Of course, Apple should be working with local laws and also provide better customer service. It's not an inexpensive item.
 
I had my video iPod replaced under apple's australia customer support. I got it sent through Australia post, which was pre-paid and I received a brand new one within 7 working days.

I am quite happy with their service.
 
jessica. said:
But poor customer support isn't really a reason to call a product faulty.
Click to expand...

Well, it is really. Customer Service is a part of any product you buy, you can have a great product but if you don't look after the customer's complaints and queries you're left with something inferior.

Apple Australia don't have a retail presence, only official resellers, and retail stores that sell iPods basically disown you once you've bought the iPod and anything you need fixed needs to be done either by dealing with Apple Australia through mail/phone/email or by taking the product to an official reseller to have them ship it off to Apple.

There's no quick and easy way to have a faulty iPod fixed or replaced.

That being said, the original story got basically zero coverage in any media as we tend to avoid the sensationalist nonsense. There are just as many iPods here per capita as anywhere else and with 6 million new shuffles on the boat due Nov 11 there's bound to be a lot more. Apple Australia are planning on selling a shuffle to every 3.5 people in the country... 😱
 
Aussie perspective

As a crazy aussie I'd have to agree with some of the earlier posters but from the perspective of the Choice organisation, targetting a popular item will ensure at least some coverage of the story.

I also feel that the press is not balanced in Apple's favour - particluarly in my city's newspaper...a bad news story for Apple will always appear but they are selective on the good news stories. For example they ran an article on Amazon unbox which is not available in Australia but then no mention of iTS movies and tv the week after - except to label iTunes 7 a lemon

There is also favourable coverage of Zune so far - but again I can't remember the papers ever reporting that the Zune marketplace won't be immediately available in Australia.

But then catching the bus or train you pretty soon realise that nobody is paying much attention to those articles!
 
well if you make 1000 products and 10 break, thats a lot better than a company that makes 100 products and 5 break!
apple dominates the MP3 player market, so apparently they shouldn't be on that crappy list!
 
Me1000 said:
well if you make 1000 products and 10 break, thats a lot better than a company that makes 100 products and 5 break!
apple dominates the MP3 player market, so apparently they shouldn't be on that crappy list!
Click to expand...

That's an interesting premise. It's like saying "Windows dominates the operating system market, so..." or "Dell dominates the personal computer market, so..."

Think about it.
 
Chundles said:
Well, it is really. Customer Service is a part of any product you buy, you can have a great product but if you don't look after the customer's complaints and queries you're left with something inferior.

Apple Australia don't have a retail presence, only official resellers, and retail stores that sell iPods basically disown you once you've bought the iPod and anything you need fixed needs to be done either by dealing with Apple Australia through mail/phone/email or by taking the product to an official reseller to have them ship it off to Apple....
Click to expand...

so agree - beyond POS Apple have and are getting an increased bad reputation for after sales service and repairs in Australia - resellers don't want to know you after you walk out the door. The quality of these resellers in the recent 2 years or so has really dropped - IMHO
 
bousozoku said:
That's an interesting premise. It's like saying "Windows dominates the operating system market, so..." or "Dell dominates the personal computer market, so..."
Click to expand...

No, it isn't....it's a statement about rates and likelihoods. If you make 1000 products and 10 fail, your rate of failure is 1%. Meaning that if you go and buy this product, the odds are 1 in 100 that you will get one that is bad. But if you make 100 products and 5 fail, then your rate of failure is 5% -- and your odds of getting a bad product are five times as high.

The issue applies to volume PC sales too -- although in the volume PC business, the lowest failure rate companies tend to be several that also have relatively low volumes.

But the point is that you must look at the failure rate expressed as a percentage of sales and not as a raw number of defective units, if you want to compare two companies with widely divergent sales volumes..
 
monke said:
They chose they iPod simply based on its popularity, nothing else.
Click to expand...

I guess their idea goes something like "Hey, let's bash a really popular gadget to get some attention!"...
 
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