Poll: Have you had any problems with your iPod requiring service?

[MacRumors]

Vote: Poll: Have you had any problems with your iPod requiring service? (http://www.macpolls.com/?poll_id=323)

[Wes]

I just got a 3g iPod after my other 10gig iPod got stolen (insurance :)). But the first one didn't have any problems.

[Xero]

mines working like a charm! although i do find it a bit odd, that after fully charging mine, and then unplugging it, the battery indicator starts at almost empty and takes about 20min to finally show that the battery is fully charged. also if i plug it back in, itll just start charging again. odd...

EDIT: its a 30gb 3g model

[Awimoway]

My 18 month old (if I believe the person I bought it from on eBay 2 summers ago) 1g 10 GB iPod runs flawlessly to this day. No battery problems or anything else.

[Mr.Hey]

screen response (selecting items, menus) sometimes has a delay. I've wiped the drive and re-installed several times but the problem persists.

[Fahd]

No real problems with my 20 GB (dont know if its 1,2,3g, just got it a few weeks back, so what is it?) except that when I navigate through the menus the hard disk has a problem keeping up with my speed and sometimes the menus pause for a split second on the screen halfway. Its not really a problem, just an oddity.

[Fahd]

Originally posted by Mr.Hey
screen response (selecting items, menus) sometimes has a delay. I've wiped the drive and re-installed several times but the problem persists.

I believe we both have the same problem, except that you worded your post so much better than I did mine! :D

[vwcruisn]

My center button barely ever works. I have to flip the hold switch back and forth a bunch of times for it to function. I took it to the apple store and the guy took it in back and came back about 5 mins later saying i didnt have the hold switch all the way over. So from then on, everytime it doesnt work, I switch hold on, and SLAM it to the off position. I have to do this just about everytime I want to use the center button.

i sent it in to apple to get fixed and it came back with a letter saying it works fine and is within apples standards of an operating product... i took it out of the box.. and what do you know.. the center button was not responding


any suggestions on what i should do? its getting to the point where i just want to ebay it.. take a loss and buy a new one somewhere.. but i dont want to rip someone off.... help!

[mj_1903]

Originally posted by Mr.Hey
screen response (selecting items, menus) sometimes has a delay. I've wiped the drive and re-installed several times but the problem persists.

I get this behaviour only when my iPod is cold (<10C) and I can usually fix it simply by holding it in my hand.

[adamberti]

Originally posted by vwcruisn
My center button barely ever works. I have to flip the hold switch back and forth a bunch of times for it to function. I took it to the apple store and the guy took it in back and came back about 5 mins later saying i didnt have the hold switch all the way over. So from then on, everytime it doesnt work, I switch hold on, and SLAM it to the off position. I have to do this just about everytime I want to use the center button.

i sent it in to apple to get fixed and it came back with a letter saying it works fine and is within apples standards of an operating product... i took it out of the box.. and what do you know.. the center button was not responding


any suggestions on what i should do? its getting to the point where i just want to ebay it.. take a loss and buy a new one somewhere.. but i dont want to rip someone off.... help!

Be Persistant. Call back Apple and say it doesnt work. Be very polite however and try not to get mad at the useless tech support. They really arent that useless. In fact I'm sure they are very cleaver. It's just like the insurance industry, they have to attempt to blow off as many people as they can at the first level. If you continually persist and persist, they realize they can't get rid of you, and they're wasting their resources trying to get rid of you. So then hopefully they'll try to help you to make you go away.

It kinda sucks, but thats the way it is. It may be tough, but I say stick with it, and you'll get a response eventually. Keep bugging them until you're talking to managers. Just remember to be polite :)

[Centris 650]

Other than the remote not working when I got it I've had no problems EXCEPt trying to get it back from my wife!

(2G 10Gig)

[KLFloyd]

I bought a clearance 10GB as soon as the 3rd Gen. iPods came out. Saved $100 and that was worth not getting the extra features for me.

5 months with the little guy and using it at least several times a week at the gym and so far have not had a single problem. In fact, I occasionally test out the battery life by letting my iPod play continuously and I've gotten 11 and 12 hours of play time.

Now since I've spent the money on Apple Care I'm confident I won't have any problems at all with it. Isn't that the way it always works? Buy the warranty, nothing happens. Don't have it, you have problems.

[LinuxGigolo]

Got mine replaced twice (once in July, once in September) for a broken remote port. I've been babying it since... although, it'd probably be better for it to break again before the 90 days warranty runs out than afterwards. 2g, 10 gig iPod.

[MattG]

One iPod that I used to own (a 3G 15gb) used to need resetting constantly (holding in Play/Menu buttons). Other than that, no problems. I've got a 30gb now that's been just perfect.

[WinterMute]

I put a set of Sennheisser ear-buds on mine the day I bought it, they sound great, but they keep giving me pproblems, I'm on my second set now, and they ain't right, I don't like the sound of the Apple set, but they work OK...

Other than that, not a moments problem (except forgetting to charge the damn thing).:p

[Java]

I am really happy with my iPod. I am really happy that it syncs up to my address book and to iCal. This means, no more carrying around my HandSpring! One less thing to carry around is a good thing.

I have noticed that on a cold morning, it is a bit sluggish. But then again, I'm the same way without coffee.

[bennok]

I chose "No problems" 'cause my iPod still functions perfectly, but I started this thread talking about a certain looseness to the iPod (the white part being loose from the metal):
http://www.ipodlounge.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15052

[gopher]

My 2nd G iPod has had no problems whatsoever. Though I do wish I could use some of the 3rd G accessories on it. The Belkin recharger is a really nice idea that I wish the 2nd G would have. I don't like the 3rd G's buttons from what I've played with, nor the requirement of using a Dock to get access via Firewire to the iPod. Maybe someone will figure out a workaround.

[bobbyp80521]

I am on my 3rd I pod. I had an origional 20 gb ipod, but the headphone jack (the plastic) broke and my headphone jack just fell out when I turned my ipod. I had the comp usa replacement program, so I turned it in and got a 30 gb 3g. I had that one replaced yesterday after the menu buttom stoped working about 1/4 of the time, and it would randomly reboot itself, and then tell me it had no more battery... however if i waited 45 min it would work fine for a while.... I now have a 40gb 4g ipod. Although the frustration of not having a working ipod has pissed me off pluntie, I now have a 40 gb and I origionally purchased a 20, so i won't camplain too much.

Another glitch I have had in every ipod I have ever seen ( my family has 3 and lots of my friends have them) is that in the playlists, when the first song is selected to play, it often skips it and plays the second song in the playlist.:mad:

[wdlove]

I don't own an iPod. Very please to see that greater than 50% have no problems. Apple does stand for quality. They just need to add additonal features to entice the 27% that don't own the iPod.

[AmigoMac]

It's a great piece of life, Right now at home, there is a 2G 10 GB, the second one, a 3G 20 GB is coming next week...:)

[Wonder Boy]

i voted it works perfectly, but it really doesnt. i havent had to send it in for repairs but the button response sucks. especially when trying to turn it off.

[mc68k]

1st gen 5GB iPod

1st break - all functions fine except i/o through firewire

sent in to apple, replaced with new or refurb unit, under warranty

2nd break - dead, completely refused to boot out of the blue

went to apple store, out of warranty, bitched, got new unit

so i'm on my third iPod, and it hasnt given me trouble...guess third time's the charm ;)

[MacFan25]

I have a 3G 10GB iPod, and it works perfectly. I've never really had an issue with the battery. Everything works as promised. :)

[wordmunger]

Boy, that's pretty bad. Even subtracting out the users who don't own an ipod, over thirty percent report problems.

[DeusOmnis]

looks like about 30 percent of users have issues with their ipod (from this poll)... that's not good news

[pbooktebo]

Although 29.8% have reported problems (when I just checked, excluding the "don't own an iPod" problem ;) ), most have had a problem that was fixed. The percent who ended up "losing their iPod" is probably under or around 10% (just a guess), and with something as small as an iPod, at least 5% probably deserved to have it break (serious misuse or abuse).

As for me, my 5Gig 1st Gen iPod is still in full use, as is my fiancees. I bought a 2nd Gen 10GB and it gets heavy use (my old one is now shared by my mother and brother).

I don't baby mine, but I do take decent care of it.

[Rower_CPU]

1st gen 5GB - works fine

No problems here, even after dropping it twice from about 4 feet onto hard floor while it was playing.

[visor]

I went to buy one of the first 3g ipods, worked more of less good, but had some slight display problems. not bad, not malfunctioning, but strange lines some of the time, these kind of thing.

later i used it a bit as a HD. Not for long, but it was getting very hot, and it seems that it got serious HD problems from it.
Suddenly it wouldn't sync anmore, it often crashed while playing, some songs kept skipping...

So i tried to restore it, with the result that I couldn't even get my music on it anmore, cause it failed half time through the sync. so I decided to do something I've never done before - called for warranty, and had it replaced after about 2 weeks.
Since i didn't need it so badly, and had backups of all files, it was no problem.

still dissapointing that such an expensive device simply breaks after 4 month use. I'm not amused.

[visor]

Originally posted by DeusOmnis
looks like about 30 percent of users have issues with their ipod (from this poll)... that's not good news

I agree. I think the 3g has most problems. It seems to work good when used soely as music playing device, but it has great deficites when used as data storage (which is btw a legitimate use)

I would strongly advise against useing it as HD for longer than, say, 5 minutes at a time.

[Hemingray]

Heh, which iPod? I went through FOUR before I got a stable one. My fifth has been working for the better part of a year now, which I am grateful for since my warranty has long expired.

[mislabeledstar]

Originally posted by vwcruisn
My center button barely ever works. I have to flip the hold switch back and forth a bunch of times for it to function. I took it to the apple store and the guy took it in back and came back about 5 mins later saying i didnt have the hold switch all the way over. So from then on, everytime it doesnt work, I switch hold on, and SLAM it to the off position. I have to do this just about everytime I want to use the center button.

i sent it in to apple to get fixed and it came back with a letter saying it works fine and is within apples standards of an operating product... i took it out of the box.. and what do you know.. the center button was not responding


any suggestions on what i should do? its getting to the point where i just want to ebay it.. take a loss and buy a new one somewhere.. but i dont want to rip someone off.... help!

i'm in the process of sending mine back for the same reason (3rd gen 30g, center button doesn't always respond and have to try the flipping the hold switch on n off, which doesn't work most of the time ). i'll let you know how it goes when it comes back.

[~Shard~]

Don't own an iPod - yet. Christmas will be changing that, and I can't wait for Santa's visit down my chimney. :)

[stoid]

Originally posted by gopher
My 2nd G iPod has had no problems whatsoever. Though I do wish I could use some of the 3rd G accessories on it. The Belkin recharger is a really nice idea that I wish the 2nd G would have. I don't like the 3rd G's buttons from what I've played with, nor the requirement of using a Dock to get access via Firewire to the iPod. Maybe someone will figure out a workaround.

I know that it's not made clear on Apple's website, but for the 3G iPods, the 10GB doesn't even come with a dock. Granted it uses a proprietary cable and so you'd either have that or carry the adaptor to regular FW to connect, but you certainly don't NEED the dock.

[JonasLoaf]

My case on my iPod (3G) is coming apart on the sides. It bowes out so that when you're looking at it, you can see inside a little. I sent it in to get fixed, and they did. But it just came back again. There has to be a defect in the latching mechanism or something. Hopefully they'll actually fix it this time instead of just squeezing it back together. :-/

[crazytom]

Boy, 30% of iPods have problems?!?! That's shocking! Yet, they still make money from them.. Hmmm. I have a feeling that the cost markup on these babies is upwards of +400%. Can you imagine being in manufacturing and having almost 1/3 of your product be defective in one way or another?

Fortunately, I haven't had any mechanical problems with mine (3G). I baby it because I realize that it's cheaply made (except for the dock, that looks like it could take a lot of abuse...with the cord detached, of course). The only problem I have is forgetting to unmount it before putting my computer to sleep.


PS: Great poll idea!!!

[Sunrunner]

The delay that happens sometimes when you browse in the menu, etc. is casued by a normal operaton in the iPod... The harddrive has to spin up! In order to conserve battery power, the iPod loads as much music as possible into memory and spins down the hard drive. Thus, when you do something that wasnt expected by your iPod while the HD is "asleep", (like browsing menus) it has to start the HD back up to do what you want. The hardwares use of this method is what accounts for as much as half of the iPods battery life, so be thankful for the delay!:)

[Awimoway]

Originally posted by crazytom
Boy, 30% of iPods have problems?!?! That's shocking!

Yeah, but you've got to figure that the disgruntled are far more likely to bother to participate in the poll and make an entry than those whose iPods are fault-free. I'm no apologist, but I have to believe that a much smaller percentage of iPods actually have problems.

[jero]

i probably wont be able to get an ipod until well into next year, so hopefully IF by then the next gen pods are released, these bugs will have been worked out.

but it wouldnt surprise me if the next gens have bugs of their own.(man i hope not) *crosses fingers*

[adamberti]

Originally posted by JonasLoaf
My case on my iPod (3G) is coming apart on the sides. It bowes out so that when you're looking at it, you can see inside a little. I sent it in to get fixed, and they did. But it just came back again. There has to be a defect in the latching mechanism or something. Hopefully they'll actually fix it this time instead of just squeezing it back together. :-/

Wow, I thought it was just my iPod, but now I know I'm not alone. Mine is coming apart on the left side when viewing it from the front....kinda sucks. I just hate having to send stuff in to apple and wait for it to come back - I almost prefer just to use it 'broken'.