being hosed by itunes music store..what do you think?

[swingerofbirch]

I just sent this e-mail to Apple (after I'll show you what they wrote back):

Dear Apple,

My name is ********. I was an early adopter of Apple, Macintosh,
iPod, and the iTunes Music Store.

From the iTMS, I have been purchasing each episode of The Office as
it has become available. Apple recently added a Season Pass to The
Office.

The season pass costs $34.99. There will be a total of 23 episodes of
The Office when the season has ended. I have already purchased 19
episodes (all that are available thus far) for a total of $37.81. It
would be foolish of me to buy a Season Pass at this point as I would
be buying 19 episodes over again and paying for them again. If I
continue buying individual episodes throughout the rest of the
season, my total purchase price for season 2 will be $45.77.

I feel as if I am being punished for being an early adopter of
Apple's TV offerings. I wish Apple would have finalized its pricing
schemes before making these shows available.

I would appreciate an amelioration of the situation or a gesture of
goodwill. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,
***************, Esq.


THEY WROTE BACK:

Dear ****************,

Thank you for contacting the iTunes Music Store.

Please note that when purchasing an album, you will be charged the full price for the album. If you have previously purchased tracks from this album, no discount is given. Please note that this also applies for television series in which an episode may have been available prior to the entire season.

Thank you for being an iTunes Music Store customer. We appreciate your business.

Sincerely,
************


OK, but should I write back and tell them that the entire season still isn't available, and that the difference between this and buying singles off an album and then wanting the album discount, is that the season pass discount didn't become available until after the 19th episode was posted?

I am not meaning to be petty..I really am on a very limited income.

 

[swingerofbirch]

I get frustrated that I did this the legal way too...it's so easy to get free, higher quality episodes from torrent sites.............not too mention that the first 15 episodes I downloaded had the wrong ID3 tag info....argggggg

 

[Danksi]

For that price, you could buy the DVD box set, save it for winter and head out to enjoy the summer.

 

[Mantat]

My guess is that the pass is a deal they made with the shows owners so there isnt anything they could do about this. People tend to blame Apple for a lot of stuff that is out of their control. The entertainement industry (especialy music, movies and book) has some of the weirdest contract one can think of. And I really mean it! Each song/album/video can have their own set of rules regarding distribution and my guess is that there is a general clause that says that discounts cant be given in case of future change in the price structure or something like that.

And yes, you are getting punished for doing the 'right' thing. So are we all...

 

[mac-er]

C'mon....you are on a limited income...spending $37 on a TV show and you cannot afford $10 more bucks?

And, I like how you put the "Esq" after your name. How pompous is that? Now, they really won't want to deal with you. When I saw that "Esq", I read that as a subtle thing saying..."I'll sue your ass".

 

[backupdrummer]

Sorry things haven't worked out but I can't call Apple heartless in this matter. They arean't being jerks just dealing with teh issues the way i would expect a corporaiton to. I agree it seems silly the situation that has been set up but crap happens.

I liken it to the guy who buys a new iMac a couple weeks before Apple annouces the switch to Intel and then goes a mad upgrade cycle on the iMac so the computer the ghuy bought less then a year ago is already a few revisions behind.

oh wait thats me. This was posted on a dolled up iMac g5 20".

 

[swingerofbirch]

C'mon....you are on a limited income...spending $37 on a TV show and you cannot afford $10 more bucks?

And, I like how you put the "Esq" after your name. How pompous is that? Now, they really won't want to deal with you. When I saw that "Esq", I read that as a subtle thing saying..."I'll sue your ass".

There is no rule that people on a limited income sped wisely; I admit that after calculating what I've paid I feel like a fool.

And if you wanted to get really deep with me, I think I write Esq because I hate myself, so I try to make myself look important and impress others. You got me.

 

[question fear]

I would keep trying to reach apple...if the original email generated an auto-response, then try again...or call apple's customer service line. basically if you ask nicely, and keep being a polite, presentable customer you might be able to get a refund. you probably aren't the first person to ask about this, and I am sure that somewhere in apple someone has already greenlighted some deal for early adopters...you'll just need to ask the right people.

(I could be wrong, but I've worked in the service industry for a while, and it's easier and cheaper to have a plan for something like this than to get the bad publicity pissing you off will generate, from apple's perspective most likely at least.)

 

[swingerofbirch]

thanks for the advice..i've never gotten too far with companies by being too nice..not saying one should be mean..but i just wrote back, i'll let you know what they say

Dear Apple,

Thank you for contacting me.

Please note that when I purchased individual episodes, the option to purchase a season pass was not available. That is why my situation is not analagous to the situation you described, in which a person might elect to purchase individual songs at a higher per-unit price rather than purchasing an entire album and then requesting a discount.

Beyond that, I did not request a discount. I have requested an amelioration of the situation. Obviously Apple had not finalized its pricing schemes when it unveiled its video offerings. This is an unfortunate business practice, that may well have been out of Apple's control. What is in Apple's control is how they treat their most loyal customers. I am a customer who owned an Apple IIc, a Powerbook 160, a Mac LC II, a Performa 5200 CD (that was during Apple's dark days), three iBooks, a Powerbook G4, a Power Mac G4 Cube, a Blue and White G3 Tower, and an eMac. I have been a loyal .Mac subscriber; I have purchased countless songs and videos from iTMS. I stuck with Apple through iBook logic board failures, Performa failures, through OS and chip transitions. My family and I have spent tens of thousands of dollars on Apple products.

The bottomline in this situation is that Apple reduced the per-unit price on a product for people intending to purchase the entire season 2 of The Office. Having purchased 19 episodes, it is self-evident I had this intention.

I would appreciate Apple employing common sense and deceny in this situation, a gesture which will surely be valued and rewarded in the future on my part.

Sincerely,
***********

 

[Demon Hunter]

That's quite the eloquent letter for $10.78.

If you think that's bad, eBay cheated me out of a hundred dollars. I had no idea they charged DOUBLE fees for a relisting! I had to go deep within their Help database to find that out. Oh, but they were nice enough to refund my insertion fee of $4.80. Bastards.

 

[swingerofbirch]

Thank you for calling my writing eloquent. I've always thought that I'm a good writer. I was forced to leave college when I was 19 (I'm now 23), but I often am helping my friends in graduate programs with their papers. I don't think people ever learned grammar. They can't understand how I can so definitively tell them where to put commas or where to remove them. I swear that my high school diploma is more valuable than a lot of people's doctorates. It frustrates me to no end to hear about high-schoolers who graduate not knowing how to read. I graduated from high school having successfully completed multivariable calculus, having become fluent in Spanish, and having worked hard in all my classes, with a 4.2 GPA. And when you apply for jobs, people act like a high school diploma means nothing! Too bad you can't qualify high-school diplomas.

Thanks for letting me rant--again!

As for my other rant, I have written longer e-mails for less gain. I literally type as I think--my e-mail wasn't edited or thought out. I write as I speak. I'm happy it impresses people.

 

[swingerofbirch]

I sent them another e-mail, basically more strongly emphasizing that it was not analogous to purchasing individual songs from an album, and asked for the e-mail to be escalated. Out of it, I got 5 free songs, which is OK I guess, I haven't used iTunes for song purchases lately, but it's something.

Although they apologize, they still don't seem to "get it." That's Apple.....I've had a love hate relationship with them all my life. Even Steve Jobs was fired from Apple and came back, so it's not like I have to love them all the time.

Dear *********,

I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. As per our terms of service Apple has the right to modify the pricing on any items on the iTunes Music Store without notice. In order to help compensate you for the inconvenience I have issued five replacement song credits to download the songs of your choice.

The next time you log in to your iTunes Music Store account, the free song credit will appear in the top right corner by your account name. When you download songs from the iTunes Music Store, the credit will be used as payment until all credits have been used or have expired.

Note: Song credits are only valid toward the purchase of individual songs.

If the credit is not immediately visible in your account, please sign out of the iTunes Music Store and then sign in again. This will refresh your account and your song credit(s) should appear.

To sign out, follow these steps:

1. Verify that you have an active network connection and open iTunes.
2. Choose Music Store from the Source List.
3. Click the Account field in the upper right corner of the iTunes Music Store window (this will have your Apple ID or AOL screen name in it, which is often your e-mail address).
4. Click the "Sign Out" button.

Note: When you are successfully logged out the Account pane will say "Sign In" instead of your Apple ID or AOL screen name.

To sign back in, click "Sign In" and enter your iTunes Music Store account information. Your song credit(s) should now appear next to your Apple ID or AOL screen name.

I hope that you continue to enjoy purchasing music from the iTunes Music Store.

Sincerely,

*********************
Level 2 Customer Service Representative

 

[LethalWolfe]

I sent them another e-mail, basically more strongly emphasizing that it was not analogous to purchasing individual songs from an album, and asked for the e-mail to be escalated. Out of it, I got 5 free songs, which is OK I guess, I haven't used iTunes for song purchases lately, but it's something.

Although they apologize, they still don't seem to "get it." That's Apple.....I've had a love hate relationship with them all my life. Even Steve Jobs was fired from Apple and came back, so it's not like I have to love them all the time.

The people you are contacting "get it" they just don't have the authority to do anything about it. It's like b*tching to a cop about how unfair law X is, but cops don't make the law they just enforce it. If you want a law to change you need to b*tch to a legislator. If you *really* want this resolved to your satisfaction you need to call Apple, talk to a CSR (knowing they can't help you), and then ask to speak to a manager or supervisor. If the manager can't help you then ask to be put in touch w/the manager's boss. If the manager's boss can't help you then ask to be put in contact w/the manger's boss's boss. Keep going up the food chain and you will most likely get what you want... eventually.

You are looking to bend the rules do to circumstances so you need to talk to someone who actually has the power to bend the rules.


Lethal

 

[swingerofbirch]

The people you are contacting "get it" they just don't have the authority to do anything about it. It's like b*tching to a cop about how unfair law X is, but cops don't make the law they just enforce it. If you want a law to change you need to b*tch to a legislator. If you *really* want this resolved to your satisfaction you need to call Apple, talk to a CSR (knowing they can't help you), and then ask to speak to a manager or supervisor. If the manager can't help you then ask to be put in touch w/the manager's boss. If the manager's boss can't help you then ask to be put in contact w/the manger's boss's boss. Keep going up the food chain and you will most likely get what you want... eventually.

You are looking to bend the rules do to circumstances so you need to talk to someone who actually has the power to bend the rules.


Lethal

Right you are. I would if it were say....a computer involved..I don't have any more energy for this problem...but, right you are.