My parents have always had problems with technology. Even the idea of a DVD player recalled bitter memories of the VHS/Betamax fight and the notion that small round discs that store movies would be nothing more than an unadopted fad. The iPod, however, had a clear purpose and advantage:
"All my music on a rechargable deck of cards."
Early last year, I spent some time getting their each of their libraries in order and then they were on their way. My dad especially was in love with his little toy, but quickly learned it didn't love him back. While it was never subjected to any abuse, twice he found this iPod locking up on a track rendering it unable to be plugged in, turned off or reset. The little music player would just keep spinning the hard drive until its battery gave up. Both times the iPod went back.
This past Spring, the problem returned and the result was the same. Back to the Genius Bar at the local Apple store. On that particular day, the support queue was backed up and people were grumpy, but the fix was simple. They took my father's iPod, replaced it with another and sent him on his way. It was, literally, a 30 second transaction.
Once home, my dad tried to set up the player himself but eventually just left it on my desk until I returned home myself to handle it, which was last week.
I tried the plugging the iPod into my firewire connection, then a USB and finally a wall charger. Nothing. No helpful icons on the screen, no hard drive spinning up.
Back to the Apple store...
The technician there had no luck either and frowned when he put the serial number in. It seems that the iPod was out of the 90 day parts warranty. "Already?" I asked, referencing the 2 prior replacements, as well. "Well I only have this one replacement in our system along with your two computer systems." This caught my interest considering that my dad uses a Dell and owns no other Apple produces. Certainly, I had to ask who's profile he had. The genius went out to explain that there was an iPod registered to a Jeff (Last Name Withheld for now) and replaced April 30th.
After discussing the issue with them for a half-hour, you can see where this issue is going...
There was once a broken iPod owned by a guy named Jeff and he brought it into the Apple store where it was swapped. His broken iPod was then handed off to my father as a replacement for his a few weeks later. The Apple employees denied that this could have ever occured and insist that Jeff is either a friend / co-worker who unknowingly helped by Dad setup us his iPod, or that I obtained Jeff's iPod through "other means" and was trying to get a clean one. Certainly they also took note that due to the last transaction date they had on that serial number, it was just out of warranty, too.
So now I have Jeff's iPod and am pondering what to do with it....
Any suggestions, especially entertaining ones, are invited.
"All my music on a rechargable deck of cards."
Early last year, I spent some time getting their each of their libraries in order and then they were on their way. My dad especially was in love with his little toy, but quickly learned it didn't love him back. While it was never subjected to any abuse, twice he found this iPod locking up on a track rendering it unable to be plugged in, turned off or reset. The little music player would just keep spinning the hard drive until its battery gave up. Both times the iPod went back.
This past Spring, the problem returned and the result was the same. Back to the Genius Bar at the local Apple store. On that particular day, the support queue was backed up and people were grumpy, but the fix was simple. They took my father's iPod, replaced it with another and sent him on his way. It was, literally, a 30 second transaction.
Once home, my dad tried to set up the player himself but eventually just left it on my desk until I returned home myself to handle it, which was last week.
I tried the plugging the iPod into my firewire connection, then a USB and finally a wall charger. Nothing. No helpful icons on the screen, no hard drive spinning up.
Back to the Apple store...
The technician there had no luck either and frowned when he put the serial number in. It seems that the iPod was out of the 90 day parts warranty. "Already?" I asked, referencing the 2 prior replacements, as well. "Well I only have this one replacement in our system along with your two computer systems." This caught my interest considering that my dad uses a Dell and owns no other Apple produces. Certainly, I had to ask who's profile he had. The genius went out to explain that there was an iPod registered to a Jeff (Last Name Withheld for now) and replaced April 30th.
After discussing the issue with them for a half-hour, you can see where this issue is going...
There was once a broken iPod owned by a guy named Jeff and he brought it into the Apple store where it was swapped. His broken iPod was then handed off to my father as a replacement for his a few weeks later. The Apple employees denied that this could have ever occured and insist that Jeff is either a friend / co-worker who unknowingly helped by Dad setup us his iPod, or that I obtained Jeff's iPod through "other means" and was trying to get a clean one. Certainly they also took note that due to the last transaction date they had on that serial number, it was just out of warranty, too.
So now I have Jeff's iPod and am pondering what to do with it....
Any suggestions, especially entertaining ones, are invited.
