Last week, Reader Andrew CC’d us on this email to Steve Jobs:
Mr. Jobs -
My name is Andrew [redacted], and I am an Apple consumer, and have been one for my entire life. I’ve been consistently impressed with the computers produced by your company, but have been sadly disappointed by all of my experiences related to your iPods.
I purchased my first iPod, a 10GB second generation model, when it was announced in 2002. It lasted for nearly a year before a hard drive failure caused it to cease working. I decided that it must have been a user error that caused this, and went ahead and purchased a 10GB third generation model shortly thereafter.
This iPod barely managed to survive for another year, I faced issues once I hit the six month mark, but I decided to keep using it until it died altogether. It did die, right when the new fourth generation classic with click wheel was announced.
I bought this iPod with a bit of uncertainty, not sure whether or not it was a good investment. I decided to buy the 40GB model, deciding that perhaps the smaller hard drives in my other iPods were somehow causing them to cease functioning.
Believe it or not, this iPod stopped working as well, a few months after the iPod Shuffle was announced.
Frustrated with my experiences, but still happy overall with Apple, I purchased a 1GB first generation iPod Shuffle, disappointed that I was forced to use it, but happy to have a portable way to listen to my music.
After about a year and a half of full functionality, I bought a fourth generation 20GB iPod off of eBay, and was pleased when I received it and it functioned perfectly. I used my iPod Shuffle and my classic iPod for nearly a year, when they both stopped working while I was doing work overseas. Stuck in another country with hours of train rides ahead of me, without any way to listen to my music, was enough impetus for me to buy the brand-new iPod directly from Apple as soon as I got back to the States. As luck would have it, the iPod Classic was announced a few weeks before I flew home, and I bought the 80GB model.
The same day I received it, the iPod showed signs of a corrupted hard drive, flashing notifications that “this disk cannot be read or written to” when I tried to sync it with my iTunes. I had to head overseas for more work at that point, and left the iPod at home to take care of upon my return. In late November I was home again and called AppleCare, explaining the issue. The next day I received a box, and soon thereafter I sent it back to Apple. (See repair number [redacted]) After about a week, I was contacted and told that there was nothing wrong with my iPod. Assuming that the problem must have fixed itself, I eagerly awaited the return of my iPod. Once I received it, I began to sync it to my iTunes, and the same exact error appeared, accompanied by a hard reset on the iPod. This occurred each time I attempted to sync it. Figuring the issue must be with my computer, I borrowed a friend’s iPod, but it had no problem syncing with my music library.
Mr. Jobs, over the past five years I have owned six iPods and spent roughly $1495 on the five I purchased directly from Apple. That’s $299 per year on iPods alone. In that same amount of time I have owned one Apple desktop computer and two Apple laptops, all of which still function perfectly.
My work has me traveling around the world constantly, and being able to listen to my music or watch my videos is a beginning to become an unattainable luxury for me as opposed to a convenience. In the past I have enthusiastically endorsed Apple products to the scores of people I meet every week. My experiences with my iPods are beginning to make me question my loyalty.
Mr. Jobs, all I ask from you is one iPod that works. That’s all I want.
Thank you very much for your time.
Sincerely,
Andrew
Today, Andrew contacted us with the following update.
Consumerist –
Late last week week I CC’d you on an to Steve Jobs regarding my problems with iPods over the past several years. A few days after my email was sent, I was contacted by an Executive Customer Service rep who, after a few days of phone tag, got me to explicitly describe the malfunction of my current iPod. After about twenty minutes of going into explicit detail, I was told that Apple would get back to me before Monday.
Today I was emailed an article from their support site, along with a few general suggestions for idiots (i.e. “are you running the latest version of iTunes?” “did you try restoring your iPod?”). I was told to call one of the executive relations reps directly. Over the phone I had made it clear that I have been an Apple consumer for many years and am familiar with all their general troubleshooting, and have browsed the support articles already. I’ve attempted to call the number I was given many times, and the representative has been unable to be reached all day.
I’ll give her a couple more days before I email Jobs again. My experience thus far has proved that Apple’s “Executive Customer Relations” department is a joke.
Hope this helps, if you’re considering covering yet another Apple customer’s story.
Sincerely,
A.
Yikes, Andrew. That is a shocking amount of iPods. Maybe its time for um, another brand of mp3 player? We suggest that you keep persisting in your attempts to get your (latest) iPod repaired. If you send it back enough times you can play the “lemon” card. Anyone else have advice for Andrew?
(Photo:Maulleigh)
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I have spent $0 on an iPod. Though I do have a mini that I saved from the garbage. It wouldn’t power up when I got it, just sit there and charge so I took it apart, reassembled and it’s been working fine except for a few scuffs from when the previous owner chucked it into the garbage can. I’ve upgraded it to an 8GB Compact Flash card and changed the battery out.
Of course, I would have learned my lesson after the 2nd defective iPod if not after the first.
Stop the battered wife syndrome and quit buying these things. What’s so wrong with not having music piped into your brain constantly, anyway? Are you so devoid of inner dialogue and imagination that you need constant auditory stimulation? Grow up, stop buying toys, and quit bitching about blowing over a thousand bucks on Apple garbage.
Perhaps you should consider changing to another MP3 player. I have no problems with it. Back in 2004, I also purchased for my kids Creative Labs 30G Zen touch. They are like bricks, but have never failed and still work flawlessly. I recently upgraded for my kids to the Zen Vision and Zen V, only because of the video playback capabilities. Both are working great and my wife and inherited their old MP3 players.
Only an apple fan boy would buy 50 of the same item before going “HEY! These shouldn’t all break in 12 months, let me call customer service.” Expect to hear about his new terrific 8th Iphone next week.
I have a bunch of iPods.
I have a first generation 5Gb iPod that worked perfectly up until early last year when its hard drive failed.
I bought a 20Gb click wheel (third gen ??) to replace the one above. It works almost flawlessly.
My wifes 20Gb second generation (I think) iPod always had battery issues, but it is still working in our base station, but only holds a 20 minute charge.
I have a 512mb shuffle (stick) that died six months after I got it. The thing will work as a USB drive, but won’t play music.
I have a 2Gb Nano (first gen.) that is flawless.
My daughter has a 1Gb shuffle (belt clip) that is moody about sync’ing with my Mini, but otherwise works fine.
My other daughter has a 4Gb Nano (second gen.) that is also flawless.
Patient: “Doctor, my arm hurts when I move it like this.”
Doctor: “Then stop moving it like that!”
Andrew [Redacted] could learn a thing or two. There are tons of quality mp3 players on the market today, both flash and hard-drive based. I bought a 2GB flash-drive mp3 player from Creative for 60 bucks – a similar i-Pod Mini is like, 200 or something. Hard drives, especially “portable” hard drives, fail; it’s inevitable. The only question is, “What will Andrew do in the future to protect his purchases?”
Do they have an ipod or mp3 player that looks like an old cassette tape yet? I want one of those!
I’d like to take a moment and suggest an Archos 605 Wifi variant of Mp3 players. You get all the features of an iPod touch, a simple TiVo, and in incredibly full featured PMP. For the same price as any of the iPod lineup or less.
This sounds exactly like episodes I went through with some folks in my days of repairing laptops. Some folks would just burn through hard drives like there was no tomorrow. You’d give them another laptop (just to eliminate the possibility that the laptop has other problems) and they’d still come back a month or two later with a clicking drive.
I’m not saying that this guy hasn’t in fact received numerous defective iPods, but the odds of that happening have got to be astronomical. I’m willing to bet it is a case of operator error/abuse or some environmental factor that keeps killing his iPods. I don’t think buying another brand of mp3 player will help either, most, if not all, are still susceptible to the same problems if you don’t handle them right.
The iPods are complete junk. Yes they look cool and are easy to use, but they are poorly made. At the apple store I worked at we would replaced hundreds a week. And the refurbed replacements are worse than the brand new ones. The sad thing is everyone at Apple knows this. All tthe Genii and store managers, yet they try and blame the customer and blame the problems on Windows based PCs. It’s a joke.
The chain of events this guy has had seems a bit strange to me. My GF has had her 20 GB HP iPod for rolling on 3 years I have had my 60 GB for about 2.5 years or so and neither has ever failed. Even her little nano still works well with being a in-car MP3 player for close to 2 years.
Keep in mind this is comming from a non-apple fanboy. In fact, while I admire the things they don’t like me. Macs lock up when I’m near, I’ve had a couple of lockups with my iPod and when I went to the apple store to get the GF her iPhone the model I was screwing with got jittery and the store’s POS system went down.
Most of the problems with my ipod have been fixed by popping the thing open and reseating the ribbon cable attached to the hard drive. I’ve experienced most of the symptoms listed by the original poster.
I’ve gotten pretty good at opening the thing up with a swiss army knife. From what I’ve seen the main cause is the cable is folded around the bottom of the hard drive, so as the ipod gets jostled from use it puts pressure on the connector at the end of the cable and slowly works it’s way out. It takes about a year of driving on potholes for 3 hours a day in my case, before problems occur.
There are plenty of sites that show how to open the thing up and perform some quick fixes. I’ve managed to keep my ipod going for 5 years with some light under the hood work.
“You’d think after the… 2nd iPod he’d move on to a different brand?”
Very true. Once an Apple fanboy, always an Apple fanboy.
Myself? I’ve got a Meizu.
There’s a name for customers like this: CHUMP. Fool you once, shame on them. Fool you six times, Job[s] well done!
Don’t you think this is part of their business model when they release a new version every 12 months that does exactly the same thing as a previous model with one or two added “original” features?
It really boils down to how much you are willing to pay to be among the smug elite. I seriously doubt they’re shedding any crocodile tears for the poor unfortunate souls willingly paying the Apple tax.
Get in line and buy another one or look past the brand and take your business elsewhere.
My first-generation 5GB iPod still works just fine. The original battery is still in it and is good for about 9-10 hours of music-playing.
Oof.
I’m really happy with my ipod (5G video), and it’s been chugging along happily for about two years now. I had a 3G with clickwheel that worked just fine until I tried changing the battery myself. ipod resq from now on for me…
I bought this iPod that died in 3 months. The Apple store replaced
it, no questions asked. After the second one died, I bought a $60
3-year extended guarantee. iPods kept dying, the Apple store kept
replacing them. I finally got one that didn’t die, but by then I got
the iPhone and now that iPod is picking up dust. So that’s it, guys:
$60 it all it takes. Someone tell that poor Apple fanboy.
I don’t know, this guy must be beating the hell out of his iPods. I’ve still got my first iPod, a 3rd generation model from 2003. Still works perfectly and I still use it as a portable hard drive. A flash-based 1st generation Nano I got in 2005 performs flawlessly, too, and I still use it when I go running.
iPod has consistently been the most robust of all consumer electronics I’ve owned — totally low-maintenance, never had a problem.
Seven years, two iPods (got the second one last year), about half of what Mr. Redacted spent. I replaced the battery in the first iPod twice before getting a new one for the larger capacity and color screen. Either Andrew has had a run of bad luck, or he’s abusing his ‘Pods and doesn’t want to admit it.
I bought an iPod shuffle and was disappointed that they required you to install iTunes at all. I’ve since switched to SanDisk Sansa and I’ve never looked back. Twice the codecs for movies and audio, drag and drop (nothing to install) and half the price of the iPods, I can’t complain.
@weggles90: Same could be said for all those people with Xbox’s that kept failing…
I will mention one thing: I do have a 1st gen iPod shuffle that still works… Half-assed. No matter how many different headsets or miniplugs I hand it, they somehow come loose inside while the thing is still playing and for no appararent reason either. Then the iPod pauses and the wire has to be re-adjusted. This even happens when the damn thing is sitting still. As I’m sure you can imagine, this can be a real pain in the ass over time.
@spinachdip:
Mine too 3rd Gen 15 gig, still works great. Granted the battery is totally jacked just like all iPods eventually are, but I just charge it daily, no biggie…
Uh, guys recommending the Apple fanboy to buy the Zune… the Zune
doesn’t work on Macs and I’m pretty sure the Apple fanboy doesn’t have
a PC. He also doesn’t have a brain either.
@Major-General:
Word, Sandisk has some great MP3 and PMP players, the work, they’re cheap and look great. I just got my other half a 16 GB sansa view for 170 bucks, it has a micro SD slot for expanded memory, its thin, has a nice clear screen and looks sleek.
Oh and none of that pesky annoying DRM bull.
Hmm, I think I have this guy beat:
Summer 2002: 20gb 2G ipod ($500), hard drive started getting crashy after about 18 months (I was running with it), but it still works pretty well, even today.
Summer, 2004: Upgraded to a 40 gb 4G ipod ($400) for the extra capacity, but lost it six months later when I left it on a plane.
Xmas 2004: Gave my sister a pink ipod mini ($250).
Winter 2005: replaced it with a 20gb 4G U2 ipod ($350) because it matched my car’s red and black leather interior. Shut up. I ran with this one also, and it got crashy pretty quickly, plus the capacity was a downgrade and no longer held my entire library.
Summer 2005: picked up a 1G 1gb Shuffle ($130) exclusively for running. Worked great, and still does, and it staved off hard drive death on my 4G U2 model.
Xmas 2005: Asked for a 60gb 5G ipod ($400) since it came in black and still matched my car’s interior (shut up), and had enough space for my library. I got it, but it was stolen out of my car in fall 2006. I went back to the 20gb U2.
Summer 2006: Upgrade the shuffle to a 1G 4gb ipod nano so I could use the nike running kit ($200+$30).
Xmas 2006: Gave my dad a 4GB 1g Nano ($200).
Spring 2007: Bought my fiance an 80gb 5.5G ipod ($350) that we basically share and use on long trips.
Summer 2007: My fiance and I both got iphones ($1200), but got $400 back from american express when they dropped the price, and another $100 credit each from Apple. Net cost for both phones: $600
Late Summer 2007: Lost my nano, so I reluctantly bought a new 2gb 2G nano ($150) so I could continue to use the nike running kit. Of course, 2 months later, I found the old one, so now I have two working nanos.
Fall 2007: the battery in the nike kit died and I replaced it ($30).
So in five and a half years, I’ve owned or purchased $3590 worth of ipods. Of that amount, $3240 was my own money and only $400 worth was given to me. $1100 worth was a gift to other people. I’ve lost $750 to loss or theft, but only the oldest and much abused 2G and U2 models ($850 new) are broken, and even those still basically work. That leaves my iphone, 2 nanos, a shuffle and a nike sensor ($810) and anther $1100 in gifts still going strong. By the way, my pre-1G ipod Archos player was a piece of garbage, and three times bigger than the largest ipod ever made.
@hazeljemi: Mine is close to four years old and still works, but it needs to have the battery replaced.
When I first bought a digital music player, I heeded the call of the iPod Haters and bought a Rio Karma. The reviews were good on it, and it had a lot of excellent features missing from the iPod.
This device was buggy from the start — the hard drive would stop spinning, and the official fix was to slam it really hard on something, and it eventually stopped working altogether. It was probably the slamming really hard.
So I bought a video iPod in September of 2005. I use it a minimum of 2-3 hours every day. It’s been around the world with me. And everything about it continues to work beautifully. I really want to get a new one, but I can’t justify the expense to replace something that still works so well.
I think all the stories in this thread can be boiled down to one phrase: Your Mileage May Vary.
My suggestion: go with Creative Labs, or Microsoft. I had a Creative Labs Zen Touch for a year and a half, and it works perfectly still – I work as a window cleaner, and I can say that it can survive some good drops from a ladder.
I also purchased the 2nd Gen Microsoft Zune upon its’ release, and have had absolutely no problems with it either. I’d highly recommend going this route…
If your hard drive players are all dying, quit using hard drive players! If the Shuffle still works, the Nano probably would, too. You are getting something in return for paying more for the space.
@hazeljemi, and others: anything with an integrated battery is designed to be replaced. But, the OP’s issue is that he’s not buying all flash players.
My 1st gen iPod still works, although the battery is somewhat limited as you may imagine. I’d change it out, but I got a newer iPod a couple of years ago so there’s not really a point in doing that. Sounds like this guy just doesn’t know how to treat a miniature hard drive or doesn’t know how to fix little problems and save huge amounts of cash. There are a million websites out there for free/cheap iPod fixes, try them out before you go throwing it and your money away on a new one. Looks like MrEvil knows what I’m talkin’ about.
I’ll never buy an iPod, maybe you should start thinking like that too Andy. Just you feel Apply may make good computers doesn’t mean any of their other hardware is good.
Apple will almost certainly give this guy a free repair but I notice he had several iPods fail within warranty and it seems he never asked for their help then. So Apple was unaware of any issues or he is the issue that causes so many iPods to fail – thereby voiding the warranty.
60 gb 5g video ipod, bought refurb online from apple. probably the most abused piece of electronics i own. used in all kinds of weather, dropped off ladders, thrown into the glove compartment of the car to play through the car stereo. left in glove compartment in summer and winter, etc etc. no problems other than having to do a hard reset once. not even scratched since i keep it in a leather case. of course your mileage may vary. i think theres some part of this story we aren’t hearing about.
it’s always amusing how the trolls latch right on to these stories.
My video iPod was working up until 2 days ago, when horizontal lines started appearing across the screen (I hadn’t dropped it or anything; I was just charging it up). I don’t plan on buying another one, since I tried most of the online suggestions to fix it, and it still is malfunctioning.
Once again, error between the screen and the keyboard. Be an informed consumer, you could have had your iPods fixed at the apple store for $59. It is called apple care and it gives you an entire second year on your warranty. I highly suggest getting it for the expensive iPods and computers. It works unless the damage was caused by you, which it probably was otherwise you would have done the above as an informed “apple all my life” consumer.
When two or more products from a particular vendor fail spectacularly, I go to another vendor. ULTRA (power supplies), I’m looking at you.
I have three flash-based iriver players, all of which still work. I just wanted more capacity (256MB -> 2GB -> 8GB).
I also enjoyed Creative’s Muvo^2, but its hard disk finally conked out on me this year. I just can’t recommend hard disk-based PMPs.
My suggestion is to move on to a Creative Zen or a Sandisk Sansa. I have both and they work great.
After a bad experience with an Ipod Mini and Apple’s bad customer service in regards to it, I’ve been boycotting Apple products. I found a great MP3, a Sandisk Sansa that I love. And it has an fm radio.
Best of all, I don’t have to worry about the internal battery failing and not being able to replace it. I just buy a pack of Duracells and pop a new one in.
And its over $200 less than Appple.
Andrew strikes me as a kind, thoughtful, patient, articulate tool. His solution to all these failures is to keep buying new ones? Egad.
@tasselhoff76: Vista or iPods aside, I’ve never had anything but a miserable experience with ZoneLabs stuff. My brief time with them is a memory I’d rather forget.
Everyone here who still has a dead iPod please don’t throw them away. There is a chance that the hard disks in these devices can be revitalized by a utility called SpinRite by a person named Steve Gibson. It is not free, I believe it costs $81 but if you have more than 1 dead iPod it may be worth it. I have never had an iPod so I have never tried to revive one but I have heard that it works pretty well. The hard drive must be removed from the iPod to apply the procedure so it is not for the fain of heart. Mr. Gibson runs a podcast called Security Now on twit.tv and at the beginning of every episode there is a customer testimonial about SpinRite. A few weeks ago there was an episode in which the user testimonial was from a person who reported that he revitalized more than 10 of his friends dead iPods with this utility. I have no connection with the product but I am a big fan of Mr.Gibsons and he knows his stuff when it comes to hard disks.
I got a Dell DJ when they first came out and It sure was a great Mp3 player, it just broke maybe 4 times. All you had to do was call up dell and they would send you a new one right away. Upon receiving the new player you would then send them your malfunctioning player. This only lasted for 2 years so then I got an Ipod and have been satisfied but not anymore happy ever since.
Worst luck ever!
I’ve never had a single problem with any of my Apple stuff, and I’ve been a Mac user since I was 2 (albeit unknowingly).
I didn’t read all of this, but why not go directly into an Apple store? I have never went into a store with a malfunctioning iPod when they didn’t immediately diagnose my problem and hand me an iPod directly back over the counter.
OH…also? Maybe he’s really rough on iPods?
I have a 1st gen, 5 gig iPod purchased just after they were released, and it still works flawlessly – on the original battery, mind you. Go figure.
About 18 months ago I bought a 40 gig 5th gen (4th gen?) refurb from the Apple Store to replace it because I needed more space. It worked brilliantly for about 3 months, then the hard drive crashed. Apple replaced it for me, no questions asked. However, within another month or so, the hard drive on the replacement crashed in the same fashion. I was able to reformat it and loaded all my music back in…which marked the start of a 30-or-so day cycle of iPod HD crash, music reinstall, iPod HD crash…that went on for a few more months, and by the end my iTunes library would become corrupt and unreadable every few days. The iTunes library getting corrupted led me to believe that maybe the problem was bigger than the iPod…and after a lot of testing it turned out that some RAM I had added to my machine was corrupt. I replaced the bad chip, and voila…no iPod HD crashes, no iTunes library rebuilds. My problems had nothing to do with my iPod.
That said…if you’ve got a warranty, use it, etc.
Wow, I’ve had these failing iPods too, but I guess that’s why I buy the extended AppleCares. It’s really annoying.
interesting problem. i really dont know what to say… other than both of my ipods worked fine after a new model was introduced. i had a mini, and it worked fine for a few years until i lost it. my ipod 5th gen. was purchased september of 2006 i believe, and it still works, even after the new ‘classic’ was introduced. my cousin’s ipod is multiple years old, and to my knowledge, still works fine. if i were you, i’d try another type of mp3 player.
just dont get a dell jutebox or whatever they are called. they’re the devil.
Ive had an iPod Classic, 20 GB, since 2005 and only recently has it stopped working. The Menu button would not work so I was forced to listen to one song for about a day. I let the battery run out then recharged it. When I plugged it in to charge it worked, for about 2 minutes and now does not turn on at all.
But that is understandable, I have had it for a few years.