PREVIOUSLY: Woot Customer Demands Non-Existent Black iPod Headphones
(Photo: bbatsell)

Millard does not care that Apple only makes white ones (unless you're getting special U2 iPods, which this wasn't). Now he wants Woot to pay for the black headphones he was "forced" to buy so they would match. It was very important to both him and his daughter, for whom the iPod was a birthday gift, that the headphones and iPod matched.

Woot.com was actually the ones who forwarded over the email exchange to us. They're hoping that Consumerist readers can offer advice on how they should react to the situation. At the bottom of the exchange posted below is a poll where you can write your tips and vote on other others'. Woot has promised to take them under advisement.

"From: MillardR
To: Service; Woot Member Services
Subject: Error in color ....
Hello,

I received the item I ordered, but the ear piece was shipped to me in "white" rather than in "black" to match my black iPod.

Can you help?

Millard R

—
Woot Member Services wrote:

Millard,

Apparently the people at Apple are not fashion-sensitive because those ear pieces only come in white. We apologize for this but unfortunately there isn't much we can do for you in this case.

-Rutherford

—
From: MillardR
To: Service; Woot Member Services
Subject: Re: Error in color ....

Hello Rutherford,

I never knew that this piece was going to come this way, and if you ask me (your customer) I fell that Woot should inform their customers of this type of detail issue. Well ... it now cost me an additional $29.00 to purchase a black set of ear plugs (that are for sale) to match the IPOD that I purchased from Woot in Black. How is this fair
to me .... the customer that feels he was mislead?

I hope you can do something to off-set my additional expense.

Best regards,

Millard R

—
Woot Member Services wrote:

I'm not sure how you felt mislead. The picture shows white earbuds. As a matter of fact, I looked back at other iPods that we sold and ALL the earbuds were white.

Rutherford

—
From: Millard R
To: Woot : Service

Hello Rutherford,

I'm really surprised to see that you're (WOOT) is taking this stance against one if its customers. The reason I felt mislead is because I was asked to select between "White" or "Black", and I was under the assumption that, again "White" meant totally "White" and that "Black meant totally Black". It never mentioned that only to IPOD itself
would be affected by the color, and that the other accessories would be shipped in a standard White color.

That's like purchasing a new car in the color of your choice (Blue) and when you finally take it home and you open the hood or truck ... its pink in color. Well when you call your sales person and report your finding, the customer support person states that it only comes in that color. Well if you were never told this information, would you feel mislead just because you never opened these areas to check for your self. Well ... I feel mislead, and so did my little daughter that received it item from us for her birthday!!!

Please review your customer satisfaction policy to see if there is any language within that takes care of your customer ... under this type of circumstance.

Please advise,

Millard R."

(Photo: bbatsell)

RELATED: The Worst Tip We Have Ever Received

If you're one of those people, at least you have an out if you bought it in the last 30 days. Right on the page where you can add the iPod to your cart, they say that "with our 30/30 Guarantee on most products, you can be assured of complete satisfaction and the lowest available price, or your money back!" We confirmed with a very nice CSR on the phone that the guarantee applies to iPods, so good luck with that. Maybe you can spend that recaptured $100 on some Monster Cables.

(Thanks to Scott!)

Apple said the flaw affected first-generation Nanos, sold between September 2005 and December 2006, in very rare instances. The company's statement added that "There have been no reports of serious injuries or property damage, and no reports of incidents for any other iPod Nano model."

According to the ministry, Apple Computer has been notified of a total of 14 similar cases in Japan. Out of those, two users suffered minor burning.

The ministry said the incidents were caused by four models — MA004J/A, MA005J/A, MA099J/A and MA107J/A — of which 1.81 million units were sold between September 2005 and September 2006 in Japan.

Domo arigato, Apple, for seeing the wisdom of our suggested policy: "Return Exploded iPod, Get 1 Free!"

Apple says battery problem caused iPod overheating [AP]
Japan warns of iPod nano fire risk [AFP]
PREVIOUSLY: iPod Nano Explodes While Charging
(Photo: Getty) (Thanks to Simon!)

(Thanks to Ronald!)
(Photo: Mike McCaffrey)

The FTC alleged that consumers lured to ValueClick's Web sites by these promises were led through a maze of expensive and burdensome third-party offers - including car loans and satellite television subscriptions - which they were required to "participate in" at their own expense, in order to receive the promised "free" merchandise. The FTC charged that ValueClick's use of deceptively labeled e-mail offering free gifts and its failure to disclose that consumers must expend substantial sums of money to obtain the promised "free" merchandise violates the CAN-SPAM Act and the FTC Act.

The FTC also charged that ValueClick, Hi-Speed Media, and E-Babylon, misrepresented that they secured customers' sensitive financial information consistent with industry standards. The FTC alleged the companies published online privacy policies claiming they encrypted customer information, but either failed to encrypt the information at all or used a non-standard and insecure form of encryption. The agency also charged that several of the companies' e-commerce Web sites were vulnerable to SQL injection, a commonly known form of hacker attack, contrary to claims that the companies implemented reasonable security measures.

ValueClick to Pay $2.9 Million to Settle FTC Charges [FTC]

Mr. McKenzie (allegedly) dresses up as a Target employee, wearing a red polo shirt and khaki pants, and pretends to work at the store before grabbing the iPods.

"North Miami Beach police officials say he has extensive knowledge of Target procedures and has even assisted customers," reports CBS4.

Police say Mr. McKenzie has stolen $17,000 worth of iPods.

Fake Target Clerk Steals $17K In iPods [CBS4 via Switched]

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

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.

(Photo:Maulleigh)

RECLAIM YOUR MIND FROM THE MEDIA SHACKLES. READ A BOOK AND RESURRECT YOURSELF.

TO CLAIM YOUR CAPITALISTIC GARBAGE GO TO YOUR NEAREST APPLE STORE.

The little girl who expected a Christmas iPod was undoubtedly confused. Her father returned the iPod to the Germantown Walmart, where he learned that "another customer returned an iPod with a similar issue." MyFoxKC doesn't mention whether Walmart exchanged the political rant for a real iPod. You know those pesky capitalists, always so distrustful.

Girl Gets Bizarre Surprise Instead of iPod [MyFoxKC]
PREVIOUSLY: Shopdropping: The Anti-Shoplifting

(Photo: tonystl)

Their reasoning:

First, the recent increase in robbery has been disproportionately greater than increases in other economically motivated crimes, such as theft and burglary.

Second, the recent increase in robbery has been greatest among juvenile offenders, among whom iPods "are highly valued as a status symbol."

Third, robberies increased in particular from 2004 to 2006, the very period when iPods entered the mass market and became ubiquitous among consumers.

They argue that past crime waves have been triggered by other high-status items like sneakers and jackets, but that the iPod is unique for how widespread a phenomenon it is.

But what we wonder is: did the iPhone caused the subprime meltdown?

"Are iPods to Blame for Rising Crime?" [New York Times]
(Photo: Getty)

His jaw was broken and both ear drums punctured. He suffered burns along both sides of his neck "corresponding to the positions of his earphones at the time of the lightning strike." He also suffered a rare injury to the bones inside his ears that lead the doctors to conclude that the "the combination of sweat and metal earphones directed the current to, and through, the patient's head." Lovely.

So if you're jogging and it looks stormy, you might want to consider taking your iPod off or "dislocation of the incudomalleolar joint" could happen to you.

Thunderstorms and iPods — Not a Good iDea [New England Journal of Medicine]

From Reuters:

The study tested the effect of the portable music devices on 100 patients, whose mean age was 77, outfitted with pacemakers. Electrical interference was detected half of the time when the iPod was held just 2 inches from the patient's chest for 5 to 10 seconds.

The study did not examine any portable music devices other than iPods, which are made by Apple.

In some cases, the iPods caused interference when held 18 inches from the chest. Interfering with the telemetry equipment caused the device to misread the heart's pacing and in one case caused the pacemaker to stop functioning altogether.

The study was held at the Thoracic and Cardiovascular Institute at Michigan State University.

You can win an iPod shuffle if you help us out with this 6-question poll to learn more about our readers.

If you opt to enter your email address, you get a chance to win a free shuffle, with color of your choice. This email address will solely be used to communicate with winners and will never be sold to anyone or used to market to you. Entering the email address is optional.

The information you provide will help out our ad sales team and keep the Goodship Consumerist running like a freight train of justice. — BEN POPKEN

Contest rules.

• How much to tip the Peapod delivery person? [Link]

• If I don't care where I'm going, and I want to pay as little as possible for a round-trip ticket (over a few days) what's the best way to do it? [Link]

• Is it legal to sell iPods preloaded with music? [Link]

• Why would I want to purchase Air Miles? Specifically AAdvantage Miles. Is the cost of purchasing miles saving you money on the cost of a flight? i.e. Is the value of air miles greater than their purchase value when redeemed for a flight? [Link]

• I live in NYC, and had AOL for Broadband for my internet service provided to me through Time Warner. AOL recently waived their fee's and is now free. I am left paying Tie Warner about $45 bux a month for broadband service.....I wanna find something cheaper, yet just as fast and efficient... [Link]

• Why is my credit score so high? [Link]

It wasn't. In fact, by squalorous Chinese sweatshop standards, iPod City sounds like a decent place to work. Apple's report, posted on their company web site, reads remarkably like a company that is being open and forthcoming. While the report is quick to point out things Apple is doing wrong, or complaints the employees made, but overall, it seems as if initial reports were wildly blown out of proportion: for example, although the cities can accommodate up to 200,000 workers, in practice only a tenth of that space was being used. Employees main gripe seems to be they can't work more overtime.

Of course, it's still China we're talking about, so the standards don't exactly inspire coveting. But iPod cities seems humane and largely considerate. Good on Apple for getting to the bottom of this and sharing the results so publicly.

Report on iPod Manufacturing [Apple]
Previously: iPod Sweatshops on Consumerist

Intrigued by all the people selling broken ipods or simply tossing them, he set up a little refurb shop. Apple won't support out of warranty repairs or sell him parts, but that's ok, he gets most of the pieces directly from the manufacturers. Matt scavenges motherboards from broken iPods on Ebay.

Check it out at iPodShop.ca.

It's neat that he's in a cute, spare little shop in Canada but there's also TechRestore which may have better prices.

Either way, one more opportunity to opt out of the prevailing disposable diaper consumer culture.

I bought my 40GB 3G iPod, the black and white model, when it first came out, and I bought the BestBuy replacement plan with it. A year or so later, the battery died. I brought it into BestBuy, and the Geek Squad guy sent it away and told me he'd call in about a week. He called right on time, I picked it up, and it worked great. Until I got home. That's when I noticed that Apple, during the battery replacement, had seriously gnarled the white plastic liner around the jack in the bottom of the iPod. I couldn't plug it in to sync it. I brought it back to BestBuy the next day, mad but not at them, and the Geek Squad guy sympathized. He spoke to his manager, who came over and let me pick up a new 60GB iPod Photo (new at the time) and walk out of the store, no hassles.

Thought a positive consumer experience might be a nice change of pace.

-Steve

According to statistical analysis, if we want to improve traffic, we should immediately switch to porn. The second best option would to be switch the focus of the site to Tampa area Wal-Marts. Imagine the headlines: Cleanup on Gator Hats, Aisle Five.

After the jump, more evidence, along with a decaying lunch sack getting mad at us for questioning the integrity of a site whose address resolves to a self-storage facility in San Pedro, CA...

UPDATE: A reader went through and placed an order. You won't believe what he was asked to do at checkout.

Add that to the fact that their address resolves to a self-storage facility in San Pedro, CA (thanks Eric and Jay), their "About Us" page is a rip from the California Computer Center's info page (thanks Anthony), and the photos on the website are stolen from the official Apple Soho store website.

A reader appropriately named, "Chad," wrote in to call our site "an emaressment [sic] for posting articles like this." He says this is the standard wholesale rate for these units, especially merchants using "drop shipping," which is when an online retailer only handles the transactions and an uplink distributor takes care of the shipping, stocking and all that nitty griity. We googled "wholesale iPods" and failed to find any legitimate looking site offering the purported deals. If any reader can find a good site, we'd be overjoyed to post it.

Fair enough, but why then when we emailed the site's owner James did he respond, "The products on this sale are the stock of our charity partner and they were previously donated under their name. We are helping them to sell the stock out at this moment. All units are brand new, factory sealed."

Why then don't you just sell them on Ebay? We're sure you could make a much heftier profit for your charity partner.

Our critic wrote further, "You had no proof. Don't understand the industry. Can't even pick up a phone and call the guy. Yet you can make claims he is a scam and dare the users to prove you otherwise. Slow news day?"

You're right, we couldn't pick up a phone because no phone number was provided on the site. We never claimed it was a scam, we just pointed out the possibility, Chadwick, and said how it tickled our "spidey sense," our caveat emptor antenas. We "dared" people to prove us wrong because if this was actually a great deal on iPods, we'd love to let people know about it.

Scriptor emptor, let the writer beware of stupid readers.

UPDATE: Perhaps this is the kernel of the scam: stealing your bank account info. Daring reader Chuck writes, "I registered at the skeevy Soho Store as Derek Jeter and when I went to checkout I saw that the only acceptable form of payment for the transaction was "wire transfer." I've been alive 30 years and never had to do a wire transfer to buy something and you can be damn sure I wouldn't do it in this case either."

Previously: Soho Store a scam?

"Guess what? We like radio and listen to it frequently. We even used to work in radio.

We don't like marketing surveys that appear to be self-serving to the organizations that conduct them. We won't impugn your survey methods, because frankly, we're busy."

They respond with vim, vigor and bubbles, after the jump...

Mark replied:

"Well, Bob, maybe you should have done your homework then before drawing conclusions about who did what under whose sponsorship.

We paid for the study ourselves, it so happens. And anyone who spends any time on this blog knows full well that we call a spade a spade, whether it suits the industry or not. Look around and see for yourself.

If you're too busy writing a bubble-headed post to study up on our survey methods or at least refer to the limitations we noted in our post and our industry communications, then I suggest you acknowledge your ignorance so your readers know how full of crap you are."

We would've retorted, but Mark closed the comments, presumably to head us off from saying something like this:

"Our readers already know how full of crap we are. That's why they read.

P.S. Bob's your uncle, not my name. "

Which we emailed to him. He replied back, "I fixed the name. Sorry about that. Not intentional."

Mark is probably a fine fellow and it's not cool to hate radio, it's fool. But if the response to our survey and posts is any idication, is questionable how "beyond reproach" his numbers are. Perhaps there's stat-hoes amongst you readers that would like to check it out and report back?

If not, that's okay, we'll just let this one die. Like radio.

Previously:

• Mercury Research says The Consumerist is a Radio Hata'
  
• Radio Self-Fulfills Self-Aggrandizing Prophecy

We hate radios because it's "cool" to hate radios.

That's according to Mark Ramsey of the Radio Marketing Nexus blog. His company, Mercury Radio Research, conducted the "HD Radio vs. iPod" poll we wrote about.

Mark says,

"folks who don't brush up on what they're talking about only make themselves look like idiots when they post their stupid, half-cocked conclusions in public. If you want a biased presentation of alternatives, just see the way they present them: "gleaming, fresh iPod"? Of course, they're only kidding. But hidden within that jest is a deep dislike for radio and the "establishment" it represents- a tune as old as James Dean and his chinos."

We haven't heard that tune. Anyone got the .mp3? We'd like to put it in our shimmering, verdant iPod. And a "deep dislike for radio" and The Man it represents? Not necessarily the most astute analysis of the data set, stat boys.

His company's research, as reported in FMQB, a radio industry newsletter, found that people prefer HD radios over iPods, citing "usability." They surveyed 1000 people across America. Last time, we ran our own poll and got 777 responses, let's post it again and see if we can at least get as many as they.

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See also Mark's original blog post, HD Radio preferred over iPods, which lays out some more data slices and critiques, such as, "this tradeoff is like asking folks which they'd rather have, an iron or an HD Radio?" and "It's a little slice of PR...Nothing more."

"A new survey from radio marketers Mercury asked 1,000 people, if a new iPod and an HD Radio receiver were the same price, which would they prefer. As seen in the graphs... the majority chose HD Radio, citing that a radio is simply easier to use than an iPod."

We think this is a crock of unprocessed bologna bits. Small surprise that the survey was conducted by a radio marketing group and reported on FMQB, a radio industry newsletter.

Let's do our own survey:

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