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Today I took my friend and colleague Angelica on an excursion to the local Apple Store to get her "new" iPod looked at. Her old one died a spectacular death, and she bought a new 4th Gen iPod nano that had been languishing in our store's high-ticket lockup for about a year; Staples bought some via a third-party distributor for the Christmas season and we still had that one left, about $100 on clearance (current model is 5th gen).
Unfortunately, all that time in storage didn't treat it very kindly; the battery refused to hold a charge. It worked just fine while plugged into either a computer or wall/car charger, but the moment it was unplugged it shut down. She was bummed out about it and didn't know what to do, so being the Knight in Shining Armor that I am, I volunteered to take her to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store to get the problem resolved. I even went online and set up an appointment so we'd be right at the head of the line when we showed up.
(I should note that we didn't go down there JUST for this. I had been planning on picking up a copy of Snow Leopard anyway, and also needed to buy a special headphone adapter for the iPod shuffle we bought my mother for her birthday).
As usual, the Apple guys were awesome. After we explained the problem, they ran a couple quick tests and determined that the battery was indeed hosed, and the iPod Genius opened a nearby drawer, removed a new (presumably refurbished. I'm not sure because I'd wandered off to get the items I needed) iPod nano in the same color and handed it over (along with a bit of paperwork to fill out).
Angelica was thrilled to be walking out with a 100% functional iPod. On the other hand, while they had the headphone adapter in-stock, they were completely out of the 5-license packs of Snow Leopard. So Angelica got what she wanted, my mother got what she wanted, and for the effort I expended, I got bupkis.
But the thing I found really interesting was that when the iPod Genius punched in the serial number of the iPod Angelica had bought NEW, he told her there were only 16 days left on the warranty. Despite the fact that she'd only registered it (as new!) two days ago!
I remarked that while it was an older iPod, it didn't seem fair that the warranty was almost up already. He explained that due to the manner in which most of the iPod resellers acquire their goods that they then resell to retailers (he specifically mentioned Staples and Best Buy), the iPods are registered in the warranty database as sold on the date they were purchased by the reseller, NOT the date they are purchased by the end user. This is because these resellers apparently pay for them in cash as if THEY were the end-user, and therefore the warranty period starts immediately.
I've subsequently found out from my sales manager that Dell does the same thing, and that we (as a company) have been fighting with them ever since we started carrying Dell products.
Obviously, this isn't right. I see suck on both sides of the equation. First of all, the fact that some resellers do their bulk purchasing in a way that causes the warranty period to begin immediately. And second, Apple must know that these sorts of bulk purchases are intended to be resold, so why in the holy mother of fuck do they not make a note when they record the serial numbers that they aren't in the hands of end users yet?
Obviously, Angelica got lucky insofar as she still had 16 days left on the warranty, and so was able to walk out with a replacement iPod, but it could just as easily have been 16 days AFTER the warranty expired (good thing we didn't dilly-dally in getting this taken care of). I know that I would be pissed off beyond belief if I bought a product in good faith from a major retailer like Staples or Best Buy and have it fail, only to discover that because it sat on their shelf for several months the warranty had long ago expired.
What SHOULD happen is that any bulk sale to a reseller should be noted as such, and the warranty period should begin on the date of the final sale. I can't think of a logical reason why this doesn't already happen. After all, it's not like buying Apple products from a third-party is a recent phenomenon. Until the first Apple Store opened, ALL brick and mortar retail sales of Apple products were through a third party (whereas with Dell, they were direct-sales only until the last couple years. So I can sort of understand why the process may be fucked up for them).
Now, to be fair, the Apple guy did tell us that had the warranty been expired, there IS a resolution process, but it would have involved multiple calls to the Apple Care support center, faxing over the receipt, and "jumping through many hoops."
But the point is that shouldn't be necessary, and I can just see someone with a dead product having their claim denied, and that incident turning into a major class-action suit against Apple, the reseller/distributor, and the retailer.
Stupid, stupid, STUPID!
But at least Angelica was able to get her iPod replaced, which is a good thing.
Unfortunately, all that time in storage didn't treat it very kindly; the battery refused to hold a charge. It worked just fine while plugged into either a computer or wall/car charger, but the moment it was unplugged it shut down. She was bummed out about it and didn't know what to do, so being the Knight in Shining Armor that I am, I volunteered to take her to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store to get the problem resolved. I even went online and set up an appointment so we'd be right at the head of the line when we showed up.
(I should note that we didn't go down there JUST for this. I had been planning on picking up a copy of Snow Leopard anyway, and also needed to buy a special headphone adapter for the iPod shuffle we bought my mother for her birthday).
As usual, the Apple guys were awesome. After we explained the problem, they ran a couple quick tests and determined that the battery was indeed hosed, and the iPod Genius opened a nearby drawer, removed a new (presumably refurbished. I'm not sure because I'd wandered off to get the items I needed) iPod nano in the same color and handed it over (along with a bit of paperwork to fill out).
Angelica was thrilled to be walking out with a 100% functional iPod. On the other hand, while they had the headphone adapter in-stock, they were completely out of the 5-license packs of Snow Leopard. So Angelica got what she wanted, my mother got what she wanted, and for the effort I expended, I got bupkis.
But the thing I found really interesting was that when the iPod Genius punched in the serial number of the iPod Angelica had bought NEW, he told her there were only 16 days left on the warranty. Despite the fact that she'd only registered it (as new!) two days ago!
I remarked that while it was an older iPod, it didn't seem fair that the warranty was almost up already. He explained that due to the manner in which most of the iPod resellers acquire their goods that they then resell to retailers (he specifically mentioned Staples and Best Buy), the iPods are registered in the warranty database as sold on the date they were purchased by the reseller, NOT the date they are purchased by the end user. This is because these resellers apparently pay for them in cash as if THEY were the end-user, and therefore the warranty period starts immediately.
I've subsequently found out from my sales manager that Dell does the same thing, and that we (as a company) have been fighting with them ever since we started carrying Dell products.
Obviously, this isn't right. I see suck on both sides of the equation. First of all, the fact that some resellers do their bulk purchasing in a way that causes the warranty period to begin immediately. And second, Apple must know that these sorts of bulk purchases are intended to be resold, so why in the holy mother of fuck do they not make a note when they record the serial numbers that they aren't in the hands of end users yet?
Obviously, Angelica got lucky insofar as she still had 16 days left on the warranty, and so was able to walk out with a replacement iPod, but it could just as easily have been 16 days AFTER the warranty expired (good thing we didn't dilly-dally in getting this taken care of). I know that I would be pissed off beyond belief if I bought a product in good faith from a major retailer like Staples or Best Buy and have it fail, only to discover that because it sat on their shelf for several months the warranty had long ago expired.
What SHOULD happen is that any bulk sale to a reseller should be noted as such, and the warranty period should begin on the date of the final sale. I can't think of a logical reason why this doesn't already happen. After all, it's not like buying Apple products from a third-party is a recent phenomenon. Until the first Apple Store opened, ALL brick and mortar retail sales of Apple products were through a third party (whereas with Dell, they were direct-sales only until the last couple years. So I can sort of understand why the process may be fucked up for them).
Now, to be fair, the Apple guy did tell us that had the warranty been expired, there IS a resolution process, but it would have involved multiple calls to the Apple Care support center, faxing over the receipt, and "jumping through many hoops."
But the point is that shouldn't be necessary, and I can just see someone with a dead product having their claim denied, and that incident turning into a major class-action suit against Apple, the reseller/distributor, and the retailer.
Stupid, stupid, STUPID!
But at least Angelica was able to get her iPod replaced, which is a good thing.
--- Sheldonrs
). This is generally what people mean when they say "unreplaceable." More specifically, they should be saying "unremovable," but the general populous will use the terms interchangeably.
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