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Bill et al:
My $0.02 (slightly off topic, but a hopefully-valuable lesson at the end).
The day they became available (about 3 weeks ago) I purchased a new
iPod Clip Shuffle for about $90 (not a whole lot of money, so why not),
clearly a 'Rev A' piece of hardware. It completely stopped working after
two days - no lights, no sound, nothing. I got on the phone with Apple
tech support and spent about an hour troubleshooting, at which point
the tech told me that (a) it did appear that my device wasn't working,
but that (b) I had to take it to an Apple store to make sure that the
dock wasn't the problem (i.e. maybe the battery is dead and it's not
charging - "Are you sure your USB ports are working?"). I did this -
another couple of hours. After confirming that indeed the device was
dead, I spent another 40 minutes on the phone getting them to send me a
replacement, which they did - a replacement dock. Finally, after another
hour or so on the phone, having spent (at that point) several hours of
my time trying to get a replacement device and dealing with arrogant,
cocky and condescending phone reps ("You'll have to talk to the tech
support person you spoke to originally"), I said the magic words:
"I want my money back."
I kid you not, the change in response was *instantaneous* -- like flipping
a switch. I was immediately transfered to a sales rep, who immediately
told me that they would send a replacement device (with customized laser
engraving) ASAP, and who pointed out that, "it seems like this is what
we should have done in the first place." (No kidding.)
The replacement arrived in 3 days, and (so far) is working fine...
Again, this was for a $90 device (admittedly a brand-new product line) -
I can only imagine what might happen with a laptop ;) (also a relatively
new product line)
--
Steve Lane
System, Network and Security Administrator
Doudna Lab
Biomolecular Structure and Mechanism Group
UC Berkeley
