I had already filed my claim in the summertime. I will most certainly follow up to get my long overdue battery replacement.

The class was huge in the lawsuit. And you may recall what prompted Apple to come up with their replacement battery program in the first place: the two guys in New York with their billboard campaign that garnered national headlines.

Why?

Because there were SO MANY people suffering the same problems that came out of the woodwork after their campaign. Apple suffered a huge public relations setback with that campaign, and had to do something. Amazing it took such a campaign for them finally to get off of their collective asses.

The older boy has had 3 new 5th gen IPods in three months. The first one had a problem with the headphone jack. I took it back to the Apple store and waited two hours for a tech, who didn’t even look at it. He just pulled out a box with a new IPod and gave it to me.

That IPod never worked– the battery lasted about 4 minutes before shutting off. I took it right back to the Apple store. Again (after only an hour this time) the tech reached under the counter and pulled out a new IPod, and that one is working okay. Moral of the story is… it costs less to give a new one than to fix one. Makes you wonder what the markup is.

Anyway, I was telling my Apple-fan brother this, and he, like Concordian, averred that he never had any problems with his IPod, and what was I talking about. Four IPods in a few months, three of which didn’t work (and the other is only two weeks old), isn’t evidence of a problem, and neither is the many websites where IPod owners lament spending so much for so many glitches.

To me, the tech immediately replacing two IPods, without question, without examination, suggests that he’s real used to complaints.

Oliver: other than the battery problems, there seems to be nothing systemic wrong with iPods. You can tell because people keep filing lawsuits that keep getting dismissed, except for the battery issue, and the iPod Nano screen-scratching thing that has yet to be resolved. I do this for a living and haven’t heard massive complaints about iPod Mini quality - in fact, it was Apple’s best-selling iPod until the Nano replaced it.

My question: what do you want Apple to do? They’ve replaced both of your defective iPods just as they should, right? Anecdotal reports of iPod trouble are no more reliable than anecdotal reports of Bill Clinton womanizing - do you expect Apple to start some massive advertising campaign saying that the devices don’t work? That doesn’t seem wise.

I’m not saying anyone’s “right” or “wrong” or attacking or defending. I’m saying that if you agree these are the facts, what do you think Apple should do that it’s not doing? (And if you don’t agree that these are the facts, what are the facts as you see them?)

For every person bitching about their iPod breaking, there are several thousand people using them without issues.

Ron, you can convert Apple’s proprietary format to standard AAC files without quality loss with jhymn (hymn-project.org). A lot of other portable MP3 players support AAC.

I picked up one of these from EVIL Wal-Mart during their pre-Christmas sale for $99. 2GB, a built in FM tuner, a voice recorder, playlists etc. It came with 10 free Wal-Mart downloads, a protective case, ear-buds, and a charger. The battery life is much longer than Apple’s. I think the regular price is something like $125 and is well worth it.

You are right about the iPod, it does indeed have problems. And Apple appears to be very arrogant about correcting there problems. I have had battery issues with my third-generation iPod since day one; I can recharge the little bastard all day long and it will go out on 20 minutes if I use the backlight when I walk 2 miles at night. That is EXTREMELY frustrating.

Well, supposedly Apple had a class-action lawsuit where we were supposed to get replacement batteries. Unfortunately, some people sued against the class and Apple reneged on the whole thing, so we are now stuck with the f’ing things. (I refuse to buy a battery replacement pack for a third-generation iPod that is already obsolete, thanks to their continuous revisions.)

I would dump the whole product line, except for the fact I have already invested almost $1,000 in their proprietary music format. I have also reviewed the alternative (MP3), and that looks no better (too many companies also have proprietary formats).

Apple is just a scaled-down Microsoft and/or Dell, proving once again that monopolies and oligopolies can sink to their expected levels in customer service.