I was wondering why I still haven’t got the return box for my iPod. Since I’m what you might call “experienced” when it comes to returning iPods, I know how long these boxes usually take, and 6 days is too long. So I called AppleCare.
That’s where I found out that while the last AppleCare person I talked to insisted that paying $270 for a repair and getting a new iPod for my trouble meant that I had a new warranty (and he sold me AppleCare to extend it to two years), *this* AppleCare person said that my warranty actually started at the date they shipped my first iPod (the one that was DOA) so they closed the case because it was out of warranty.
I guess that’s a good way to keep support costs down – when the iPod fails two years after you bought it, charge you $270 to fix it (and attempt to charge you $49 for a one day AppleCare contract when your web form refuses to take the serial number), and then ship back an inert lump of metal that looks sort of like an iPod and claim that their responsibility is discharged because the original warranty is over. You could even just swap one person’s broken iPod with another’s. Very clever.
The AppleCare person reluctantly admitted that the repair was still under warranty and reopened the support case. But she said she wasn’t the person to talk to about whether that AppleCare contract I bought last week is really valid or not. I’ve got to find out whether Apple just ripped me off for another $59 and I’ve got an invalid AppleCare contract, or this new person was wrong and I really do have an AppleCare contract for a couple of years. But I’m scared to push it, because maybe if I don’t draw attention to it I’ll have the AppleCare support that I otherwise wouldn’t have.