After my post Time to find out if my iPod AppleCare is valid, I decided to try calling Apple Support. As expected, dealing with Apple Support was time consuming and painful.
The first problem is that this iPod is not the one that I registered AppleCare for. As anticipated, this meant that I couldn’t just register on the support web site for the repair. So I called. And as anticipated, the support guy couldn’t figure it out. At least not without putting me on hold about 4 times to consult with other people.
In spite of the fact that in order to activate my AppleCare extended warranty I had to enter all sorts of information on-line, it’s evidently damn near impossible for Apple Support technicians to type in your name and maybe the serial number of the iPod you currently own, and find out the serial number of the iPod that this one was a warranty replacement for, and maybe the contract number for your extended support contract. Haven’t these people ever heard of databases?
Anyway, he eventually figured it all out, and he’s sending me a box. But he warned me that if I send in the iPod and they test it and it’s not less than half the advertised battery life, they’ll just ship it back and charge me for the shipping. So suddenly I was worried that my one test wasn’t good enough. So I charged it all the way up, and at 5:00pm I unplugged it, turned off shuffle play, hit Play, and left it. Two hours and 20 minutes later, I looked and it was dead. Ok, I guess that qualifies.
I figure this battery replacement will get me another year out of this iPod, and then I’ll buy a photo-iPod. Or by then, maybe a video-iPod.