I don’t want to pay a lot for an iPod, which means I don’t have one. We have one, but I do not have my own. I want one. It’s useful for cycling, working, or just drowning out external noise with tunes.
My efforts for a Free iPod failed, and until recently I was content to try another marketing scheme to see if I could obtain one that way.
But I’m tired of waiting. Hans didn’t help – the other day he informed me by SMS that Best Buy had a 20GB for a measly $160, with the catch that it was an open box without all the parts. Who Cares! I declared to no one in particular, ignoring completely the concept of that question. I was playing City of Heroes with Kelly and Trevis at the time, but that was quickly abandoned for a fast trip to the store.
The iPod was visibly used, but appeared to be in working condition. It came with no cables, but with one exception we had the necessary parts. I opted to purchase the needed cable and a service plan to cover defects for two years, and was on my way home to test it out quickly.
Plugging it in at home, I discovered additional flaws. The obvious issue was what must have been caused by someone sitting hard on it, the front half the case was overlapped on the left side by the back half, exposing the seam and likely applying unneeded pressure to the internals. If everything still worked fine, I could ignore that, except the hold switch that would allow me to lock the buttons inconsistently worked. Having an iPod I cannot unlock is no good.
The next opportunity I had to return it was at lunch today, well within the 30 day return window. I was planning on exchanging my broken iPod for one of the less used 20GB open box items, still cheaper than brand new. When I got to the case, I found a 40GB for even less. It even came with the power brick! (not really excited).
Anyway, wanting more for less, I took the 40GB to the service counter for the exhange. There, I learned about how Best Buy doesn’t really have a trained staff to address the returned items, and most of them just end up back on the shelves. Apple wont really accept the returns from Best Buy, so if a “technician” believes a device is truely broken, they’ll be good to stomp on it for good measure to ensure it’s not returned to the shelves. I think my 20GB was stomped, and still returned to the shelf.
If I was wise, I would’ve taken this hint and immediately run back to the case to swap my used/returned/stomped? 40GB for a shiny brand new 20GB. I didn’t. I made my purchase, and went back to work.
Tonight, I plug in my brand “new to me” iPod, and find that the hard drive is not working, and disk writes fail. Back into the box it goes.
Kelly has been encouraging me to just get a new one, and get it over with. I’m finally inclined to agree.
OK, brand new iPod has been purchased.
Cons:
- I purchased it at full price as an exchange at Best Buy, which meant waiting half an hour in the wireless device section of the store where the iPods were locked while the two employees who supposedly staff the area were just gone. Waiting is dumb.
- Reassuring the service rep that despite their “geek” saying the one I was returning was working fine, simply powering it on was not sufficient to test the disk write failure I complained of.
- Knowing that if I just started at the Apple store, I would’ve wasted far less time.
Pros:
- It’s new. No one has abused it.
- It’s so slim and light. Small enough for dropping in a jeans pocket or taking along cycling.
- The USB2 transfer carries data and power.
- It just works, the way all things should.