The disgruntled iPod owners thread

HomesickAlien

okay, i've had an ipod mini for about 6 months, and up till now the only problem has been having to itunes.

but all of a sudden it has started cutting songs short. the timer will only show about the first half of a song and then skip to the next one. its also started skipping the occasional song completely. and these are all songs that used to work before and still do work on itunes and on other media players.
also, every once in a while, the battery will be empty no matter how much i charge it but it fixes itself after a while.

anyone else have this problem?

Zulu

same thing started happening to me. Had the iPod mini about 6months, then the battery won't take a charge, or I'll charge it all day, it'll show half charge, then after a few seconds no charge and shut down, and when I power it back on I'll get about an hour of power.

I'm VERY disappointed with mine. You need to ring 1850 946 191 and they'll get you to go online and fill out a form. Once that's done a courier will be dispatched. They'll take the iPod away to the Netherlands, and.... well they just collected mine yesterday so I'll let you know. But as far as I know, they'll replace the battery? And bring it back. If this is within the warrantee (6months) they'll cover the cost. If it's not, we've to pay.

To be honest it's an absolute sham. I was talking to the courier and he told me they've brought back so many iPods you wouldn't believe. :mad:

...another very disappointed customer.

davidmdickens

send it to be fixed they do it fot free

hallelujajordan

Before you send it off, have you tried to reformat the HD . . You will get instructions on how to do it on apple.com . . I used to have a 3G and at one stage had a similar problem regarding songs skipping etc . . I reformatted and reloaded my tunes and hey presto, worked fine . .

Heinrich

Why is it that when someone gets what they think is a duff gadget that the thing "sucks"?

There are literally millions of satisfied iPod owners who use iTunes because it is efficient with an iPod.

Read the instructions and consult the website for eventual queries. There are 5 iPods in my family and one is dodgy battery-wise. This was, as is usually the case, from the outset. All the girl had to do was bring it back to the shop and get it fixed inside a week!!! But no, she finds it is better to moan about and and wait for the warranty to expire.

Would suggest that anyone buying a certain product which sucks is not being very clever. The ideal is to do some research on the various products and draw one's own conclusions before purchasing!

The when the article goes on the blink you have only yourself to blame.;)

Zulu

...but they are renound for having dodgy batteries.
Zulu rates the iPod:
3 thumbs up for stile and ergonomics.
2 thumbs down for battery.

Dublinstiofán

I am absolutely delighted with apple this morning. The earphones that i got with my ipod broke yesterday and at 7:32 last night i got on the apple internet support site and ordered a new set. At half 11 this morning they delivered a new set from the Netherlands. Now thats an unbelievable service. Ok there may be problems with itunes etc but i wouldn't say their after sales service can be beaten. Maybe other companies should take a leaf out of apples book

Zulu

Well to be honest, I am impressed at how quick the courier got to me. And today I got an e-mail saying they've just got it and will keep me posted - which is a nice touch.

I'm just dissapointed the battery went soo soon. Do they repair the earphones as well? ...or how much were they to buy?

Dublinstiofán

Zulu wrote:

Well to be honest, I am impressed at how quick the courier got to me. And today I got an e-mail saying they've just got it and will keep me posted - which is a nice touch.

I'm just dissapointed the battery went soo soon. Do they repair the earphones as well? ...or how much were they to buy?

I bought the applecare protection plan so i didnt have to pay anything i just got new earphones and told to bin the old ones that they dont want me to send them back.
Excellent service if my ipod ever breaks (touch wood) i wont hesitate sending it to them cause i know its dont right.

Bard

Heinrich wrote:

Why is it that when someone gets what they think is a duff gadget that the thing "sucks"?

There are literally millions of satisfied iPod owners who use iTunes because it is efficient with an iPod.

Just as a point of interest, Apple sold over 32 million iPods in all of 2005 - in the last quarter of the year alone, sales topped 14 million - which equated to an average of about 100 sold every minute.

Not bad. Not bad at all!

more info

Binomate

I've had my iPod for about two years now and I've never had any kind of problem with it.

Zulu

Bard wrote:

Just as a point of interest, Apple sold over 32 million iPods in all of 2005 - in the last quarter of the year alone, sales topped 14 million - which equated to an average of about 100 sold every minute.

Not bad. Not bad at all!

more info

I don't think anyone would deny that they are popular.

Bard

... and they wouldn't be popular without a good reason, in fairness.

Sure, there's going to be a (small) percentage of them that are faulty - it happens with all hardware. (The most returned MP3 player in my store after Christmas 2004? ... the Creative Zen Micro 5GB... by far!)

- but just because you had an iPod that became faulty, that doesn't mean it's fair to say that all iPods "suck". Wait and see what happens with their support/repair service. From what I've heard they're pretty good.

Personally, I wouldn't buy an iPod... but not because of anything to do with the iPod itself - more so, because of something that a lot of people don't realise - that being... there are better players out there! - my own iAudio X5L, for example

Zulu

In fairness Bard, there's a big problem with the batteries. A good few of my mates have had similar problems.

Bard

Zulu wrote:

...there's a big problem with the batteries.

... oh well... yeah... apart from that.

HomesickAlien

i actually have been thinking about getting an iaudio. a few of my friends got them and they seem pretty cool, plus they got them for 350 euro on sale (cant remember where). especially since this started happening after the warrantee on my ipod expired.

btw, when ipods work they're okay. its just i know a lot of people with the same problems. (although that might be cos there are so many ipods)

Zulu

Just got a brand spanking new ipod delivered to my door last Friday.

In fairness: crap batteries, excellent Customer Service.
8/10 to apple.

Kinetic^

Zulu wrote:

Just got a brand spanking new ipod delivered to my door last Friday.

In fairness: crap batteries, excellent Customer Service.
8/10 to apple.

Very nice, i think you should change the title of the thread now

Zulu

Keyser Soze 69 wrote:

Very nice, i think you should change the title of the thread now

...I would - but I didn't start it

Bard

/me changes thread title from "man ipods suck..." to "The disgruntled iPod owners thread"

Zulu

Bard wrote:

/me changes thread title from "man ipods suck..." to "The disgruntled iPod owners thread"

mcginr

does anyone know how much it costs to have the battery replaced? do they re-format your ipod aswell? I've had mine about a year, battery has never been great but will only last half an hours playing time now, takes 12 hours to re-charge, it's an absolute disgrace, I don't know anyone with an ipod who is happy with the battery

Zulu

they give you a new iPod, so all your music will be gone. No idea how much to be honest...

jaqian

Going on what I've seen I wouldn't touch a iPod with a very long pole. I know five ppl with iPods and everyone of them has had battery problems! Going to stick to my Zen Sleek.

mcginr

how do zen sleeks compare? I might just throw my ipod in the river, so trying to find out about other mp3 players

rubadub

Zulu wrote:

they give you a new iPod, so all your music will be gone. No idea how much to be honest...

I presume "they" means apple?
My mates got them on ebay and I installed it for them, horrible worrying job. The batteries were about €12-15 delivered, they last longer by 30% and they are lithium polymer which will last for a good 10+ years. apple would replace it with the same bag of crap it came with, a low power lithium ion which will run out in anotehr 2 years, oh and they would charge a fortune.

Changing the battey yourself does not wipe the drive.

mcginr

I can't find the batteries on e-bay, would you mind asking your mates who the seller was or what the item was called?

jaqian

mcginr wrote:

I can't find the batteries on e-bay, would you mind asking your mates who the seller was or what the item was called?

There's a place near Blanchardstown called Mactivate they'll replace your batteries (€80 i think) or ipod if still under guarantee.

http://www.mactivate.ie/

leche solara

I'm not actually an ipod owner but I'm baby sitting one for someone who wants me to fill it up with music and videos.
I have a number of music videos on my PC but when I try to convert them to AAC (right click in itunes) I get error message every time.
Is there some other format that I need to use to convert MPEGs to make them suitable to play in ipod video.

RazielDoomgate

ok ive had an ipod for about 3 years i could say i was one of the very first to have one in ireland as they werent released in ireland yet (3 months later everone had one) i got mine in usa

now if your ipod is in warenty you can ring up apple support ireland at 4073000 and tell them your ipods doesnt work.. in a few days UPS (which are very good) will give you a box for them to ship your ipod off to denmark or some where and in a few days (3 for me) you'll get a nice shinly new ipod of the same specs.

only ipods V2 have a slight problem with the battery which was fixed near the end of the V2 as V3 (clickwheel) came into view.

now here comes the bad part... from just recently i've have gone through 4ipods, yes 4 in 3 years...... my V2 ipod went back twice and still is broken with the same problem... the battery. you would think they would recall all shipments of that ipod and not send the faulty ones back out wouldnt you. thats 3 ipods.. now heres the 4th.. for xmas i got a nano which i pretty nice but just last week it droped to the floor of my car (which is carpeted and from seat hight) and guess what happend?.. the screen broke ... arg..

now im at war with apple which i am waiting to be called back 2 days ago after i gave hell out to them demanding my €500 back (im not someone to be taken lightly ) as you will probably they will be unwilling to give me my money back but from reading internet stuff and taking to family friend (lawer) i could easy win my case if i go to the small claims court.

as for now you should tell everyone thinking of buying a ipod not to..if you want somthing big there is the ZEN if you want some thing small there is the 1gb Qube( which i think is really really cool)

at the moment i am designing small anti-ipod posters to put up around my local area and school if i have to bring apple to the small claims..

sry for the big long rant but i need to get that out of my system..

leche solara : itunes will not convert videos, you need to search the web to a converter/encoder they are pretty easy to find and sometimes come with codec bundles.. hope that helps.

Creamy Goodness

if you think the new ipod's (4th and 5th gen) are bad on battery then you haven't seen the 2nd gen. i had one of the and it was shockingly bad at holding a charge.

as zulu said the design of the ipod is flawless, such a breeze to use, but with their problem stories with the batteries i had to get away from them

leche solara

I downloaded the program Videora which converts video to ipod format (AAC sound, and MP4 picture) The video plays perfectly through Quick Time, Jet Audio, Winamp but when put in the ipod it is listed under video alright but when played it only plays the sound - there is no picture.

Anyone any ideas??

greglo23

leche solara wrote:

I downloaded the program Videora which converts video to ipod format (AAC sound, and MP4 picture) The video plays perfectly through Quick Time, Jet Audio, Winamp but when put in the ipod it is listed under video alright but when played it only plays the sound - there is no picture.

Anyone any ideas??

look here http://tinyurl.com/cr2yt

jaqian

RazielDoomgate wrote:

... from just recently i've have gone through 4ipods, yes 4 in 3 years...... my V2 ipod went back twice and still is broken with the same problem... the battery.

Not being funny but did you not learn from your previous experiences? After first one I wouldn't have gone back.

RazielDoomgate

well i did but the v2 ipods were still in warenty at the time and i after my last v2 battery started to it was just out of warrenty.. see i was perfectly entitiled to a new ipod at that time so there was no point in spending more money on a new mp3 player and as for my nano i though or convinced that the had sorted all the little bugs and crap that the older ipods had.. and i liked it the look when it came out and it was a xmas present from usa so i had no control over it.

but on the plus side apple ireland did ring me back but saying that they have to talk to head-office as its not part of what they do. they said that they will try to reach a areement whether it be a replacment of both ipods or a complete refund if i have all the packaging (which i do )

munky

Bard wrote:

Personally, I wouldn't buy an iPod... because... there are better players out there! - my own iAudio X5L, for example

Maybe a better player, but **** they are ugly and this day and age thats all that matters:D