iPod quest
Dear Apple Inc., Dear Steve Jobs!
As it happens, back in October 22, 2005 I bought one of the first iPods.
At the end of 2008 it stopped operating due to spilled liquid. It is not physically damaged in the essence; just the buttons need to be cleaned so they stop sticking so treacherously.
I will leave out the quest for the Apple center in Samara from my story. It was not easy anyway. Since the location with the Apple sign was not actually the service center. I could have visited your website to get the exact location besides the center with the sign. But instead, I decided not to bother you, since my case is not a guarantee situation. But the situation just had gotten worse when I entered yet another service center in our city (Samara) just to learn that no one besides Apple Inc. is authorized to dissemble the iPods. I located the address of the service center on your corporate website: http://apple.com.ru. The tense excitement just grew with each step, when I finally came to the location specified on the site. This is what came up before me.
88 Galaktionovskaya str. Apple Service Center (as suggested by the corporate site)
Of course I did not expect to find an ultramodern building out of steel and concrete, but a mere welcoming sign with your logo would work fine for me. When I stepped into the backyard of this ?haunted? location (this is the center of the city BTW) I ended up at the entrance to a building which had very slight resemblance with the times we are living in. Unfortunately, this was not a relief at all, although I finally met a person who I was looking for and who told me that he was an Apple rep in Samara. The euphoria that I experienced at first from so lengthy quest was shattered into pieces once I took the iPod out of my pocket.
- Oh, this! ? quipped the rep (You are not against the fact that I identify your employee with the whole company Apple Corp., are you?) ? It would make more sense for you to buy a new one.
- You are kidding me?! ? I murmured. ? Is that really true that fixing the sticking buttons cost so much?!
- Not exactly. We do not fix things, we replace items on guarantee. And as for fixing, we can send your player far away and where it will be (censored) and you would rather buy a new one anyway. We are not authorized to fix things ? told us the representative of the authorized service of the Apple Service Center, ? Try approaching a cell service shop. He saw my disappointed face ready to burst into tears.
And finally he drew the bottom-line to prevent me from crying or just out of plain human compassion:
- Just imagine for a second the suffering of the notebook owners!
Tada!
Now, get ready for some math. My iPod cost 10950 RUR ($382). As I already mentioned I purchased it in October 2005. It broke down in October 2008. Let's suggest that the period of operation averaged 3 years. Which adds up to 1095 days. Now, dividing the cost by the number of days we get 10 RUR: 10 rubles for a day of operation. What does that stats give us? Not much. It just that the figures appear like marketing magic. 10 is just pennies but 10950 RUR I thing is a lot for a player. A lot if you expect to use it for just three years without any chance or recovery in the future, just because there is no place for such repairs. Of course I understand that in our era of space exploration, things that cost less than 20000 RUR are disposable items destined to be replaced with new stuff. But this is not your way of business? Or is it?
So I thought, Dear Apple and Dear Steve Jobs, where would I fix my iPod? Not for free, not thru some guarantee program but say for 20% of its original cost?
Good luck with your business and stay healthy! We need you!
As it happens, back in October 22, 2005 I bought one of the first iPods.
At the end of 2008 it stopped operating due to spilled liquid. It is not physically damaged in the essence; just the buttons need to be cleaned so they stop sticking so treacherously.
I will leave out the quest for the Apple center in Samara from my story. It was not easy anyway. Since the location with the Apple sign was not actually the service center. I could have visited your website to get the exact location besides the center with the sign. But instead, I decided not to bother you, since my case is not a guarantee situation. But the situation just had gotten worse when I entered yet another service center in our city (Samara) just to learn that no one besides Apple Inc. is authorized to dissemble the iPods. I located the address of the service center on your corporate website: http://apple.com.ru. The tense excitement just grew with each step, when I finally came to the location specified on the site. This is what came up before me.
88 Galaktionovskaya str. Apple Service Center (as suggested by the corporate site)
Of course I did not expect to find an ultramodern building out of steel and concrete, but a mere welcoming sign with your logo would work fine for me. When I stepped into the backyard of this ?haunted? location (this is the center of the city BTW) I ended up at the entrance to a building which had very slight resemblance with the times we are living in. Unfortunately, this was not a relief at all, although I finally met a person who I was looking for and who told me that he was an Apple rep in Samara. The euphoria that I experienced at first from so lengthy quest was shattered into pieces once I took the iPod out of my pocket.
- Oh, this! ? quipped the rep (You are not against the fact that I identify your employee with the whole company Apple Corp., are you?) ? It would make more sense for you to buy a new one.
- You are kidding me?! ? I murmured. ? Is that really true that fixing the sticking buttons cost so much?!
- Not exactly. We do not fix things, we replace items on guarantee. And as for fixing, we can send your player far away and where it will be (censored) and you would rather buy a new one anyway. We are not authorized to fix things ? told us the representative of the authorized service of the Apple Service Center, ? Try approaching a cell service shop. He saw my disappointed face ready to burst into tears.
And finally he drew the bottom-line to prevent me from crying or just out of plain human compassion:
- Just imagine for a second the suffering of the notebook owners!
Tada!
Now, get ready for some math. My iPod cost 10950 RUR ($382). As I already mentioned I purchased it in October 2005. It broke down in October 2008. Let's suggest that the period of operation averaged 3 years. Which adds up to 1095 days. Now, dividing the cost by the number of days we get 10 RUR: 10 rubles for a day of operation. What does that stats give us? Not much. It just that the figures appear like marketing magic. 10 is just pennies but 10950 RUR I thing is a lot for a player. A lot if you expect to use it for just three years without any chance or recovery in the future, just because there is no place for such repairs. Of course I understand that in our era of space exploration, things that cost less than 20000 RUR are disposable items destined to be replaced with new stuff. But this is not your way of business? Or is it?
So I thought, Dear Apple and Dear Steve Jobs, where would I fix my iPod? Not for free, not thru some guarantee program but say for 20% of its original cost?
Good luck with your business and stay healthy! We need you!
Comments
Good luck with your quest, nice 1st post & welcome to Apple Insider