watch dodogg MAXIMUM PC TAKES A BITE OUT OF BAD GEAR dog
WHERE THE HELL IS MY IPOD?
Dog, I have been taken to the cleaners by iPodMechanic
.com. The hard drive in my son’s iPod went bad. I sent it
to iPodMechanic.com because the company has a war-
ranty on repaired drives.
The repair was completed and the device worked
fine for a couple of months, but then the iPod quit
working again. I contacted the company for a repair
under the warranty.
That is when I started getting the runaround,
including one of the rudest emails from a customer
service rep that I’ve ever received. I have all of the
emails saved to back this up, but to sum up, the com-
pany wanted another $100 to fix the iPod because
“there were some signs of damage on the iPod, so
there is a partial charge for the warranty.”
However, when I pointed out that there was
already existing external damage to the unit from the
first drop that killed the original hard drive, I was told
that the logic board had to be repaired, which was
outside the original warranty. How it went from drop
damage to logic-board damage I don’t know. What
really ticked me off though was the rude email from
a tech named Halli. Near the end of our “discussion”
I tried to reach her supervisor but never heard back
from anyone. The last email I received stated the iPod
had “been recycled.” The company did not give me an
option of just having it sent back. I highly warn anyone
not to use iPodMechanic.com.
—Esther WheatThe Dog contacted iPodMechanic.com for its
side of the story. The owner of the company, Nick
Woodhams, said an additional fee was going to be
charged for the repair of Esther’s iPod because the
device was beyond its 180-day warranty period.
Woodhams said Esther originally sent her iPod to
the company on December 8, 2006, and the unit
was received for repair again on June 16, 2007.
“This is out of the six-month warranty,”
Woodhams wrote in an email. “We requested $
additional (discount from the original repair) to
repair the iPod again, which was physically dam-aged by the customer,
not a part defect. The
customer declined to
pay for the repairs,
and we could not
come to a resolution.
When we stopped
communicating with
Esther, we assumed
the iPod was aban-
doned and recycled it
60 days after having
received it back for
warranty [repair]. At
this time, we’re pre-
pared to make it right
with Esther. We will be
willing to accept $
(the quoted price for
the second repair) and
return a refurbished
30GB video iPod.”
The Dog spoke
with Esther to ask her opinion of iPodMechanic’s
solution. Her response: Go pound sand. Esther said
that there is no way she is going to get suckered
into sending iPodMechanic.com more money. She
said it was not 60 days, but just over 30 days before
her iPod had been “recycled.” And, Esther said,
she’s still waiting for iPodMechanic to respond to
her last email. Instead of contacting her, the com-
pany simply recycled her iPod, and she was told
there was nothing she could do about it.
Esther would like her original iPod back, but at
this point it’s gone. She would take an equivalent
iPod in exchange, but she doesn’t have much hope
this will occur. Her frustration is that she could
never get a straight answer out of the company.
The Dog agrees with Esther. In fact, iPod-
Mechanic could not even give the Dog a straight
answer. If you count the days between Dec. 8,
2006 and June 16, 2007, it’s only 159 days—well
within the 180-day warranty that iPodMechanic
claims to offer.
When the Dog went
back to Woodhams, he said,
“I guess there is a discrep-
ancy with the dates. It was
my understanding that itwas out of warranty.” The Dog also pointed out to
Woodhams that Esther’s iPod had been scavenged
for parts after 30 days, while she was still waiting
for a response from the company.
Woodhams said, “That was an error on our
part. It should not have been recycled after a few
weeks.” He said iPodMechanic’s official policy is to
give the customer 60 days before breaking an iPod
down for parts.
When the Dog questioned the legality of
such a policy, he said it’s the industry standard
and pointed to his competitors—including
Apple—which consider products abandoned after
60 days. Apple, however, will only sell or dispose of
the iPod if you haven’t provided a return address for
the product.
Rapidrepair.com, which also repairs iPods,
gives customers 30 days to respond. However,
after the 30 days, the company will return the
product if you selected its prepaid shipping
option. If repairs have already been made to
the unit (and no payment made), the company
will try to contact the customer three times
and then dispose of the product 90 days after
the last attempt at contact is made. So what’s
iPodMechanic.com’s policy?Our consumer advocate investigates...
P Beware iPodMechanic.com PArt Bell
Redirect POKI Data’s Shocking Printer
Emma, watchdog of the monthGot a bone to pick with a vendor? Been spiked by a fly-by-night
operation? Sic the Dog on them by writing watchdog@maxi-
mumpc.com. The Dog promises to answer as many letters as
possible, but only has four paws to work with.16 MAXIMUMPC | FEB 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com
Esther Wheat said contrary to iPodMechanic.com’s policy, her
iPod was “recycled” before 60 days had elapsed.