Dead ipod - Apple useless - what to do?

cubegame

Good afternoon.

I bought the missus an Ipod for Christmas two years ago. She's only used it a few times and not recently at all.

I brought it to work to charge it on a dock today and it now seems to be totally dead. It works on the dock but not when unplugged suggesting the battery has gone.

I phoned Apple and they were amazingly unhelpful. They said I would need to pay for telephone technical support as it was out of warranty and wouldn't budge.

This product must still be covered by the Sales of Goods Act as I don't believe a two year life span is acceptable!

What should I do? There seems to be no way to actually contact them.

thriftymanc

Have you tried charging it through the regular cable, leaving it plugged into a computer, for a really long time? Sometimes if you haven't used an iPod for quite a long time the battery gets so drained it takes an absolute age (way longer than normal) to charge. I use my iPod almost daily and it takes a couple of hours to charge it up fully. I had a spare iPod that I hadn't used for about a year and when I last charged it I needed to leave it plugged in for about 6 hours before it even realised it was plugged in.

Failing that is there an Apple store near you where you can go in to speak to them in person? I had parts on my Macbook replaced for free out of warranty, they were incredibly nice and helpful.

scottishblondie

Pretty much what thriftymanc said. Leave it plugged in for a long time - at least overnight. The battery will be totally drained without regular use, and has possibly entered a hibernation state to prevent permanent damage to itself (I know Macbook batteries do this, not sure about iPods tho). If it will not hold a charge after extended charging then the battery is probably toast. Batteries aren't usually covered under anyone's warranty, but I've found Apple to be quite helpful with most situations, especially if you can get to an Apple store. A local repairer should be able to replace the battery fairly cheaply if you don't get anywhere with Apple.

cubegame

Cheers for the replies.

I've left it going overnight so we shall see if I have any luck. Otherwise I shall go to an Apple store and camp there until they replace it.

;-)

fthl

what sort of ipod?

Hintza

cubegame wrote: »

Otherwise I shall go to an Apple store and camp there until they replace it.

I woul prepare for along wait.

Get online and see if you can reset it by following the instructions on there.

CrazyClum

Apple will not budge on anything over 12 months as they class this as a 'reasonable' time for the iPod and iPhone range. They could also say that you didn't properly take care of the iPod if you have abused the charging cycle.

Some other manufacturers only cover the battery for 6 months!

jackieb

My daughter's ipod went kaput after more than 2 years. We got a new replacement for £69 from Apple. It wasn't the newest version, but it was the same spec as the one she had.

Mark_Hewitt

Two years is a reasonable time for an iPod to last, so the chances of you getting any joy under the Sale of Goods Act are nil.

Freddie_Snowbits

cubegame wrote: »

What should I do?

Jump up and down and stamp thy feet. There is a secret claus in being in Europe, that is numpties can get an independent report and blame Apple for your total loss of isolation.

I hope that our friend Sir Mark comes along with his google agility and gis yous the email address for Mr Jobs.

bingo_bango

Freddie_Snowbits wrote: »

Jump up and down and stamp thy feet. There is a secret claus in being in Europe, that is numpties can get an independent report and blame Apple for your total loss of isolation.

I hope that our friend Sir Mark comes along with his google agility and gis yous the email address for Mr Jobs.

I wouldn't have thought there were any secret santas left. Didn't the PC police ban those?