"iPod's Dirty Secret"

akpoff writes "Have you ever made a promise while in tech-support hell to let everyone know how bad the product is? The Neistat brothers followed through after the batteries in an iPod died and Apple told them it would cost US$250 to replace them. The tech rep told the guys they might as well buy a new iPod. The brothers thought differently and made a movie showing how they got the word out in a large metro area. Of course it was made on a Mac with iMovie." Their statement is a bit misleading: many people have iPods that have lasted a lot longer than 18 months (the iPod was released over two years ago). But the batteries don't last forever. What is their life expectancy? Does Apple notify consumers of a life expectancy?

Comments

Oh my gosh!

[BobTheJanitor]

Batteries don't last for ever and it costs money to replace them!

Seriously, what were they expecting? When I bought my iPod, I don't remember Apple ever saying they would replace the batteries for free, and I'm sure I don't recall them saying used magical batteries that never die.

Re:Oh my gosh!

[the eric conspiracy]

but of course, this will void your "warranty"

Ugh. If your iPod is under warranty and the battery dies, Apple will fix it for free. No need to put in a 3rd party battery if the iPod is still under warranty.

I told him the serial, he told me to frigg off.

Apple states specifically that they don't support some types of G3's on some versions of OS X. For example OS X 10.3 requires a G3 with USB.

If Apple states on the box that you need a certain hardware level to run a given version of the OS, I think they are well within their rights to tell you to 'frigg off'.

Re:Oh my gosh!

[BobTheJanitor]

Yes, I think I would. For starters, they don't actually have to pay $250, as another poster here pointed out, it's actually $99. I'm willing to assume that when he called about getting the battery replaced he got someone new/clueless. Besides, 18 months is hardly 'a few months'. Why are people upset that Apple charges money to replace parts that aren't under warranty?

IIt really sucks that his iPod battery died as quickly as it did, and it's unfortunate he ended up with an unknowledgeable person on his Tech support call, but they both seem to be isolated incidents. A friend of mine has had his iPod for at least that long and he doesn't have any problems with it.

Re:Oh my gosh!

[the eric conspiracy]

Since when do LI-Ion batteries DIE? Since when?

Since always. Li-ion batteries often show failure at 2 years.

Li-ion

"Aging is a concern with most Li-ion batteries. For unknown reasons, battery manufacturers are silent about this issue. Some capacity deterioration is noticeable after one year, whether the battery is in use or not. Over two or perhaps three years, the battery frequently fails."

Apple's engineers sat down one day, desinged the cheapest battery in the world that barely met all the requirements, and laughed as they increased Job's profit margin and screwed the end user with an inferior product.

I don't think Apple is designing batteries. Like every other box vendor they are buying technologies available from others.

They must work for SCO

[hobbestcat]

Apple's iPod support page says you can get your battery replaced for $99 - not cheap but not $250 either.

PDA Smart offers $69 replacement service or a do-it-yourself kit for $59. Which Geek.com raved about

If the guys can't Google, they shouldn't buy expensive toys.

Re:They must work for SCO

[jtrascap]

I don't think it's that...

Everyone gets a bad phone rep - these things are farmed-out, But instead of asking for a supervisor, or calling back and getting someone with a braincell, or getting his name and then writing Apple, or doing any research themselves to find out about replacing batteries and why batteries fail, they decided to go ballistic and go to war with Apple.

They remind me of he people you see in a store, who - if they don't get what they want, right then - decide to start yelling at the tops of their voices to get a crowd. You know the types - they want what they want because the "client is king", which is always true until they start acting like one.

I can be an Apple apologist, but I have an iPod too and if I thought I was going to get screwed, I'd complain. And I have - my iPod was 4 weeks old when one of the earbuds gave up. They sent me a new set in 3 days. The pod skipped the first song occasionally (Toshiba HD issue - known in the forums) and the screen, while it worked, didn't seem to be the bright-blue screen you see in the commercials but instead a weaker green that washed-out a bit in the sun (polarizing, I guessed). I even scuffed the screen and back a bit - it looked old.

All this is 6 weeks after I buy one in NY and take it home to The Netherlands.

Called them up, told them the story, got a rep who sent a box Airborne the next day. It was in for repair. Then, a week and a half later, I get a brand-new iPod with a new blue screen and un-skipping drive, just as I asked. Perfect condition, just as I expected.

They idiots plain lie on their site. Their guerrilla tactics don't impress me because I know their tactics aren't about respect but about public embarrassment.

They should enjoy their 10 min/MB of fame. I hope Apple sues 'em.

And a third-party iPod battery costs... $50.

[dbirchall]

Quite honestly, if someone insists upon Authentic Apple Parts for everything, when there are commodity parts available -- this goes especially for RAM, and now also apparently for iPod batteries -- I don't see how they've got a leg to stand on whilst griping and moaning about how unfair life is.

No battery problems here

[Stigmata669]

While I have heard of these issues, the battery does not die on all cases. I have a first gen ipod that I got almost two years ago and have noticed perhaps a 10% drop in charge duration. Part of this problem was addressed by a software update a few months back. My ipod had slipped to about 5 hours of battery life and jumped back up to 8-9 hours after the firmware update.

Idiots.

[tdemark]

The site was created in the last week.

Days after Apple announced the $99 battery replacement policy.

Months after www.ipodbattery.com offered $50 battery replacements.

Replacement battery for $49

[potuncle]

Ipodbattery.com offers replacement batteries for $49.00. Comes with instructions and tools.

Like anyone thought that Apple could summons the power of the Almighty and create a Lithium-ion battery that lasts forever...

Re:Replacement battery for $49

[ivan256]

Or, by the same exact battery from DigiKey for $23.

Whenever you see somebody selling a battery for too much, don't forget that they need to buy it from somewhere, and they need to make a profit. Most industrial rechargeable batteries you'll find on replacement sites are sourced through DigiKey or Newark, and the manufacturer's markings are usually left intact on the original battery. Just head over to one of those sites and type in the part number. You'll usually see a 50%+ savings. This goes for UPS batteries too!

I know how they feel!

[Johnathon_Dough]

I just recently bought a new car and I had to put gas in it after only 350 miles! They did not warn me about THAT at the dealership.

Maybe I had better buy a new car?

Re:I know how they feel!

[weave]

Apple's manual states that the battery is good for about 300 charges. If you charge it up daily, well, do the math.

Does it still work with a dead battery?

[Kris_J]

If you provide an iPod with power from outside will it still run as normal even with a dead battery? If so, there are going to be some cool-looking firewire HDD arrays in the future.

D'oh.

[WCityMike]

1. Vandalize many Apple signs.
2. Make video showing clearly your face and your acts of vandalism.
3. Put audio into video that clearly reproduces call to Apple for easy identification.
4. Put same on Internet. ...

7. PROFIT!

Not that big a deal for some :)

[djupedal]

When you race electric R/C cars on a serious level, you become quite adapt at building and servicing your own packs.

Popping the back off my iPod and installing a fresh battery, bought off the net for less than US$75.00, is nothing... I look forward to the day :)

Post from Mac/

[SavoWood]

So basically, if I go out and buy a new portable CD player, a pair of AA batteries to go with it, and start feeding it CDs for me to listen to, I should expect to get more than 18 months out of the batteries? If that's the case, then we all need to be suing the Energizer, and Duracell makers.

I typically listen to my iPod for about 6-8 hours a day. I charge it up every two days. I've had it for almost a year now. The battery is fine for me. But of course, being an audio engineer, I don't listen at earsplitting levels so my battery isn't used up by driving the output amplifier.

Let's do a little basic math here. I spend $3 on some batteries...long life Duracell or Energizer. I go through a pair in two days at my usual listening rate of 6-8 hours per day. So that's $1.50 a day in batteries. In a month, I've spent $30 (an average of 20 work days a month, at $1.50 per day). In a year, I will spend $360 in batteries. If you stretch that out to the 18 months the guy is complaining about, you end up spending $540.

So, in 18 months, he can spend $540 on batteries, or $499 on a new iPod and $41 on music from the iTMS.

Or, he could spend $499 on a new iPod, and in 18 months, for only an additional $10 investment, get a new battery. So he now spends $550 and get's an iPod for 36 months.

This is utter silliness.

Product Safety

[Detritus]

I believe there are some relevant issues with lithium batteries and product safety. If the iPod is only designed to work safely and reliably with Apple specified and tested batteries, they may want to prevent end-users from mucking with the battery. Nokia has been blamed for catastrophic battery failures that were caused by sub-standard counterfeit battery packs. Apple may have decided that making it a user-replaceable part wasn't worth the risk. Plus, it avoids the added cost and reliability issues of a case with a user-accessible battery compartment.