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Dell Offers $100 For Old iPods

Mz6 writes "Dell unveiled an offer that grants music player customers a $100 rebate on a 15GB Digital Jukebox when they send in an Apple iPod music player to be recycled. 'We want to help drive further awareness of the products we have available and...the plusses we have to offer,' said Dell spokesman Jess Blackburn. Thus the iPod offer 'is a way to call out what separates us from the understood leader in this particular market.' Dell is also offering free shipping, free software, and 25 free songs through MusicMatch and brings the overall cost for the DJ down to $99." Helpful tip: If you have a dead iPod, do the rebate offer, and sell the Jukebox on eBay.

23 of 453 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Helpful Tip? by mriker · · Score: 5, Informative

    If Dell's terms say they'll accept any iPod, dead or alive, it's not the least bit dishonest.

  2. Helpful hint #2 by uid100 · · Score: 5, Informative

    what do old/broken iPod's sell for on eBay - more than $100 ?!??

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    ...yup...
    1. Re:Helpful hint #2 by uid100 · · Score: 2, Informative

      That link brings up a number of broken 15gb iPod's for $125 "Buy Now" ... your point ?

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      ...yup...
  3. Only dead iPods will apply..... by erick99 · · Score: 4, Informative
    I just took a quick look at eBay to confirm what I already knew: any working iPod can be sold for well over $99.

    Cheers!

    Erick

    --
    http://www.busyweather.com/
    1. Re:Only dead iPods will apply..... by narcc · · Score: 2, Informative

      Though one hopes there's a special circle of Hell reserved for people who fleece the stupid in this manner.

      The 8th circle. Malebolge, iirc. It's divided into 10 ditches, one for each of the 10 different kinds of fraud Dante could think of (with a different suffering for each, no less)

  4. 8-10 weeks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    "rebate checks are ordinarily processed within 8-10 weeks" according to the register
    "The offer ends on 11 August. Buy then and you might get your cash in the first week of October."

  5. Size - ebay - trade-in by XavierItzmann · · Score: 4, Informative

    In cubic cm:

    iPod mini: 59
    iPod: 100
    Dell DJ: 156

    The DJ is 164% larger than the Mini and 56% larger than the 3rd generation iPod.

    If your iPod still works, keep it or sell it on eBay. Then dump the DJ on ebay
    If it is broken, Dell is the way to go.

    --
    The next pasture is always greener
  6. Re:Brilliant by Rura+Penthe · · Score: 2, Informative

    Virtual monopoly? Wow, I think you need to go look at the sales numbers and rethink that. Owning less than 60% of the market does not a monopoly make.

  7. Note that the Dell won't play your music... by John+Harrison · · Score: 4, Informative

    if you purchased it at the iTunes music store.

  8. Re:Rebates ... Dell by sokoban · · Score: 4, Informative

    The reason for mail in rebates is that they bank on people not sending them in. Say, if about 60% of the rebates are redeemed, then they are only losing out the equivalent of $60 off the retail price per unit. I'd say a lot of us have had rebates that we forget about or just say f-it because of the stuff required. I remember I had one that you had to send your old phone to some charity, get a voucher from them, and send it in with a lot of personal info along with a purchase receipt, the UPC on the box, and your last bill.

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  9. Re:thats a bit low by goljerp · · Score: 3, Informative

    The thing that I find unethical about this offer is that they neglect to say that their machine can't play songs purchased from the iTunes music store. At least warn people first!

  10. Re:What happens to iPods when they die? by discstickers · · Score: 2, Informative

    Mine died because I dropped it while it was turning on. It was a year and a half old, but the batterty was still doing pretty good.

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    I have a shitty sig!
  11. Re:Dell can have my iPod by ballpoint · · Score: 4, Informative

    Oh yes, even with the soon-to-be-removed braces. She's a bitch, though. I'd recommend waiting a few years to let her calm down a little bit.

    --
    Flourescent (adj): smelling like ground wheat.
  12. Re:Brilliant by jm92956n · · Score: 2, Informative

    My sentiments exactly; a coworker of mine purchased a 20 GB Dell DJ that I played around with. In typical Dell fashion, it works exactly as I thought it would. The interface is, for the most part, a duplicate of the iPod's, but the awkward rocker is nowhere near as easy to use as the iPod's touch-based scroll mechanism. It's especially painful when navigating through a large selection of music. In addition, the device is too wide to fit into some pockets. I've not had the opportunity to use the included software, but I hear it's not as well designed as iTunes.

    Yes, it plays music. So does the iPod. Only the latter does it far better.

    --
    An effective signature identifies a particular user amongst a base of thousands.
  13. You forgot a zero in there by raga · · Score: 4, Informative
    1st gen iPods go for around $200.

    cheers- raga

  14. Re:What happens to iPods when they die? by ViolentGreen · · Score: 2, Informative

    Mine died because I dropped it while it was turning on. It was a year and a half old, but the batterty was still doing pretty good.

    I thought I had killed mine by dropping several times. I was able to reset it each time though. If you still have it, did you try to reset it?

    --
    Not everything is analogous to cars. Car analogies rarely work.
  15. A Little DELL History (Re:thats a bit low) by seawall · · Score: 5, Informative
    DELL started in Michael Dell's dorm room. He'd buy "graymarket" IBM PC's (dealers got steep discounts for large orders, so they would order more than they could sell) and then he'd resell them below Suggested Retail Price.

    If anybody would understand about trade-in, reselling and buying a new iPod, wouldn't it be Michael Dell?

  16. Re:Why? by Some+Dumbass... · · Score: 4, Informative

    I don't know many people who would want to trade in their iPod for a largely inferior product

    Anyone who's been bitten by the battery bug. :)

    Seriously, I own a Dell DJ. The iPod is smaller and has more features. Some of the extra features don't matter to me (AAC support, breakout game) and some do (works as a standard USB mass storage device). The UI of the two players is pretty similar, and touchpad vs. scroll wheel is a matter of taste (I prefer the scroll wheel myself).

    But then there's the battery life. The DJ really does have twice the battery life, and the battery should last longer as well. That might just be enough to convert some people. My boss' iPod is down to about a 3-hour battery life after a year, and I know he's thinking of trading in for something else.

    On a semi-related note, if you want to find out about non-iPod players, go to the manufacturer's web board. You'll learn a lot. In the case of the DJ, which as an owner of one I know something about, there are some plusses and minuses which are not in the early reviews. For example, you can now transfer both music and data off the DJ to your computer, and yes there is now an inline remote with an LCD. On the other hand, there have been some hard-drive problems (a "click-of-death"?) with the DJ which were bad enough that Dell went and got a new supplier for those drives. Good stuff to know if you're planning to buy, right? Remember, almost every review out there is out of date. Most players have more bugfixes or enhancements than those old reviews will mention.

  17. Re: I can give it a shot... by Blondie-Wan · · Score: 4, Informative
    Ok, I'll take a stab at it (do bear in mind this is coming from a Raving Apple Zealot, but I'll try to be fair):

    1) The DDJ (arguably) isn't as well-designed as the iPod - it's uglier, and not as nice to use (this is highly subjective, obviously, but it's a widely-held view).

    2) The DDJ doesn't play music from the iTMS (both because it doesn't support the file type, AAC - see below, and because it doesn't support Apple's DRM). It presumably does support DRM'ed WMA files from a number of other music download services, but the iTMS is arguably the best of the DRM'd download outfits, and the one people are most likely to already have music from anyway, given its 70% market share.

    3) The DDJ doesn't support as many file types (MP3, WMA, and WAV for the DDJ, vs MP3, WAV, AAC, AIFF, Audible, and Apple Lossless for the iPod).

    4) The DDJ is larger and heavier than any iPod (even the 15 GB DDJ is larger and heavier than the 40 GB iPod).

    5) The most capacious DDJ holds 20 GB; the most capacious iPod holds twice that.

    That said, the DDJ does have some indisputable advantages over the iPod (the aforementioned price and battery life), and for a Windows user who hasn't already started getting music from the iTMS, it's worth considering. I'd still rather have an iPod, though, because it's nicer to use and I'd rather have iTMS compatibility than compatibility with the various vendors of songs in WMA format. As things are right now, I not only already have a bunch of music from the iTMS, I'm also on the Mac, so the DDJ is right out for me. YMMV, as always.

  18. Re:Helpful Tip? by networkBoy · · Score: 2, Informative

    not the least bit dishonest.
    If they are going to recycle them that most likely means: crush them, grind them up, sell the fractured bits to a recycler. Thus they don't care about the condition.
    -nB

    Disclaimer: I don't know the above is true about _this_ promotion, but was true about a similar one I was involved with.

    --
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  19. Re:thats a bit low by Oliver+Wendell+Jones · · Score: 4, Informative

    Ah, but you missed the key word "Medical" which means that once it's used, it's considered to be biohzardous/contaminated and can not be re-manufactured or re-used.

    Aside from the obvious "rub it in their faces", it is actually useful to know which devices are out of circulation so that in the event of (heaven forbid) a medical device recall, you won't waste millions of dollars trying to track down devices that people have already traded in.

    --
    A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
  20. Re:hmm by jimbolaya · · Score: 2, Informative
    My first thought was, if it's the same price to replace the battery in an iPod, only a fool would trade an iPod for a DJ. Then, I thought, only a fool would pay $99 for a replacement battery, when you can get one for much less.

    So, Dell might have an audience after all.

    --

    There ain't no rules here; we're trying to accomplish something.

  21. Re:What happens to iPods when they die? by teamhasnoi · · Score: 2, Informative
    They take them in on trade in, or when they need slight repair. Trade in is a few hundred bucks off a new piano. Repairs can be inflated to make a new instrument look like a better deal.

    The pianos and organs go in a warehouse and wait their turn for destruction. They are destroyed so there are less pianos and organs available in the local market that are between 1-1000 dollars.

    When someone decides to have their kid take piano lessons, or a church/senior center/hockey rink needs an organ there aren't any cheapies out there on the used market. They are then forced to go and buy a new piano or organ at this place (it's pretty much *the* place to go if you need a piano in the Twin Cities) and pay full retail for it. It may cost them a few hundred to buy a piano, but they make it up when someone needs one.

    The sad thing is that they won't even let employees buy these instruments. I saw several Hammonds, and a Steinway Grand with a beat-up finish (probably a schools) get mangled and destroyed. I actually heard of a Mellotron being saved, but that may just be a rumor.

    A lot of band instruments go in there too - after having holes drilled in them, and flattened. Guitars too.

    The dumpster is locked so you can't even cherry pick for parts.

    Dirty secrets of the music instrument sales biz... :( Wait 'till I go into the band instrument for student ripoff game, or the music store consignment gouge, or best yet - the hand built guitar that costs more when it's messed up...