Toolkit

Story: Dead iPod syndrome - no volt found?

Posted by: Buzzy Beetle (Monday 12 January 2004, 9:13 PM)

Rupert, I agree with the fact that specialised replacement batteries are often a high margin product that is overpriced in all the industry.

You're not so far from the truth in telling the Neistat story, the problem is that you dont tell it all (about how they kept the site the same even after learning about the program and already avaiable 50$ replacements). Yes Apple had the replacement program ready to roll at the time they called but Apple support employees werent prepared and were told by a supervisor "its ok if you suggest buying a new one" because they were pissed off too about the 250$ flat repair fee for a battery. The new 99$ fee was actually unveilled before the site with the movie actually appear on the web.

Anyway overall, I agree with the main idea of your article, not about the solutions you seem to provide, like guerilla tactics over a company by defacing public property with half-truths (if not lies) like "iPod unreplaceable battery only last 18 months", and withholding the truth on their website for weeks after millions of people have seen their site and movie (also stoleing bandwith on a mirror site at the same time).

The AA/AAA battery is also a bad solution, even more with the advent of the minis. The iPods minis are only slightly larger than 3 AAA batteries or 2 AA put side by side. Even the bigger iPod would be inflated by using those "standard" batts. Also keep in mind that if you were also thinking about using alkaline AA or AAA batteries for 18 months about every day, it would cost you way more than 50$ or 100$ overall, something like 500$ to 1000$ and lets not think about the environmental waste...

BuzzyBeetle