I'll Buy that Free Replacement

If you judge me by my gadgets, I’m pretty uncool. I don’t have an Ipad or a smart phone.  We don’t even have a flat screen TV.  I think it’s a mix of being frugal and living with two small very destructive beings. The reality is that anything small enough to fit in a toilet has the potential for a pretty short life span around these parts and even the big stuff is prone to projectile damage. It just doesn’t make sense to invest in anything optional that is both breakable and expensive at this point in time

Anyway, I own and still use a really old “first generation” Ipod nano. I bought it pre-kiddos and I’ve just never bothered to upgrade.

And I just want to take a moment to point out that it still works like a champ. I have used and abused the poor thing over the last six years and it has never let me down.

I’m not a complete convert to Apple, but I have to say that I am impressed with the gadgets they have been producing.

Now I have a reason to be impressed with the company itself. I got an email from Apple this week with an offer to replace my nano with a new one.  Just to be clear, it's a new "first generation" nano so it's a new old one, but it's still got to be better than what I've got. Apparently, there is a battery defect associated with one of their supplies that can cause the battery to overheat and pose a potential safety risk so they are replacing all affected models for free.

I guess you could look at it and say that this is bad since my iPod has the potential to burn me or cause a fire. But as an engineer, I’m impressed with how they managed the problem. No matter how careful you, it’s pretty much impossible to prevent all issues. Perfection just doesn’t exist no matter how much you design for it.  (Obviously, if a product breaks all the the time that's an entirely different matter.)

I think you learn a lot about a company from how they manage the  issues that pop come up. I’ve seen plenty of examples where companies tried to down play an issue to avoid negative publicity. Apple gets points in my book for being proactive.

It is a bit of a bummer that it takes up to six weeks to receive my replacement Ipod, but I’m getting a new one out of the deal so I can’t really complain.

Really, the only negative is that I lost most of my justification for upgrading my Ipod to something newer and cooler. I've been secretly hoping it would finally die so I could upgrade without guilt.  Maybe in a few years when the tablets get cheaper I’ll take the plunge…

Bottom line - this appears to be a rare issue with old technology and yet they are willing to replace my Ipod for free. My Ipod’s warranty expired about 5 years old so I think that’s pretty generous under the circumstances.

Does anybody else have any experience with Apple? What do you think of the company?

Right now, I have to say I’m feeling the love.