Apple Service, my experience...

[Code Monkey]

Well, it happened; after almost eleven months of extended, daily usage my blue mini developed a real problem. The forward button on the click wheel broke. Sometimes it didn't respond at all, other times it would register multiple clicks, and other times the iPod would just spontaneously start forwarding through songs as though possessed.

I've heard a lot of horror stories regarding Apple's service, so I decided to document exactly what happened in my case no matter how mundane or not it turned out to be:

• Sunday: Admitted the iPod was genuinely broke.
• Monday: Filled out a service request online. This is a very simple procedure if you registered your iPod when you got it (I did).
  Later, received two emails: one confirming they had created a case along with instructions on what to do with the busted iPod and a second email detailing this was a warranty job at no cost to me.
• Tuesday: The ship box arrived in the afternoon and I packed it up and sent the busted iPod on its way to California via a local DHL drop location. The ship box is idiot proof, even including tape for you to seal it with.
• Thursday: In the A.M., received an email that they had received my iPod at the service center. In the P.M., received a second email telling me "my" repaired iPod was on its way back to me.
• Friday: Around 5 P.M. received the replacement iPod. It's a refurb but is in extremely good condition. I would say the body, wheel, screen cover, backlight bulb - everything you see on the exterior - are all brand new. The only clear sign it's a refurb is a small dink in the metal where the dock connector plugs in (that and the non-standard serial #).
• Saturday: I've put the replacement through its paces and it works fine. Transfers to the hard drive in this unit are slower than with my original iPod but that's the only downside to the service. Since it's just slower, not defective in any way, I presume this iPod has a different hard drive than my original.

There you have it, a boring, routine, 1 business week turn around that is without anything serious to complain about at all. In some ways it is a boon for me: although I got a slower hard drive, I now have a better performing battery, an immaculate body, a scratch free screen face, and all of this comes right at the end of the warranty life (5 weeks remaining to be exact).