I’ve owned an iPod for almost a year now, and my warranty’s about to expire. I didn’t buy AppleCare back when I registered it, but since then I have sent it back for a replacement since the hard drive stopped working… shipping cost $30 since I didn’t have AppleCare, which costs $60, so it was a good deal.
Now – I’m not 100% pleased with my iPod. It does what I want it to do and its playlist management is astounding, but that’s all iTunes features – I’d really rather have an MP3 player like a Zen or whatever… egh, I don’t know though. I’m not sure whether it’s worth $60 to extend my warranty (for only a year), or just keep the iPod until it breaks and then get a new MP3 player, for something like $300. I can’t be sure how long my iPod is going to last (and given what people have said about its battery, it just might not last that long).
I’m leaning towards spending the $60 and guaranteeing its life for at least another year, and then much later decide what I’ll do… do you, faithful readers, have any other insight?
edit: Bought the protection plan for $47. Hooray student discount.
http://eng.iaudio.com/product/product_X5_feature.php
Get this.
I’m not really asking what to buy INSTEAD of my iPod, but whether to continue paying for my iPod’s warranty or not.
But it does look like an awesome product anyway. I’ll keep it (or later versions) in mind for whenever my iPod decides to poop out, warranty or not.
The 40 gig Zen players run for around $220 at this point. I have an older Zen Xtra 30 gig modle, and it has served me well for almost 3 years now. The only probem i ever had was that weird thing at Fanime where the screen died for two weeks. Works fine now though.
Please re-read my post and the above comment.
Yes Jeffrey, i understand you arnt looking for a new MP3 player. I was just telling you that for future refrence.
Having a featureful MP3 player is very fun cause you aren’t 100% reliant on having good songs on there beforehand; for example, on one or two occasions I have recorded to my IAudio G3 off voice and FM radio, and it’s been useful in that way. I wouldn’t want an iPod now, after having been exposed to these other features. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you should take your chances without a warranty right now.
Look at it this way; would something in the featureset of other players, if the upgrade didn’t cost as much as it does, make you go out and buy it even though the iPod is still working? One thing that caught my eye in a Fry’s ad last week was a combination digital camera/MP3 player, with the emphasis on the CAMERA part(unlike other such devices where that seems like an afterthought) Great idea, but I couldn’t justify it replacing the camera and player that I have now.
you can replace just the battery on the ipod
Yup, and that costs $60 at Apple, and less at unofficial places… might as well just extend the warranty if anything ELSE (like hard drive or screen) goes wrong.
I just have to say, again, that I told you ipods would have reliability problems a long time ago before they all started failing. they’re expensive boxes of dangly bits waiting to die.
What the hell?
1) I got it for free
2) It’s fragile, that’s why I’m talking about buying a warranty extension
3) Nothing’s wrong with it now
how many more have to die, jeffurry…
First off, it’s $47.00 even if you show ’em that you’re an Uncle Charlie’s Summer Camper. (In the state of California, obtaining AppleCare for an iPod WITH ACADEMIC DISCOUNT doesn’t have sales tax with it; go figure.)
Second off, it’s totally worth it.
I’m done.
Oooooh, awesome. I was going to go ahead and buy it – I’ll be sure to show ’em my enrollment and such. Thanks.
On the iPod note (and speaking as someone who doesn’t own an iPod yet, but handles more of them than anyone else I know), it’s a shame you didn’t get the AppleCare when you bought the iPod. Yeah, I know it’s the extra expense, but when you consider how disposable iPods are, it’ll help in the long run. Since you live in Marin County (at the moment, right?) if you have your iPod, and it breaks, and it’s under warranty, you could just take it to the Apple Store in Corte Madera (1516 redwood Highway, The Village Mall) and get it swapped out for free should it break, rather than havign to ship it out anywhere. We pretty much don’t even DO any actual repairs to the iPods. We just swap ’em out, battery issue or other hardware fault. I’m definitely getting APP when I get my iPod photo (soon, I hope). I’d recomend getting the Protection Plan for the extra year before yours goes outta warranty. And with your student discount, it really wouldn’t be that bad of a price at all. And when you consider how many peope coming into our stores have questions/issues about their iPods, it just reinforces my point (and yours) that, like everything else, eventually, everything will break. It’s no surprise to me that the warranty for the APP for iPods are 2 years, compared to APP for computers of three years. 😛