So about a year ago I bought an iPod touch from Best Buy and the cashier of course told me how wise it would be to get a protection plan on it. She was very persuasive (and cute,that likely helped in the persuasion aspect),so I bought a 2 year Black Tie protection plan thinking to myself 'I'll likely never use this and if I need to it likely will happen right after it expires'.
Well of course a day after my Apple warranty ran out my iPod's volume buttons started malfunctioning and of course as that button is tied into the lock button,that started acting wonky as well. I pulled out my paperwork remembering I had gotten a protection plan and after reading it realizied it may have been a very wise decision. So I packed my iPod and the cables in their original packaging and took a trip up to Best Buy where I then explained to a Geek Squad employee the problem I was having and that before I had came there I had tried everything that Apple suggests you do (the 5 R's).
This guy then picked up the iPod and started fiddling around with it saying 'Well it seems to be working fine', luckily for me the volume button had been displaying one constant characteristic n that you could turn it up but NEVER turn it down,so I looked him dead in the eye and said 'Now try to turn the volume down'. He did so and it didn't work and then was all 'Ohhhh....um...yeah I guess the volume button has a short.', then proceeded to hand me paperwork to fill out saying they needed to send it back to Apple for repair or replacement.
About 5 days later I got an email in my box saying my device was ready to be picked up so I head back up to Best Buy and was greeted by yet another somewhat rude staffer,well at least until I showed him my ID to prove who I was.He finally brought out a box that had a refurbished iPod inside.
Of course I raced home to restore my iPod from my last backup and within the first hour the thing started acting odd. The restore went fine and all my settings, songs and apps were right where they needed to be. So I went back to working on my school work for a few hours secure in the fact that I would be listening to tunes on the way to work that nite instead of utter silence.
That afternoon,I was relaxing a bit before work and decided to play Angry Birds for a few minutes and lo and behold,the iPod wouldn't come on. I ended up having to do a soft reset to make it come on and I immediately thought maybe I had something screwed up in my iPod settings,so I went through them and found everything set exactly as my previous iPod...no problems there.
I then said 'Well perhaps it's a temporary glitch' and went about my business. I was able to turn it on and listen to music on the way to work with no issues so I figured perhaps I hadn't let it charge long enough. Then I went to play Angry Birds again before our afternoon meeting and the damned thing did it again. I had to do a reset to make it come up once again.
Throughout the nite at work I kept checking to see if it would come on and I had to reset it no less than three times,once even before I left to come home.
The next day (yesterday),I did a full restore on it,reloaded all my stuff back on to it and decided to periodiically check to see if the problem would arise again. Of course it did,4 times. I then went on the Net to see if anyone else was having similar issues and if there was a quick fix I could perform on it via iTunes,or by restoring the device once again.
Many have had a similar problem but the solution was always the same,after trying the 5 r's it was 'Take it in to get it fixed'.
Today I have already reset it twice and needless to say it's getting quite annoying.
Now here's my real problem,from my last experience with the Geek Squad I know for a fact they will give me the famous runaround about not being able to see a problem,and this is not a problem I can easily replicate as sometimes it will go HOURS without shutting off,and sometimes only a few minutes. I can already see the Geek Squad guy looking at it,turnign it on and off,messing with the volume and telling me 'Oh no,this seems to be working just fine,so we will not service this at this time', then me trying to explain 'Hey this problem sometimes takes a while to show up', then him saying 'Well when it happens bring it in'...and when I do get the problem to pop up, him looking at it and saying 'Oh no,you just shut it off...just turn it back on and you will be fine'
If,and only if he actually believes there really is a problem,they keep my iPod for 5 days,then call me back and give me yet another refurbished iPod that possibly has yet another problem as it is quite ovbious they are not checking these things to make sure they work. By this point I feel all I'm doing is swapping out one problem for another problem.
Now,while I'm at it,my other issue with the rudeness is that as a customer service rep,he should not wait for me to show an ID to be courteous. Regardless of WHO I am,I am a customer first and foremost and I feel I deserve at least some small modicum of respect in that regard.
At this point all I can say is I dread having to take this iPod back and say 'Hey,it's not working right',between the horrible customer service and the likelihood I will get yet anoither barely tested refurbished unit that will undoubtedly have yet another problem,it just doesn't even seem worth my time or the extra money I paid for this service to begin with.
So any of you gurus out there have any idea as to what course of action I should take here so I don't have to deal with some Geek Squad employee who has personality issues and acually get the 'Black Tie Service' I paid for??
I just want my iPod to work like it supposed and not have to jum p through 15,000 hoops to do it,is that too much to ask?
