Top music blogs award

Featured in Alltop

Greg Swan, managing editor

@perfectporridge
MySpace
Facebook

I'm speaking at...

Categories

Archives

localtone-banner-ad.png
« Collections of Colonies of Bees : Birds  
  Quarter Acre Lifestyle : Blood on the Lawn »

iPod Touch’s $20 firmware rip-off, horrible customer relations

ipod_touch.jpg
This is what I just sent Apple:

I owned the first iPod, 3rd generation and 5th generation. Now I own two iPod Touch players.

One is three weeks old. One is one week old.

It’s poor customer relations to release a firmware update with new applications and charge users $20 — let alone a customer who purchased a Touch less than a month ago.

I refuse to accept that you are going to charge me for firmware that if I had waited a week, I could’ve gotten for free. Terrible way to treat longtime customers and early adopter brand advocates.

What do you intend to do to dissuade my anger and attitude towards Apple and its iPod product?

NOTE: If you are going to go ahead and shell out the cash for the update, be sure to read this forum first. Looks like lots of people are being charged multiple times, and Apple customer service isn’t being responsive.

Also, the update won’t take effect if you have the iPod Touch in manual mode (which is idiotic for those of us with way more than 16 gb on our hard drive [I have a full 160 gb hard drive devoted to music).

Oh yeah, and Steve Jobs forgot to mention the tax…it’s really $21.32.

January 16th, 2008 | Category: Tech
  • Mike Wagner
    I whole-heartedly agree. Everytime they come out with new firmware to fix a flaw, they take 1 step forward and 10 steps backwards.
  • karryAAAA
    Sarbanes Oxley doesn't allow for the updates to be free for the iPod or the revenue would have to be accounted for as deferred related to iPods. iPhones are an already deferred revenue item which is why updates can be given for free; at least that is my best guess.
  • kristine318
    disappointing. so can i buy your old ipod touch ?
  • you buy the software and the first time you update it uninstalls it ,then wants to bill you again , and i was thinking of buying an apple pc , boy i dodged a bullit there , ipod touch keep clear they, are a rip off
  • Soren
    This is insane. Look what Apple did with software 2.0 they are changing us 9.95 for the same Apps that were released in January.

    The total comes out to be 29.97.

    Please sign the petition here: http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/Appleripp...
  • Jason
    OS11, explain today's iPhone upgrade that's free.
  • OS11
    Ah, it's the Law... Apple isn't allowed to offer updated services to an existing product, Google: Sarbanes-Oxley Act

    If you don't believe me...

    So go complain to your Senator, not Apple.
  • Jackson
    I agree that this is utter horse shit on Apple's part.

    I have been a long-time Macintosh user and a big Apple supporter, and I feel horribly insulted by them doing this. Despite there being so many cheaper alternatives and so many things wrong with the iPod Touch I bought the iPod Touch anyway because I assumed that Apple would keep working to make improvements and that those improvements would be FREE since system updates are always FREE for Apple's computers and music players.

    $20 is not a lot of money, but it is insulting that Apple has decided that simply because I decided to support their new product I deserve to be charged more for basic features that should have been included from the start.

    After being treated like this I will NEVER buy another first-generation Apple product again. Apple clearly does not care about their early adopters, and this simply shows how little they value their fans.
  • Randall
    The 20 applications are a huge slap in the face to early adopters, I for one will never buy them. Besides you can get them free by jailbreaking your touch with ease now.
  • Bill Taylor
    I purchased the iPod Touch last night from Best Buy because of it's new features. After getting the 64-bit installer loaded it then found all my media and cataloged it. It then did a sync which took several hours. It then recommended the upgrade and as soon as that was done it wanted to sell me the features that I just purchased it for. Apple support was closed but I will call then today. If they think I'm buying the new software they are nuts. This is the first Apple product I have purchased in over 20 years and will blacklist them again now just like I did back then. When your one of the most expensive options out there you need to take care of your customers. Didn't jobs just state a few months back how Apple, unlike Microsoft, give you the entire OS, not just part of it?
  • hm
    I bought my ipod touch less than 1 month ago and now you want to screw me within 30 days of purchase. Its obnoxious. Perhaps after a year, but 30 days. The ipod touch is beautiful, but being beuatiful doesn't mean you have to be a whore.
    Steve Jobs is looking more and more like Jonathan Pryce, the james bond villian in Tomorrow Never Dies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HMdoQCGpt4 41 seconds in :)

    All of this building resentment is going to jump right to the clones when they come out soon, and aapl will again be a good short. I guess that is how I'll get my $20 back. Short aapl. Or maybe some mad user will put his "brick" to good use at an apple store window :)
blog comments powered by Disqus