Apple

Although I have to admit that some of their products are pretty good I still dislike Apple as a company. I have an older 30 GB iPod, I guess they are calling it an "iPod Classic" now. The battery has always been problematic, I mostly use it in the car where it is plugged in to my outlet and the battery can usually last for the hour or two I am at the gym, though just barely.

It takes, on average, one and a half hours for the battery to go from full to half-empty and when the indicator says half-empty the iPod shuts itself down.

I have replaced iPod batteries myself before, and it is a relatively easy process, but I can't afford to buy a new one right now so prefer to not take any chances.

I know that Apple has a program where they replace the batteries. I call the local Apple store and they tell me that they do NOT replace batteries but I can "recycle" the iPod and get 10% off of a new one.

So then I call the Apple Tech Support. They tell me that they can in fact replace the battery, he tells me it will cost $59 + $7 shipping for a total cost of about $70. The guy then suggests that it would be better for me to just buy a new iPod than to repair the perfectly good one I have. He says that this iPod is old and may break soon. He suggests I trade in my fully functional 30 GB iPod for a refurbished 8 GB iPod Nano, which would only cost me $20 more than replacing the battery. And that I buy an extended warranty on the new iPod Nano.

Really Apple tech support guy? I should pay an extra $20 to get a new, tiny iPod Nano that barely has enough space to store my audio books? I have 80 GB of live concerts on my computer, I have to constantly swap them in and out of my iPod. That seems like a terrible idea to me.

I think after all of this I may just get a replacement battery and do it myself again. I could send it to Apple and have them do it but after hearing two separate people tell me that I should just spend a couple hundred dollars on a new iPod I don't really want to give Apple any of my money.