No One is Paying Me to Write This
Thursday, April 24, 2008
My regular readers (Yo! Shout out to my home girls!) know that I'm something of a music obsessive. I'm the guy who has the biggest iPod, because when I buy an MP3 player, I'm not looking to have something I can tuck snugly behind my ear for a workout; no, I want the 160-gig mofo (and indeed that's what I named it when I first synched it to iTunes; "My 160 gig mofo") so I can carry around 2,000 or sthereabouts of my favorite albums in my pocket. Because at any given moment I don't know which summer 2007 Ryan Adams concert I might want to hear, or whether I want to hear an obscure '70s Paul McCartney B-side or the new She and He record, or which live version of "Dreams" by the Allman Brothers will really hit the spot (which is why my iPod has 37 different versions.)
But the iPods with the big hard drives-- the "mofo" line, if you will-- have the kind of hard drives that spin, which is to say, the kind that crash with a lot of use. In fact the genius (not a sarcastic term-- that was the guy's title) at the Apple store said that for a heavy music user like myself, the mofo drives are probably not practical. The little iPods (e.g. the 4-gig models) have solid state hard drive technology, which is far more stable and thus durable to the kind of wear and tear to which I put an iPod. Not a week goes by that I don't add soemthing new, or create a new playlist; I listen during my commute; through a speaker dock in the office; going to sleep many nights; and on business trips.
Basically, the logic here seems to be, "Here's the iPod with the 160 gig drive, for music nuts like you. Using it, though, is ill-advised."
So this week, 8 months into ownership, mine crashed. It is my third crashed iPod.
But it turns out, this story has a happy ending. Because my wife took it to the Apple Store for me (she insists on doing these kinds of errands because she harbors the crazy notion that she is far less likely than I am to get frustrated, haul off, and slug someone) and the guy at the Genius Bar (see? I said he was a genius) said, well, it might well be crashed, and it is under warranty. So here is a brand new replacement, thank you, come again.
To quote my wife, when it is your turn at the Genius Bar, you get a highly skilled customer service interaction with someone who (here comes the quote part) "treats you like you are the only person in the world." How often can you say that these days about your interactions with customer service providers? (Are you listening, population of Bangaloor?) And this genius replaced my mofo, no quarrels, no muss, no fuss. He even wrote out for my wife how to deinstall and reinstall iTunes without risking losing my library or playlists, even after giving us the new mofo, in case the problem was actually with iTunes and not the hardware.
This, my friends, is great customer service. The kind you never get anywhere anymore. The kind they write those predictable inspirational business books about.
So thank you, genius. Thank you Apple. It's why we love you.
I'll be back for my iPhone in June, when they sync with Outlook (or more likely, my wife will be.)
Labels: Apple, Apple customer service, customer service, iPod, the missus
Posted by: --josh-- @ 3:57 PM
Homegirl? Homegirl? Do you think I go around wearing a t-shirt with your name on it, or what? (No--that would make me a "groupie".) Congratulations on choosing a wife who knows how to fix your mofo. What do you think of the air book? And also, do you really want that iPhone, considering it's still on AT&T? And how's the throwing-up kid?
Seriously, could you be any whiter? Home girl just means, you'r from the 'hood. it means, "my peeps."
I want the iPhone for pretty much everything but the phone. i want it as a blackberry; i want the Internet in my pocket. Frankly I already have a phone i'm happy with.
The throwing up kid is sufficiently ill that-- get this-- I had to give away our tix to Young Frankenstein tonight because we can't go out. To whioh all i can think of saying is, "What knockers!"
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