APPLE: THE BLOOM IS OFF THE LILY - iPOD

As regular readers know I have had an ongoing love affair with all things Apple. That is until now.

I recently decided that I needed an iPod. I saw great enjoyment in being able to go out in the forest here at the ranch with some of my favorite music. Just being in my slice of nature fills my senses. I thought including some music that takes me places I can’t explain might heighten the experience. I don’t understand why people need drugs. I’m on a Rocky Mountain high all the time!

I digress. So, I bought an iPod Classic.  When I got it home I set it to charging itself and explored the rest of the stuff in the package, which wasn’t much except for the earphones. I tried, for five or ten minutes, to put the things in my ears but when my ears started to get raw from my trying I decided something was wrong. I looked up how to put them in on the internet and found an Apple site that said there should be rubber or silicon ear buds to go over the microphones. OK, so something was left out of the box.

I called Apple and explained that my package had not contained the necessary earbuds. I was summarily told the earbuds were not included. Unfortunately, did not save the address of the page that said they did so I couldn’t argue very well. The documentation that comes with the iPod doesn’t mention the earphones at all. I did say it was crazy because surely many people would not be able to use the ear earphones them.

So, here I sit with a $249.00 piece of equipment I cannot use because Apple was too cheap to include $3.95 earbuds.  Mind you $3.95 is retail, what I can buy them for. I’m sure they wouldn’t cost Apple $1.00 to include them in the package. What Apple was after was selling me a different set of earphones for an additional sixty or seventy dollars.

The very idea that Apple ships out a product that every consumer cannot use as is is unconscionable. There is absolutely no way this isn’t done on purpose. This is the second time Apple has disappointed me. Earlier I bought an iPad that couldn’t be used with the Mac operating system I had. I needed to buy a new OS. No one told me that before hand or mentioned the possibility I might not be able to use it without purchasing a new operating system. Shame on you Apple. Looks like corporate greed has gotten to you too!

I’m sure when I get my new earphones, which I bought from Amazon, I will get all the enjoyment from the product that I had hoped for. But, I am certainly left with a bad taste in my mouth as far as the way Apple does business. I certainly won’t be singing your praises out of hand any more.

©Kinsey Barnard