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IPod LCDs: Made to Be Broken?
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By Ed Foster, Section The Gripelog
Posted on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 12:02:14 AM PDT
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One has to wonder if a manufacturer ever has to honor its warranty when a device develops a cracked LCD screen. Can't the company always, as we've often seen, just dismiss the claim by presuming the customer must have been at fault? That's what one reader was left to wonder after being told that Apple will never cover broken iPod screens under its warranty policy.
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"Reading the latest tales of woe about Dell laptop computers with bad LCD screens brings my daughter's video iPod to mind," the reader wrote. "Two months after she got it, the screen suddenly was displaying a useless smeared blob. Apple's response was that LCD damage is ipso facto customer abuse, and not covered by warranty. End of story, move along please."
The reader's daughter had no idea how her video iPod suffered the damage. "The iPod had been in her knapsack which had been her carry-on onto an airplane," he wrote. "She had used the iPod on the airplane. She carried the knapsack off of the plane and to the car. No direct drop of the iPod, no known slamming of her knapsack -- it was never in the hands of airline luggage-handlers. When she went to use it the next day, it was cracked."
The reader's daughter took the iPod to the Apple Store where she had purchased it. "The person in the Apple store physically looked at the iPod, but was very firm on the fact that no LCD damage would be covered by the warranty," the reader wrote. "He asked if she had dropped the iPod, and she answered no. His response was along the lines of 'Well, in any case a broken LCD is not covered by the warranty. You can either buy a new one or go to ipodresq.com."
Since Apple was saying the two-year warranty was now worthless, the reader and his daughter started searching what alternatives were available and was struck by what a thriving business iPod repair seems to be. "Turning to the web, we discovered several businesses that prominently feature one day turnaround on iPod LCD replacements." the reader wrote. "I find it rather interesting that on the one hand, Apple is so confident in its engineering and quality control that screen damage, by definition, is customer abuse, yet on the other hand third parties have developed full-blown business plans around the fact that large numbers of iPod LCDs need to be replaced."
"LCD replacement is not the only business generated by the shortcomings of the iPod LCD," the reader wrote. "After getting the screen replaced, my daughter asked me to get a protective case for her iPod the next time I went to a computer store. The packaging of some of the cases prominently indicated that the case had a clear cover over the screen to protect it. Bolstering my opinion was a story on Public Radio's Marketplace on Friday 9/1 about myriad entrepreneurs who have filled the vacuum caused by Apple's prohibitive cost of repair or refusal to repair and started iPod repair businesses."
Apple's iPod and its warranty promises were made to be broken, the reader believes. "My personal conclusion is that the iPod LCD is under-engineered," the reader wrote. "Whatever may have happened to the knapsack was part of its normal usage. In my opinion, the iPod's mechanical design is simply unsuited for its intended use."
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