You always hurt the one you love. That seems to be the case with me. For the most part, I love Apple. I’m not a blind fanatic, I just think they do what they do better than just about anyone out there and I love the user experience–again and again and again. I’m a loyal Apple consumer.
Ah, iTunes, I loved you so!
But, iTunes, iTunes, iTunes. What a pain you are. I’ve put off writing this post for a while because I just hate to face the fact that I’m so unhappy with iTunes.
The youngest member of my family, my sweet 12 year old god-daughter got an iTunes gift card for Christmas for her new iPod. She’s a little teensy bit tentative around technology so she waited till after the holidays to give iTunes on her PC a whirl–she selected the songs she wanted early in January.
After Apple began offering DRM free music. Which is marked with a + sign next to the purchase info. You may not have noticed that. It’s pretty innocuous, I certainly never noticed it.
Anyway, she clicked buy, and the song began to download, completed and then went into a phase called “Processing.” It stayed in processing mode for several days, and would have stayed in processing mode for years I suspect had she not had the good sense to give it up.
When she first told me about this, I expected the issue was the PC vs. Mac thing or a virus or some such. When I was visiting in March I sat down for an extended investigation of the situation. After reading lots of comments in the forums, lots of forums all over including Apple, I figured out that this problem began after January 1, and involves this new + designation, the DRM free or added content songs. It’s very very messed up. And as the forums indicate, there’s no answer forthcoming.
I contacted Apple and told them they took $25 from my 12 year old god-daughter and she got not one song in return–please explain. We got back a form letter saying in essence that they’d looked into the case and discerned that it’s too late to refund the money. Nothing about the missing songs or anything else. Nothing. Not one word.
I was really non-plussed. So I said, That’s it. No more buying songs from iTunes, I’m setting up an account for you at Amazon–all the songs you could want, cheaper, faster, better. I mean, that’s a no-brainer if I ever heard one–there’s no barrier at all to switching.
So my god-daughter will happily head into her teen years with a much, much better buying experience with Amazon than Apple; as a share holder I couldn’t be happier about this. But I was really bummed by Apple’s response, and their unwillingness to take responsibility for an issue that is clearly theirs.
I know Apple doesn’t make much off those tunes they sell, pennies, I’m sure. But it’s a brand thing, right? And iTunes is the bruised part of the Apple in my opinion.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Snotty McSnotterson // Apr 15, 2009 at 9:49 am
I’m okay with saying I can’t stand Apple - yes, I think their products and superstores are shiny! bright! fun! but in the end, they’re a disappointment to me in many ways. And this is one of them, since I’ve had similar experiences where I said ‘where’d my money go?’ and they said ’sorryyyy!’ but no refund. I mean, Apple basically *stole* that money and lost a future customer (your god-daughter) who would have spent a fortune on Apple products in the future, had her experience been better.
2 Cass Nevada // Apr 15, 2009 at 10:05 am
You’re so right on–that’s a future customer they cast out to the competition. I really do like my two macs and mini, really like my iPhone, wouldn’t switch. My experiences with PCs made me hate computers, but that doesn’t mean I LOVE everything Apple does. The shine comes off a lot slower than with most PCs but it fades nonetheless. Always look forward to your snappy, spot-on comments, Ms. McSnotterson!
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