UPS Package Tracking shows that my iPod has now completed the following steps in the replacement process: ‘despatch > box > label > collect > despatch > arrive > swap > relabel >despatch >get lost > get found > deliver 3 times whilst I’m out > return to lose somewhere in depot. When I tracked my case via Apple’s support site and after a little farting around to get Apple to recognise my case and despatch numbers, I was presented with the Repair Status Detail page which is a little sparse and far from clear. First, the sequence of events declares that all dates are shown in “MM/DD/YYYY” format but the actual dates show as “/2/04/10/2” as in the screenshot below:
Taking an educated guess, this is meant to represent 10/22/2004. If that’s the case then these chaps are clairvoyant…because I didn’t ring them until the 23rd. No matter, entries in the table mean that Apple, like UPS, acknowledge they have my iPod.
However, the actual status messages are brief and a little vague, not to mention seemingly in reverse order, if one reads from top to bottom as convention dictates. A hunt around the Apple site reveals a Repair Status Terminology cribsheet to help mere mortals like me decypher their case status reports. Using this, and inverting the order above, I can tell you that the current sitrep for my iPod is as follows:
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Unit Received: The unit has been received at the repair depot. -
Replacement ordered: no definition supplied in cribsheet – should I worry?
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Repair Requested: Repair has been requested – Repair? what happened to ‘replacement’? -
Order Created: An order has been created for a replacement unit – is this not the same as ‘Replacement ordered’? Or am I getting a replacement that has been previously repaired? Order Created:An order has been created for a replacement unit – are they sending me two repaired/replacement iPods by way of an apology for my original new iPod dying after just six weeks? Item Shipped: The unit has been shipped back to the customer, Apple Service Provider, or the Apple Store – bloody hell, I’m in danger of being impressed. Item Shipped: The unit has been shipped back to the customer, Apple Service Provider, or the Apple Store – So you’ve said. That’s all well and good but seeing as all the entries show the same date, namely the unfathomable /2/04/10/2, this information is of little use. Putting my cynicism to one side and taking the status as gospel, this is not bad, all things considered. There again, it bloody should be considering the original purchase price and the fact that the product failed after just 40 days of moderate use. Ironically, given my concern about how long this was all going to take, I am now worried that UPS will try and deliver over the next few days whilst I’m away in Dublin, thereby giving them every opportunity to fulfill the ‘deliver 3 times whilst I’m out > return to lose somewhere in depot’ part of my scenario. Stay iTuned for more.
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