Dead iPod redux

It's a damn good thing it's sweeps week on the major networks, because I've got nothing but re-runs for you here today.

This was supposed to be the post where I raved about the fantastic service I got from Apple.

As you know, my iPod died a week ago Friday. On Saturday, I spoke to someone at Apple, and on Tuesday, a box arrived on my doorstep to return my deceased iPod to its mothership. I missed the Tuesday night pickup at the UPS store, so it went out on Wednesday. I followed its progress on Apple's Web site, and was amazed at how quickly it was processed. On Thursday, the Web site indicated a replacement iPod had been shipped, and if we hadn't been out of the house, I would have had it in my hot little hands some time around 6 pm on Friday. Now that's impressive service... if we'd have been home, it would have been exactly seven days from problem to new iPod.

As it was, I had to wait an extra two days because the delivery company works Monday to Friday only. When I got home from work yesterday, sure enough, the new iPod was waiting for me. Since it had been sitting on the porch in minus 20 degree temperatures all day, I thought it prudent to let it warm up to room temperature before I plugged it in.

By the time I finally sat down to load some music on the new iPod, I was pretty excited. I plugged in the USB cable, watched as iTunes opened, and selected a few songs to load.

That's when I got the first error message. I tinkered with it, and it got worse. I went to Apple's Web site support and followed some instructions. (I am always a bit relieved to see the error messages I'm receiving addressed, but ultimately disappointed when the proposed solutions never seem to work.)

I called Apple support and spoke to one agent, who walked me through the steps I'd just taken, and when it didn't work for him either, he referred me to a 'product specialist' who walked me through a few more solutions. Are you shocked to hear that none of those solutions worked, either?

They're sending me another box today, so I can return this ex-iPod back to its maker, too.

For those of you keeping score, that's four iPods in six months. Yikes!

The worst part? My cordless phone died in the middle of my conversation with the guy from Apple support. And, just now Blogger crapped out as I was typing this with its suddenly ubiquitous message, "Could not connect to Blogger.com. Saving and publishing may fail."

You think maybe the universe is trying to tell me something?