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Apple to give every iPhone 4 owner a free Bumper Case
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, Apple, Cell Phones, Corporate News
This morning Apple took the stage for a press conference to address the iPhone 4 antenna issues that a small number of users have been experiencing. After Steve Jobs gave details on the antenna issue alongside data that Apple has collected, he announced that Apple would be sending free cases to iPhone 4 customers through September 30th. One caveat mentioned, though, is that Apple can’t seem to make enough Bumper Cases to meet demand, so to be true to their free case promise, they will source cases from their partner manufacturers as well. Starting late next week you’ll be able to sign up for your free case on the Apple website, and you can choose which case you’d like to receive. If you’ve already bought a bumper case, Apple will refund your money through September 30th as well.
Furthermore, for anyone who is dissatisfied with the iPhone 4 as a whole, Apple will allow you to return it with no restocking fee within 30 days, as long as it’s undamaged.
So there you have it!
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How Apple and ATT can fix the iPad 3G pricing bait-and-switch
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Editorial, Features, Handhelds, Wireless / WiFi
After having a couple of days to let the absolutely ridiculous bait-and-switch that AT&T just pulled on Apple’s iPad 3G customers sink in, I’ve come to the conclusion that one, or both, of these companies needs to do something for the customers that just got screwed.
In a nutshell, when Apple announced the iPad, there was the Wi-Fi-only version, and there was the 3G version. The big draw with the 3G model was that it had a very reasonable unlimited data plan for $29.99 for 30 days of access. You could start and stop at any time, no contract required. Let’s not fool ourselves here—this plan was a major selling point for the 3G iPad. However, in just three days—just a little over a month after the iPad 3G went on sale—that unlimited plan goes away and is instead replaced with a $25 plan that allows you just 2GB of data. A true bait-and-switch if we’ve ever seen one.
Click to continue reading How Apple and ATT can fix the iPad 3G pricing bait-and-switch
Comcast overcharges me by $772 on two cancelled accounts, offers support via Twitter - UPDATED
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Broadband, Features, Home Entertainment, Household
Update: Within two hours, I got a call from a Comcast representative who stated that, since the payments were made by credit card automatically, there is no reason they can’t credit it back to that credit card. She went on to tell me that they’d process the refund tomorrow. Very cool. However, I wonder what the response would have been if we hadn’t been paying by credit card, and instead used ACH transfer from a bank account. In any event, the Comcast folks on Twitter really are listening, and really are aiming to put out fires. Good stuff.
This morning I opened mail from Comcast, which, to my surprise, showed that I was two months late on paying up. I thought that was odd, since I kicked Comcast to the curb for Verizon FiOS two months ago. I called and got it taken care of, to find that I was owed $72 and that it would arrive in 6-8 weeks. Kind of annoying, but no big deal. Then they called me back, to tell me that I had another active account that has been auto-debiting from one of my accounts. That one was to have been cancelled back in May. Once that was straightened out, the damage was that Comcast owes me a cool $772. I asked when I’d receive it, and they said 6-8 weeks. I thought that was fairly crappy, being that when I cancelled the services, I also revoked Comcast’s right to take any money from my private accounts. I threw up a gripe on Twitter, and a few minutes later, Comcast’s Twitter customer service went into full effect. Gotta give them props for that. They asked me to email them the details, so they could look into it. You can read the email I sent them, after the break. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts. We will update with any progress made on this, let’s see how customer service on these Web 2.0 Internets works. [Photo Credit]
Our iPhone 3G purchase review: Campout trip from hell
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Cell Phones, Editorial, Features
UPDATE: Watch the full video of our iPhone 3G line experience.
We had no idea that our quest to grab a few iPhone 3G units at launch here in the Seattle area would turn out to be an utter fiasco. Last year, when the original iPhone launched, we had a much longer wait in line (over 19 hours versus just over 8 hours) last year, and were further back in the line to boot. However, it was a complete failure on both Apple and AT&T’s part in making sure that the experience went as smoothly as possible.
Oh, sure, we finally have our iPhone 3Gs working and in good shape, but it took much, much longer to get them in that condition than it should have. Read on as we relive the events that took place earlier this afternoon at the Alderwood Mall Apple Store. Oh, and credit for that photo of Sparky walking out after being first in line goes to Jim Valley.
Click to continue reading Our iPhone 3G purchase review: Campout trip from hell
V-Moda customer service responds
Posted by Sparky Categories: Accessories, Cell Phones, Music, Portable Audio / Video
Mere hours after the post regarding V-Moda’s horrible customer service, they got back to me with status on the warranty and the news that they would be shipping replacement Duos right away. The communication did not mention if the previous article had any influence on their response, but the timing certainly is suspicious. The note included an apology stating that they had moved offices which had caused delays. While finally getting contact is nice V-Moda’s inability to properly set expectations was inexcusable.
Click to continue reading V-Moda customer service responds
Vibe Duo review followup (or V-Moda customer service sucks)
Posted by Sparky Categories: Accessories, Cell Phones, Music, Portable Audio / Video
Previously, we’ve raved about the iPhone Vibe Duo headset/earbuds and the 2nd generation Duos with the answer/hangup button. Unfortunately at this time I’m are dismayed to report that I can no longer so highly recommend the Vibe Duos or any other product manufactured by V-Moda.
In the 9 months I’ve owned a set of the Vibe Duos, they have required repair once, and failed outright 3 times. While the Duos sound incredible and are super comfortable, it’s hard to continue to recommend a product with such an astonishingly high failure rate. It’s actually surprising that the Duos have such a high failure rate given their cloth cables and metal construction - initially we would have guessed them to be among the most sturdy earbuds available.
To top things off, V-Moda’s customer service sucks. Returns take weeks on end, and the most recent attempt to get a replacement pair of earbuds has ended in stony silence from V-Moda and a complaint to the Better Business Bureau. Hit the link below for the full gory details over on my personal blog, and a copy of the BBB complaint.
Update: V-Moda has officially responded - check out the V-Moda responds post for details.
Read More 
| Code For Food
When Apple products don’t “just work”
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Cell Phones, Handhelds, PC / Laptop
Apple loves to tout that PC users should switch to Macs because they “just work”. Now, we’ve enjoyed what has been a mostly blissful love affair with Apple products over the past few years, save for a few problems here and there. When an issue has come up, we’ve found that Apple was quick to the rescue (in some cases, we needed to make sure we were actually at a Genius Bar that was competent) and fixed our issues. Sure, the iPhone has had a few annoyances here and there, but overall, we’ve been pleased.
However, our pal Xavier over at Notebooks.com has recently experienced what has to be one of the oddest bouts of bad luck with Apple products I’ve ever seen. From two dead iMacs, to a completely dead MacBook Pro battery, to multiple iPhones malfunctioning. To top all that off, he is even experiencing the delay of a third-party Apple accessory he is waiting on, because the manufacturer is saying Apple is taking their time on certifying the product.
It happens to all companies out there friends. Even the “almighty” Apple isn’t immune. Hit the Read More link below for the full scoop.
Read More | Notebooks
Follow Up: Verizon makes good on our FiOS privacy woes
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Broadband, Editorial, Features, Internet
A little under two weeks ago, we made a long-standing issue that we had with Verizon public. The fact that they had ignored our request to fix a huge oversight that resulted in our private FiOS account info to fall into the wrong hands for over 8 months was starting to upset us just a tad. We knew that if we shared it with you, our readers, that Verizon would have no choice but to respond quickly. At least, that was the hope.
Well, sure enough, after the story was picked up on The Consumerist as well as made it to the front page of Digg, we received a phone call. Then an email. Then another phone call. Then a couple more emails. Verizon Damage Control had stepped in.
Click to continue reading Follow Up: Verizon makes good on our FiOS privacy woes
Our Verizon FiOS customer service nightmare: Why won’t they protect my private customer information?
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Broadband, Editorial, Features, Internet
Seeing as we’ve been experiencing a ton of customer service issues with our Verizon FiOS service for the past 8 months, we figured it was time to put out a warning to you guys. After all, we typically hear that the FiOS Internet service is remarkably amazing, and people have been dumping cable in droves when FiOS becomes available in their area. Hey, there is good reason to. Where we are at, right outside Seattle, our choices are slow DSL, Comcast at 8.0 down and 768k up, or FiOS with a max speed of 30.0 down and 15.0 up (which is the plan we are on.)
Now let’s be clear here, we love the FiOS service. It works fantastically, it has never gone down in the 8 months we’ve been using it, and it’s, well, fast.
So what is the problem? To put it bluntly, Verizon has shown that they don’t care - at all - about protecting their users private, confidential information. Now, why would we make a statement like that? Check it.
Apparently That Xbox 360 Red Light of Doom Problem Hasn’t Been Fixed
The image you see above isn’t some generic image we grabbed off the net - it’s my personal Xbox 360. I know what you might be thinking - another one? Yeah, another one - but there is a bit more to this story. This Xbox 360 you see above has been used for all of 20 minutes. You see, about three weeks ago my old box 360 crashed and was giving me the three Red Lights of Doom. I sent it in for repair, and today I finally got a replacement. This actually is a replacement - they didn’t fix the one I sent in, they just sent me a new one. This one happened to have been manufactured on 8/15/2007. Anyway, I got it in the mail, hooked everything up, went through the Dashboard configuration, and started playing a demo. Fatal Intertia. We got tired of that after about ten minutes, and decided to boot up the demo of Stranglehold. We got through the opening sequence when everything froze. Fair enough. I had to manually turn the Xbox 360 off because it wouldn’t even respond to the guide button. I turned it back on, and was presented with yes another Three Red Ring Circus.
Now, if that isn’t enough, this flies right in the face of something that Peter Moore told Engadget and Joystiq back at E3 - in mid-July:
I think that there is a lot of confusion with the consumer in exactly how this issue has been remedied. Not just with the extension of the warranty but with the hardware. Exactly what has had to go on to fix the problems that people have been having?
I’m not sure that the consumer needs to understand the complex technical fixes that we need to do for the multiple different problems that come together to create the three flashing red lights. I think the ability for us, all the consumer cares about is my console going to be ok? And if it isn’tm are they going to fix it and take care of it immediately? And if I [already] paid them to fix it, will I get my money back? And the answer is yes to those questions.
But are you guaranteeing or insuring that the systems that are rolling off the assembly lines now and the systems that will be returned to consumers will be fixed properly this time. It won’t be a situation where there are multiple replacements.
Yeah. I mean, nothing is perfect, guys. And the other two hardware companies have their problems as well. I can’t guarantee everyone in the world that we go fix one thing and then something else [won’t] happen. No I’d be stupid to make that guarantee. But I feel very, very good about the quality of hardware now. You guys know this, every day in the factories where we are building these and where we are learning more about it. Sony’s very good at it, Nintendo is very good at it, and we’re very good at it. You’re constantly tweaking, moving parts around, you’re renegotiating with suppliers because your goal is to continuously raise the quality of the box, and bring the price down. Because you have to get your costs down to be able to move your pricing to the level you want. If your costs never came down, then price would never change.
So yes, you can’t guarantee that something won’t go wrong - we get that. But at the very least, Microsoft, you should be able to guarantee that if something like this does happen, that you have some sort of expedited method for dealing with it so that your consumers who spend hundreds of dollars on your hardware aren’t sitting without it for 8-12 weeks because of your hardware problems. Also, I think it is a fair expectation that if you said everything would change in mid-July, that a console manufactured a month later would be clear of these issues.
UPDATE: As always, there are trolls who are claiming that this story must be made up, because a console manufactured over two weeks ago could in no way make the 8 hour plane trip from where it was made all the way over to here in Seattle in that timeframe. I must be some sort of Sony or Nintendo fanboy, just making up the story - they want images to prove I’m not lying. I grabbed a couple of shots of the back of the console, which you can check out after the break.
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