As much as Microsoft is everywhere and trying as hard as possible to take over the world, my vote for Mad Scientist/Evil Overlord is Steve Jobs.

Even if everyone I know seems to have an Iphone and EVERYONE on all my favorite TV shows do, I don’t. I seriously can’t afford it and the only reason my husband has one is because he got it from work.

A couple of years ago, at Christmas, my husband got me an Ipod. I don’t listen to much music on it because it truly eats power but I have come to depend on it to be my calendar and my watch and alarm clock and basic personal organizer.

A while back the screen was cracked, like someone took a pick or something and tapped it – cracks radiating from what appeared to the an “epicenter.”

It was useable but I did fear the glass would fall out, so I took it to one of those places that advertise they can fix it in “Five Minutes.”

Well, they said they didn’t have a screen for my second generation (read old and nearly obsolete) Ipod, but they’d be in in a day or two. So, I took it back in a day or so and the woman said it would take her about an hour (Five Minutes?) because they were so backed up.

Nearly two hours later, she called and said it was ready. I went in, paid my $70+ and took it home.

Within an hour of that I noticed that the button on the bottom – the only “button” – had stopped working. I couldn’t get out of any program I was in. If I turned it off and back on, I would be at the home screen and could use another program, but that got to be a pain.

I took it back and she said that sometimes a small piece of the glass gets into the home button and it needed to be replaced. BUT they didn’t have any of those in stock and would have to order them.

After a couple of weeks, I’d called and got an answering machine. For two weeks, I’d call every Monday. Finally, I got a human who said the buttons have to come from KOREA.

Okay, doesn’t Apple have some manufacturing plant somewhere that has an assembly line or something with a station that has a bin of buttons for some underpaid factory worker to put in the proper place?

Failing that, isn’t Korea a place that has modern airports and Western style delivery type systems? Why in the world would it take SIX WEEKS for a part ordered from KOREA to get here? Do they have to be hand carved by blind Buddhist monks, using tools they have to create themselves and then discard each time? Then the precious buttons are carried, one at a time, on satin pillows, down from a snow-covered mountain top by one-legged sherpas?

Honestly!

Finally, I called and they told me the buttons were in. So, I took the Ipod into the repair place and the woman said it was going to take half an hour to fix and did I want to leave it? I said absolutely not, and I sat down and waited.

After a while, I got my lovely little Ipod back, all fixed.

THEN –

A week or so ago, I noticed that the second row of icons wouldn’t work. It also meant that I couldn’t do anything with the wifi settings and since we secured our home wifi, I couldn’t put the code in.

The other day, my daughter wanted to go the Mall to buy birthday gifts for two friends. I went with her and we passed the Apple store.

I thought, ‘Oh, cool. I’ll stop in and they’ll tell him the thing isn’t repairable or all I need to do is reboot the whole thing and it’ll work.’ I dug around in my purse and found the I had it with me so I went in.

I explained the situation to the woman with the iPad at the door. She
tapped a few things into her device, then said:

“Okay, so I have you down for a 7:50 appointment. We’re running about ten minutes behind but someone will be with you.”

I looked a her for a moment, then said, “Wait. You mean now?”

“Well, in about fifteen minutes, but yes.”

I turned to Juliette and said, “Do you want to go get the gifts and then come back?” She looked a little frustrated so the woman said “Do you want to make the appointment for another day?”

I told her no as I’d forget to do it. As long as I was there, I’d get it over with.

So Juliette left and after waiting 15-20 minutes where I did nothing but wander around the Apple store and text my brother, a guy came over and I told him what the problem was. He looked at my Ipod and asked if I’d had the screen replaced.

I said I had and he said they don’t even replace cracked screens. They would have replaced the whole inside set up and having just the screen replaced messed up my touch function. I didn’t even bother to tell him about the button fiasco.

The bottom line is that they could replace the Ipod at cost – $99 or if I recycled my Ipod with them I could have a 10% discount.

Juliette says that’s a lot cheaper than a new Ipod. I don’t know because I don’t check on these things.

Anyway, getting the screen fixed was apparently a bad idea all the way around, but for the moment I’m hanging on to my current one. I can’t get internet at home or do some of my stuff, but I don’t know that I can afford $90 either.