You can’t explain why they don’t do something if they actually do do that thing. To attempt to do so would involve talking out of your ass.
Crackpot theory cheerfully withdrawn.
However, you can see where I might have gotten the idea.
Badger, Microsoft already supports a massive download service. I don’t see how adding an option to download one or two copies of Windows keyed to a cd key would be technically challenging or promote rampant piracy, but the point was that they ought to provide some kind of reasonable service for replacing damaged disks. Apparently they do, so the download service isn’t necessary.
My reading of the OP is that he hadn’t actually called MS support yet and that the “quote” was the reply that he expected, not one that he’d actually received.
OK, an update, in which I take back some of my rant:
The number to get a replacement CD is, indeed, different than tech support and is free. However, I still think charging for tech support is a stupid idea in and of itself (not to mention the call itself is long distance, not toll free…so you pay for the phone call itself AND the tech support fee.) Anyhoo, getting the CD actually seemed easy. I just gave the operator the serial number off the disc and she said she could send a replacement…but not right away. They apparantly won’t have any CD’s in stock until the 29th. 
OK, call me crazy, but is it that hard to make these CD’s that it will take you half a month before I can get one? Hell, just have someone download one of those copies on the net and burn it to a CD and send it off!
So as it stands: The process to get a replacement CD is not hard. But I am still angry at:
a) NO PHONE NUMBER IN THE FREAKIN’ MANUAL!! This is a serious fuckin’ oversight. The manual basically assumes that nom atter what, you can easilt access the internet to solve any problems ou have. In no way could you possible be installing this on a new PC and might gasp have problems during the install. :rolleyes:
b Charging that much for tech support, even though I didn’t personally need it. It would be nice to assume that any problem anyoen could have was easily answered by all the online FAQ’s and so forth, but that’s nt possible. Due to the alm sot infinite combination of hardware one can have in a PC running Windoows, any multitude of problems could arise. Drivers for a particular video card might not exist anymore, or work with XP, so you have to go to some obscure german site to download an equivilant replacement, but how do you know that? A casual oser might nto know all these workarounds or where to look, and does what one would think is easiest…calls tech support. I’m just appaled at the premise, is all. During the long process of trying to get a new motherboard to work (it never did) I called Soyo tech support five or six times…gee, had they had Microsoft-like service, I would owe them over $100.
Anyways, I think I’ll jsut have a friend send me a CD, I really don’t want ot wait another half month.
**OP:
Not from this Mac partisan. I like the Mac as much as Guy Kawasaki and Steve Jobs, but when it comes to draconian rules about having to pay for tech support after the Xth phone call, Apple is right up there with Microsoft. For example, with the iPod you get exactly one free phone call.
I feel your pain.
This thread is becoming sadly reasonable, but I thought I should interject and mention that (at least when I worked there) it was two free incidents, not calls, so if you have to borrow a friend’s disk, or buy a part, or whatever, you would just call up the next day with the incident # and keep going.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention waiting time though. That was a big issue in the short time I was there.
Sure, but if your iPod needs more than one tech support call, you might as well take it back to Apple and have them swap you a new one instead.
I can see limiting tech support calls as a cost-savings measure. I recall hearing that when Apple had unlimited free tech support, people would call them up over the most trivial stuff, like “Where is the power button?” :smack:
I can’t even comprehend the amount of fun that could be had talking to someone like this. :eek:
That’s brilliant. As someone who worked for them you knew that there was a number. That does an average user what good, exactly?
If they wanted to help people with scratched discs they could put it right on the fucking disc.
If this disc is too damaged to read, call 1-800-EAT-BILL for a replacement.
Since they’re so sweet, I must just have one of the defective print runs that omitted that…
-Joe
Well then, you should make a suggestion to the easy-to-find feedback email address. 
rjung:
• Hello, Apple? I was loading some more songs into my playlist and it froze up, and after forcequitting iTunes and unmounting/remounting the iPod, the iPod’s screen says it has no songs; iTunes still sees all my songs but won’t let me add or delete anything, it’s in read-only mode. Is there some kind of reset? If so, what’s the procedure? [there is indeed. toggle the switch at the top to the red side then back, then hold down the big dot-button and the play/pause button simultaneously until the screen displays the Apple logo]
• Hello, Apple? Is there a way that a single playlist can be set to randomize play order while other playlists use normal consecutive order? [Not that I can find. Should I call them?]
• Hello, Apple? Many of my VBR-encoded tracks that were encoded in other software get cut off before the track is finished playing. Is there anything I can do to fix this behavior short of reencoding all these tracks? [Not that I ever found]
• Hello, Apple? The literature says the iPod can’t work simultaneously on Macs and PCs and needs to be reformatted for PCs to use. If I have 3rd-party software on the PC that lets it access HFS+ formatted media, will the PC version of iTunes work with it? How about if the iPod is formatted for PC use, will the Mac’s ability to mount FAT-formatted media allow Mac iTunes to access it? If not, why not? Any third-party utilities that will do so, in either direction? [I haven’t a clue]
Point to the stupid questions or the ones indicating that I should just swap it for a less problematic iPod.
And of course I didn’t include the ones I already know tech support can’t answer, like:
Hello, Apple? Is there, like, a compelling and fundamentally unavoidable reason for failing to support any kind of cascading hierarchy on the iPod, so that when you start with playlists or artists and attempt to drill down you immediately plop all the way down to the individual track (file) level? Would Playlist:Artist:AlbumName:TrackName have been beyond your developer’s capabilities, or somehow less intuitive to you folks than to the rest of the music-playing world?
That is basically what ikrs me the most. Nowhere, in anything that I received, was there a phone number. None. They had the gall to assume that their product was so perfect that any problem you had couldn’t possibly happen before you actually had it installed and where able to get online. Everytime in the quick start guide it mentioned having trouble, the solution was go online to the tech support center! I was lucky because I happen to have internet access at work. What if I didn’t? What if I worked construction all day long, which I have in the past? What if I was putting together a new PC (basically what i was doing,) bought the OEM version (whcih I can do sicne I would be buying it with hardware) and actually DID receive a defective disc, that through no fault of my own didn’t work? What could do? i can’t go online to get help, I certainly can’t call up MS. The best I could do would be to call a friend and ask them to go online for me and find a phone number.
There is absolutely NO reason, ever, to not put full contact information with the documents a person receives when purchasing a product. Hell, I can go down the hall to the damn vending machine, get a candy bar, and find the address and phone number of Mars, Inc. right on the wrapper! Smooth move, Microsoft.
Nope. [ Note that nobody ever promised such a feature in the iPod literature. ]
Nope. [ That’s the price you pay for using VBR encoders that don’t set their duration fields properly. ]
Yes, but this question is too geeky for tech support. [ IIRC, the easiest way would be to format the iPod in Windows/FAT-32, which can be supported by both Windows and Macs. ]
I admit I question the value of such a feature, since you can already do Artist:AlbumName:Trackname – the whole point of playlists is for you to arrange your songs in an order you prefer, not as a navigation shortcut.
I’d file this under the category of “stuff I think is neat to have, but nobody else agrees with me.” 
Yeah, well.
I think they aren’t ready for prime time, they need work, and they’ve got bugs.
The only thing they’ve got going for them is that they beat holy hell out of the competition and they’re built like a tank. Big deal. I’m used to Macs, I expect that much. Now finish the damn product development and make them shine.