Mon 18 Dec 2006
I sent my comatose 4th-generation iPod to iPodResQ for $29. The fee buys you overnight shipping and a diagnosis. They called the next day, and quoted me $130 to repair it (turns out the battery and logic board were toast). No thanks — I’ve since commandeered my wife’s seldom-used Nano. So I turned down the repair.
“Would you like us to buy it from you for $38?”
Hmm… I make nine bucks, I don’t have another dead gadget lying around pegging my guilt-meter, I don’t feel like I wasted $30 on a diagnosis, and they get to refurb and sell my iPod (certainly for a bit more than $9). What’s not to like?
That scheme is just plain genius.
January 9th, 2007 at 7:32 am
And have you checked that they don’t say that about every single iPod they received? Sounds like a great business plan!
January 10th, 2007 at 11:35 am
I’m sure they do say that about every single iPod they receive. I can’t imagine them charging less than $100 to do any repair except a battery replacement. Labor is expensive, you know.
That’s why it’s such a good business plan. Most of the time, when something dies, you just throw it away because you figure it’s not worth the repair cost. With iPodResq, though, you’ve got nothing to lose. And you don’t come out of it feeling ripped off.