I’m done with Apple.

I had a wonderful chat with a customer service agent named Charles on Saturday. He was very nice, and seemed to care about my problem with their product. As far as phone customer service goes, he was really great. He told me that they would have to put a hold on my debit card for the replacement cost of my iPod, just in case they got it back and it has water damage or it had been dropped. It hasn’t even met water, and I have babied that thing, so I wasn’t worried: but I have debit cards, and could not have a hold placed on one. He told me to go back to the Apple Store and they would replace it. He set up an appointment for this morning and even warned me not to restore from my backup, as it may be corrupted. I hung up, finally having hope.

Hope was dashed this morning. My husband took it back to the “Genius Bar,” where they wiped it again and said there may be something wrong with the backup. Right. If there is something wrong with the backup, it was caused by their upgrade to iOS 5.0. After months of problems, I was expecting them to honor what they had told me. I suppose, with the treatment we have received in the past, I should have set my expectations differently.

I used this iPod for so much: social media, checking and answering emails (yes, even work emails), work issues, videos, music, games, etc. I loved my iPod. But I’m done. When the thing gets home, it’s going in a drawer. I suppose it will make a nice paperweight or curiosity somewhere down the road – you know, like 8-tracks are today. It may meet its end in some creative way, like under a steamroller. I may play racquetball with it. I don’t know. But I will never, ever purchase another Apple product as long as I live.

I'm watching Customer (Dis)Service on CNBC. I highly recommend it for anyone who works in a customer service position.

Speaking of Customer Service, I had a very weird experience the other day with Animas: the makers of my daughter's insulin pump. I called about our supply order: she was running out of supplies and I needed to get some in the house ASAP. I called on Monday and paid the previous bill, then I was transferred to Customer Service to get the shipment sent second day air. We needed the order in house by Wednesday.

I looked at our order on Tuesday: no UPS tracking number had been assigned. I called back and was assured that I would receive my order on Wednesday. She verified that it had not shipped, but told me it would ship second day air for delivery Wednesday.

Blink. What? I explained to her that if it was shipping second day air, that would place the order getting to me on Thursday, not Wednesday. She insisted that it was shipping with my requested delivery method for delivery Wednesday. I told her that I work with UPS all the time, and I know to get it to me the next day that they would have to ship it overnight. Then she said the one thing that set me off.

"I'm just reading what it says on the screen."

My response: "Forget what's on the screen and just think logically for a minute, okay?" After explaining once again why a second day air package would not get to me on Wednesday because it takes two days to ship. and Wednesday is only one day away from Tuesday, and the package had not shipped yet, she once again insisted I would receive the shipment second day air on Wednesday. I said, "We'll see," and ended the call.

By the way, I did get the shipment on Wednesday. UPS Next Day Air Saver. *sigh* At least I got it, right? True. But it does prove a point: there are so many times in customer service where we have to go away from the script or whatever is in front of us, think logically, and take care of the customer. I did not walk away from that call feeling like I had a good experience. I did not feel listened to. I did not know how the problem was going to be corrected. It made me more aware of my own listening skills and helped me in my own customer service interactions. But I wonder how many more companies just read what's on the screen and hope it's enough.

I am so frustrated with Apple right now. I want to take my iPod Touch and toss it in the garbage.

It's not even a year old yet. We had two third gen iPod touches: my husband and I upgraded to fourth gen, and we gave our third gen to our children. They all worked perfectly... until I upgraded to iOS 5.0. At that point, my iPod started to act funny. I couldn't keep an app open at all, not even the ones native to the Touch - like Safari, videos, YouTube, and even the Settings folder. My battery life is abysmal: it will drain the battery in about an hour. I have reset it, reloaded, wiped it clean and put everything back on from backups, even taken it to the Apple Genius Bar - nothing has worked. It's now on iOS 5.0.1, and still doing the same thing.

I'm out of my 90 day phone support warranty, but still within my year warranty. I cannot login to Apple's online technical support because it's asking me for a question that I have never set up. The screen asks for my birthday, and then it asks for a question and answer. No drop down box for the question. If I type in a normal question that I may have used, it says question not found.

Apple, I'm at the end of my rope. My iPod Touch is very important to me: I use it like a laptop. I check work emails, I watch movies, listen to music, surf the Net: I've even done work from it. It is the perfect size to fit in my purse. I have three other people who have perfectly working iPod Touches who refuse to upgrade to the newest version because of the problems I've encountered. In my experience, Apple falls at the far end of the Customer Disservice category. I want answers: I want help: I want my iPod fixed.

Apple? Are you listening?