I didn’t spend money on an AppleCare(tm) plan. Maybe I should have? I just didn’t imagine that anything would go wrong with my iPod. Yes ok I admit I should have spent money on the insurance. Stop wagging your fingers at me! Luckily the kind folks at ResQ systems didn’t care if I had an insurance plan. All they needed was 29.99 for what they called “3 Way Shipping”. For my $30 I got sent a special box with cushioning for my iPod (actually there’s room for 2 in the box) with a return label for DHL overnight service. The same $30 also paid for the return of my repaired iPod. I liked that idea. $10 overnight charge each way. I placed my order and got my box the next day.
I’d like to mention here that DHL is really fast! It was about 6PM when I called to schedule the pickup, hoping to get a time slot for the next day. Instead the customer service rep. asked if I would be home in the next few hours because the package could be picked up that night! I was amazed. I told her I would be, and someone was there within 2 hours to pickup my iPod.
A day after that I got a voicemail from someone at ResQ systems, telling me that my headphone jack needed to be replaced. I had a feeling since I tried a few pairs of headphones and all of them produced the same “plays out of one ear” result. The charge would be 59.99. That happened on Friday.
I called Monday to check on the status of my order, and got voicemail. I was worried, but not too worried, as everything so far seemed to be going well. I left a message but got no reply, and then the next day I checked my mail and saw my box waiting for me. The total time for the entire process was less than 7 days including the weekend!
To me the best part is that I got to keep the same ipod (nothing else was wrong with it really). They didn’t format it either. I had a backup just in case, but it sure was nice not having to spend time replacing my songs. The total cost was about $90, which is pretty high but without the insurance apple wanted about 250 (unless I read the repair terms of service wrong, which I might have). Overall though, I’m very happy and I’d recommend the service!