2007 started good for me when both my Apple iPod and my Xbox360 suffered from some technical malfunctions. Luckily the iPod was less than a year old by a couple of weeks, so warranty should cover that. The Xbox360 was just over one year old, so I had less good feelings about bringing that one in for warranty.

After bringing in the iPod for repair, the retailer ensured me that the iPod was covered by it's warranty and it should either be repaired or replaced in 10 workdays. That sounded nice. Two weeks without music should be survivable ;). The waiting began ...

The Xbox was a different story. The game shops I spoke about out of warranty repair all gave me bad hope about repair options. Some said it was ridiculously expensive, some didn't even want to give it a try. So in last hope, I have Microsoft Xbox Support a phone call to check any other options to repair my Xbox360. After the techsupport guy checked my Xbox's serialnumber, he told me that the warranty for all 1st release xbox360's was extended by one year! This to satisfy all early adopters who suffered from the 12st generation 360's child diseases. I was told that they would pickup my Xbox and repair would take about 15 days.
UPS picked up my 360 the next day, and dropped a completely new one the next week!
Kudos to Xbox Support!

My iPod was still in repair. After 3 weeks I gave the guys over at the Apple store a phone call. They said that repairing my iPod wasn't an option, so it was going to be replaced by a new one .... but since it's a 4th generation, and not a 5th, the new one needed to be shipped from China ....

Two weeks later, nothing heard yet, I gave the Apple guys another phone call. Another issue came at hands. Apple Support claimed my iPod was out of warranty, because they maintained the fabrication date as the warranty date, just because I never registered my iPod with Apple.
After getting trough Apple Support, and mailing my purchase receives, the warranty date was adjusted to the sales date, and the replacement process would be started.
Waited another week before contacting the Apple store again. They claimed that I should pay 152,- for the replacement .... for repair within warranty?! After some debating about the warranty they stated I was right and should not pay a thing ... but my iPod wasn't there yet.
In the meanwhile, the time my iPod was in repair, the warranty on the purchase date was expired by two days. So Apple Support wouldn't return the iPod to the Apple Store unless the replacement cost were paid! Looks like Apple support doesn't accommodates it's retailers and customers when it comes to 1 or 2 days of warranty expiration by there own fault!

Anyway, the remaining cost for replacement by Apple Support were 92,-. I got my iPod back and the Apple store in Apeldoorn took care of the costs. My first experience with Apple Support is not one of my best support experiences. They definitely can learn a thing or two from Xbox360 Support ....