My iPod is useless now... (a eulogy)

Question

Has anyone experienced difficulty exchanging a broken iPod?
I bought one back in August 2004 and it died spontaneously less than a year later and was exchaged under the one-year warranty. No need to describe the irritation of having to go back and reload all the songs.
The "new" one croaked a couple of weeks ago and when I finally had the time to get to my local Apple store at the crack of dawn (always a line, you know) the genius used various versions of Apple-approved vulcan hardware reset grips (did you know the diagnostic mode uses a different font?) and eventually gave up. He literally saluted it and said it was off to wherever dead iPod spirits go.
And then he told me that I could get 10% of a new iPod if I gave them my useless one.
I am profoundly irritated... not only because of the spontaneous failures of a piece of technology that is promoted as if it were as reliable as a typical hard drive, but because the warranty did not reset once I got a new iPod.
Does this make sense to anyone? I mean really... why should only the remainder of my 1-year warranty, invoked by the failure of iPod A, be extended to new iPod B?
It is unfair and I am unbelievably upset.
And to think that to rejoin the cul-- errr, I mean CLUB, I have to drop $300+ dollars.
Apple must know that any given iPod repair is more expensive than a new one... I have trawled assorted forums and read many a tale of iPod death... it is more common than we are lead to believe. What's the deal? Anybody out there been in a similar predicament?
Alas, the hammer that shattered the screen in 1984 is now shattered by the screen itself.

Answer 1

is this what you do?
No, but this seems to be what you want Apple to do.
Warrant the replacement for one year. What about the
next replacement?
here's what i expected, and feel free to judge me:
if i buy an iPod with a one-year warranty and it fails within that year, the replacement, being new should be supported by its own one-year warranty. what is so illogical or unreasonable about that?
Irrelevant? You want Apple to do what NO OTHER
company does?
why not? they promise as much and often deliver in every other facet of their business, don't they? why not in customer service and satisfaction -- particularly in the area of personal fetish tech like the iPod.
as a good Apple Devotee i understand and to a certain extent even believe in the intent behind the hardware and software they develop. put simply, i am deeply disappointed that their marketing and their service are not in sync around a product that is meant to literally be LOVED by the owner.
feel me?
the thing is that when i can afford it i will probably end up getting another iPod because, in that way that conoisseurs appreciate any other luxury good, no other integrated A/V platform (iPodiTunesairTunes) comes close to Apple's.
Look, Apple is a company who hires people. The same
guy who used to work at Chuck E. Cheese is now
working at the Apple Store. They aren‘t magicians nor
mind readers.
correct, the emperor is ultimately naked.
but they're setting us up with "geniuses" who should at least be able to tell me why a particular piece of technology fails, not just tell me to throw it away and buy a new one. this guy and his co-genius almost cried with nostalgia and reverence when another customer brought in a 1st gen iPod for "repair," so that shows me that he's basically a geek.
the people who work the floor may be former pizza-throwers indoctrinated in Apple brand literacy but the folks at the genius bar have more actual training -- they know how to use approved Apple diagnostic tools and memorize a flowchart. if you get a good "genius" you might even learn something in the course of your tech support session. and i know you know this.
If you have a valid complaint/problem, take it up the
chain until you get satisfaction.
Apple has more to lose at this "street" level of discussion groups that they monitor than me proceeding up the stairs of their customer service hierarchy.
but believe me, i'm pursuing both paths.
when it comes down to it though, only we can hold Apple to its responsibility of actually delivering and supporting the lifestyle that it is so heavily advertising, not turning its back on us in the name of "typical business practices."