Tech Restore purported to repair iPods shipped them mine, they kept it shipped to me and charged me for still damaged unit that was not mine Concord California

My iPod quit working the last week in November. I searched online for a repair company but found one reading a MacWorld magazine, TechRestore, in Concord, CA. They claimed I only needed to ship them my iPod and they'd repair it and ship it back to me via FedEx, overnight.

You have to purchase a "repair ticket" of sorts online. Once they email you verifying your repair was "in the queue" you could ship your unit to them. The first thing that made me wonder if they had their act together was the email I received from them. It said to do nothing, they needed to call and speak with me before I shipped them my iPod. The email said the call would come soon, so soon they said to ignore the email if the call arrived before the email did. I waited that day, no call. Waited all day the next day for a call, no call. Finally I emailed them back and the response I got was basically "sorry, we sent that email by mistake; ignore it and ship us your iPod". I should have trusted my instincts then but thought, hey, let's give them a chance, anyone can make a mistake.

They called me a few days after I had shipped it to them, told my my 5th generation 60GB iPod had a bad logic board. I'm a systems engineer and very familiar with electronics. I knew it was something like board or storage device since I'd already done all the hardware and software reset procedures with no luck. So I said, go ahead, fix it. It would cost about $150 with everything, a good deal since a new one would cost between $250 and $350.

Well, they started sending me emails, at least three, telling me my iPod was "almost" ready, then it was ready, and, finally, it had shipped! One email would have been sufficient. It finally arrived and when I got around to removing it from the box I saw immediately I had a problem. My iPod was nearly perfect in physical appearance and condition. Being in my profession I try to take care of electronic devices and my iPod had no scratches on the screen or the stainless steel back, almost in new, out-of-the-box condition. The one they shipped me was so scratched on the screen it was actually hard to see the visual interface. Also, the stainless steel back looked, no exaggeration, that someone had taken a screw driver to it. It was scratched horribly, dozens of long, deep scars as if someone emotionally disturbed was trying to carve something in the darn thing.

But the clincher that this was NOT my iPod came when I flipped it on edge and looked for the etched initials I'd put on there to ID the unit. No etching, no initials. It definitely wasn't my iPod. I called TechRestore and spoke with Jean Shannon, I think the owner. He said he was horrified in a voice I found hard to take as sincere and he said he'd get to the bottom of this and call me back.

In the interim I tried to see if it even worked. It would not mount on the desktop, and no software I tried initially, including Apple's iPod Updater or a third-party tool called iPod Reset recognized the unit. So I launched iTunes v7.5 (latest) and it didn't recognize it either, no hint it was registering with the app.

I removed it from the dock and attempted a hardware reset - no luck. I then buckled it up again to the USB port but this time I used some sophisticated software tools I use to "talk" to and configure USB devices. It was here I could read data from the firmware and also run some diagnostics. The low-level directory structure of the storage device was damaged, permanently, and there was no repair option whatsoever. Also, the board came back as a board for a 30GB black iPod - mine was a 60GB white iPod. The previous board had id'd the iPod as exactly what it was so I was also suspicious of why they'd used a board not designated for this model.

Additionally my battery was in excellent condition, with over 96% of the original charge still available. This was because of the care I took to charge and recharge in the proper manner. The battery in the unit they sent me barely had 60% of it's recharge capacity.

Shortly after completing my diagnostics and determining the iPod they sent me (remember, not mine) was a dead soldier I got a call from someone calling himself "Matt". Matt said Jean Shannon had told him I wanted him to call me. I told Matt I didn't ask for anyone to call me, I only wanted to know where my iPod was and why they'd ship me back not only a unit that wasn't mine but one that was so hopelessly damaged that they could not have possibly repaired it. If they had they would have surely checked it out and found it didn't work. Matt had no answers and was hardly remorseful or concerned. In a maddeningly monotone voice he instructed me to re-package the unit they sent me and ship it back to them. I told him no, had no intent of doing one more thing they wanted me to do until they did one thing for me, namely send me my iPod.

Matt then said something so ridiculous I had to keep from laughing. He said it was necessary for him to see this unit in order for him to figure out where mine was. I don't have an IQ of 200 or anything but I've been around for 53 years and, drawing on all that life experience, I could not fathom what about this sad, damaged piece of iPod junk was going to tell him regarding WHERE my unit was. Because I had noted on the web that "like new" versions of my iPod, a very popular model for its features, etc., were actually selling for more than newer, larger capacity models I was starting to get "it" - "it" was my notion that these folks were probably always on the vigil for really nice condition iPods that sold for a lot. Just my thought, but I'm guessing my iPod is in the hands of someone right now, less hundreds of dollars but happy to have this model and one in such GOOD condition!!

So I gave Matt one simple instruction. Return my iPod, repaired as promised (they'd already charged my credit card over $150) and THEN, and only then, I'd return this worthless piece of junk they'd sent me. I knew they didn't want it but I also know that an essential part of the "scam" is to keep the customer busy doing something. Well, this customer is on to TechRestore and, again, only has one very reasonable request - send me MY iPod, repaired properly, as I've paid for it. Once that is done I'll ship this thing they tried to pass off as a working iPod and we'll be even.

Keith
Buford, Georgia
U.S.A.