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It may sound paranoid, but buy-die-buy is established gospel among longtime MP3 player owners, many of whom are on their second or third devices. It's a predictable routine: Purchase a player, enjoy several months of stress-free use, then notice minor bugs or shortfalls that slowly, or not so slowly, turn into major problems.
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For proof, look no further than Orem, Utah, where dozens of flatlined iPods rest like miniature tombstones beside Luis Gamero's workstation. Gamero, a technician at Brokenipods.com, has seen enough conked-out 'Pods to know that their main assailant is normal use.
"These iPod hard drives weren't designed to move around. Jostling and bumping will eventually break them," Gamero says. "And devices like these are harder to repair because there are few fixable parts."
Or the repair isn't cost-effective. Generally, it's easier to replace a broken product than to fix it; that's especially true for tech toys, for which prices routinely drop even as performance improves. A member of Best Buy's Geek Squad tells me that the age of a device usually determines its destiny when it breaks: Under two years, likely salvageable. After that, dumpster-bound. Also, there's an inverse relationship between cost and recoverability: Companies that make low-end products rarely bother to manufacture spare parts. Meanwhile, companies that make premium gear invest in the replacement parts needed to salvage broken machines.
These truths echoed in my head when my 26-month-old cell phone died. I took it back to the T-Mobile store and asked the young clerk, who was thumbing a new Sidekick 3, if my phone had been programmed to self-destruct after a couple of years. He shrugged, then proceeded to show me an ultrathin upgrade offered at discount with -- can it be coincidental? -- a two-year contract renewal.
"These iPod hard drives weren't designed to move around. Jostling and bumping will eventually break them," Gamero says. "And devices like these are harder to repair because there are few fixable parts."
Or the repair isn't cost-effective. Generally, it's easier to replace a broken product than to fix it; that's especially true for tech toys, for which prices routinely drop even as performance improves. A member of Best Buy's Geek Squad tells me that the age of a device usually determines its destiny when it breaks: Under two years, likely salvageable. After that, dumpster-bound. Also, there's an inverse relationship between cost and recoverability: Companies that make low-end products rarely bother to manufacture spare parts. Meanwhile, companies that make premium gear invest in the replacement parts needed to salvage broken machines.
These truths echoed in my head when my 26-month-old cell phone died. I took it back to the T-Mobile store and asked the young clerk, who was thumbing a new Sidekick 3, if my phone had been programmed to self-destruct after a couple of years. He shrugged, then proceeded to show me an ultrathin upgrade offered at discount with -- can it be coincidental? -- a two-year contract renewal.
Wired
Do you generally buy a new replacement before your trusty gadget dies or do you get your money's worth and then some
For me, I have been told by a customer service person "Dont you think you've gotten your full usage out of this" ...when i tried to get my 7 year old code-a-phone batteries replaced.
