At the end of last week I went to Ginza to find the Apple (MacIntosh) Megastore.
Two years ago I received a 40GB iPod (3rd generation) from my wife as a birthday present. In a moment of wisdom that came out of nowhere, I decided to plunk down $70 for the extended warranty.
After two years of constant use, the battery was nearly nonexistant (less than two hours of life per charge), and the screen was incredibly faded. I decided to bring my iPod in and see if they would at least replace the battery (which only lasted 8 hours on a full charge when I first got it).
The Apple shop in Ginza is beautiful, and the service was very good despite the large number of customers that were milling about.
To make a boring story short, they didn't replace the battery. They didn't do anything to my old iPod for that matter. They just gave me a new one. Nice nice!
So 30 minutes later I walked out of there with a brand new 40GB (3rd generation) iPod at no additional cost. This one's not under extended warranty, but I figure that $70 for a 40GB iPod is a pretty fair trade.
