We’re going on vacation tomorrow. Logically, I thought- Hey- I’ll rent a movie through itunes to watch on a plane. I went to the itunes store and rented Michael Clayton. Then I couldn’t get the thing to load onto my fifth generation video ipod.
I couldn’t find in support any reason it shouldn’t load onto the ipod. I called tech support. The first guy informed me that movie rentals aren’t compatible with the 5g ipods. I went back to the itunes store and NOWHERE is there any information readily visible or available before purchase that there might be compatibility issues. The first guy even said the movies wouldn’t work with the iphone, but we were then disconnected as I was in mid- complaint about the problem of no notice on the itunes store.
Being a lawyer and a pain in the butt, I called support again! This time, (after a modest hold time) the rep told me that the movie rentals would work with the iphone, (Good news) but agreed that the documentation on itunes wasn’t great and he would inform his supervisor about it.
So the movie rental will have to go on my husband’s iphone (synced with the PC) since I rented the movie on the PC (bigger hard drive that the macbookpro) and we’ll be good to go. From now on, I’ll have to do rentals for my iphone, synced with my mac book pro, on the Mac.
I am disappointed I can’t rent movies on my (or my child’s) video ipod, but I am more upset about the rotten documentation or warning about this prior to rental. I hope Apple fixes this soon, because it’s bad customer service- the kind I don’t expect from them.
So please, Apple, as an avid Mac Fan, as a stockholder, please fix this problem ASAP.
The second customer service rep was really great though- Disney-esque service and kind- and dealt with me being upset and frustrated very well. So thanks to Apple for making the calls, when necessary, as pleasant as possible, even when there is bad news to be delivered.
3 Comments
March 13, 2008 at 7:08 pm
This limit was talked about during the introduction of the rental system – it was said that it would only work with the current generation of iPods (Classic) and after. There where tons of reports and blogs written about it at the time.
March 13, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Thanks Jay- But for Joe Average consumer, you plug your ipod into the machine and it works, and with no info directly on the rental portion of itunes, there’s no obvious prompt that this is going to be a problem. I do remember, of course, when the 5g was essentially a “classic”- and all the different terms can get confusing. It certainly didn’t help that one section of Apple said the rentals were not iphone compatible, and another section said they were.
And on top of it, searching the support section did not have this as an FAQ at all, which surprised me. So I just expect a heads up to potential problems from Apple- the 5 g isn’t so ancient that others aren’t running into this, I suspect. And even as a podcaster and someone who at least watches the keynote once through, I did not specifically remember no 5g compatibility.
. It’s only – what- three months after the introduction of the rental store, so it’s quite possible it’s a time lag thing- but some sort of notice in itunes when you are renting would be nice.
March 15, 2008 at 4:12 am
#18
3-14-2008 @ 12:31PM
Darren said…
Rentals work on the 5G iPod with 1.3 firmware. Try it!
http://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/14/ipod-5g-gets-an-update-to-1-3/
Check it out and let us know if it works ok now.