Wil Wheaton’s iTunes Get Beamed Away…

I was reading on Wil Wheaton’s blog (Yes, the Star Trek Kid, not be confused with the Star Wars Kid) about his unfortuate upgrade to iTunes 7 that dematerialized his collection of music and would not release it from the pattern buffers after the upgrade (sorry, couldn’t resist popping in some Trek Talk).

After trying everything on his end, he finally emailed Apple about his situation. He was actually called by one of the Apple reps claiming to be a fan of his blog, and helped him out by pressing the “Big Red Button” so he could have a do-over on all his tunes. The rep told Wil that Apple just wanted him to be happy with the service and that they do this for anyone. He didn’t actually call bullshit on the tactic, but I’ll call bullshit on it: They didn’t wan’t Wesley Crusher hating on the iTunes on his blog!

With someone as influential as Wil Wheaton in the huge Trekkie Universe, what he says really does matter. It matters even more since his opinion is read by a lot of people on his blog. What kind of bugs me is the fact that this Apple rep doubled up her customer service duties with a bit of Trekkie Fandom. She didn’t have to call him up. She just had to go through the channels. Next time if someone also extremely well read doesn’t get the same service as Mr. Wheaton, there will probably be hell to pay.

I admit that I’m someone that does get special treatment all the time because of what I do, but for this rep to state that there was no “Special Treatment” and that all customers get the same service is pretty stupid. Now watch the email boxes to iTunes Support fill up with do-over requests because people found out that this is a service that, allegedly, everyone is entitled to.