iPod’s Dirty Secret is a three-minute movie (ironically, in Quicktime) made by an iPod owner to protest the fact that Apple won’t replace his 18-month-old iPod’s dead battery. He’s engaged in a one-man anti-advertising campaign.

Wow! Thanks for the heads up. I guess I will be removing the IPOD from my wishlist.

The thing that made me link to this whole thing is the nature of the source -- it's not some mac-hating PC-phile who bought an IPOD and wants to burn the company in some way. (Though I'll grant that the story might be spread by such folks.) -- This is a guy who's a real member of the choir: the movie is proudly made on a mac, using mac software -- this is a guy who sees something wrong with a company he thinks a lot of and, like a parishoner who finds out the pastor is running a numbers racket out of his home office, feels compelled to point out the flaw.

or something

OK. The warrenty is expired.

The battery is dead.

He wants it replaced.

He's whining, but Apple is replacing batteries on out of warrenty machines.

http://depot.info.apple.com/ipod/

From apple.slashdot.org
After much complaining from iPod owners, Apple has finally started an official Official iPod Battery replacement (requires a free Apple ID). Although battery replacements have been available for older iPods for some time now, Apple has finally taken heed to their user requests and are now offering the service. From the Support page: 'If your iPod fails to hold a charge and it's more than a year old, you may need a new battery. Click Continue to order iPod battery service for $99 USD. This program is not available in Europe at this time.' Although the service is $99, they state in the article 'iPod equipment that is sent in for battery service or service requiring other repairs will be replaced with functionally equivalent new, used, or refurbished iPod equipment. You will not receive the same iPod that was sent in for service.' So make sure you back up that music before shipping it off!"

Here we go as well:

http://www.ipodbattery.com/slimipodinstall.htm

So after a year (or 18 mos, or whatever), I need to pony up $100 to get the fricking won't-hold-a-charge battery replaced? Yeesh.

I've had my iPod for 18 months, it works fine, as do the vast majority of iPods.

As of the iTunes music store coming out, there'd been 1.4 million iPods sold, they don't all blow thier battery.

Slashdot has picked up this very story now.
http://apple.slashdot.org/

This post summed up the whole deal for me quite well

"Everyone gets a bad phone rep - these things are farmed-out, But instead of asking for a supervisor, or calling back and getting someone with a braincell, or getting his name and then writing Apple, or doing any research themselves to find out about replacing batteries and why batteries fail, they decided to go ballistic and go to war with Apple.

They remind me of he people you see in a store, who - if they don't get what they want, right then - decide to start yelling at the tops of their voices to get a crowd. You know the types - they want what they want because the "client is king", which is always true until they start acting like one."

Me, I call back Apple Care until I get a rep that does what I want done, usually takes 2 calls, maybe three. And even if they say "Sir, you just called..." I can work with them and get it solved to my satisfaction.

Here's an interesting twist on the story. (Unfortunately the text file doesn't wrap, so you have to to some horizontal scrolling.)