Contacting Apple?

[mistermoya]

I know this may seem petty but is there a way to email Apple because I want to complain about some glitch I got while purchasing a song on the Music Store.

As I was downloading a song this message came out: Unknown Error (5555) There was an error in the Music Store. I didn't get to download the song plus they still charged me my 99 cents! I know it's just a dollar but it still isn't right.

I don't know who to email or how do I contact Apple outside having to call them long distance.

I even checked my Account Purchase History and true enough the purchase registered even if I didn't get to download the song. I saved a screenshot of the error message I just don't know how I'm going to show them that the error actually occurred.

Most of the technical support pages are just FAQ's and there is no actual venue to intereact with them. The feedback form section specifies that Apple will not respond to the feedback.

I know it's just a dollar but I am really careful when I pick which songs to purchase on their store. any ideas of what I can do?

[penmanila]

you can do what i and many others have done, whcih is to write to sjobs@apple.com. i kid you not! i wrote him when, for the life of me, i couldn't find out where i could buy replacement "feet" for my tibook; i was willing to pay, but the apple site doesn't help you with these things.

sure enough, a packet came in the mail (from the US, to here) with the tibook feet, gratis.

there are those who'll argue that we shouldn't be bothering the insanely great one with these pesky requests and complaints, and leave him free to design the G6 powerbook or the 100gig ipod, but it isn't actually steve who opens the mail and answers, but an executive assistant. that's great PR--insanely great PR!

[GeeCube]

1. Open iTunes 4.
2. From the Help menu, choose Music Store Customer Service .
3. Click one of the general topics (Purchasing Information). Tip : At the bottom of each of these general topic pages is a web form you can use. Just put in your iTMS order number and Apple should contact you in 1-2 business days.

Good luck,
GeeCube

[mistermoya]

thanks guys....but should I open iTunes 4 or 4.6?

I will definitely try emailing sjobs@mac.com. I'd love to get a reply just for kicks

[hoho]

Just restart iTunes. It will search for undownloaded songs and grab your song for you. It's happened more than once to me. Don't worry, you'll still get your song.

H

[freelancer]

If an error occurs during your download, doesn't iTMS automatically resume the download for you?

This has happened to me.. but when i went back, the download restarted and I got my song with no problems. I don't remember what I did that led to that, though...

[Adel]

From MacFixIt.com:

More on iTunes stalling during music purchase downloads

Since our initial posting on the problem last week, we've received several notes of confirmation from users whose iTunes music purchases are only partially download (unplayable) with an error. When attempting to access the song again, users are told the file is already downloaded.

Akamai server issues The same Akamai server issues that were affecting Yahoo's new mail interface may have been the root cause of some users' broken iTunes purchase downloads.

Several users reported the problem late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning of last week (week of June 14th), which coincides with the Akamai outages.

MacFixIt reader Evan writes "I've purchased just over 700 songs from iTMS (all via 56K dial-up), and I'm quite familiar with interrupted downloads occurring... but the 'Check For Purchased Music' menu command has always allowed them to resume, whether immediately or hours later. Unfortunately, that mechanism did not work for me on this occasion (during the Akamai outage)."

Customer assistance to the rescue Fortunately -- through some patience is required -- most users are finding that the iTunes Music Store customer assistance team has been able to restore the purchased, unplayable tracks:

Several users are receiving the following notice from Apple:

"Thank you for contacting the iTunes Music Store.

"We apologize for the inconvenience you have experienced with these titles. We will allow you to download the selections again, without additional charge. To download again, verify that you have an active network connection, open iTunes, and select Check for Purchased Music from iTunes' Advanced menu.

"Should you experience an issue with the new download, please reply to this email with a detailed description of the issue."

You can contact the iTunes Music Store support team via the form at http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/download.html.

Remember to try using the "Check for Purchased Music" menu yourself before contacting the customer assistance department.

[gonz]

Originally posted by mistermoya
thanks guys....but should I open iTunes 4 or 4.6?

I will definitely try emailing sjobs@mac.com. I'd love to get a reply just for kicks

iTunes 4.6, and Steverino's address is sjobs@apple.com. If you want to reach anyone whom you know at Apple, 95 percent of their email addresses follow this consistent pattern: first initial of first name, complete last name, @ apple.com. So for instance, if I want to contact Dave Marra (Apple's US East Coast Hardware/Software Guru) and don't know his email address, knowing the above formula I can safely guess that his email address is dmarra @ apple.com.

The only exception whom I know of is Dave Palaniuk, an Apple employee based in Texas with whom I dealt last year for my OS X and OS X Server certification course. I guess Apple figured that his last name was too easily misspelled and so allowed him to be dave @ apple.com, which I think is very cool.

I wonder if the Woz has an swozniak @ apple.com email addy, or if he'd simply be woz @ apple.com? Now that would be cool.

[Edited on 6-22-2004 by gonz]

[mistermoya]

Well the problem just got fixed by clicking the Check for Purchased Music from the Advanced menu of iTunes. I got my song!