I got a gift card for iTunes from my parents. Normally, I wouldn’t buy iTunes credit, opting rather for Amazon MP3 for my online purchases, but since this was essentially free money, and Apple has removed the Digital Rights Management from their online store, I figured I would go for it.
What I didn’t anticipate is that iTunes would work worse than it did years ago.
I will let my message to Apple Support speak for itself.
I would like to report a problem with iTunes Store. I purchase iTunes Plus songs, they download quickly, and then iTunes “hangs” with a screen saying “processing file”. While it is “processing”, it consumes 100% CPU time and the interface becomes sluggish. After a *very* long time (somewhere between 15 and 45 minutes) the “processing” completes, and the song is playable…kind of–iTunes is “processing” the next song, and is so sluggish that it does not respond to presses on the stop, fast forward, etc. buttons. It has done this for every single song I’ve bought. I have iTunes 8.1.1.10, Windows XP Service Pack 3, a dual-core 1.67 GHz processor, 3GB of RAM, and plenty of hard disk space. I see from a quick Google query that this is a fairly common problem, and as of yet, no working solutions have been posted. Please advise. Thanks, Jacob.
About a day later, I received an email from Darrell which was completely unhelpful:
Dear Jacob,
My name is Darrell and I will be more than happy to assist you. Some Windows-based iTunes users have been having issues downloading iTunes Plus content. I found some information on our user discussion boards. It seems that the download error is caused by third party phone company music programs such as Verizon V-Cast or Sprint Music Manger. You can disable the program by using Task Manager.
1) Press Control+Alt+Delete to access task manager
2) Select the “Processes” and end the task for Memonitor.exe
If you don’t use any third party phone company music programs, you can go to the Control Panel, access Add/Remove programs, and remove these phone music softwares.
My hours are listed below for your convenience, and if you have anymore questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to let me know. Thank you for being a part of our family, and I hope you have a wonderful day.
Sincerely,
Darrell
iTunes Store Customer Support
Nice try, except that I haven’t ever loaded any kind of manager on my PC. Time for round two; Apple-1, Jacob-0.
Darrell,
I saw the discussions you refer to regarding the problems with iTunes “processing” being caused by some ill-behaved music management software from Sprint or Verizon. I can assure you that I have never loaded any such software on my machine. In fact, this copy of Windows barely gets any use at all, and hence has barely any software loaded on it; the processes that are running are either Windows-native processes or iTunes-related.
I really would like to express my frustration with this issue. Being forced to wait the better part of an hour for an album to download is a major inconvenience, and it seriously sweetens the deal that your competitors, namely Amazon MP3, provide. Perhaps you can enlighten me as to what iTunes is actually doing once the download is complete.
To add to the frustration, the album did not even download properly. One of the files was named incorrectly–the filename was incorrect, but the tags were correct. The file that was supposed to be in the place of this incorrectly-named file was in the Downloads folder inside my iTunes folder.
Thank you for your time, Darrell.
Jacob
I will post back when I get a response. In the meantime, really consider using Amazon MP3 if you don’t want to be frustrated. It seems to have almost as good of a selection, and once the files download via the Amazon Downloader, they are automatically added to iTunes. So basically, it is a drop-in replacement for the faulty iTunes Store.
EDIT: No such luck.
Dear Jacob,
I am sorry to hear that the previous troubleshooting tips I provided proved unsuccessful, and I can also fully understand your frustrations. However, as an iTunes Store Customer Support representative, I handle issues related to billing, customer accounts, and the items available on the iTunes Store. The issue you are experiencing falls outside of my area of specialty, but Apple does offer some resources that should help you.
You can call Apple technical support. The representative will be able to tell you about Apple’s complimentary and fee-based support options and can help you determine which option might be most helpful. To find the appropriate phone number here:
http://www.apple.com/support/contact/phone_contacts.html
You can also create a technical-support case via our website and arrange for an Apple technical support representative to call you. To do so, visit:
http://www.apple.com/support/expert
As to the purchase that is mislabeled if you can please reply back with the song title that is mislabeled. I can proceed to open an investigation to have the song correctly labeled.
My hours are listed below for your convenience, and if you have anymore questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to let me know. Thank you for being a part of our family, and I hope you have a wonderful day.
Sincerely,
Darrell
iTunes Store Customer Support
Now, this is somewhat of a dead end. The Apple Expert program is a hardware-only program, and thus doesn’t cover iTunes Store. So what does?
Darrell,
Why would you refer me to Apple Expert when you know that it doesn’t cover iTunes Store-related problems? I do not own any Apple products, and this support transaction is not encouraging me to buy any in the future.
The purchase was not mislabeled by iTunes Store; rather, the file was named incorrectly by iTunes during the download. This issue and the issue I initially reported could very easily be fixed if the programming team knew about them.
If you cared whatsoever about Apple’s well-being, you would escalate this issue to where it needs to be to get fixed. As long as this problem persists, I will strongly discourage those around me from buying iTunes credit, as the Store functionality is broken.
I’m trying to help you out. Help me out.
Sincerely,
Jacob
I really doubt that Apple has any interest in fixing this problem. Therefore, I strongly suggest you check out alternatives.
EDIT 2: The response is a dead end.
Dear Jacob,
I apologize if I caused any confusion with my last email. The reason I referred you to our Apple Technical Support Team was due to the fact that something on your computer is interfering with iTunes processing your purchase.
I have confirmed that the iTunes Store is functioning and accepting connections. Therefore, the issue is likely related to your Internet connection, local network, or computer. A tech support representatives will be able to assist in resolving the conflict. I wish that I could assist you further but I only have basic troubleshooting tips that are not relevant to the issue you are experiencing. Unfortunately the only way to contact them is by phone. Since I work with email I have no way of escalating your request to them. You can find the correct number by using the link here:
http://www.apple.com/support/contact/phone_contacts.html
As to the file that was labeled incorrectly by iTunes during download. If you can please reply back with the song title I can let our engineers know so they can investigate and resolve the issue as well.
Clearly, more than just the iTunes Store is broken. iTunes Support is as well.