Check it out.

A vending machine selling ipods, ear phones, headphones and other ipod accessories.

Very cool.

You know I had to try it. So i swiped my credit card and selected, a Christmas gift, a black classic 160G, ipod.

Nice

Ok, I know your all thinking of all those times you put the dollar bill into the soda machine and nothing came out, or the wheel started churning on your Mr. Goodbar only to stop right before the last turn that would release the delicious treat down the chute, leaving you no choice than to bang and tilt the machine until it released the candy bar from it’s clutches or until you exhausted yourself.

So I watched as the arm went up to snag the ipod.

Very good

Then the arm came down with the ipod and placed it in the door

Excellent

I grabbed my ipod and my receipt for $349, plus tax, and thought cool, i just saved myself 15 minutes standing in line at the Apple store.

I looked down at my purchase

Classic ipod, check

Black, check

160G, welllllllll, no

only 80G

Doubled checked my receipt, I didn’t push the wrong button. Right there in my right hand the receipt told me I had purchased the 160G classic black for $349, but in my left hand there was an 80G, $249 machine.

Sucks

Asked the nice woman at Macy’s, who do I talk to? I waited 10 minutes for the manager who told me he didn’t know anything about the machine and I needed to call the 800 number on my receipt.

When I called, they basically asked me for every bit of info on my receipt (another 10 minutes) , told me I would receive an e-mail with return instructions, that I would have to print out the e-mail and send the ipod back to them at MY COST and insure the shipment at MY COST.

Nice, very nice.

As I await a call back from the higher-ups in the vending company, I can’t help but wonder how many people who are buying an ipod for the holiday’s, maybe there first one, may not notice that they received an item worth $100 less than they should have. How many people will not realize it until Christmas day.

Then I remembered I didn’t even get to bang on the machine.

Bummer…