[confucious]

If you buy a new iPod Touch 2G the chances are you will take it home, plug it in to iTunes and get told there is a FW upgrade that you need to pay for!
I emailed Apple about this and here is their response:

Charlie here, from the iTunes Store Support Team. I understand your concern that your daughter just paid for the software update. No problem, I will be more than happy to address this for you.

When the iPod touches are on the shelf, they cannot be upgraded, only the newer versions will be shipped with the 3.0 already installed. This may not even be for a few months, and it is still always best to ask about firmware updates when buying electronics such as iPods.

We are offering many new upgrades to the iPod touch and there is no mandatory upgrade.

I hope this sums up everything for you today, Neil. However, if this is not the case, please do not hesitate to let me know. I will be more than happy to address the issue further for you, or answer any questions that you may have.

Have a great day.

Sincerely,

Charlie
iTunes Store Customer Support

Does anyone else think this is appalling? Is this how Apple always treat their customers?

[Robcoffee]

I would have thought it would be relatively straight forward for Apple to check through iTunes to see if the serial no. indicates it is a brand new device and if so offer the update for free. I would be more then a little peeved if I had just forked out a wedge of cash on a brand new device, only to find out it had old software on it - and that Apple wants me to pay even more money to put the latest software on. And to add insult to injury the response from Apple support to your query pretty much just says tough luck, you would think if someone has gone to the effort of complaining about this they would offer a iTunes voucher to cover the cost of the new software.

[A.T]

Apple doesn't link serial numbers to 3.0, I don't even know why you would pay for it, when the 3.0 is all over the internet for free!(yes, I know it's stealing and illegal), however Apple respondents are usually pretty good with me, I've had refunds from them for iPhone apps that just sucked(MobileChat to name one).
I get a free iTouch with my MacBook Pro so I'm going to sell the iTouch, not bothered what software comes on it.

[confucious]

I would not steal from them - even though it feels like they are stealing from me!

What gets me is that they are still selling FW2.21 - you would have thought the shops would be able to give upgrade codes to everyone buying one now.

[A.T]

I don't really understand why they are charging for the 3.0 firmware, I think it sucks as it's still buggy, all my texts are half cut off or in random places and the photo app is messed up so bad and that I can't take a screenshot to as it doesn't appear in the album, restoring doesn't seem to fix these problem and I still can't figure out how to downgrade from 3.0 to 2.2.1.
Maybe they should have lowered the prices on old Touches by £6 ot so.

[confucious]

Your device is showing as iPhone 3.0 Unlocked - which is interesting as UltraSn0w hasn't been released. How is it unlocked?

[A.T]

Oh, it's the original iPhone which hasn't been locked by Apple since 1.1.4, Apple has given up trying to lock it lol, so it'll always remain unlocked.

[confucious]

Ah! for some reason I thought it was a 3G! I should have known.

[A.T]

Lol yeh. I thought there was an unlock for 3G on 3.0 as long as you didn't upgrade the baseband

[confucious]

No, BB2.28 does not work with FW 3.0 - we have to wait for UltraSn0w.

[A.T]

Oh ok, I didn't know!