iPod Warranty/Return issues

So, a little context. I have a 120gb classic that is suffering from a fairly common disease of randomly skipping songs and resetting every so often.
As it is still under warranty I applied for a return but apparently a small dent in the side of the casing is grounds for refusing my request. I've read the warranty and apple clearly shouldn't have the right to do this.

Basically I'm looking for anyone who's undergone similar disputes and what the best course of action is.

thanks
-Leon

Buy a new one. Your dent could very well be the reason that it is not working correctly. I see no reason why Apple should honor it as it was subject to some abuse.

Sorry, perhaps I forgot to mention that the dent is completely irrelevant. The issues started before the dent happened.

The exact wording in the warranty is "This warranty does not apply to (d) damage caused by accident, abuse, misuse, flood, fir, earthquake or other external causes". Apple should honour the warranty simply because the cause of my problem is none of the above.

And they're going to take your word for it that the dent happened after the issue arose?

I'm not aware of a single manufacturer that would replace/repair an item that has visual damage that could cause the issue in question.

Yep, they are not going to believe a word you tell them. All they know is that you are bringing in a damaged Ipod that no longer functions correctly and telling them to fix it. Not going to happen, sorry...

As he said, no company would do this.

The dent is miniscule and the issue is incredibly common and not in any way related to physical abuse.
I understand that it is easy for apple to ignore me and I don't need justifications for why they have done so. My ultimate aim is obviously to prove that the damage was not inflicted by me and this is why I've asked for help.

The point is that nobody here can help you. The only people that can have denied your warranty. It doesn't matter if you can prove it or not to be honest. You have a dent in the case which shows Apple that the device was abused and thus they voided the warranty. I feel for you but you are out of luck. Even if you did gather proof, they already recorded in their system that your Ipod warranty is voided.

and my point is that I am acting in full compliance with the terms of the warranty but have still been denied service. It doesn't matter whether my story is believable or the context in which I am making my claim is convincing but it's simply the fact that Apple have jumped to the wrong conclusion without verifying and I want to dispute this.

I assumed that this incident might not be so rare that I was the only one who had ever encountered it. I just posted here in the hope that someone with experience in the matter could offer guidance. I am still awaiting aforementioned guidance.

Actually, you are right, it doesn't matter if your story is believable. The fact is that you brought a malfunctioning device in that has clear signs of abuse and damage. Please tell me what company you know would honor a warranty? I don't know of any that would and even if you "think" you are in compliance that is not going to help your cause. Your warranty is already voided in the system and the chances of that changing are next to none. You can try can contact Apple HQ but I doubt that will work in your favor.

Gonna have to back Apple on this one...

Indeed, what kind of company would honour an agreement? While the circumstances are less than agreeable, I'd assume that a massive corporation like Apple would at least take the smallest amount of time to verify the cause of my problem. It's either the small dent in the side of the casing or it's the same manufacturing problem thousands of other people are having.

Look, I didn't come here to argue and I have no idea why I'm suddenly arguing with you.

Let me ask you this... Have you tried to reset the device to see if that solves the problem? If that failed, have you tried to restore the device?

For what it is worth, I have a classic and have had the skipping only once. I restored the firmware and haven't have a problem since. It rides in my car...

Yeah, I've reset it, reinstalled everything, defragged it and stopped just short of shouting angrily at it. Today it played a whole album and managed to skip halfway through every single song. I'm convinced it's a hard drive issue so if push comes to shove I could always replace it myself.

Apple - Support - Discussions - New iPod randomly skipping songs ...

Quite a few people are having this problem with the iPod classic. This was really the only shred of persuasion I could use as proof in my claim.

I do feel for you but sadly you really don't have a leg to stand on. Perhaps a letter to Apple will help your cause.