iTunes Newsletter not working in Ireland?

Or, 'how iTunes don't want to sell to me.'

Got an email from 'New Music Tuesday' at itunes a while back which I flicked through rapidly and the Marjorie Fair 'Free Download' item caught my eye. So I clicked on it. I was brought to a page which asked if I had itunes. I said I did. I was brought to another page. i got a warning which said an external application must be launched, I ok'd it. itunes opened, I got a warning which said the item I had requested was not available in the Ireland store, would I like to change to the us store? I said yes, I went to the us store and clicked 'get song' on the 'free' tune, and got an error saying the item was not available for purchase in the Ireland store.

What a great user experience.

So, Marjorie Fair, you might be a wonderful band, but I'm not likely to find out anytime soon.

Then I clicked on the Frank Black link and tried to buy one of his tracks. Not available in Ireland store.

Coldplay x&y - not available in Ireland store.

By now I realised something was up. Coldplay x&y IS available in the Ireland store.

I went back to the previosu email I got from them to verify it wasn't just that one email - couldn't buy anything from that either no matter how hard I tried.


Why, in this day and age, did I get an email which included a link to something I'm not entitled to? Surely they could synch the newsletter with my settings?

I went back to the email and looked at the fine print links to see if there was some way to do this manually, but I couldn't find anything...

So I emailed iTunes support, outlining the above. I got back a long stock response of some sort going on about what countries iTunes is available in and what payment types are accepted. Obviously no one had really bothered to read my email and ascertain what the actual problem was.

The sender of the email included the useful information "The selection of music may vary from country to country." before signing off "Sincerely, ¬?"

"Sincerely, ¬?" - brilliant. I feel like a valued customer right now.

So I wrote back. I pointed out that the mail had not addressed the issue I had emailed about and asked that someone review my original mail and come back to me. I was quite polite and thanked them for their time. I also pointed out the mail had come from somebody called "¬?".

Why did I bother.

Another stock-response came back.

"To access the iTunes Music Store that matches your country of residence, please click Choose Store from the left-hand column of the Music Store. You may also scroll down to the bottom of the page, and choose the store from the Choose Store pop-up menu.

You can only purchase music from the iTunes Music Store that matches your country of residence and your billing address. Each country supports credit cards issued by banks in these countries. For example, a Visa card issued in the United States can only be used at the U.S. iTunes Music Store and so on.

The selection of music may vary from country to country."

Again, the email came from the esteemed apple support guru "¬?".

I lashed back one last email - this time, I admit my tone was pretty snotty. I pointed out that I just wanted someone to look at the specific issue of my not being able to buy music fro the links they send me in the newsletter and let me know if this was likely to be due to a problem at their end or stupidity at my end.

I got a response back, again from "¬?":

We have escalated your report to iTunes Music Store engineering and we will send you an email message once we have a resolution. You can expect an update within 24 to 72 hours. Thank you for your patience as we work to make your experience with the iTunes Music Store more enjoyable.

That was the 27th of July at 17:41.

I checked my account setting to see if maybe my country was set incorrectly. I discovered Ireland does not exist as an option to select.

I have since confirmed that it's not just me either. Other users are experienceing this too. Is it everyone in Ireland. Is it everyone who is not in the US? Anyone care to comment? Coz it sure seems like iTunes don't want to!

Update

Got the following response on 09/Aug/05:

Dear Frank,

Thank you for contacting the iTunes Music Store.

o manage your subscription to New Music Tuesdays emails, verify that you have an active network connection, open the Music Store, and click the Account button in the top right-hand corner of the window (this will have your Apple ID or your email address in it). Enter your Music Store account name and password, click View Account, and on the Account information page, click Edit Account Info. You can subscribe or unsubscribe on the Edit Account Information page.

Sincerely,

The iTunes Music Store team
http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/ww/

Now, I don't know what this response is supposed to help me with, but it really doesn't help with the issue I'm having, especially since Ireland does not exist as an option for my country of residence... it seems to suggest I should just unsubscribe and stop bothering them.

I did discover that the odd item is available for download in the Irish store, but 99% (rough estimate ;) is not. The fact that the odd item is available suggests to me that indeed this is a mainly American newsletter and that there is nothing wrong with my settings or anything.

So I lashed off a couple of specific questions:

1: Is the newsletter aimed at an american audience and is this why I cannot download most items?
2: Is there a plan for a newsletter which would have all items available for those of us in Ireland?
3: Why is Ireland not available as an option for 'country' in the account area?

UPDATE

Much to my amusement, with my questions still unanswered, I got an email asking me to fill in feedback on my experience in contacting support...

Recently, you contacted iTunes technical support using Apple's online web support form. We're very interested in improving support for iTunes, and we'd love to get your feedback and comments on your recent support experience.

Well, I bet they're sorry they asked now! ;)
I pasted this whole post into the feedback form where they ask for more details. Plus when asked " Please let us know if Apple could have improved any aspect of your support experience. " I answered

Oh my god! YES!!! :)

It seemed to me that I was conversing with someone who had a document in front of them full of 'stock' answers to common problems.

I think they speed read my mail looking for keywords that fit one of the stock answers and lashed the closest thing off to me.

To make matters worse, they must have been using some programme to manage the emails because all the emails I got were signed off from "¬?" - rather than a name.

I don't think ANYBODY yet at Apple made any attempt to read and UNDERSTAND the issue I was describing and CONVERSE with me.

I am left with the feeling that emails into support are looked on as something to get off the desk quickly. Period. No real respect for the customer.