The saga of the HomePod mini took an interesting turn yesterday. Even though the “Deliver-It” service said they had not received the product from Apple and that only the label had been printed, it was delivered by a person out of the trunk of a Toyota Celica. OK, fair enough. Several hours later I heard from Apple through iMessages, “enjoy your new HomePod mini!”
I looked at the order online and UPS planned on delivering the replacement HomePod mini today. And sure enough, it arrived via UPS this afternoon. Now I have two HomePod minis for the price of one. My credit card wasn’t charged again. This put me in a quandary. Do I return it to the store or arrange for a shipment back to headquarters? I actually wouldn’t mind having a second HomePod mini. I could probably just hang onto it and they’d never be the wiser.
My personal moral compass wouldn’t allow me to do that. I’ve seen too many people screw local businesses in a similar manner of the years and just because Apple is one of the largest corporations in the world doesn’t mean they should receive the same treatment. So I contacted them through the order portal. As suspected I could drop it off at the Apple Store here in Tucson or initiate a return through the online portal. I asked about buying it and the friendly bot on iMessages advised I could call Apple support and discuss it with them.
So I did. After explaining the situation the friendly Apple person on the line looked at the order and said, “Just keep it, you’re all set”.
So now I have two new HomePod minis. This is a welcomed addition to our home, as we’ve been fighting with Alexa a LOT over the past several months.
While I’m talking about Alexa, who thought it was a good idea to have her shoot an ad after every single request?
“Alexa, turn off the ceiling lights”. “Lights off, did you know I can organize your to do list?”
“Alexa, what’s the weather tonight.”. “Here’s the weather…. did you know I can read you a bedtime story?”
One of the reasons I stick with Apple products and pay the premium prices is to avoid ads. I don’t want ads. Ever.
Luckily, these new HomePod minis don’t belch ads at us every five minutes.
Totally agree re. Amazon Echos. We unplugged ours a year or two ago and replaced with Google Home Audios which serve us well (this was before HomePod mini I think). I have a HomePod mini in my office and it’s so much nicer an experience. It’s also great to have a consistent voice with all my Apple things.
At some point I imagine we’d replace the Nest Audios, but right now they are doing OK. The day they start to belch ads though is the day I switch them off.