Q: I purchased an iPod with a Circuit City Advantage plan. The warranty kit says "hassle-free replacement by gift card." I bought a two-year extended warranty. When the iPod battery would not hold a charge, I tried to use my warranty 14 months later. But they would not send me a gift card, instead sending a rebuilt iPod. The rep at Circuit City said that Apple made them change the conditions of the warranty. Shouldn't the terms of the original agreement I bought be honored?

DOUG BLUM

Ross

A: Absolutely the terms of the original protection plan should be honored, unless you accept what you are told and quietly go off into the sunset. There's no reason to do that in this situation, Doug. Your complaint is a solid one.

First of all, let's take a look at your deal. You paid $379 for an iPod and $110 more for a Circuit City Advantage Protection Plan. Your paperwork makes it clear that if you have any problems within the two years of coverage, you get a free replacement gift card toward anything in the store. So why didn't that work for you?

If you sign a contract for an extended warranty, the terms of that contract are generally set until the contract expires. The state attorney general's office says a company can change the terms of an agreement by informing consumers that a change is taking place. Consumers can then accept the new terms or decline them and be compensated for the time left on the original warranty. That did not happen in your case.

Even if Apple changed the terms of an iPod warranty, your warranty is with Circuit City, not Apple. You should not have to accept a rebuilt iPod if your extended warranty promises you a replacement gift card for the full amount of your purchase.

Although the manager of the Circuit City where you bought your iPod did step up and offer to honor your original warranty, you should not have had to go to all this trouble.

I talked to Jim Babb of Circuit City's corporate office.

"We are sorry the customer had problems with his policy and we're looking into the issue you raised," he said. "I'm gratified the store director took care of the customer's replacement issue."

The issue raised is whether this is an isolated incident or part of a more widespread problem. Customers who tried to use an extended warranty on an iPod at Circuit City and had a similar problem should let Circuit City know about it. If the situation isn't corrected with this or any other extended warranty, you should immediately file a complaint with the attorney general's Office of Consumer Protection at www.attorneygeneral.gov or toll-free at 1-800-441-2555.