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Apple to Charge Fees for Out-of-Warranty Chat Support

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MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Apple is planning to institute fees for users that are seeking online chat support for out-of-warranty products, reports 9to5Mac. The company has reportedly been working on a new web payment system that includes a paid chat support feature as well as a function allowing customers to schedule product repairs and replacements.

upcomingchatfees.jpg
Currently, customers can use Apple Support's online chat feature at no cost to receive technical support on out-of-warranty products that are not covered by AppleCare, but the new rules would bring chat support under the same umbrella as Apple's phone support, which does carry fees for products with expired warranty periods.

All of Apple's products receive 90 days of phone support at purchase, which can be extended to three years with AppleCare. Customers seeking over-the-phone help for out-of-warranty products must pay a fee between $29 and $49. A similar fee of $19 will be required for chat support going forward, though users will be able to request an exception to the fee.

Apple has also developed a system that will allow customers to make payments via its support website, and that system will be used to set up hardware repairs and replacements via chat.
Using the new web payment system, we're told Apple plans to offer the ability to set up hardware repairs via chat that require a hold on a credit card or pay per incident fee. Rather than having to call in, users will be sent a link that's live for 24 hours in order to complete the payment.
Click to expand...
Chat fees reportedly began appearing in August following Apple's support site redesign that introduced 24/7 live chat, but thus far, employees have been instructed to grant exceptions on all support requests up to the official launch of the paid service.

Apple's new chat support policies may go into effect as soon as next week, but the company will reportedly be waiving fees for iCloud issues and accidental damage cases where users are requesting to purchase repair or a replacement via chat.

Article Link: Apple to Charge Fees for Out-of-Warranty Chat Support
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/02/28/apple-chat-support-fees/
B

Born Again

Suspended
May 12, 2011
4,073
5,325
Norcal
I remember the days when apple stood for excellence in customer service at no value.

It's truly turning to those dark days at apple.

Steve would have never allowed this.
 
Semester

Semester

macrumors regular
Oct 27, 2011
110
0
But was this actually free before? I don't think you had access to it, right?
 
M

macbookairman

macrumors 6502a
Jan 15, 2008
901
9
Nebraska
Radio said:
I remember the days when apple stood for excellence in customer service at no value.

It's truly turning to those dark days at apple.

Steve would have never allowed this.
Click to expand...

You're being dramatic. He allowed it for phone support. Why wouldn't he for chat support?
 
Broph

Broph

macrumors 6502
Jun 23, 2010
331
49
New Zealand
Semester said:
But was this actually free before? I don't think you had access to it, right?
Click to expand...

From article:

"Currently, customers can use Apple Support's online chat feature at no cost to receive technical support on out-of-warranty products that are not covered by AppleCare"
 
ghost187

ghost187

macrumors 6502a
Mar 18, 2010
965
2,042
They should keep this free instead of giving >$10B to shareholders every year.
 
8

869639

macrumors 6502
Jan 2, 2014
327
0
Earth
Well people don't get support for Out Of Warranty [OOW] devices anyway so having to pay to get support for it makes sense...otherwise walk into a store and see where you can get...

Its not like apple is charging those with a device under warranty...if u have warranty then don't worry about it.
 
M

mac-man 2008

macrumors newbie
Feb 24, 2008
5
0
I remember when I switched and left Microsoft behind. One of the things that won me over was the customer service, and Microsoft's lack of it (for which they charged a pretty penny for). Good job, Tim.
 
L

lusky

macrumors member
Sep 14, 2011
40
116
Dear Apple,

This is the sort of Nonsense that John Browett was so disliked for, stop it.

Yours,

everyone who pays more money for Apple products because of the service
 
L

Lazy

macrumors 6502
May 27, 2003
305
335
Silicon Valley
I didn't even know they offered such support. But fair enough to charge for it same as the phone support. Seems pretty reasonable to ask $19 for it compared to the phone prices. As long as they are liberal about waiving the fee (i.e. give the customer the benefit of the doubt as to whether they should be charged or not) I'll bet they'll be able to survive the rioting.
 
tshrimp

tshrimp

macrumors 6502
Mar 30, 2012
413
3,439
I keep getting slowly pushed away from Apple. I remember Apple's first downturn. Might happen again the way they are heading. I can spend $500 on a computer and get crappy service, but I won't spend $1000+ and get it. I am not so die hard Apple that I won't switch if I need to.
 
MasterHowl

MasterHowl

macrumors 65816
Oct 3, 2010
1,056
167
North of England
Back in 2010, I dropped my mid-2009 MBP and my CD drive shattered. I took it into my local Apple Store without even making an appointment (I didn't know how it all worked then!), and they replaced it for me there and then, free of charge. I didn't even buy it from an Apple Store, and I hadn't bought Apple Care!

This is one of the reasons so many of my friends have since got a Mac rather than a Windows PC, after seeing my experience with Apple customer service (along with it being a great OS, etc etc etc).

I really hope their customer service remains as good as it has been for me over the years (the Genius' have helped me out quite a few times, absolutely free of charge). It's one of the reasons I'd never go back to buying a Dell or HP etc, their customer service is shocking... I'd buy a Mac and run Boot Camp before I buy another Windows machine!
 
Parasprite

Parasprite

macrumors 68000
Mar 5, 2013
1,698
144
I think this will ensure that this feature I never used will never get used.

There really isn't much technical support I can think of that wouldn't require a follow-up in person anyways. And by technical support, I don't mean "I can't find Safari, plz fix".
 
J

jwc6160

macrumors regular
Aug 17, 2011
101
1
This is just sad. I switched from PC 6 years ago and this was why. Not only did I have non stop issues, but it was always a pain to fix them and it took 2 hours on the phone and $100.

I remember when I first had an issue with Apple. I called, said my issue and a person answers quickly and resolved my issue in minutes. The last time I called I had to get through 6 different phone screens to find out they couldn't even answer a simple question until I gave them money.

More and more like Dell/MS every day.
 
L

Lazy

macrumors 6502
May 27, 2003
305
335
Silicon Valley
mac-man 2008 said:
I remember when I switched and left Microsoft behind. One of the things that won me over was the customer service, and Microsoft's lack of it (for which they charged a pretty penny for). Good job, Tim.
Click to expand...

Indeed there are horror stories about the worthlessness of Microsoft's phone support for which I recall something like $79 minimum to get them to say hello.

But to be somewhat fair to the tech support staff at Microsoft no one can fix most Windows problems so it's not really surprising they can't either. :D
 
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