Anyone else feel like the “great customer service” at Apple is almost mythical?

[turbineseaplane]

Anyone else feel like the “great customer service” at Apple is almost mythical?

Depends who you talk to and how long they've been around

For those of us around Apple stuff for decades, the current support situation is "MegaCorp Dreadful" compared to how it used to be.

But in the context of "MegaCorps", Apple seems above average to me.

They have a zillion customers now. It's really hard to scale up CS and keep it as amazing as it once was.

 

[AmpSkillz]

lol guess you never dealt with MSFT customer service recently

 

[flexwithmarius]

I've definitely had mixed experiences.

In Orlando, FL at one of the early stores, they apparently hired a Genius (a friend had worked with him previously) who didn't really know what he was saying. However, someone else at the Genius Bar helped me once I made an audio/video recording with the original iSight to determine the broken fan.

In Cincinnati, OH, they connected me to the internet with an Ethernet cable so I could purchase an Apple software product suite that was quite big.

In the Philadelphia area, employees at the stores were quite friendly.

In Brea, CA, the employee walked away in the middle of my sentence.

In Modesto, CA, the person ahead of me was told that he was three minutes late and would not be helped.

Apple probably has standards but people ignore them because they just don't care.

It’s retail — heavily dependent on the employee and their attitude towards the job

 

[Abazigal]

I have always had excellent service at Apple stores, but I get the feeling they are understaffed. Too many people visiting Apple stores to take their devices serviced, and there are often times when the employees there just can’t cope.

Funny thing last Dec - I went to have my 13 pro max battery replaced, something that would normally take about an hour. Instead, I was informed it would take 4 hours because there were too many people there to have their phone and Apple Watch batteries serviced. 😅

 

[Buadhai]

It really depends on how difficult your problem is. I had email failures with a 15" M2 MBA right from the get go. (TLS authentication errors and SMTP 554 5.7.1 errors.) I ended up having really long phone/email conversations with three different Senior Support reps. None of them could solve the issues. All three of them gave up and ended up ghosting me. The first two simply stopped responding to email. The third failed to ever call me back after our phone conversation got cut off.

Just my luck that an unexpected failure on a different machine showed me the way to a solution on my own.

 

[Shanghaichica]

The chat and phone operatives have been very helpful on The rare occasions I’ve used them. I’ve never had any hardware issues with any of my Apple devices. I haven’t been to an Apple Store for years. I would say since 2019. I order online these days.

 

[Christopher Kim]

Some great thoughts here. Put me in the camp that in general, I‘ve had very good customer service from Apple. I am lucky to have many Apple Stores near me (in Los Angeles), and are particularly close to one that is in a nicer area.

I agree that:
- With so many retail employees, and the changing times / COVID / general population, your experience can be highly dependent on who you happen to speak with, the day they’re having, etc.
- Your own attitude, and self-awareness of how you come off, degree of entitlement, approach, etc. makes a BIG difference. Especially these days, where post-COVID, the level of decorum and general politeness in the US feels like an all-time low. Those in retail / customer service must have to put up with a lot more sh *t these days, and it must be trying…
- Apple‘s customer service used to be more “generous”. Over the last 7-10 years, as more people abused the system, I can imagine there’s been directives from the top-down that they had to tighten things up. As is often the case, “this is why we can’t have nice things”. The abusers eventually ruin it for all the customers who are actually being honest, and should deserve the benefit of the doubt…

I do still think that Apple’s customer service is well ahead of most other retailers. Even more so if you have AppleCare+ - almost any other extended warranty policy anywhere else, you’ll find people trying to find a way to *deny* your claim. I still feel like Apple employees are trying to find a way to *approve* your claim.

 

[G5isAlive]

I'm an old timer, been buying Apple since 1984 and have dealt with customer service 100's of times and really only once had a bad experience in a store, but that was more the employee than Apple. Noticed that employee was not there for long. I find if you don't act entitled, come in with a smile, are patient, and dont try to ask for more than is reasonable, then things go well. And I always thank them for their help.

But I am not perfect, and don't expect others to be either. I also know devices are also not perfect. So I don't return my new iPhone 8 times because I feel entitled to perfect. You read about that all the time here. I don't sweat the small stuff.

Apple is far above the rest of the vendors I have dealt with, except maybe Disney.