A Look at Apple's Handling of Customer Emails to Executives as Tim Cook Takes Charge

[james.sumners]

Back in January, right after Jobs left on leave, I sent in a feature request for iBooks via the iTunes support page. It was the only place I could find to do such a thing that was even close to what I wanted. Anyway, the reply I received was barely English and did not at all address my request. I felt like someone at Apple needed to be made aware of the poor customer support, but I had no idea to whom I would write.

So, since Jobs wasn't technically working at the time, I sent my email to Tim Cook. I did not receive a direct reply from him, but his office did read my email and take immediate action. They even went so far as to call me, despite me not including a phone number in my email.

Based on my experience, I think his office will handle emails sent directly to him as is appropriate.

 

[nylonsteel]

re original article
seems amazing mr cook finds time to look at customer emails with all that is on his plate now

 

[joneill55]

Wait, you're telling me that in the first 6 months MobileMe was launched, Jobs received only 242 complaints?

If so, about 10% of those are from me.

Are we sure we aren't missing the "in thousands" small print somewhere?

Another 30% from me as well as I received 3 Emails from Steve about fixing the problems. I chuckled when the Forbes article surfaced about SJ the MM teams reaction.

To Apple credit, MM did give me 3 free year upgrade subscription due to enormous data loose and sync problems. Before anyone asks, Apple did refund me all three years of MM when iCloud was announced. All i did was provide the subscription renewal numbers. Smart biz folk those Apple execs. I'm looking forward to iCloud when it rolls out!

 

[DrJohnnyN]

re original article
seems amazing mr cook finds time to look at customer emails with all that is on his plate now

He is a genuinely nice guy from what I can tell by the 4 emails we've exchanged so far this morning.

 

[divinox]

This reminds me of that autosignature thing the president had made. Do we have any, i mean any, reason to believe that it is actually Tim that is responding to these e-mails? After all, its not like underlings taking care of correspondance isnt common practice.

Stated otherwise: Just because Santa replies to your letter doesnt mean that santa exists.

 

[WeegieMac]

As much as I do wish Tim all the best and am sure he'll do a great job for Apple as full time CEO, I couldn't send him an email wishing him all the best without feeling like I was saying, "Congrats on taking an ill mans job".

I don't mean that in a derisory manner, so please hear me out. It's no secret that Steve has only stepped aside because he can no longer carry out the day to day duties required of a CEO, but as well as that it's pretty certain that guys like Tim, Phil Schiller, Scott Forstall, Jonny Ive, etc will be feeling awful about Steve and wishing him all the best with his battle with his illness.

So while it's great to see Tim take the time to respond to emails, I think it's most certainly a professional front because they will be feeling pretty low on a personal level with how poorly Steve has become.

 

[arcite]

As much as I do wish Tim all the best and am sure he'll do a great job for Apple as full time CEO, I couldn't send him an email wishing him all the best without feeling like I was saying, "Congrats on taking an ill mans job".

I don't mean that in a derisory manner, so please hear me out. It's no secret that Steve has only stepped aside because he can no longer carry out the day to day duties required of a CEO, but as well as that it's pretty certain that guys like Tim, Phil Schiller, Scott Forstall, Jonny Ive, etc will be feeling awful about Steve and wishing him all the best with his battle with his illness.

So while it's great to see Tim take the time to respond to emails, I think it's most certainly a professional front because they will be feeling pretty low on a personal level with how poorly Steve has become.

It sucks, but that's life.

 

[janderson0719]

I wonder how many emails Tim Cook received so far asking him, "Can you please tell me when iPhone 5 is coming? Oh and you rock!"

 

[Obi-Wan Kubrick]

re original article
seems amazing mr cook finds time to look at customer emails with all that is on his plate now

Well he has been acting CEO since January so I doubt his work flow increased other than having to sign a lot of paper work for the transition.

 

[Heilage]

That response seemed a lot mor human than Jobs' regular responses...

 

[pradeepgj]

really???

You guyz really think he is personally responding to your emails?? I doubt if apple would pay the kinda money for him to respond to congrats emails.

I dont doubt that he is a nice guy n all. But that does not mean he is personally responding to you.

They probably pay some one to do his PR work.

 

[WestonHarvey1]

Wait, you're telling me that in the first 6 months MobileMe was launched, Jobs received only 242 complaints?

If so, about 10% of those are from me.

Are we sure we aren't missing the "in thousands" small print somewhere?

Most people aren't nerdy enough to actually email Steve Jobs. Most MobileMe customers probably never noticed anything wrong with the service, or just called Apple support or Google'd solutions to the problems they were having and left it at that.

----------

You guyz really think he is personally responding to your emails?? I doubt if apple would pay the kinda money for him to respond to congrats emails.

I dont doubt that he is a nice guy n all. But that does not mean he is personally responding to you.

They probably pay some one to do his PR work.

I think you overestimate how many emails he actually gets. There are a lot of things on the internet which compete for people's attention.

 

[BJMRamage]

maybe a 5% random sampling of emails that day.

interesting if he really does respond and not a administrative response from an underling.

 

[isoMorpheus]

The whole university mascot thing is very uncool.

 

[Spoony]

Tim Cook's Commencement Speech. It's a good speech. Talks about Jobs. This from a few years ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEAX...0B9B54&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1

 

[WestonHarvey1]

"Hi Tim, can I please have an iPhone 4 that actually works? I am on my 8th phone in 9 months.

PS, WAR DAMN EAGLE"

That's a pretty ridiculous streak of bad luck. Almost seems statistically impossible.

----------

The whole university mascot thing is very uncool.

Why?

 

[hayesk]

I am a dyed in the wool Georgia Bulldog (forgive the mixed metaphor), and I was trained to loathe all things Auburn. I love Apple's products, but I'm going to have a damn hard time giving money to a company that has a CEO who will in turn pump money back into the coffers of a team and school that I REALLY don't like...

The school I went to taught me to think for myself and make my own decisions on people about factors that actually matter, not what animal mascot was used at a school they went to.

 

[Tigger92]

You guyz really think he is personally responding to your emails?? I doubt if apple would pay the kinda money for him to respond to congrats emails.

I dont doubt that he is a nice guy n all. But that does not mean he is personally responding to you.

They probably pay some one to do his PR work.

Actually, from the people I personally work with....one being Tim's former boss at IBM and several others that worked with him there, he is certainly the type to personally respond.

 

[Lone Deranger]

The school I went to taught me to think for myself and make my own decisions on people about factors that actually matter, not what animal mascot was used at a school they went to.

Sounds like you went to the better school!

 

[AidenShaw]

The school I went to taught me to think for myself and make my own decisions on people about factors that actually matter, not what animal mascot was used at a school they went to.

My private college didn't have a mascot.

 

[ChristopherDrum]

242 complaints

Wait, you're telling me that in the first 6 months MobileMe was launched, Jobs received only 242 complaints?

All that is saying is that of the complaints received, 242 were escalated (see the title of the graph "Executive Escalations") to Jobs. It makes no statement about the (undoubtedly) vast quantity of complaints received.

 

[Slurpy2k8]

A rational person might begin to think after that many it's not the phone. With all the people I know with iPhones, friends, neighbors and nearly everyone I work with, never have I heard of someone returning it 8 times, let alone twice.

Meanwhile, my phone has worked perfectly since it launched 15 months ago... as is the case with almost everyone I know who has an iPhone. Since they sold 20+million last quarter, I somehow doubt it's a defective product.

 

[tigress666]

I am a dyed in the wool Georgia Bulldog (forgive the mixed metaphor), and I was trained to loathe all things Auburn. I love Apple's products, but I'm going to have a damn hard time giving money to a company that has a CEO who will in turn pump money back into the coffers of a team and school that I REALLY don't like...

Oh, you're one of those farmers....

I mean if we want to play the "I'm only going to view you as my school views you" that's how I'll view you (Georgia Tech graduate here).

But, honestly, even when I was going to Tech I found the whole school rivalry while maybe fun to play along with stupid to take all that seriously. Especially as seriously as you seem to want to take it.

 

[Doctor Q]

I know people like to know the executives pay attention to customers, but I'd rather see Tim Cook manage the company than take time replying to individual emails. I thought the same about Steve Jobs.

 

[MacTheSpoon]

It's so weird to see someone who isn't Steve Jobs at the helm. I still pause every time I load up MacRumors and see the news banner announcing his resignation.