An APPLE support GOOD experience!

[Grokgod]

I have read on this board SO many posts about BAD APPLE tech support etc.

Casting APPLE in a very bad light, siting rudeness and incompetence, etc.

I have to say that my recent yet to be resolved dealing with APPLE is so far quite interesting and good.

Let me preface this small dialogue by stating that when I knew that I was going to deal with APPLE about my purchase of a VERY HOT! ALubook.
Defectively HOT, see red hands and sweat pouring from brow!

I took it upon myself not to take the aggressive stance or to be unhappy in anyway. i have heard SO many stories about bad situtions and dealings and often wondered if these irrate Mac customers were equally angry on the phone and if this was a mitigating factor in the resolution.

So in my call to APPLE i was quite content and calm dispite the fact that I had just spent over $2000. for a Aluminum Toaster, despite the fact that i was able to make toast after my old GE died.

I love Toast as most Englishmen do.

Upon initiating the call and speaking to a Apple rep.
I noticed that he was very considerate and interested in my problem.
I never took the stance of aggresion or that i was being ripped off.

He even offered his perspective on the heat issue by relating the reality that it is getting harder and harder for Apple to create a cool laptop and that they are hitting a barrier.

I have NEVER heard a Rep speak in this manner of admitting or relating a problem to APPLE.

In fact after a short and concise conversation.
the REP offered to move this up a level to an equally if not more so
considerate TECH.

The Tech was so alarmingly intelligent and helpful in his explaination of my situation and offered his own insights by way of his experiences with his laptop which is also a 1.5 Alubook. His final and easy conclusion was that my powerbook was malfunctioning possibly due to a hard drive problem or a loose heat sink.

He immediately offered to have the PB returned to APPLE for a TECh fix or even a Replacement.

I accepted the FIX since the screen is perfect on this unit and I like it that way.

Now, i have had a 1.3 ALubook that i sold because it was Too hot for me, and after a nightmare with APPLE. I wanted it gone.

So far this is the BEST experience that i have ever had with APPLE.

I look forward to hearing other positive experiences with APPLE since there have been so many BAD stories, here.

Also any users that have a heat issue may be very interested in this outcome. Sorry if this post was too long, i tried to be brief/!

 

[virividox]

well im glad you had a good experience
all my experiences when i had to send my ipod for repairs and replace my keyboard on my pb (kinda my fault) were great. i guess it just depends who you speak to, but i feel apple has great support but bad experiences are just heart more than the good ones

ps its mac not MAC hehe

 

[sethwerkheiser]

I've never had a problem with Apple Support

I've only been a Mac user for a bit over a year (my year being May 23, 2003), and I've called Apple Care for some doozies. I mean, I've called and asked how to remove an Applescript menulet from the Menu Bar (now I know. Hold Down APPLE, drag from menu bar, release). Heck, the woman I spoke too didnt even know and had to ask someone else! haha... Im sure they get much tougher questions than that through the course of the day.

but yea, they've always been patient with me and well, I guess it might be because I was patient with them. I mean, when I first convinced my wife to switch and I had a problem or two, I coulda easily called Apple and been like, "Why doesnt this work?!?" and such. Heck, when our iBook died while on the road, a week before my wifes finals, heh... we coulda been real irate, but we kept cool.

I guess it's the whole "we're all human" element.

 

[solvs]

Well, I guess you only hear about the horror stories. My limited experiance with Apple (the company, not the computer... I've used many Apples) has usually been positive. Sometimes you get the not-so-bright people, but most of the time they've been pretty considerate.

My experiance with Dell, on the other hand, has been hit and miss.

 

[Counterfit]

Grok and seth, it seems you guys also have found the secret to getting good tech support. Patience and treating the person on the other end like the human they are. Some people are just jerks to those in the service industry (and some don't even know it ), but I'm sure it would change quickly if they had to switch places.

 

[titaniumducky]

It seems that people take for granted all the good experiences, but repeatedly complain about the rare bad ones.

"Once I did bad - of that I heard ever. Twice I did good - of that I heard never."

 

[Fukui]

It seems that people take for granted all the good experiences, but repeatedly complain about the rare bad ones.

"Once I did bad - of that I heard ever. Twice I did good - of that I heard never."

People dont talk about good news nearly as much as bad news...

 

[Kingsnapped]

I had a good one with my Airport extreme the other day. I called and told them about its issues (see previous posts) and they listened to me without asking for money. The guy then admitted something was wrong and OVERNIGHTED me a new basestation. Apple rules.

 

[aswitcher]

Glad to hear a food story.

Wonder if there are any from oz...

 

[Ozi]

yeah my experience was a good one. The computer came, no problems (except for the "wobble" but i dont mind about that) and no dead pixels.

I run FaH non stop and play GPU and CPU intesive games (Halo, AA, iConquer LMAO) and i am yet to hear the fan. The bottom of my comp only ever gets warm, and never EVER hot enough to "make toast on."

A downside of this even moderate heat is that when i leave my comp running (screen off) during the day, my cat comes and sits on the keyboard! She likes the warmth, but i come home to find apps open, with garbled typing in them! ggggggggggggggjjkehooooa'vsdfgk'ksjfblnjjjjjdddddddddddddddddddddddddkkkkkkkkkbbjjjjjjjjjjjjjttttttttttttt etc etc.

Very Annoying!! then theres the fact that i have to take cat hair off my keyboard: not cool. So now i put a box on it to stop the little fiend from doing it any more.

so no problems with Apple Australia, just my cat.

~ozi

 

[aswitcher]

so no problems with Apple Australia, just my cat.

~ozi

Nice cat story

Well delivery of a fully functioning machine is good but also expected.

But I am interested in cases where all does not go as planned and Apple Australia has to be dealt with...

 

[Nermal]

Upon initiating the call and speaking to a Apple rep.
I noticed that he was very considerate and interested in my problem.
I never took the stance of aggresion or that i was being ripped off.

You forgot to capitalise Apple in this paragraph

My only experience with Apple support (Australia) was a good one. I wasn't put on hold and wasn't treated like an idiot.

Edit: Now that I've read all the posts, it looks like aswitcher wants a detailed explanation.

My iBook got bitten by the notorious logic board failure. I looked on Apple NZ's site for support details and found a toll-free number for Apple Australia support. I rang it, followed the instructions (press 1 for iMac, 2 for Power Mac, etc), and was connected to a guy named Chris without being put on hold (I remember his name because I'm also Chris)

I explained the problem, he sounded surprised by it (it didn't seem to be a very common problem at the time), but quickly decided something was damaged. That was the end of my experience with Apple, I had to send the iBook to a service centre (not run by Apple). Didn't have too much trouble with them, other than having to wait a week for them to get a new logic board (although that wasn't their fault). But being stuck on a Windows PC for a week wasn't pleasant!

 

[jknight8907]

I was very impressed with the only time I've ever had to call. I called the regular support line to ask a not really support question (just to see how long it took--I was still investigating whether to get one or not), and I was only on hold 5 minutes. Normal weekday too.