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Apple customer service is the best in the world?

  • You bet!

    Votes: 20 83.3%
  • Indeed.

    Votes: 4 16.7%

  • Total voters
    24
Oh yes. Just like the logic card replacements for the failed 2011 graphics issues. They will replace a part that failed with a part that is exactly the same as the one that failed and you hope you hit the lottery this time. Otherwise you play again until warranty expires

Kind of like the display on my 2013 MBP that was replaced 2 times under stain-gate and I sold it before it could fail again

because they used refurbished logic boards (2011) for replacement, new logic will last few times longer but even Apple didn't have them on stock

BTW another not so funny thing - they've installed "new" battery that was produced in January 2018 - 9 months ago. Of course it's still better than the used one I had but... 9 months old "new" battery? are you kidding me? It's quite sad their repair logistics is that bad they have such old equipment lying in numbers.

I hope it's not a refurbished 9 months old used battery they've reset cycle count for.

Apple can use refurbished parts because their policy
 
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Haha. You know the keyboard replacement is the same defective design, don't you? :) It will fail sooner or later. Let's hope for the "later".
The 2017 keyboard is still flawed, but it is more sturdy than the 2016. The nice thing is that they are doing the 4 year repair program, regardless of warranty status. And if it fails again, I'd see about trying to get them to swap you up to an equivalent configuration 2018 model, since those have the revised keyboard.
 
The 2017 keyboard is still flawed, but it is more sturdy than the 2016.
Maybe. But AFAIK they don't put 2017's keyboard when they replace 2016's keyboard.
The nice thing is that they are doing the 4 year repair program, regardless of warranty status. And if it fails again, I'd see about trying to get them to swap you up to an equivalent configuration 2018 model, since those have the revised keyboard.
Considering the level of support I've been getting in the UK lately - I very much doubt it happening. I would expect it in my home country or in the USA - both based on experience - but not in the UK unfortunately.
It was mentioned they want 2-3 repairs before replacement (and I doubt it's automatically the newest model replacement - they might have meant same year refurbished model).
 
Actually, they do. They don't replace it with 2018, though.
One more not so funny thing is that 2018's keyboards have issues as well. I'm living proof. My maxed-out MBP 13" 2018 is pending replacement as 3-4 keys (e, t, space etc) double press when pressed once.
Fortunately I'd be able to move to just repaired MBP 15" 2016 while it's being replaced (they've rejected the request to send the new one before I return the old one).
 
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Maybe. But AFAIK they don't put 2017's keyboard when they replace 2016's keyboard.

Considering the level of support I've been getting in the UK lately - I very much doubt it happening. I would expect it in my home country or in the USA - both based on experience - but not in the UK unfortunately.
It was mentioned they want 2-3 repairs before replacement (and I doubt it's automatically the newest model replacement - they might have meant same year refurbished model).

2016 model is replaced with a 2017 - for mine, in the UK. But they had to order my keyboard because it was a US-keyboard layout.
[doublepost=1538644360][/doublepost]
They didn't. :)
[doublepost=1538520786][/doublepost]As for the resolution - parts were delivered to the store on the 12th day and the laptop was fixed in 1 day after I dropped it at the store. It took them 13 out of agreed 14 days to fix the laptop. It's like you're dealing with UK government organisation and not a commercial company hailed for its customer support...

One funny thing is that the store again tried to say it would take up to 14 days when I was dropping the laptop at the store and only after explaining the whole situation (incl. mentioning Executive Relations monitoring the situation - see below) they've agreed it will not take more than 2 days (agreed period of 14 days minus 12 days wait for the part).

Another funny thing is that the parts were delivered to the store one day after I got a reply from Executive Relations as a response to my email to tcook@apple.com. Not sure if coincidence or a magical push from top. :)

Not so funny thing is that the reply from Executive Relations took 6 days after I wrote to tcook@apple.com. I hope (I really hope) they were making the store do everything in time and were not responding until they ensured it. I hope 6 days is not their regular response time.

Another not so funny thing is that after I finally took back my repaired laptop and wrote to Executive Relations back and described the last negative bits and asked what they think about the whole situation, the reply was basically "we'll do an internal investigation, please contact us if you need anything else, bye-bye". I hope I misunderstood the reply and will check back in a week or so.

We had very similar experience.

I just blamed it on them during my repeated repair that their engineers broke my Macbook so any more unnecessary wait is not welcomed. So they rushed and finished it within 3 days as repeated repair.

tcook@apple didnt reply to my email. They got back to me after i wrote a long letter to the EU HQ in Dublin.

they said the same thing, they will do an internal investigation - has been almost 1.5 months i never heard from them. I specifically told them that I want to know why was this experience possible at Apple.
 
they said the same thing, they will do an internal investigation - has been almost 1.5 months i never heard from them. I specifically told them that I want to know why was this experience possible at Apple.
I will just wait a week to let them have enough time for a response and then write to tcook@ again asking why executive relations is worse than even senior advisers. **** them .
 
Executive Relations team did nothing, did not return my calls, did not return my emails. Senior AppleCare adviser I was assigned several weeks ago did not return my calls or emails as well. On Friday I called to Apple myself and asked for help, they've assigned me new senior AppleCare adviser as the previous one was not responding.

He seemed to be the first person who really cared about the situation (more on this below). We talked for quite a long time, he agreed that the level of support I got is not up to Apple standards, he was surprised to hear no one followed up on complaints regarding store employees or previous AppleCare advisers - when I explained I was told it's because the complaint can only be handled internally, he said this is not the case and promised they will be followed-up. We had quite a long talk and eventually he said he needs to organise a meeting on the problem and will call me back.

Now why it seems he really cared about the situation. He did call me back on Friday two times but I could not answer both times (first - on a meeting, second - no mobile reception area). He called again today on Sunday, reached me and told me that...

Executive Relations team tried to contact me on Friday and could not. Funnily enough I've seen missed calls from him on Friday, I got automatic emails from Apple about these missed calls from him, but he was very surprised to hear I had NOTHING from Executive Relations team as if they've never tried to reach me, neither by phone nor by email. It seemed that Executive Relations team noted in their case like the senior AppleCare adviser from before summer that they've tried to contact the customer via phone, could not and they cannot do any more. How low has Apple fallen?

He explained to me that they "own" the case and until I finish resolution with them he cannot go forward with my case himself. He asked me to try to contact them on Monday and said he'll relay that I expect their call or email as well. What's best is he still promised he'll monitor the case and will contact me on Monday (he's off but might be at work)/Tuesday to check for the progress and mediate the contact with them if it does not happen by then.

He seems to be the first caring senior AppleCare adviser.

But this whole ordeal is effing crazy. *Executive* Relations behave like first line of phone support. They have written to me via email first and they've responded to me via email once. And still "they could not contact me on Friday". Holy...

I wrote to them how unacceptable this is and wrote some lines to tcook@ again asking to revise how bad Executive Relations are. Let's see what happens.

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Actually, they do. They don't replace it with 2018, though.
Do you know if 661-07955 is a 2017 top-case replacement part? Or is it 2016?
 
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Do you know if 661-07955 is a 2017 top-case replacement part? Or is it 2016?

You can tell whether it is 2016 or not by looking at the icons on the command, option, control keys. Those are different between 2016 and the rest.
 
:)

Two days ago I sent an email to Tim Cook asking if there are plans to produce a Macbook Pro Pro without keyboard failing after two weeks of use. On the same day, I got a phone call from Apple. Somewhat bewildered, I asked how they had my number. I was told it was associated with my Apple ID. Fair deal. The lady who called told me I would get a call from Executive Relations tomorrow.

The next day I got an email from ER informing me they needed to talk to me on the phone, but didn't have my number. Er. I sent the phone number.

This morning I received an email telling me they will definitely call today, but first they'd like to know the S/Ns of all three MBPs that I had returned due to keyboard failures. I sent them those three numbers. The next email asked me for the S/N of the third MBP. Trying to keep the snark at bay, I copy-pasted the number from the previous mail I sent.

In the meantime I received an email from the reseller who sold me the laptop informing me the keyboard repair (the screen got scratched, so they refused to replace it) will take 3-4 weeks (that's longer than I had the laptop). Apple ER are very, very quiet.

To be continued, I'm afraid.
 
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:)

In the meantime I received an email from the reseller who sold me the laptop informing me the keyboard repair (the screen got scratched, so they refused to replace it) will take 3-4 weeks (that's longer than I had the laptop). Apple ER are very, very quiet.

To be continued, I'm afraid.

You had mentioned in another thread that you baby your machine and never saw the scratch on it before. Are you even sure that it was you and not the repair facility that scratched it?
 
:)

Two days ago I sent an email to Tim Cook asking if there are plans to produce a Macbook Pro Pro without keyboard failing after two weeks of use. On the same day, I got a phone call from Apple. Somewhat bewildered, I asked how they had my number. I was told it was associated with my Apple ID. Fair deal. The lady who called told me I would get a call from Executive Relations tomorrow.

The next day I got an email from ER informing me they needed to talk to me on the phone, but didn't have my number. Er. I sent the phone number.

This morning I received an email telling me they will definitely call today, but first they'd like to know the S/Ns of all three MBPs that I had returned due to keyboard failures. I sent them those three numbers. The next email asked me for the S/N of the third MBP. Trying to keep the snark at bay, I copy-pasted the number from the previous mail I sent.

In the meantime I received an email from the reseller who sold me the laptop informing me the keyboard repair (the screen got scratched, so they refused to replace it) will take 3-4 weeks (that's longer than I had the laptop). Apple ER are very, very quiet.

To be continued, I'm afraid.

I don't know what to say, after all you will insist on typing on it :p

On more serious note I'd be beyond unimpressed with the hardware and Apple's service to say the very least. My worst fear as naturally Apple's policy's are not universal, so no 14 day return period for me and the chance of being stuck with a lemon these days is simply too high, given the faults are related to piss poor design...

I'd want the money back, sit back and decide as your most definitely in a circus right now with Tim Cook being the Ring Master...

Q-6
 
You had mentioned in another thread that you baby your machine and never saw the scratch on it before. Are you even sure that it was you and not the repair facility that scratched it?
TBH I am ALMOST sure, but obviously can't prove it. The laptop went to be returned at the store, they took it to the back room to check if I definitely logged out of iCloud etc., then brought it back *as the replacement was already waiting* and announced they just saw a scratch, so they can't replace it. I didn't take photos of the screen, because it didn't occur to me this might even happen...

By now I feel buying this MBP was the most costly mistake of my life. Especially as with four weeks of wait for the repair, I will obviously be out of my 30-day (at this particular reseller) return window even if they feel generous and replace the screen as well. So weirdly by now my only hope is that the keyboard breaks two more times :p
 
TBH I am ALMOST sure, but obviously can't prove it. The laptop went to be returned at the store, they took it to the back room to check if I definitely logged out of iCloud etc., then brought it back *as the replacement was already waiting* and announced they just saw a scratch, so they can't replace it. I didn't take photos of the screen, because it didn't occur to me this might even happen...

By now I feel buying this MBP was the most costly mistake of my life. Especially as with four weeks of wait for the repair, I will obviously be out of my 30-day (at this particular reseller) return window even if they feel generous and replace the screen as well. So weirdly by now my only hope is that the keyboard breaks two more times :p

That’s a very sad and unfortunate story for sure. I still can’t even believe they are denying a claim based on a surface scratch on the display, when it is the keyboard that has so throughly and repeatedly failed. They would have had to refurbish that machine and sell it as such anyway. If I recall you said it was a 3rd party reseller and not an Apple store? Is Apple
willing to go the extra mile and do anything directly with you?
 
Is Apple service getting universally bad


The huge number of problems with MBP and such stories make me seriously think if it is time to ditch Apple products.
 
If I recall you said it was a 3rd party reseller and not an Apple store? Is Apple willing to go the extra mile and do anything directly with you?
I got contacted by Executive Relations, they took the serial numbers, and are contacting the reseller. I think Apple believe it's a batch of lemons, as it's hard to believe Tim Cook would pick such a costly way of phasing out macOS :p I also got the promised call from Apple yesterday, but it was the time of day when I couldn't pick up. So something is happening, although I don't know what yet.

The reseller's customer service, whom I contacted simply because I already had a "no" so I had nothing to lose, apologised for not replacing it. Then escalated the issue to see if I can get a new one anyway instead of waiting four weeks. In general I must say I am more impressed with the reseller than Apple themselves. And I stopped recommending Apple products to anybody. Including myself *sigh*

- sent from a 1956 Chromebook with working keyboard but not much else really, so the precise opposite of the MBP
 
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The reseller's customer service, whom I contacted simply because I already had a "no" so I had nothing to lose, apologised for not replacing it. Then escalated the issue to see if I can get a new one anyway instead of waiting four weeks. In general I must say I am more impressed with the reseller than Apple themselves. And I stopped recommending Apple products to anybody. Including myself *sigh*
I'm on my last breath in Apple frankly. I'm still waiting for Executive Relations to return the last call and in progress of replacing my maxed-out MBP 13" 2018. If the replacement breaks again or the resolution of Executive Relations is out of touch, I will likely switch to something like HP Spectre Folio or Dell XPS 13" or Lenovo analogue maxed-out right now. Otherwise - next year (just because it's too much of hassle replacing the laptop for one more time, I'm tired of backing up the data and restoring it - 2TB takes time).
 
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The reseller got back to me, and they offered me a full refund as a voucher, i.e. I could buy any computer from them and either pay extra, or get the rest of money back. I went for my last MBP, changing the model to 16/1TB/i5. I have a suspicion (because I used 8GB base i5 for a while) that it's this particular 16/512 model that might have just one out as one bad batch.

If this one ALSO fails, I'm getting a 6th gen X1 Carbon and hackintoshing it.
 
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