Apple Having Support Problems?

[MacRumors]

Over the past month or so, there appears to have been an uptick in user dissatisfaction with Apple's handling of support incidents. While overall satisfaction is extremely hard to gauge due to the fact that typically only disgruntled users notify sites of issues and the uptick could also simply represent Apple's increased marketshare, it does come amongst reports of Apple firing its online forum moderator staff and an Indian support center that was shut down as quickly as it was opened. Similarly, many people felt that Apple was ill-prepared for yesterday's 1.8 million battery recall, as Apple's support site was quickly overloaded with requests and there was a lot of confusion as to what batteries were affected.

This all could, of course be coincidental. Of note, Apple has consistently been a market leader in surveys on customer support.


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[zelet]

dotMac support is the worst!

dotMac support is horrible! There have been a ton of problems with their email service being labeled as a spam source lately. They aren't fixing the problem and there is no way of contacting support besides some worthless email form that only gets you canned responses in reply. They have no phone support either.

So, for a $100 a year service you get a blacklisted email address and no support. Yay for Apple!

 

[drumpat01]

I tried to type in my battery serial number only to have it say it was invalid even though I fell with in the given range of serial numbers. So I called Apple and after waiting on hold for about 20min they said I WAS VALID! So I dont know whats going on, but if you seem to be having the same problem you should DEFINITELY call them and double check your battery serial number.

 

[mkjellman]

well, i've been on the phone with apple 13 times in the past month. other than very long hold times, which is unusual, my issues have been completely resolved each time to my complete satistaction. i don't know if people are upset at the 15+ minute hold times, but i think apple is still doing what they do best.

 

[Warbrain]

I suspect a large amount of the issues are stemming from the problems with the Intel Macs and people are probably calling more about these problems. I could be wrong.

But yesterday did suck. That site went down in an instant. But then again, the Apple recall got a whole lot more news coverage than the Dell recall.

 

[Parikh1234]

I have had no luck today getting two batteries replaced. I enter their serial numbers and it tells me they are not valid serials, even though they fall within the range. When I call the support number and hit 5, i just get a busy tone and it hangs up on me.

 

[daneoni]

Well i guess they've become so popular it hurts...literally

 

[Nuc]

Well I wasn't to happy with them yesterday because I got hung up on 5 times. The answering system must have been having problems. I'm on the phone right now with them, waiting..., so that I can get the Nike+ iPod kit replaced. To bad they didn't have more support staff to answer calls...

Nuc

 

[whoson1st0]

I had the same problem with their battery recall site. My PB s/n was valid but it said my battery was not.

I tried calling the apple support number provided but every time I pressed '5' to talk to someone about the battery issue, I would get disconnected.

Eventually I reached tech support (after a 30 minute wait, I assume because others were having the same problem as me and also calling tech support) and the analyst said the database of valid batteries was not yet complete and they were telling everyone to check back today (I have not checked yet).

What bothered me, of course, is why couldn't they post this information on the battery support page? Or put it on the message when you call apple support? Instead the message over the phone simply pointed users back to the website, which of course wasn't working, and thus I spent almost an hour wasting my time on something that apple knew wasn't working yet.

I mean sure, this entire incident wasn't the worst thing in the world, but it certainly doesn't raise my confidence in apple support or customer satisfaction.

 

[ghall]

Hey, I'm not about to complain, they sent me a brand new MacBook Pro (even though I was on hold for an hour). Yeah, I have certainly noticed longer hold times on the support lines. Crazy, huh?

 

[~Shard~]

Apple needs to address this situation appropriately. As their products gain higher profile, as their customer base increases and they gain market share, it's only logical to think that there will be a greater need for support. If nothing else, it's simple math - more Macs out there = more problems! Esepcially with how well the Intel Macs have been selling, I think Apple would be foolish to think that what was good enough a few years ago is still good enough today in terms of support.

Apple must also realize the importance of first impressions. Now more than ever new switchers are coming on board to the Intel platform, and if they have problems right off the bat and poor customer service and support, that's going to leave a sour taste in their mouth, and perhaps they may just get fed up and switch back.

Apple is so good at so many things - let's hope they ensure this is the case for their Support services as well.

 

[iGary]

Apple needs to address this situation appropriately. As their products gain higher profile, as their customer base increases and they gain market share, it's only logical to think that there will be a greater need for support.

You're missing a comma.

 

[~Shard~]

You're missing a comma.

Am I, where, exactly?

 

[bigandy]

the vocal minority are always the ones who have problems

 

[swingerofbirch]

OK, as long as we are kvetching, I e-mailed dotmac support because some of my e-mails weren't going through..

I sent a test e-mail from dotmac webmail to my gmail account, which didn't go through.

They wrote back with instructions that said:

Thank you for contacting Apple.

Based on the information you provided, we understand that one of two emails you sent to your Gmail email address was not delivered, nor is email present in the Sent Messages folder.

For the purpose of our investigation, please reply and provide the following information:

- What is the subject of the email that failed to deliver?
- Was the email sent using .Mac Mail on the web, or an email client such as Mac OS X Mail?
- Did the email contain an attachment? If so, what is the size of the attachment?

subject of the email that was not delivered. Additionally, please provide a copy of the email header from the email that was successfully delivered.

To view a message's full header text using Gmail:

1. Log in to Gmail, <http://www.gmail.com/>.
2. Open a message sent from the JDate service.
3. Next to message delivery time, click "More options."
4. Click "Show original."

A new browser window will open displaying the message's full text, including the header. Please include a copy of the full text presented in the new browser window.

Sincerely,

Chris​

Look at the part I bolded! I DO subscribe to e-mail from J Date that I receive at gmail but I NEVER mentioned ANYTHING about J date to dotmac...it is completely irreleveant to the e-mail I sent them.

I called custmer relations and they said they would get dotmac to contact me in 24 hours to explain the message but THEY HAVE NOT CALLED OR WRITTEN.


Dotmac has been a HEADACHE this last year...they have lost my e-mail and webpages, and now somehow seem to be prying into my personal life!

 

[MacSync]

Conflicting Reports?

Ahh did any one see this?

http://www.macnn.com/articles/06/08/23/apple.tops.pc.mag.survey/

Hmm. I've had a G5 DP worked on lately and had great support.

*Edit Nevermind, they are linking the PC mag story too.

 

[illegalprelude]

Call it what you want but these new MacBooks are crap. Yea there is people who are enjoying theirs without a hitch but look at all the reports of problems. Not once on this forum have we had a flood of problems with a single unit. Apple dropped the ball on this one. Poorly made unit

 

[crawdad62]

I was a "Helper" in the discussions and I'm now a "Level 4." I've been around the discussions for quite a while. I can't say anything about the support people are getting on the phone by personal experience but I've seen a lot of rumblings on the discussions.

As was stated it's hard to gauge exactly how people are treated because most are frustrated even before they call. Same thing happens in the discussions.

My only dealings with Apple Support was a few years ago. On Christmas day the modem on my Pismo went out. I just for a lark called to see if anyone was in and not only was someone there I was taken care of quite nicely. The next day I had a box to send it off and three days later I had it back. Not bad for a notebook that was about two weeks short of the warranty expiring.

I think that Apples growth of late might be the cause of some problems. They've got a bunch of new user (switchers) that might need a bit more "hand holding" (and that's not meant to be derogatory, it's just people that aren't exactly used to Mac in general).

I know one thing for sure. Apple's decision to let their Discussions staff go wasn't a good thing.

 

[nagromme]

It would be a shame to Apple toss aside its consistent record of having the industry's best support.

But it takes more than a few weeks of anonymous "uptick" to indicate such a dire turn of events.

Now, if such a thing did come to pass, I welcome every complaint and flame Apple can get: feedback is what gets them back on track.

And it's a shame about the discussion staff--seems like an odd move from where I'm standing.

 

[nagromme]

Call it what you want but these new MacBooks are crap. Yea there is people who are enjoying theirs without a hitch but look at all the reports of problems. Not once on this forum have we had a flood of problems with a single unit. Apple dropped the ball on this one. Poorly made unit

Actually EVERY single Apple product has had a "flood of problems" on this--and every other--Mac forum. Just as every product by every other company has had the same.

It's human nature (not to mention useful) to post when you have a problem. Not to say "by the way, my MacBook still runs fine this week"

ANY online forum will make the product in question seem more trouble-prone than reality. In fact, though, forums simply attract problems--and that's a very useful service they provide. Especially when solutions result, as often happens

 

[Nuc]

Well still waiting. I did talk to one of the support people but got transferred. I did mention that I got hung up on yesterday. He said there were a huge amount of people calling about the recall.

I'm listening to a female repeat herself over and over in two different languages. I can't figure out the second language but it's annoying!
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Ok I'm getting refunded since I went and bought one (Nike+ iPod kit) at footlocker today...

Other than the wait I can't complain since they're nice.

Nuc

 

[digitalbiker]

Apple customer support has never impressed me!

Over the years I have bought a lot of computers for my business from a lot of different venders. To be honest Apple hardware support has never impressed me! I have actually had much better support from Dell than from Apple.

As far as .Mac goes it is one of the most poorly supported systems I have ever used in my life. They have a lousey limited faq sheet, common problems, email support is pitiful, and they don't take voice support. .Mac is a joke for $100.00 a year.

In general Apple's entire help system in OS X sucks. Searchs within the context of an application gives you all kinds of crap from every application on the system. Also there is no depth to the system. If your problem isn't the most elementary problem possible (99% of which you can figure out yourself) then it won't be in any of the help files.

 

[VesperDEM]

No problems here

I have a 3 month old MacBook and a shiny new Mac Pro. No problems with the systems at all. When I got the Mac Pro, one of the RAM cards needed to be reseated, but that is expected with shipping.

The one time I called Apple support, it took about 20 minutes to get someone and I had solved the problem before the tech got there.

I verified that I solved the problem correctly and went on my way.

My joy was that the tech was American, or at least a person that spoke perfect English.

The problem with the surveys that they take is that I would suspect most satisfied customers don't fill them out, and the ones that are not satisfied after make sure to fill them out.

Let's face it, since the Intel line started coming out, there have been over 1 million units sold. Half of that number are new to Macintosh. If we are talking 10,000 unsatisfied customers, that's still only 2% of all the "new" customers and 1% of all the customers that have bought an Intel based system.

 

[digitalbiker]

Call it what you want but these new MacBooks are crap. Yea there is people who are enjoying theirs without a hitch but look at all the reports of problems. Not once on this forum have we had a flood of problems with a single unit. Apple dropped the ball on this one. Poorly made unit

I think you are exagerating this just a tad. The MacBook has had very few problems considering it is a generation one release. The MacBook Pro generation one and the G4 TI PB first generation were plagued with many, many more problems than the MacBook.

In my opinion Apple has done a very good job of quality control on the MacBook. This battery recall doesn't even apply to the MacBook.

 

[swingerofbirch]

Well still waiting. I did talk to one of the support people but got transferred. I did mention that I got hung up on yesterday. He said there were a huge amount of people calling about the recall.

I'm listening to a female repeat herself over and over in two different languages. I can't figure out the second language but it's annoying!
-
-
Ok I'm getting refunded since I went and bought one (Nike+ iPod kit) at footlocker today...

Other than the wait I can't complain since they're nice.

Nuc

Ahhh....I've been there...you're in a Canadian queue..the second language is French....Ne qui te pas (don't know how to spell it)...means somethign like please hold the line