I've phoned them 4 times and never once could they solve my problem. But that's fine, because they spoke english and were friendly.
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Apple Phone Support SUCKS.
- Thread starter Shacklebolt
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I basically only call technical support when I know exactly what I want - a replacement, a repair, or something that I know I need specifically. For true "technical" support, I turn to those godsend forums 
You haven't had crappy phone support until you've had to deal with ATT Wireless, now Cingular customer service, if you can call it service. If you're lucky, you'll get someone in India who speaks horrible broken English, if you're unlucky, you'll know right away when they answer the phone because you can't understand the "Thank you for calling Cingular" BS. Hang up and try again.
I was moving to college, and wanted to change my area code and number to the one of where the campus is. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Well, the first guy I got didn't seem to know what an area code is, do they not use area codes in India? Do they even use phones in India? I said **** it, called again, got someone else. He rambled on some BS about how to simply change my area code, I had to cancel my service, pay the early contract termination fee and re-sign to get a new area code. **** that too. Called again, and then was sent into a game of phone tag between an English speaking American rep in the US and someone in India whos English skills are worse than my dog's. After eventually waiting on hold for 15 minutes during the game, I hung up and gave up. Never did change my area code, which turns out to be no big deal since all my buddies at college also have cell phones and have free long distance.
And when I had to get a warranty replacement for my T616, what a nightmare. I don't know what part of "The joystick does not work" the rep didn't understand.
I was moving to college, and wanted to change my area code and number to the one of where the campus is. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Well, the first guy I got didn't seem to know what an area code is, do they not use area codes in India? Do they even use phones in India? I said **** it, called again, got someone else. He rambled on some BS about how to simply change my area code, I had to cancel my service, pay the early contract termination fee and re-sign to get a new area code. **** that too. Called again, and then was sent into a game of phone tag between an English speaking American rep in the US and someone in India whos English skills are worse than my dog's. After eventually waiting on hold for 15 minutes during the game, I hung up and gave up. Never did change my area code, which turns out to be no big deal since all my buddies at college also have cell phones and have free long distance.
And when I had to get a warranty replacement for my T616, what a nightmare. I don't know what part of "The joystick does not work" the rep didn't understand.
yg17 said:
It is offensive attitudes like yours that give us Americans such a bad reputation abroad. If you are a college student and don't know for certain if people in India have telephones you are in for a very rough academic experience. Think before you type...
On topic: I have had a good experience with Apple tech support. Even when an issue is not resolved, operators and techs have been very professional and tried to help.
I have only had one instance, it was when I first got my emac. I had only had it a week, and was stuck on that grey screen on boot-up, decided to call and I must have gotten lucky because the technician I spoke with was very knowledgable. I have experience with Linux and different flavours of unix, so once he mention things like fsck etc. I pretty much knew what needed to be done, just needed help getting the machine to boot into a command line mode.
He did stay on the line until everything was in fact fine and I never got the impression that he was reading anything (paper or on screen), rather it seemed that he was quite familiar with *nix and the Mac OS.
Haven't had any problems with my emac since.
He did stay on the line until everything was in fact fine and I never got the impression that he was reading anything (paper or on screen), rather it seemed that he was quite familiar with *nix and the Mac OS.
Haven't had any problems with my emac since.
Wes said:Well give him some credit it could be:
or
My earlier pro mouse (black) had cable issues that my white one hasn't.
The point was he should know by common knowledge or by the information presented on his computer that the iMac G4 has ships with a pro mouse in white.
Balin64 said:It is offensive attitudes like yours that give us Americans such a bad reputation abroad. If you are a college student and don't know for certain if people in India have telephones you are in for a very rough academic experience. Think before you type...
LOL what does yg17 think they're answering him with...a paper cup on string? And if any IT support person can make a paper cup on string connect via PBX, cross the Pacific, and get here, then they deserve some props!
I dunno...it seems like CSR experiences on the phone are getting worse and worse with everyone. I've had lots of really bad experiences with support lines staffed in the US in the past couple of years. I've had good ones too. And I've had good and bad ones with overseas-staffed support. It seems like the roll of the dice to me.
Balin64 said:It is offensive attitudes like yours that give us Americans such a bad reputation abroad. If you are a college student and don't know for certain if people in India have telephones you are in for a very rough academic experience. Think before you type...
On topic: I have had a good experience with Apple tech support. Even when an issue is not resolved, operators and techs have been very professional and tried to help.
I was being sarcastic, obviously, I know they have phones over there. But the guy I was talking to sure didn't seem to know what one was.
yg17 said:
Why did it matter if you were making a Mac tech support call anyway? Your earlier post did make you sound a bit silly, to be truthful.
My experience has been pretty decent actually with Apple's Tech Support. I had to call Apple twice with two logic board failures with my old G3 iBook, and this was when I lived in France. So I was in no position to argue about a lack of fluency in the language - and the people at the other end were French, based in the Paris region, and also sympathetic to my lack of technical vocab in French.
I've also called Apple UK twice recently - once with a defective iPod USB cable, and the other with a failure on my iBook's hard drive. The first call was definitely outsourced to somewhere outside of the UK, but the guy did know what he was talking about. The second was definitely in the UK, I spoke to a Geordie who also knew what he was talking about, and didn't try and argue stupidly about the issue as I feared he may.
That's my experience anyway.
Disconnected before transfer
Even worse than getting a bad tech on the other end of the line, I've just been disconnected twice after holding for 5-10 minutes. The "transferring call" message finally comes on, some clicking, and then the line goes dead! What's up with that?
Even worse than getting a bad tech on the other end of the line, I've just been disconnected twice after holding for 5-10 minutes. The "transferring call" message finally comes on, some clicking, and then the line goes dead! What's up with that?
