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Apple to Charge Fees for Out-of-Warranty Chat Support

Crooks they are.

Terrible customer message right there.

Once more another nail in the coffin of being able to claim Apple to have good customer support.

Seeing how there are manufacturers that give you more than the 1 year guarantee enforced by the EU and actually giving you 3 or even more, then there is Apple and they insist on what is legally required, nothing more. All for a premium product.

Build great products that work and dont earn money or worry about losing money to tech support costs for screwing up when you do.
Because apparently youre not flawless parts buyers either. Two of my Macs had AMD GPUs and both of those GPUs died. Im so glad they offered a recall on them, but if I were to buy unservicable Apple laptops, Id better get some money to put aside for the day when something breaks I cannot replace myself.


Yes, overused saying about "Steve would never...", but I think it hold true here.
This is absolutely greedy, especially as chat and phone support are rather second class help after pick ups, sending in and bringing a device to the store.

Oh Apple... Its one of those days when my respect for you took a hit.

Glassed Silver:ios

PS: Sorry for missing apostrophes, but iOS doesnt deem them necessary on a German layout Bluetooth keyboard it seems. Pfft
Bluetooth HID and iOS is one of those other things that crack me up...
 
They already charge for out-of-warranty phone support, so... this isn't shocking really. But I just wish there is chat support available in my country, as I'm more comfortable chatting than calling.
 
What is really so asinine about this (if this proves to be true) is that Apple could address the issue another way: Apple could place a higher expectation on themselves and set the bar higher, or as some might say, the expectation for a quality product and services should return to what it was pre-Cook. From what I have gleaned around the Internet, on support forums, and in my own experience is that there has been a significant slump in quality with Apple's products, whether that be with manufacturing standards, defective components, glitchy software (iOS and OS X), and now we will see service suffer as well (though it undoubtedly already has), simply because Apple likely can't keep up with the fact that an overwhelming number of their products are beginning to experience issues long before the equipment seems as though it has seen its share of use (even if it is outside the manufacturer's warranty).

For years, many friends of mine have boasted that every Apple product they've owned have lasted well beyond their expectations. In stark contrast to that expectation, just this past year, two iPhone 4Ses in our house had to be replaced at our own expense because of a WiFi issue when updating to iOS 7. Now, my girlfriend's (early) 2011 MacBook Pro just started having issues with her display which is likely due to a well-known/reported GPU issue. Just before that, my girlfriend had to have the battery replaced in her MBP. When they ran a diagnostic at the Apple store, the battery only had about 350 full-cycle charges. That's just slightly more than a third of the full-cycle charges that Apple says its batteries are good for, and we still had to shell out the $$ to have it replaced, because it was out of warranty. I know there are hardliners out there who say a warranty is what it is, and that's all there is to it. People who take that position just don't follow the argument many are making... They make the "post hoc ergo propter hoc" fallacy in thinking that the company did us a favor in offering us a warranty in the first place, as if the warranty actually ever does protect the consumer (do your research on the reasons why companies offer warranties), and that we "agree" to a manufacturer's warranty simply because we buy a manufacturer's goods and services (do some research on consumer protection laws, especially those arguably more reasonable and just laws they have in the EU). The argument any real fan of Apple has is about making a quality product and standing behind your product and brand. Jobs used to talk about liberating the Apple consumer by allowing them to do more and more. Nowadays Apple is doing the exact opposite.

The world needs another company that is every thing that Apple (and its fanboys) think it is, because Apple is no longer that company. :(
 
I'm guessing if your past your free chat support period, but still under hardware warranty and have an actually hardware problem you won't be charged. I think they are going for the propel that keep contacting them about their gmail not opening. Heck they probably get support request for why can't I find flappy birds in the App Store. If someone called me about flappy birds I'd charge the $99 a minute.
 
I love apple but this is disgusting. Why on earth would they see a need to charge for this when they have so much money in the bank and already roll in the cost of their services into the cost of their hardware. Seems horribly foolish.
 
Come to think of it, a year worth of warranty is really not enough as a standard on an Apple product. I may have a 2009 Mac Mini out of warranty and still running like a champ, but to think that you're getting a standard year on an Apple machine and a year on an HP machine is just ridiculous. And now they're charging support fees? Apple is getting even more greedy and it puts more money in front of their great customer service.
 
ZacNicholson said:
don't start to nickel and dime us apple
Click to expand...

Just don't call them. It's their right to charge whatever. Just think about it for a second. People that are having issues just don't go on the chat and ask a quick question. It ends up being question after question and some people (like some people have on MR :rolleyes:) tend to get rude over the chat just because it's Apple and just because they CAN which creates a stressed situation and that customer isn't paying a dime for that chat session and his/her product is out of warranty.

I'm not there so I don't know for certain but I'm sure Apple wouldn't even bother doing this if the chat sessions were few and far between and possibly a quick one or two minute question that can quickly be answered. Time is money buddy. You need to realize that instead of calling foul on Apple.
 
This is not a prime purchase differentiator. It simply won't be on the radar of people looking to buy new Apple products and therefore won't have any meaningful effect on sales.

Apple knows, for all the whining and grandstanding here, who else are Apple users going to go with - Dell? HP??? Acer???? You know it, they know it, so why complicate the relationship by pretending its something special.

Apple has no reason to leave money on the table by providing free services.
 
TrenttonY said:
I don't understand how a company with billions in the bank can't afford this.
Click to expand...

It probably has NOTHING to do with money. You're not there. They probably get bombarded with ridiculous chat messages for tiny things, especially from the OCD/Anal Retentive crowd, much like many of the members here.

For example, they may have OCD people setting up a chat session saying, "Uh, I need help. If I hold my MacBook Pro up to the brightest light I can see a small scratch...blah blah blah..." That OCD person may end up keeping the chat agent on the wire for way too long complaining. Then you have the usual irate customers that are out of warranty and are upset their iPad broke after they dropped it.

This whole thing is probably to help reduce all these crazy chat sessions bombarding them.

If you don't understand those situations are huge possibilities then you obviously have never worked in retail.
 
Whatever "lost revenue" TC is losing sleep over regarding non-paid chat support for out of warranty Apple products is a pittance compared to the loss of customer good will. Steve Jobs understood this, Tim Cook does not. He has the soul of a bean counter, that's what he does. That's who he is.

This isn't about whether Apple can or has the right to charge for whatever they want to. That isn't the point. The point is that it's a horrible douchebag move on Tim Cook's part.

Apple's descent toward mediocrity continues apace under the stewardship of Tim Cook.
 
I don't understand why anyone thinks they deserve free support at all. I "have a friend" that works in chat support, and the amount of trolls and whiners is astounding. Following the same model as the phone support options makes total sense. You get 90 days free. After that, buy AppleCare or pay the 19 bucks. Other than that, go whine to someone else that you don't want to pay to fix your 4 year old iPod because you sat on it and cracked the screen.
 
Overblown? I think so....

Heck, I had *no* idea you could even get free chat based support for older, out of warranty products until now! I just assumed such a thing would clearly not happen -- since the stores and the phone support doesn't include it.

This just seems like a policy bringing chat support in line with everything else in the company? Hardly newsworthy or worth getting upset about.


lusky said:
Dear Apple,

This is the sort of Nonsense that John Browett was so disliked for, stop it.

Yours,

everyone who pays more money for Apple products because of the service
Click to expand...
 
Can't disagree

This is annoying, but I don't mind that much. I always get AppleCare, and usually set my Apple products before it expires.
 
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