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Fed up with Apple!

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I think almost all that's needed to be said has been said, except this: Just because you've had bad luck with Apple does not make them a bad company. I've always had great luck with them and they've always worked wonderfully with me. But you should use a machine based on how it works, not based on their customer service, especially since it's a whole platform difference. And one minor note, you mentioned that you were too busy to remember when your .mac account expired. However, you've also said it is an important business email address. If that is the case, then it *was* important and you should have been on top of it. They call the reminders sent in the mail or in email "courtesy reminders". Why? Because it's not required, it's a courtesy. Now, based on what the supervisor said, and what others have said, obviously Apple *does* send out reminders. But just because the system messed up and you didn't get one doesn't mean they owe you a free year. The reminder would have been a bonus.

I just really think you should think about the whole situation from a less angry point of view and realize that both sides could have handled things differently. (read *better*)
 
Zealotry amazes me. How one can be so blind and loyal to something that they cannot see the truth.

I am not describing all of your experiences, but yet mine. There was more than just this to make me tired of Apple, and iJon, can testify to some of the stuff that has turned me away.

Don't get me wrong. I love the product, but the backend is just not there. As for buying for backend. I would rather have a car that broke down every week, but was fixed in a timely fashion, than one that broke down once in a decade, but I was treated like **** when it did.
 
Re: Disturbing trends in Cupertino

Originally posted by iPC
Threads of this nature seem to be becoming more and more commone.
Click to expand...
If you think its bad here go to the Apple forum. Then again the idea of these places is to air problems. There are 20 million macs out there, somehow I dont think that those posting complaints actually constitute a worrying percentage of Mac owners.


Opinions:

Apple seems adrift. There is Jobs at the helm, but it does not seem that he is manning the tiller. (bad puns - sorry)

Conclusion:

Someone at Apple needs to put up or shut up. Whether it's SJ, or the board of directors, I don't care. The company has been sending mixed signals for years now, and it does not appear that they have the capability to fix it right now. The G5 will not save them, just as OS X did not save them. It takes more than that to convince the public at large. Just ask HP/Compaq or AOL/TW. [/QUOTE]

I have never met SJ or really know much about him, but to be fair, having read he has a 95% thumbs up on some poll that he is doing a good job right now as CEO, he seems a pretty good bet as leader.

There are a lot of impressive balls being juggled and lined up right now, and I dont really see any single company in the computer game being as dynamic as Apple is right now. BTTM is teed off which is a shame, but the wheels will continue to roll and hopefully Apple will innovate not just hw and sw products but a really tight .mac renewal set up.

The bloke in an earlier post who says pre announcing is a stunt to woo investors, too true. The whole point of the stock market is guaging expectations of the future. Sales today are of little interest to people looking for a future return on capital. If the share price shoots up due to a great bit of spiel from Jobs, and nothing comes along, the price drops down again. Simple really. Thing is though, AAPL has been going up steadily, so people with their money where their mouths are think Apple and Jobs are worth backing.
 
Why even use .Mac? The e-mail you can get for free from yahoo or your ISP. If you pay $99 for it, that will pay for a virus scanner. If you have to back up, back up to an external drive or your cd-burner. Can't you download the updates for free from apple anyways? In most cases web hosting is offered for free at most ISPs. Doesn't OS X come with an address book? Am I failing to see the benefit of .Mac? Is there something that I am missing? I am going to switch as soon as panther is released, but I really do not see an upside to .Mac.

Nathan
 
.Mac

As I understand it, I don't have it either, you can use .Mac to sync info from one machine to another: iCal, Safari bookmarks, etc. And you can use it to access files, backup, Virex, and web-hosting.
The nice thing, really is all these services are wrapped into a single system rather than having backup at home on CD (which incidentally you should always backup offsite, what if you house floods or burns down?) anti-virus software, FTP and webhosting from someone else, etc.
Is it worth 99.00 to do that? I don't know, I tried it for 30 days and enjoyed the things I could do with it, but I didn't re-up my membership.
 
Sounds like .MAC accounts are suppose to inform you of its expiration even if you aren't using a CCard.

You know if I has such an *** as a rep I would have been calling back and asking for a manager. Esp if this *** hung up on me. Someone deserves to get fired.
 
Zealotry

"Zealotry amazes me. How one can be so blind and loyal to something that they cannot see the truth.

Don't get me wrong. I love the product, but the backend is just not there. As for buying for backend. I would rather have a car that broke down every week, but was fixed in a timely fashion, than one that broke down once in a decade, but I was treated like **** when it did."

I think this horse is been turned to leather by now, so I will make this my last post on the subject:

I love how everytime I disagree with someone about Apple I'm labeled a zealot. Well then give me my holy cross, my stead and point me towards Damascus. But, simply BTTM I think you overreacted. Second, I'd rather the car I buy work every time, if it breaks down I'm willing to ask for a fix and calmly undertand that if I do something stupid, like say never put oil in it, that the company not might accept my seized-up engine and a huge chip on my shoulder with the most gracious of actions. Fact is, you blew it, they screwed up and then they tried to fix it. I mean really, they gave you a free year. What the hell are you still complaining about?
Apple is failing apart because a tech hung up on me. Ahhh! They're a corporation damnit, they're not your parents, your wife, or your pope. Deal with it.
 
Re: Zealotry

Originally posted by hulugu
I mean really, they gave you a free year. What the hell are you still complaining about?
Apple is failing apart because a tech hung up on me. Ahhh! They're a corporation damnit, they're not your parents, your wife, or your pope. Deal with it.
Click to expand...

Actually, no, they did not give the free year, nor extend the 30 days I needed. And, I don't care who they are, I don't have to deal with it. I am a consumer, and a history has made me decide to walk away for a while.
 
I am in utter awe of the way the people on these boards are treating Chuck. Having done business with him, I can tell you that he is a responsible person, and that if he is angry, there is a reason. You keep harping on him to pay the "bill" of a "measly" $99 to Apple, but when you live on a very tight budget, $99 can break the bank for the month, ESPECIALLY when you have children.

Apple should have sent out an e-mail to him. This is a service that they are trying to sell, so the reminder is not a bill, but an advertisement and an enticement to continue the service. Now that they have admitted to making the mistake of not sending the e-mail reminder, or auto-renewing his account, they should, as a business, do everything in their power to rectify the situation.

How dare ANY of you attack him as being childish. He is a paying customer that is unhappy with his service and treatment. He has every right to complain, and complain loudly. There are far too many situations in which individuals or companies deal with customers poorly and no one says anything about it. As a result, service and products only get worse.

Why is it that when someone gets scammed for a computer purchase, hundreds of people flock to nab the person that did it intead of just calling the scammee an idiot? Why are some of the same people attacking this guy that was treated poorly by a legitimate company?

Those of you who have $99 laying around to purchase things on a whim are fortunate, but will never understand what it is like to have to barely get by, I think.

B2TM, I hope when the dust settles you are still with us.

Regards,
Gus
 
My apologies

"Well, it was set to auto renew, which is another mystery. I am working with a supervisor, who has confirmed that the emails never went out, and they cannot explain why they did not charge the card. They are talking about giving me a free year, which, I don't need. Just keeping it going until the 13th would be enough for me."
"Well, the supervisor said that they could not give the free year, nor carry it for 30 days. So, that did it. I have washed my hands of them."

So, no deal from Apple huh? They dropped the ball and I apologize that I missed this. I am disapointed that they did not extend your service or give you some kind of deal, and that does show poor customer service. I still stand by the rest of my posts, especially about customer relations: the customer is not always right, often they are confused, angry or just illogical. Sometimes they scream, a lot of them lie, and they unfortunately obscure the customers who are nice and just want to work a problem.
It sounds like you tried to do that, they failed you and I can now understand how you feel.
All of my dealings with Apple have been far more sucessful and satisfying than with Dell and HP and I still stand by Apple because they have always delivered a superior product with very impressive service, but I can see how you don't feel the same.
Next time, don't call me a zealot and I'll read every post.
 
i personally think .mac is no way in hell worth 99 bucks. yahoo has an excellent free e-mail thing, angelfire has reliable free web hosting/file space. i don't see how it's worth that much money.
 
Gus, thanks for the support man. It means a lot. Really, I cannot tell you how much it means to me to have a voice defend you.

hulugu
No need to appologize. It is difficult here to assertain the truth. I have been very very cordual with Apple. I love the product, and cannot imagine my house without a Mac. I am just very, very frustrated with them right now for many reasons. Mostly how some of my clients have been treated with problems with their system. I remember a day when Apple would jump at the chance to help a customer with a problem. Some of my friends, who are very trenched in Apple have never had one problem. For Example Maury at railheaddesign.com. However, lately, I have seen a trend of very aggressive business practices, and lower effort in customer support.

All I wanted from them was a simple sorry we forgot to remind you. That was all. I could not even get that. And I do believe that the customer is always right. I have had them lie to my face, and I knew they were not telling the truth. However, I never, ever let them know that I knew. See, if they feel they are right, they will return to you, because they trust you. The bond of trust between a customer and a company is very, very easy to break, especially today when there are so many options for customers. iJon can attest to that.

I never meant to ruffle feathers with this thread, nor did I mean to offend anyone. I was trying to vent frustration over something that I felt Apple had dropped the ball over.
 
Originally posted by Backtothemac
I need arn to change my name now.
Click to expand...

no worries on the name change, it just needs a new interpretation. i.e. "i turn my back to the mac"

🙂
 
Jeez, this thread is annoying. Backtothemac is annoying.
4 pages of worthless arguments just because someone's account didn't get renewed? Lay it to rest already!
Complain to Apple, not to us. We won't renew your account BTTM.
 
Originally posted by Rezet
Jeez, this thread is annoying. Backtothemac is annoying.
4 pages of worthless arguments just because someone's account didn't get renewed? Lay it to rest already!
Complain to Apple, not to us. We won't renew your account BTTM.
Click to expand...


"No-one expected a spanish inquisition" comes to mind. This is about more than just an account which didn't get renewed. It's about a series of bad experiences that B2TM has had with apple after-sales, resulting in him not wanting to have to deal with them anymore. In this case, someone at apple obviously made a mistake, the email reminders were not sent out, and a supervisor accepted responsibility on behalf of apple. How much more clear-cut can that get?

Why is B2TM annoying? Is it simply because he does not agree with you? You can't expect everyone to simply concur with your views. Personally I've had nothing but good experiences when dealing with apple. That still doesn't mean that everyone is going to have had the same quality of service that I have. If someone has a complaint about apple, there is a chance that it's legitimate.
 
All the people who are trashing BTTM, if this same thing happened to you guys, you'd be posting your own threads just like this so take a hike.
I won't brag and say I've had nothing but good service from Apple- 'cause I can see how they would piss some people off. I am an Apple fan, but some things that have transpired over the last 2 years have pissed me off. Like $500 to repair the CD drive on my iBook (JUST a CD drive, not a combo drive.) Apple being rude to BTTM doesn't sound that far-fetched.
Have you thought about reporting them to the BBB or is that a waste of time?

BTTM- I'm interested in hearing what you will do from now on. Specifically, when it comes time to buy a new machine, have you been pushed too far to buy another Mac? You say you like the product, but will you buy one again, or stay away from it for fear of the same problems?
 
This is becoming more involved that it really needs to be. The way I look at it, BackToTheMac needs to get BackToWork, because even if they sent him 100 emails, it doesnt sound like he had the money to cover it, so whats the difference, your account would have been closed because you didnt have the greenbacks to cover it in the first place.
 
Originally posted by ryme4reson
This is becoming more involved that it really needs to be. The way I look at it, BackToTheMac needs to get BackToWork, because even if they sent him 100 emails, it doesnt sound like he had the money to cover it, so whats the difference, your account would have been closed because you didnt have the greenbacks to cover it in the first place.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Backtowork. 🙂

But seriously.... I've been dealing with Macs for a good deal of time now (since 1998 after an absence for a few years.)

In that time I owned a G3 266 tower, a G3 333 lombard laptop, a Dual 450 G4, a Tibook 667 and a Dual Ghz tower.

I also have a 17" LCD.

Now, I haven't had many problems--far and few between. But let's examine.

The G3 266: No problems to report of

The G3 333 PowerBook: Amazing machine until the screen died under applecare. They replaced the machine with a Tibook 667. Replaced it. The whole thing. Completely unexpected.

The G4 450 dual: My first one was DOA out of the box. I called Apple, who immediately gave me an RMA # and coordinated with CompUSA to give me a brand new machine and return the faulty one.

The Tibook 667: Screen hinges broke. I was under applecare, as i was with the 333 pbook, and they fixed the hinged. For free. And I got the machine back in less than a week.

My Dual GHZ got spiked by lighting a few months back. Completely out of warranty. The apple tech support helped me reset the CUDA and get the machine up and running. And when I joked about it being my birthday, the guy said "well, this is out birthday gift. We won't charge you today"

I think the overall difference here is that, when I call Apple for support, I explain things nicely, I don't take a defensive attitude, I don't act argumentitive in the slightest.

What I've seen throughout this post is that you've treated Apple as poorly as they have treated you. Life and relationships are two way streets. And if someone is crappy to you, you can usually go a little higher up and get satisfaction. i did this with OWC once. And it worked. BUT the key is-- I never take attitude with these people. Not because I have some mythical respect for them because they do the unthinkable (support work for a computer company) but because they're people just like me, who have good and bad days, emotions, etc.

And I also know that it's tough working for a living and that nothing is going to be handed to me on a plate.

It seems like this whole argument stems from people wanting too much from companies. They make mistakes, get over it.

I'm guessing that, comparing your experiences to mine, there must be something wrong with the way you personally handle it. I'm not saying that's 100% true-- i wasn't there--but I will say that taking into account my experiences with that of others, and comparing it to yours... something seems off.

Just my .02
 
Originally posted by Rezet
Jeez, this thread is annoying. Backtothemac is annoying.
4 pages of worthless arguments just because someone's account didn't get renewed? Lay it to rest already!
Complain to Apple, not to us. We won't renew your account BTTM.
Click to expand...

Why is the thread annoying? Because someone said something bad about Apple? Don't be a zealot. That isn't a good thing to be.


Originally posted by ryme4reson
This is becoming more involved that it really needs to be. The way I look at it, BackToTheMac needs to get BackToWork, because even if they sent him 100 emails, it doesnt sound like he had the money to cover it, so whats the difference, your account would have been closed because you didnt have the greenbacks to cover it in the first place.
Click to expand...


Dude, why the personal shots? Can you not discuss things like an adult? I have been politie to you and everyone in here. I am not bashing Macs, nor Mac users. I AM ONE. I am however taking issue with the customer service side of Apple. Others have in here as well. Why can't you see that? Why the name calling, and why the attitude?
 
Originally posted by Backtothemac
Why is the thread annoying? Because someone said something bad about Apple? Don't be a zealot. That isn't a good thing to be.

Ryme


Dude, why the personal shots? Can you not discuss things like an adult? I have been politie to you and everyone in here. I am not bashing Macs, nor Mac users. I AM ONE. I am however taking issue with the customer service side of Apple. Others have in here as well. Why can't you see that? Why the name calling, and why the attitude? [/B]
Click to expand...


Hey BTTM. Just to clear up my post-- I think you're a great guy, family man, etc. But at the same token... we've seen it before. You're argumentative and you VERY vehemently stand up for what you THINK is right.

That stuff can lead to problems.

But that said, we just deal with stuff differently... and it yields different results
 
Originally posted by Moxiemike
Hey BTTM. Just to clear up my post-- I think you're a great guy, family man, etc. But at the same token... we've seen it before. You're argumentative and you VERY vehemently stand up for what you THINK is right.

That stuff can lead to problems.

But that said, we just deal with stuff differently... and it yields different results
Click to expand...

Na, I understand that. The point from jump was to express my mood with Apple to you guys. I never thought that I would get attacked personally because of this. I have not been rude here, nor was I rude in any way with the Apple Reps.
 
Originally posted by Rezet
Jeez, this thread is annoying. Backtothemac is annoying.
4 pages of worthless arguments just because someone's account didn't get renewed? Lay it to rest already!
Complain to Apple, not to us. We won't renew your account BTTM.
Click to expand...

however, you complaining about it is not annoying...
 
Im not taking personal shots -- I am bringing up a valid point. If you received 10 emails would you have forked over the 100 bucks? You have already stated you dont have the money.

Or would I be reading the Thread "Damn Apple still wants 99 bucks for .mac" I had .mac last yer and I have to renew but I think we should get a free year because well [insert some stupid argument]
 
Originally posted by ryme4reson
Im not taking personal shots -- I am bringing up a valid point. If you received 10 emails would you have forked over the 100 bucks? You have already stated you dont have the money.

Or would I be reading the Thread "Damn Apple still wants 99 bucks for .mac" I had .mac last yer and I have to renew but I think we should get a free year because well [insert some stupid argument]
Click to expand...

Yes, if I would have had warning, I could have budgeted it into the mix.

Lets see, you have called me stupid, a dumbass, said I need to get Backtowork. Yea, you have made some rather personal statements that did not need to be made.
 
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