3. Better support, citing the woeful experiences my colleagues have had talking directly to Samsung in store and being told to wait a week for an assessment even before resolution vs. walking into store being asked if I've got a backup and then being given a refurb on the spot.. yeh and it works just was well via mail.
Lets not kid ourselves, the above scenario does not exist.
I'm a big Apple advocate and have been with iPhone since the very first phone through to the X. But whilst customer service is definitely improving the above is just a complete fallacy.
Anyone defending the Genius Bar setup will literally defend anything Apple do through pure brand allegiance. If my phone breaks and I walk into an Apple Store, I will get asked if I have a Genius Bar appointment. If I don't have one I'll be told that I need to get a drop in appointment if any are available, usually those appointments are hours away or not available. That is simply not acceptable for any purchase, nevermind expensive products such as Apple products. If I buy a TV from a local electronics store, if it breaks I can take it in there and then with a receipt to any cashier, get it tested and get it replaced or refunded. Apple do not allow this, and it is awful customer service, and quite frankly its got to be borderline illegal in terms of (UK at least) consumer protection/legislation. I get they're always busy, but if that's the case, employ more staff, that shouldn't be a consumer issue. I'm fortunate, I have 3 'local' Apple stores, but they're all 40-60 minutes away when I say local, so having to make special trips back to the store once I have an appointment, or having to wait around for hours is just not particularly feasible.
They have improved their service, I used to have to argue with the staff everytime I had a hardware issue, to firstly defend that it wasn't an issue of my own causing (in the example of an iPhone they'd blame a hardware issue on it being dropped, despite the phone being in perfect condition). They'd rely solely on their flimsy warranty terms, where a $1000 phone would just no longer turn on, but because it's 13 months old, I would have to pay for it. Unfortunately regardless of warranty period, I should expect a phone to last longer than that, given the costs and the usage expectations that come with such a device. Fortunately in recent times this is no longer the case and they are willing to accept the customers point of view, rather than presume guilt, and they don't stick to the daft warranty rulings.
However a straight swap out for new or refurb is also not as simple as you state, they will always try to repair first, have you come back a few hours later, and collect it. Then after using if it's still suffering issues they will replace. Obviously that depends on the issue and product, but in general that is the rule. I actually experienced this the other day with my iPhone X which had developed the ghost touch issue. They said store policy is to always repair before they replace. The guy was nice and they did fix the issue, so I can't complain, other than having to hang around for 3 hours in a shopping centre.
Apple's customer service has improved massively, and I'm very appreciative of that, but there's still plenty of room for improvement.
