What? You don't think charging suckers $50 for an elastic band while getting them to declare you invented the elastic band is courageous genius?
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PSA: New Apple Watch Owners Have to Return Entire Device for Ill-Fitting Solo Loop or Braided Solo Loop
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What? You don't think charging suckers $50 for an elastic band while getting them to declare you invented the elastic band is courageous genius?
The floor mats need to fit the car. This is something that needs to fit the users.
More like having a car with a non-adjustible driver's seat and you need to return the whole car to get one with a seat farther forward or back...even when every other car on the road has had adjustable driver's seats for decades.
It helps to have such devoted fans that they will convince themselves your non-adjustible seats are the most innovative thing every and you're brilliant for being able to come up with a design for a non-adjustible seat.
There's no real difference in convenience for returning the band only (Apple sends you a small box) or the watch + band (Apple also sends you a small box). The difference is entirely due to the Series 6 being a launch product with constrained supplies for replacements. That goes for the watch AND the bands. At launch, either one could be constrained and require a customer to wait longer for a replacement.
Nah...the idea is daft, the implementation poor and the return policy stupid [...and a very poor consumer experience].
There's a big difference having to send the watch back; how about you have straps already and you want to wear your new watch with them while you wait for your correctly sized £50 rubber band to be sent to you?
I guess that would be the same as a car being sold without a premium audio system upgrade. Companies do not make money off selling just the hardware alone. The accessories are generally their main profit.
Why do you think Apple has unconstrained supplies for the individual straps at launch?
This is such a great example of one of the most “first world problem” things I’ve ever read lol.
To be honest there's nothing that was said by the CSR in that chat that would warrant even getting written up. The customer tried very hard to provoke the CSR with snide and rude remarks showing his entitlement. Then to bring it up on the internet in order to trash the CSR is enough for Apple to protect the employee because they know how rude customers can be, especially when it comes to customers abusing their power using the internet in order to ruin someone's reputation.
As a former Genius at Apple, I get this. Although, I understand how it makes ZERO sense to the customer. Even though the phones/devices that were swapped at the bar were “new” by Apple’s standards, they were treated as completely separate inventory. They were deemed “service parts” and not “retail” which just meant all brand new parts that have never been used yet.
Apple execs are surely regretting this type of fitted band. Should have had a mandatory in store custom fitting instead of an unreliable and subjective customer measurement.
Man, just did not see this coming. Sure this will make them hemorrhage cash with all these returns/refurbs.
Exactly these are the policies that absolutely infuriate me because the rude *******s get special treatment and even save $$$ while the polite customer get shafted!The part about not criticizing the policies is normal, kind of.
But it was beyond normal.
For example, at the time I did AppleCare, there were MacBooks with user replaceable hard drives. Apple's manuals even had instructions on how to replace them (the manuals that came in the box). But we were strictly forbidden from acknowledging that and had to say that you had to select the size you wanted at the time of purchase because they could not be upgraded later. That was weird. We could not acknowledge that the hard drives were user upgradable even if the customer pointed it out.
Also, I worked from home, and I had to say I worked in a call center. I also had to say I was an Apple employee and was not allowed to say who I really worked for (a contractor that then contracted me—I was like an Uber driver if Uber had another level between it and the people who drive for it).
One annoying one, which seems to have changed since I provided work for Apple, was that we *could* take Apple iTunes Stores calls, but we had to lie upfront about it before we finally took them. So basically if somebody called in, we would first tell them there was no telephone support for the iTunes Store. We were only allowed to offer iTunes Support *if* they then complained and I got permission from a supervisor (which meant I had to put the caller on hold). There was a back channel I could then chat to iTunes Support at. It was slow and often not too helpful anyway.
We also were supposed to charge $29 for any call, including iTunes calls, outside the first 90 days of purchase if they didn't have AppleCare, and that was such a pain because it made customers absolutely furious. They had spent huge sums of money on Apple products, then paid for iTunes digital goods that didn't work, and were being charged to talk to someone. I could not apologize for that. I got the impression that the employees who worked directly for Apple could more easily waive the fee. For me I was allowed to get an exception from the supervisor (which meant putting the customer on hold) if there was a good reason for an exception, which could be as simple as inability to gain agreement (i.e. the customer was pissed off). That was one situation where I wish I could have told them I agreed that $29 for phone support for something you're paying us for makes no sense. And the thing is that Apple set us up to be yelled at because not only were we charging $29 which enraged the customers, but there was a built-in exception for people who became enraged over it (what Apple called inability to gain agreement).
Maybe these sound sort of normal for a large corporation, but imagine this were a mom and pop store down the street and the people running the store were people you knew and they lied like this and had policies like this. You wouldn't think of them as good people.
Edit:
The US page for per-incident support now has a redirect so maybe that was eliminated:
AppleCare Products
Most Apple hardware comes with a one-year limited warranty and up to 90 days of complimentary telephone technical support.www.apple.com
Apple's Canada page still advertises it, though:
It's like people who say "do you know who I am" when they get stopped for speeding. I suspect Hodapp did the rage tweeting because he's looking for special treatment too.
It’s not about supply constraints. It’s about being able to exchange the band. Customer should be able to do that. Especially if the exchange is for a different size of the same band.
That's why you had to put a credit card on the page so your #2 did not happen. If that was not done they get what they get.
This is so backwards, considering how one had always been able to do a band swap in the past. Poor decisions were made on this.
I didn't use numbers for size as author states just the lines. I measured a 10. Wore it in store Cypress Green Solo Sport Band with Titanium I wanted for about 5 minutes. Felt good... than tried an 11 as I have loosened up bands before... 11 too loose. Tried same with Graphite SS also as I am trading in my S4 Black SS, no difference a 10 it is.
In store they have one use tools to measure similar to what we make from pdf at home but it has a sticky side watch area making it easier to fit one handed... I was still a 10 but guy in store said those with Braided ones going one size smaller.
***Also Apple salesman said they absolutely will swap bands for bad fits in store.***
In store they have one use tools to measure similar to what we make from pdf at home but it has a sticky side watch area making it easier to fit one handed... I was still a 10 but guy in store said those with Braided ones going one size smaller.
***Also Apple salesman said they absolutely will swap bands for bad fits in store.***
Of course it's about supply constraints. If you bought a Series 5 watch + older band right now and needed to get the band replaced for whatever reason, the turnaround time wouldn't be any longer than just sending the band in individually. That's how it works with unconstrained supplies and also the reason nobody rage tweets about having to send both back at the same time for older watches and older bands.
I think they made it complicated by selling bundles instead of the items separately. Now they are going to have piles of returned watches because ppl just want to return the band. This cannot make financial sense.
If they truly were thinking environmentally, they'd sell just the case alone, and allow customers to choose if they even want a band or charger. They can upgrade to a better charger even.
I realize they make a lot of profit from bands for $50 and $100, but maybe they should be more competitive with their pricing as well.
It reminds me when Linus didn't get special treatment and now he's like fifty videos into an anti Apple tantrum. I don't see being any different than if you bought an Apple Watch or any watch at a retail store. Go to Walmart and say I bought this Apple Watch but I just want to exchange the band. They will look at you like you're insane. That's coming from the store that will accept almost anything for a return.