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(RANT) Worst customer service EVER - good luck getting an advance replacement!
- Thread starter potentpotable
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I did get my Air refunded and credit for the Magic Mouse eventually, within two weeks. And thankfully, my new unit has been an absolute dream.
However, now that I'm finished with my exams, it's time to craft a formal, critical letter addressing this failure in customer service to Apple Canada.
You seem to be very well informed of everything Apple. You wouldn't happen to be working for Apple by any chance?
You're syaing my experience is one, well I see and hear a lot of unhappy Apple customers all around. My experience is not from talking to one or two Apple reps, but a lot more than that, both on the phone and in person, and in several different countries.... And to tell you the truth, I have yet to find a decently competent Apple customer rep. Do you really believe that a battery problem with a brand new MBP cannot, and shouldn't, be taken care of more serioulsy and quickly by Apple. Several months later, I am still awaiting delivery of my new Mac!!! And every single time, the Apple rep finds something new to delay delivery time. And, I should say thank you Apple, I paid good money to get a MBP and extra Apple care, and what I get is months of wait, tons of emails and phone calls spread on weeks and weeks before anything is even done. Not only that, but believe it or not, Apple also requested that I return my defective computer FIRST to them before they could even order a new computer to be delivered to me. This means spending 2 weeks or more without a computer!!!! HELLO!? I use my computer as my main business tool. Are they kidding? NO.
So believe me, I am not overracting one bit. It is absolutely insane what I had to go through with their customer service! I had a Dell before. Had a couple harware problems, called them and 10 min later I was set with either a replacement part sent to me within 48 hrs or an appointement to see an engineer to check my computer. They actually did me an engineer at my work place, and 15 min later, it was sorted out. I'm not a Dell or PC fan, but this was millions of years ahead of what Apple has showed me, and it was SO MUCH more pleasant and efficient customer service!
Glad to know that they did refund you in the end. Fingers crossed you won't have to deal with them again! Happy Xmas.
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I don't work for anyone but me. I have no bias for or against Apple, Dell, or any other company. All companies have happy and unhappy customers.
I'm not debating that you or others may have had a bad experience, but it is misleading to imply that all Apple customers will experience the same. If that were true, they wouldn't be in business very long. There are Dell customers who swear that Dell has the worst customer service. There are Dell customers who swear that Dell has the best customer service. The same is true for all companies.
This is exactly right. All large companies have some customers who are completely satisfied, others who are completely unsatisfied, with most falling somewhere in between the extremes. I suggest that emotion sometimes colors judgment on this score so let's look at the record.
Earlier this year Foster Research published a study entitled, "Customer Experience Index 2010. The study looked at the relative level of satisfaction of the customers of major computer makers Here is the money quote:
No company rated an overall excellent rating, which just goes to show that it is just as impossible for a big company to keep all of its customers satisfied all of the time as it is for politicians, as Lincoln put it, to fool all of the people all of the time. Apple isn't perfect but it still does the best job in the industry of keeping its customers satisfied.
I am sure that there are many happy Apple customers, just like you I guess. And I am not suggesting that ALL Apple customers had or will have the same experience as I did and quite a few others had. However, how many of these happy customers had a problem with their computer and had to go through Apple customer service? As long as your computer works fine, everyone is happy, right? Believe me, when my Mac works it's great, I love it, 5 stars to Apple. Problem starts when you have defective components! And that's when you need to go through the terrible Apple service.
In any case, whether you like it or not, from my experience there is unfortunately not much positive I can say about how Apple handled the issue, and that's why I started to post here. My experience is as informative and useful as any other, and it shows a lot of incompetency from Apple customer care. And btw I am not alone in this boat. You can choose to ignore these facts, but they are real, and frankly unacceptable from a company like Apple!
Actually, you did. That's why you're being challenged for your statement:
That IS suggesting that anyone who buys from Apple will have a negative experience if they deal with Apple customer service. That is simply not true. I, like millions of others, have had great experiences dealing with Apple on customer service issues.
Millions.
Yes, it certainly is! It's just not accurate to suggest that everyone will have a similar experience in dealing with Apple customer service. The fact is, the vast majority are positive experiences, or Apple wouldn't rate so high in that area.
Apple Gets Top Honors for its Customer Service
Apple Tops Polls in Customer Service Satisfaction
Apple Ranks Third in BusinessWeek Customer Service Rankings
Apple Tops PC Customer Service Rankings
Secrets of Apple's customer success
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Just to pitch in my Apple Service story (I hate to see GGJ having to defend anything, cause if I ever needed his advice, I know he is very worthy on many subjects)
Just last week ... I was getting a Kernel panic ... made an online appointment Tuesday nite ... took it in and got a call the next morning at 10:30 am ... new Ram and new Logic Board was installed and ready to pick-up.
With large companies service can vary ... however Apple has year in year out earned a reputation for being amongst the leaders in service.
GGJ,
I guess there's no point is arguing with you, you seem to be an Apple fan, and nothing I, or anybody else has to say about Apple customer service will make you change your opinion. Clearly, and maybe with good reason, you think Apple is the best service you can get. My experience is painfully different, and no award or contest won by Apple will change this fact! Maybe they have a different service quality in different countries. My experience is for Europe, but I heard people in the US and Canada also having terrible experiences. In any case, it's scary to know that Apple has, according to you and to these awards, the best customer service in the business!
Another weird thing that just doesn't add up is that my experience is not from a few isolated cases, but it has been a very constant experience throughout the board from bottom to higher up in the hierarchy of Apple. I mean, Geniuses who don't have clue how to do very basic operations on the Mac, phone reps who clearly state that Apple requires they follow a standard procedure which is both very time consuming, inefficient and can only make you feel like your problem is not being taken seriously. More disturbing is the fact that information seem to be completely lost between different Apple reps, and you constantly have to start from zero again and again, wasting even more time in the process. Managers who don't reply to their emails on urgent AND important matters! Customer reps who suddenly go on holidays, and NO ONE covers for them. How is this even thinkable? Every rep has at least one or two cover contacts in case they cannot reply, but these contacts, for some reason, don't even bother answering emails!!! It didn't happen once, but twice and with two different contacts. The list goes on..... Can these be isolated cases? I wish they were, but to me there really seems to be a much deeper problem in the organization. Trust me, I wish my experience with Apple was as good as yours.
Merry Christmas anyway.
I guess there's no point is arguing with you, you seem to be an Apple fan, and nothing I, or anybody else has to say about Apple customer service will make you change your opinion. Clearly, and maybe with good reason, you think Apple is the best service you can get. My experience is painfully different, and no award or contest won by Apple will change this fact! Maybe they have a different service quality in different countries. My experience is for Europe, but I heard people in the US and Canada also having terrible experiences. In any case, it's scary to know that Apple has, according to you and to these awards, the best customer service in the business!
Another weird thing that just doesn't add up is that my experience is not from a few isolated cases, but it has been a very constant experience throughout the board from bottom to higher up in the hierarchy of Apple. I mean, Geniuses who don't have clue how to do very basic operations on the Mac, phone reps who clearly state that Apple requires they follow a standard procedure which is both very time consuming, inefficient and can only make you feel like your problem is not being taken seriously. More disturbing is the fact that information seem to be completely lost between different Apple reps, and you constantly have to start from zero again and again, wasting even more time in the process. Managers who don't reply to their emails on urgent AND important matters! Customer reps who suddenly go on holidays, and NO ONE covers for them. How is this even thinkable? Every rep has at least one or two cover contacts in case they cannot reply, but these contacts, for some reason, don't even bother answering emails!!! It didn't happen once, but twice and with two different contacts. The list goes on..... Can these be isolated cases? I wish they were, but to me there really seems to be a much deeper problem in the organization. Trust me, I wish my experience with Apple was as good as yours.
Merry Christmas anyway.
I wish your experience was as good as others, but it has nothing to do with being an Apple fan (which I'm not) or any bias. The facts are these:
- You, and many others, have had bad experiences in dealing with Apple customer service. No one is challenging that fact. Your experience should have been better, and there's no excuse for that. You have every right to be upset about that.
- In the vast majority of cases where Apple customers have to deal with Apple customer service, the experience is positive. This is also a fact, which is indicated by Apple's high ranking in the industry for many years.
- Your bad experience with Apple is not necessarily indicative of what the average Apple customer would experience, should they have to deal with Apple customer service. It is misleading and inaccurate to claim otherwise.
What is misleading and inaccurate is to try to make us believe that all customer experiences can be put in the same bag, and claim that Apple has great customer service based on the fact that, according to you and your sources, Apple ranks high in customer support. You clearly cannot compare someone who calls in for a minor problem, which can quickly and easily resolved by Apple, and someone who calls customer service for a more serious problem and gets the poor customer service, several of us (including the OP of this thread) talk about. Serious problems are certainly less common, and therefore unhappy customers will be many less than the customers who had minor issues with their computer and who will say Apple could deal with it efficiently. Your trying to hide big red bricks with many small grains of sand is indeed misleading. You can hide the bricks but they are still there lurking in the background, and when the wind blows on your sand, guess what's left?
Clearly, from my experience and that of many others, Apple does not seem to take serious problems seriously. The way they treat customers who calls in with problems that need more attention than the minor problem are in for a ride, believe me. And this is unacceptable! One should really rank customer satisfaction according to the way manufacturers deal with serious issues first, because that shows the efficiency of their service a lof more accurately than benign problems.
Is it acceptable that a problem ( which has been recognized and accepted as a defective component on the computer by Apple) with a brand new computer is still not resolved several months later?
Is it acceptable that Apple ask their customers to send in their machine back to Apple first, before they ship a replacement (a procedure which often takes a minimum of 10-15 days)? Then what? You're left with no computer for 2 weeks? Would you like that GGJ?
Is it acceptable that Apple imposes that they call you only by phone regarding certain issues (I was told emails could not be sent to my address, even though they had already sent me several emails regarding the same issue, only phone will have to do!?). And then of course, a couple days later, after hanging by my phone all day long I still didn't receive any phone calls from them, I get back to them and they claim they tried to call me SO many times...!!! Clearly a blatant lie since no call was recorded on my phone! Is it the great service you're talking about?
As much as I'd like to jump in the boat of happy, benign and easily resolved issues, issues, Apple customers that's nearly impossible after having had to deal with their Customer service for a more serious computer problem.
I hate to say it but I think buying from Best Buy is the way to go. They have that accidental damage insurance which IMO seams to be a no brainer and cover everything minus submerging the entire thing in a bathtub.
No one is claiming that "all customer experiences can be put in the same bag".
They're not "my sources", they're independent sources. And Apple ranks high because, overall, their customer service is good in the majority of cases. You seem to think that if 1% or 5% or 15% of customers have a bad experience that Apple customer service sucks, overall. That's simply not the case. It has already been acknowledged that every company has successes and failures in providing customer service. Where the ranking comes is by taking an average, not simply focusing on a small group of disgruntled customers or a small group who have never had problems.
Your entire argument about serious vs minor problems is based on the erroneous assumption that, for purposes of ranking customer service departments, they only consider minor problems. That is simply untrue. ALL customer service issues are weighed, including major and minor issues, as well as positive and negative outcomes. The independent groups that provide these rankings have no bias toward any company and their credibility would be destroyed if they skewed the data toward any company's favor or disfavor.
What's misleading is you trying to make it sound like such ranking surveys only show minor issues and ignore more serious ones. That's completely false and you have no facts on which to base such an assumption.
No, they should rank them the way they do, considering ALL issues, major and minor. I'm sure there are companies who might do well with major issues but fail miserably in minor ones. The only fair way is to consider all issues. You're simply trying to bias ranking results to accommodate your individual focus, to the exclusion of the millions of other Apple customers.
Again, you're making a blanket statement, based on the experience of a very small percentage. If you search only this forum, you'll find countless stories of how Apple replaced a logic board or an entire computer, how they gave free upgrades, how they replaced computers multiple times, etc. The only thing you can say factually is that you believe that Apple did not take your problems seriously. You simply cannot, with any credibility whatsoever, make the claim that Apple doesn't take serious problems seriously, overall, based on the experience of a relatively miniscule representation of Apple customers.
You're not happy with Apple. We get it. That's easy to tell from the forum name you chose. Based on what you've said, you have every right to feel that Apple failed to live up to your expectations. It's even fair to say you know of several others who have experienced something similar. No one expects you to suddenly be all happy about Apple or its customer service.
Where you cross the line is when you start making statements that Apple service is terrible overall, or Apple service is terrible for all serious issues. That is simply untrue. There are independent surveys conducted by people who have no bias for or against Apple or any other company. Those surveys consistently show Apple customer service surpassing that of other competitors. You can take every negative experience you've had with Apple, along with every one you know about, have read about, have heard about, etc. Add them all together and you still have a micro-fraction of the Apple customers out there.
Your assumptions are akin to me asking 3 of my neighbors if they like pumpkin pie, finding out that they don't, then making the claim that all Americans hate pumpkin pie.
Your argument that you and others have had a bad experience with Apple customer service is valid.
Your claim that all, or even most, Apple customers will have a bad experience with Apple customer service, or that they will have a bad experience if they have a serious issue, is blatantly false and misleading, not to mention incredibly naive.
Not all UK Genius Bars are useless
Whereas I agree that the telephone Applecare service seems to have deteriorated, with the level of knowledge and linguistic abilities of the first level techs having fallen sharply in the 7 years we have been using Macs, I recently have had first class service from a Genius Bar. You get the impression over the phone, that firstly they are just reading off a list and secondly, under instructions not to offer anything that costs Apple money. If in doubt, do a HD format and re-install seems to be a stock answer. This ignores that it can take days to reinstall all the apps one may have on the machine, with lots of looking up and tracking down serial numbers, activation codes etc.
I went to the Genius Bar in Brighton, UK with a failing optical drive in my 2009 MBP, under 3 year Applecare agreement. They advised me that they should send it away and that repairs were slow at around 2 weeks. However, they said they would bend their rules, order in a replacement drive and fit it themselves over a double appointment. The replacement drive arrived in 2 days and when I went to get it fitted, they did the whole job in about 15 minutes. Can't ask for better than that.
Wilson
Whereas I agree that the telephone Applecare service seems to have deteriorated, with the level of knowledge and linguistic abilities of the first level techs having fallen sharply in the 7 years we have been using Macs, I recently have had first class service from a Genius Bar. You get the impression over the phone, that firstly they are just reading off a list and secondly, under instructions not to offer anything that costs Apple money. If in doubt, do a HD format and re-install seems to be a stock answer. This ignores that it can take days to reinstall all the apps one may have on the machine, with lots of looking up and tracking down serial numbers, activation codes etc.
I went to the Genius Bar in Brighton, UK with a failing optical drive in my 2009 MBP, under 3 year Applecare agreement. They advised me that they should send it away and that repairs were slow at around 2 weeks. However, they said they would bend their rules, order in a replacement drive and fit it themselves over a double appointment. The replacement drive arrived in 2 days and when I went to get it fitted, they did the whole job in about 15 minutes. Can't ask for better than that.
Wilson
Ive had to deal with them twice for defective iPhones, but all the guys on the phone did was make me a genius bar appointment, from which they replaced it immeditely for me.
The only annoyance was when the guy on the phone had the cheek to ask me if I wanted to pay £59 for phone support on my 3 month old iPhone. Yea phone support will fix my broken home button.....
The only annoyance was when the guy on the phone had the cheek to ask me if I wanted to pay £59 for phone support on my 3 month old iPhone. Yea phone support will fix my broken home button.....
I have never managed to get the local Geniuses in the OKC Apple Store to fix anything. Fortunately, though, they routinely send out machines that need work to the Apple service center in Dallas. It's happened to me only twice but as recently as last February. Both times, the Apple Store overnighted my computer to the Dallas service center, who repaired it and overnighted it back the same day. Whether I was benefiting from Apple's great operation or was just lucky, I can't say.
Apple Sucks!
I am amazed at how optimistic some of you are! Firstly ranting helps after a bad experience and it's good for others to know. I had a similarly bad experience today with customer care. Someone called Morgan simply refused to listen to me, gave me a monologue about how it's not her problem, and then put the phone down, after saying have a nice day!I have sent an e mail to steve jobs, fat good it will do I think, but lets see.
I have a macbook which has given nothing but trouble since year one! It is under 3 years old, and so far has needed a new optic drive, logic board, hard drive, they replaced the keyboard, I don't know why there was nothing wrong with it I thought, and after all that it still has the same problems it had in the beginning. How can a product be worth buying if it has so many faults? It defeats the object of purchasing the product. The first time it went wrong I needed it for work which meant I could not work or earn for the weeks it was away being repaired, which doesn't look good professionally does it? My less than a year old Macbook doesn't work!I can't do the job!
I am so sick of Apple, i'll never waste my time buying apple anything again. The more I search the forums the more evident it becomes that there are many unhappy people, where they got a reputation for good customer care is a mystery or totally outdated.
Anybody out there want my dodgy macbook?
I am amazed at how optimistic some of you are! Firstly ranting helps after a bad experience and it's good for others to know. I had a similarly bad experience today with customer care. Someone called Morgan simply refused to listen to me, gave me a monologue about how it's not her problem, and then put the phone down, after saying have a nice day!I have sent an e mail to steve jobs, fat good it will do I think, but lets see.
I have a macbook which has given nothing but trouble since year one! It is under 3 years old, and so far has needed a new optic drive, logic board, hard drive, they replaced the keyboard, I don't know why there was nothing wrong with it I thought, and after all that it still has the same problems it had in the beginning. How can a product be worth buying if it has so many faults? It defeats the object of purchasing the product. The first time it went wrong I needed it for work which meant I could not work or earn for the weeks it was away being repaired, which doesn't look good professionally does it? My less than a year old Macbook doesn't work!I can't do the job!
I am so sick of Apple, i'll never waste my time buying apple anything again. The more I search the forums the more evident it becomes that there are many unhappy people, where they got a reputation for good customer care is a mystery or totally outdated.
Anybody out there want my dodgy macbook?
No company can create perfect products, not Apple, not any PC laptop manufacturer. People more often post when they have complaints then vice-versa. So sure, if you look hard enough you'll find tons of people having problems. But this is still only a fraction of all the Apple users.
Also, it makes a big difference how you approach the Apple Customer Service. Seeing as how you're ranting here and go by the username "applesuckstoo", you're not all that tactical in explaining your problems and asking for help? If you like to search, search for people who got great service from Apple, there are plenty of those stories out there as well. It's also possible you just had bad luck and reached someone on the other end of the line who was having a bad day. They're just people, you know. Call again to someone else, ask for a manager or go by the Apple Store and talk to someone in person.
And did you buy Apple Care? If you did, they should repair anything if the product you're having problems with is still within the three years. Same goes for your MacBook that's still within the first year (no need for extended Apple Care).
It's always a bummer if things don't work as they should. It always takes time and energy to get a repair or replacement. But don't fool yourself by thinking Apple has a monopoly on imperfect products or bad customer service.
Had the same thing happen with Genius when my girlfriend took her old Powerbook in. Whatever part needed replacing, they told her was no longer manufactured and she would basically need a new computer. That struck me as odd, especially since you can find any part on the internet, even if you don't have backstock. I took it to the computer repair shop down the street and they called me the next day. They fixed it no problems for $50.
I think that Genius is pretty much like Geek Squad. They're trained to troubleshoot the most common problems, but anything other than that, it's pretty hit or miss. I kind of expected them to be experts on their devices, but they certainly were not in this case. Friendly though.
As an Apple customer since 1977, I have heard relatively few of these horror stores, but admit that anything built by man (or woman) can be faulty.
However the Customer Service seems to be appalling in this instance. I would place a call to Apple Customer Relations directly at Apple HQ in Cupertino and report this to them immediately, with all relevant info. I have always found them to be most accommodating, and wouldn't be surprised if they offered a gift card or something for your inconvenience.
Best of luck.
However the Customer Service seems to be appalling in this instance. I would place a call to Apple Customer Relations directly at Apple HQ in Cupertino and report this to them immediately, with all relevant info. I have always found them to be most accommodating, and wouldn't be surprised if they offered a gift card or something for your inconvenience.
Best of luck.
That's a good idea but I have used another, somewhat less drastic, strategy with AppleCare that has worked well for me. On those rare occasions when the tech support person seems not to know enough or is difficult to deal with, I ask to speak to a second level support person who is a specialist in the issue that concerns me. I have had nothing but good luck with second level people. They all knew their stuff, listened well, and got my problem solved for me.
Quality has fallen, but hard to have not expected that
I recently had to register both my MBA and ACD on the same AppleCare plan, and I was surprised by how many people it took on Apple's end to get it done, and how a few of them were completely clueless about the fact that a display is covered by the laptop's AppleCare when purchased together. It eventually all got worked out, and the folks I spoke with were certainly nice enough, but it could have been a lot easier.
It's hard, however, to maintain consistent quality over such a large enterprise. I wish that they would, but understand that they can't. Still, compared to calling other consumer electronic manufacturers, it's no comparison.
I recently had to register both my MBA and ACD on the same AppleCare plan, and I was surprised by how many people it took on Apple's end to get it done, and how a few of them were completely clueless about the fact that a display is covered by the laptop's AppleCare when purchased together. It eventually all got worked out, and the folks I spoke with were certainly nice enough, but it could have been a lot easier.
It's hard, however, to maintain consistent quality over such a large enterprise. I wish that they would, but understand that they can't. Still, compared to calling other consumer electronic manufacturers, it's no comparison.