iPhone XS Max Recent (good) experience with Apple After Sales.

[Ruggy]

Just thought I’d report on my recent experience with Apple After Sales Service and Apple Care+ here in France:

12.59 get a text from my wife that she’s dropped her XS Max and shattered the screen so can I arrange the repair for her (Note: she’s quite capable of doing this sort of thing for herself but I have all the details to hand on my Mac).

13.05 Online, already checked Apple care status and I’m looking at appointments for this afternoon in their fabulous store on the Champs-Élysées. Opera and La Défense have slots available too but are further away.
Quick couple of exchanges with her and we book an appointment at the Genius Bar for 14.05.

14.00 She presents herself at the genius bar, she disables 'Find my iphone' and drops the phone off.

15.15 Picks up repaired phone and pays the €29 excess not covered by Apple Care Plus.

Simply astonishing service!

To add, I have had the screen replaced twice on my Macbook Pro under Apple care, both times in less than 3 days (no charge either time).
I had the battery replaced in my son’s 6S in 1.5 hours (€49)

That's it just sharing something nice about Apple for a change.

I know we complain about this or that, about how this could be better and how that isn’t as good as it was.

But tell me any other company in the world where you can get service like that? I really don’t believe it exists.

(And as a final note, this is a country where After Sales Service usually means they put it in a bag for you, so this is doubly exceptional.)

Thank you Apple.
Your products aren’t cheap buy they are worth every penny to me.

 

[DevinNj]

Great story, glad to hear how everything worked out for you! Just one of the reasons I like Apple and stick with them.

 

[lostOzone]

Last time I went for a screen replacement. I had one week wait for the next available appointment and then 4 hours for the screen replacement itself after a 2 hours drive. Apple experience is not the same in every Apple Store. This kind of positive report is totally counter productive. Many will be very frustrated as they won’t have this kind of experience.

 

[44267547]

Last time I went for a screen replacement. I had one week wait for the next available appointment and then 4 hours for the screen replacement itself after a 2 hours drive. Apple experience is not the same in every Apple Store. This kind of positive report is totally counter productive. Many will be very frustrated as they won’t have this kind of experience.

Maybe everybody won’t have the experience OP did, because you will have different personnel and every store is different, so I agree with you there.

But where I disagree with you, is you can’t really project by saying ‘many will be frustrated, as they won’t have this kind of experience’, being Apples customer service is far more consistent over any other smart phone manufacturer and has been legendary in terms of taking care of the customer first, which is why they are highly rated.

Also, I think many seem to forget, it’s really nice to have Apple stores where we can have service addressed in person versus having to send the device in. Samsung for example, they have very few ‘walk-in stores’ compared to Apple, were you have to send your device in for repair.

 

[lostOzone]

Sorry to disagree but I have had better experience with other phones. Provided by the telco they handle the customer care. I have had next day replacement by mail. Each time brand new with a new box. Fast simple I haven’t lost 8 hours to get support.
My personal feeling is that Apple support is far from stellar. Other company have a far better support globally because they don’t try to handle it directly.
I keep an iPhone because of iOS. Long live iOS.

 

[I7guy]

Maybe everybody won’t have the experience OP did, because you will have different personnel and every store is different, so I agree with you there.

But where I disagree with you, is you can’t really project by saying ‘many will be frustrated, as they won’t have this kind of experience’, being Apples customer service is far more consistent over any other smart phone manufacturer and has been legendary in terms of taking care of the customer first, which is why they are highly rated.

Also, I think many seem to forget, it’s really nice to have Apple stores where we can have service addressed in person versus having to send the device in. Samsung for example, they have very few ‘walk-in stores’ compared to Apple, were you have to send your device in for repair.

In the years since the family had iPhones we have had excellent service. My 6s battery was replaced (free) in a total of about 3 hours from booking to picking it up. My wife’s iPhone 7 battery was replaced in about 2 hours (also free) from drop off to pickup. That last visit was the one the cost me the max. But over the years with smashed screens and what not I have always had good service at area Apple stores.

 

[nouveau_redneck]

I don't have recent experience at an Apple store, but have called for AppleCare telephone support 3 times in the previous couple of years. Without question, each contact was excellent. Yeah, AppleCare is not cheap, but it is definitely worth it when the time comes that its needed.

 

[Cladster]

Big reason i stay with Apple, service is excellent especially living 6 hours from a Apple store.
Just had a iMac 27" screen replaced for a pink tinge around the edge, started after 3 years. Tech drove 5 hours to replace it
Few kids iPhone replacements too over the years from damage, all free.
And a 21" iMac screen 2 years out of warranty for free.

 

[HEK]

Last time I went for a screen replacement. I had one week wait for the next available appointment and then 4 hours for the screen replacement itself after a 2 hours drive. Apple experience is not the same in every Apple Store. This kind of positive report is totally counter productive. Many will be very frustrated as they won’t have this kind of experience.

Right only negative reports are productive.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Big reason i stay with Apple, service is excellent especially living 6 hours from a Apple store.
Just had a iMac 27" screen replaced for a pink tinge around the edge, started after 3 years. Tech drove 5 hours to replace it
Few kids iPhone replacements too over the years from damage, all free.
And a 21" iMac screen 2 years out of warranty for free.

Didn’t know they came out to fix things. I thought you had to go to the store or send it in. I guess a 27” iMac would be a bit heavy to lug around though. That’s good service.

 

[puma1552]

Didn’t know they came out to fix things. I thought you had to go to the store or send it in. I guess a 27” iMac would be a bit heavy to lug around though. That’s good service.

Yeah, I've never heard of an Apple store tech doing service calls in-house either...

Tangential topic, but the in-store experience at Apple is always horrible.

-When you want to just walk in and look around, you get 20 people on your jock asking if you want help. Humanity needs a universal "leave me alone" hand signal to use upon walking in a store when you want to be left alone, like a simple hand swipe out from your chest or something.

-When you want to just walk in and pick something up quick and pay for it, finding someone to actually check you out is like finding a needle in a haystack. Having to download the Apple Store app to do the purchase on the phone is not a solution - I'm not downloading a store app to walk into a place in person and make a purchase around other human beings.

-When you need anything else, it's always such a process:

1) Stand in line to check in with the first guy
2) Get pointed to another guy and have to wait in line and check in with that person
3) Get arbitrarily pointed to another location in the store to go stand by yourself at and wait (and notice that you may be waiting for someone to help you while half the employees in the store are doing nothing since everyone is assigned different customer-facing roles, not just an "anyone can help anyone" situation)
4) Hope somebody comes up to help you, or eventually flag someone else down when you've clearly been forgotten or overlooked
5) Finally get service from someone overly enthusiastic and under-knowledgable. My latest experience was earlier this week doing a simple identical iPhone exchange for a Verizon Device Payment phone where I traded no phone in. It took three people to figure out how to do it? I realize it's a little more involved than a simple SIM-free exchange, but Verizon Device Payment isn't exactly a new program, either - they weren't even sure if it could be done.

That said, it's nice to have in-store support. Would sure hate to be at the mercy of the Best Buy imbeciles if I bought a Samsung.

 

[AppleHaterLover]

If you live at a central location in a major metro area within the developed world (plus major metro areas in some other countries e.g. Mexico, Brazil, Turkey), this is what you can expect sort of consistently from your local Apple Store.

 

[Cladster]

Didn’t know they came out to fix things. I thought you had to go to the store or send it in. I guess a 27” iMac would be a bit heavy to lug around though. That’s good service.

Yeah, I've never heard of an Apple store tech doing service calls in-house either...

Don't know about other countries but here apple care on a iMac includes on site service, the guy was from a company that apple use for service, would of cost them a small fortune.

 

[lostOzone]

Right only negative reports are productive.

No one needs to improve something that works great. It’s obvious.
And it’s not even my opinion. It’s my experience with the service.

 

[44267547]

No one needs to improve something that works great. It’s obvious.

If Apple always had the attitude that ‘they don’t need to improve because everything works great’, then they wouldn’t be the successful company that they are today, right? My point is, just because you had a negative experience with Apple, doesn’t mean everyone else will.

I can tell you from reading on here alone, there are far more success stories with those with Apples customer service then there are negative, there’s a reason why their customer service is rated so high and has been legendary for years.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Yeah, I've never heard of an Apple store tech doing service calls in-house either...

Tangential topic, but the in-store experience at Apple is always horrible.

-When you want to just walk in and look around, you get 20 people on your jock asking if you want help. Humanity needs a universal "leave me alone" hand signal to use upon walking in a store when you want to be left alone, like a simple hand swipe out from your chest or something.

-When you want to just walk in and pick something up quick and pay for it, finding someone to actually check you out is like finding a needle in a haystack. Having to download the Apple Store app to do the purchase on the phone is not a solution - I'm not downloading a store app to walk into a place in person and make a purchase around other human beings.

-When you need anything else, it's always such a process:

1) Stand in line to check in with the first guy
2) Get pointed to another guy and have to wait in line and check in with that person
3) Get arbitrarily pointed to another location in the store to go stand by yourself at and wait (and notice that you may be waiting for someone to help you while half the employees in the store are doing nothing since everyone is assigned different customer-facing roles, not just an "anyone can help anyone" situation)
4) Hope somebody comes up to help you, or eventually flag someone else down when you've clearly been forgotten or overlooked
5) Finally get service from someone overly enthusiastic and under-knowledgable. My latest experience was earlier this week doing a simple identical iPhone exchange for a Verizon Device Payment phone where I traded no phone in. It took three people to figure out how to do it? I realize it's a little more involved than a simple SIM-free exchange, but Verizon Device Payment isn't exactly a new program, either - they weren't even sure if it could be done.

That said, it's nice to have in-store support. Would sure hate to be at the mercy of the Best Buy imbeciles if I bought a Samsung.

Apple are actually quite good where I am at not bugging you when are browsing. They also don’t try and upsell which is a good thing. I’ve seen them offer advice to people who aren’t sure what they want but I usually know what I want before I got to the store and they have never tried to change my mind and make me spend more money. They are pretty laid back in terms of sales.

It can be difficult getting someone to process your payment but it’s never taken me that long. I usually approach one of them and they tell me someone will be with my shortly and in less than a few minutes someone comes over to me and we go through the purchasing process. I think it could be confusing if you’ve never been to the store before as it doesn’t have a checkout like a traditional store and they are always packed.