Why buy from Apple? I'll Tell you!

[Tom.Molyn]

With my extensive information on Apple order support that i'm willing to share I'd like to give my own opinion on why I and maybe you should buy directly from apple.

Great Customer Service!
Buying from apple is a Delight in my own opinion!

• You get Excelent service without resistance!
  
  Need to return something? No Sweat if within return policy or if you have an adequate reason for an exception​
  Mistake on shipping address? The'll fix that up for you and ensure that you get your product ASAP!​
  Late delivery? Possible Free shipping costs​
  Tracking updates not only by Carrier website but by Text as well​
  Item lost in the mail? that gets investigated to the fullest!​
  Need to change an item/add an item to your current order that was forgotten initially? Sure! you shouldn't have to pay that extra shipping cost for a simple mistake.​
  And the list goes on and on...​

I have in depth information on order support options if you have any questions on the ordering process and I'll be glad to answer as many as possible ^.^

 

[G4DP]

With my extensive information on Apple order support that i'm willing to share I'd like to give my own opinion on why I and maybe you should buy directly from apple.

Great Customer Service!
Buying from apple is a Delight in my own opinion!

• You get Excelent service without resistance!
  
  Need to return something? No Sweat if within return policy or if you have an adequate reason for an exception​
  Mistake on shipping address? The'll fix that up for you and ensure that you get your product ASAP!​
  Late delivery? Possible Free shipping costs​
  Tracking updates not only by Carrier website but by Text as well​
  Item lost in the mail? that gets investigated to the fullest!​
  Need to change an item/add an item to your current order that was forgotten initially? Sure! you shouldn't have to pay that extra shipping cost for a simple mistake.​
  And the list goes on and on...​

I have in depth information on order support options if you have any questions on the ordering process and I'll be glad to answer as many as possible ^.^

So exactly the same as any other decent company then.

 

[Tom.Molyn]

So exactly the same as any other decent company then.

By far better than any company i've had to deal with
I would list a few although that wouldn't be polite.

 

[Cheffy Dave]

When my FEDEX shipped iPad 4 disappeared , as well as the replacement , Apple shipped a 128 GB overnight, (original was a 32 GB) via UPS, signature required,
And since only ships UPS to my house, I cannot ask more from a premium company.

 

[jamesjingyi]

When my FEDEX shipped iPad 4 disappeared , as well as the replacement , Apple shipped a 128 GB overnight, (original was a 32 GB) via UPS, signature required,
And since only ships UPS to my house, I cannot ask more from a premium company.

WOW 128GB as a free upgrade??? Lucky man... Wish mine had gone missing now! I could deal with a few days later for a much larger iPad..

 

[phrehdd]

I am glad you had a very good experience with Apple. In general, their services (Apple store etc.) is more than reasonable and at times truly excellent.

What might dissuade some would be -
- Some hardware (sold at a premium a la Apple Tax) is based on older designs (CPU etc.) If one is to pay for the latest, they expect the guts all to be the latest as well and not just the "box."
- I had an iPhone where the mic portion failed. It would play through the buds and also earphones but no mic ability for taking. Phone was still under warranty and Apple, like other companies, finds it an acceptable practice when they can't or wont fix the device to replace it with a refurb. Some people don't mind this but some of us don't appreciate this practice though we understand it saves Apple a fair chunk of change. Just imagine paying for a new item and in a year it goes bad (not through any mishandling) and now you take in its place a used device. Something is not quite right for (me and others) with this practice.

I'll just say in general, overlooking the prices, Apple does an excellent job in most cases of satisfying customer needs.

 

[Kebabselector]

And the list goes on and on...​

[/LIST]

Go on then, list some more.

In the UK Apple only offer a one year warranty (though you can argue about the 2 year EU warranty or the UK sales of good act to get something fixed) but John Lewis offer 2 years as standard - so guess where my money goes?

Looking at your points:

Need to return something? No Sweat if within return policy or if you have an adequate reason for an exception - Nice to have no complaints

Mistake on shipping address? The'll fix that up for you and ensure that you get your product ASAP!
- They should get this right

Late delivery? Possible Free shipping costs - note the use of word Possible - Amazon ship most goods for free

Tracking updates not only by Carrier website but by Text as well - Carrier dependant

Item lost in the mail? that gets investigated to the fullest! - Who cares, just send me what I ordered

Need to change an item/add an item to your current order that was forgotten initially? Sure! you shouldn't have to pay that extra shipping cost for a simple mistake.
- rewarding foolishness - maybe that's why Apple suffer at the hands of the serial returners

And the list goes on and on... - We wait

 

[Cheffy Dave]

WOW 128GB as a free upgrade??? Lucky man... Wish mine had gone missing now! I could deal with a few days later for a much larger iPad..

that said, it WAS the SECOND REPLACEMENT, after the original and its replacement both dissappeared,why Apple uses FEDEX,is beyond me!

 

[jmiddel]

My problem buying from Apple is that I have to pay sales tax, not so with MacMall, which saves me $70 per $1,000.

 

[silvetti]

Item lost in the mail? that gets investigated to the fullest! - Who cares, just send me what I ordered

You clearly have never had anything lost in the mail...

I am for 3 months waiting on an investigation from HobbyKing as to where is my package... that is paid already...

 

[jamesjingyi]

that said, it WAS the SECOND REPLACEMENT, after the original and its replacement both dissappeared,why Apple uses FEDEx

But waiting another week would be fine if you got 4x the space...

----------

Go on then, list some more.

In the UK Apple only offer a one year warranty (though you can argue about the 2 year EU warranty or the UK sales of good act to get something fixed) but John Lewis offer 2 years as standard - so guess where my money goes?

Looking at your points:

Need to return something? No Sweat if within return policy or if you have an adequate reason for an exception - Nice to have no complaints

Mistake on shipping address? The'll fix that up for you and ensure that you get your product ASAP!
- They should get this right

Late delivery? Possible Free shipping costs - note the use of word Possible - Amazon ship most goods for free

Tracking updates not only by Carrier website but by Text as well - Carrier dependant

Item lost in the mail? that gets investigated to the fullest! - Who cares, just send me what I ordered

Need to change an item/add an item to your current order that was forgotten initially? Sure! you shouldn't have to pay that extra shipping cost for a simple mistake.
- rewarding foolishness - maybe that's why Apple suffer at the hands of the serial returners

And the list goes on and on... - We wait

Hang on a sec,
I think the mistake on the shipping address refers to you, the consumer making a mistake, not Apple.

Also, Apple offers free shipping on products over £50 in the UK, I don't know about the US.

To be fair, the 3rd point is more the delivery place than the shop.

Fourth, its very hard sometimes to prove to a company that you didn't get an item and, as people have said in this thread, if it is late, you normally get an upgrade, which not many other companies do.

And finally, yes they may be too nice, but isn't that a good thing for us? With the amount of profit that they make, they might as well be nice to the people who give them it.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

:::snip:::
- I had an iPhone where the mic portion failed. It would play through the buds and also earphones but no mic ability for taking. Phone was still under warranty and Apple, like other companies, finds it an acceptable practice when they can't or wont fix the device to replace it with a refurb. Some people don't mind this but some of us don't appreciate this practice though we understand it saves Apple a fair chunk of change. Just imagine paying for a new item and in a year it goes bad (not through any mishandling) and now you take in its place a used device. Something is not quite right for (me and others) with this practice. :::snip:::

Bring (or send) something in for repair and they give the same one back to you, all fixed? Guess what? You just got a used product!

"Can't or won't fix...?" It's called efficiency and fast-turnaround. You really think all electronics repairs can all be done "while you wait?" That there aren't temporary backlogs or out-of-stock parts? For the sake of efficiency and speed of service the company swaps your used, broken unit for a refurbed unit.

Back when I was in broadcast, we carried spares of nearly all critical equipment, from mixing board modules through CD players. If something went down in a control room we walked in, pulled the bad unit, and dropped in a replacement. It might take all of 5 minutes. The bad unit went back to our repair shop, and it didn't matter if it took 5 minutes or 5 hours or 5 days to do the actual repair - life in the control room went on. Once it was fixed, it went on the shelf as a spare.

Apple covers the refurb for the life of the original product's warranty, or 90 days, whichever is longer. They don't want to see a refurb come back to the shop any more than you do. But because they'd rather get a unit in your hands sooner, you deserve a brand-new unit?

Most people are satisfied with getting refurbed, not because they're too easy-going, but because it's a fair trade-off. Speed of service vs. getting the exact same unit back.

 

[Tom.Molyn]

I am for 3 months waiting on an investigation from HobbyKing as to where is my package... that is paid already...

That is completely company related, Apple will contact you within 48 hours in this situation and the turn around process usually only takes up to 72 hours.

 

[Tom.Molyn]

Go on then, list some more.

Mistake on shipping address? The'll fix that up for you and ensure that you get your product ASAP!
- They should get this right

Late delivery? Possible Free shipping costs - note the use of word Possible - Amazon ship most goods for free

Tracking updates not only by Carrier website but by Text as well - Carrier dependant

Item lost in the mail? that gets investigated to the fullest! - Who cares, just send me what I ordered

I'm not familiar with the UK scope, although i cant imagine that there Customer Service would be too far off from USA's CS.

Another reason is that Apple will strive to make your experience exemplary, I've seen when there is a bad survey filled out they will call to get as much information as possible and rectify the problem.​

Mistaken shipping addresses are 99% user error.

All orders over 50$ in value comes with Free shipping, which is like 90% of the items on the site.

Text notifications seem to be handled in the same fashion as Pickup notifications for the retail store, so i doubt it's through the carrier. UPS and FedEx both work.

Shipping investigations usually entail trying to find the package before making a new product which can sometimes take longer than having the driver deliver it the next day.

 

[silvetti]

That is completely company related, Apple will contact you within 48 hours in this situation and the turn around process usually only takes up to 72 hours.

That was exactly my point

I was giving an example of another company and how they act on lost packages

 

[Kirsten Hollerd]

- I had an iPhone where the mic portion failed. It would play through the buds and also earphones but no mic ability for taking. Phone was still under warranty and Apple, like other companies, finds it an acceptable practice when they can't or wont fix the device to replace it with a refurb. Some people don't mind this but some of us don't appreciate this practice though we understand it saves Apple a fair chunk of change. Just imagine paying for a new item and in a year it goes bad (not through any mishandling) and now you take in its place a used device. Something is not quite right for (me and others) with this practice.

I had an iPhone 5 that had intermittent issues with the sleep/wake button after about 11 months. I took it in and they were able to recreate the issue and gave me a replacement which was absolutely pristine and got way better battery life. They also extended the 1 year warranty by 90 days. The phone I gave back to them had about a year of normal wear and tear (scratches, little dings etc).

I too, was concerned about the quality of a refurb but the Genius manager explained that unlike other companies that buy broken iPhones and rebuild them (a lot of times with non-OEM parts), Apple only uses returned phones, replaces the casing and display and puts in a brand-new battery. He even said that in the paperwork you sign it states that it may be replaced with a remanufactured unit, but many of the replacements are in fact brand-new if there isn't a big enough stock of returned phones.

All in all I think it's a pretty fair process. With the example you give you're turning in 1 year old, used phone with a lot of the battery consumed. Why would you think that's equal to a new in box phone rather than a refurb (that may be new anyway)?

 

[phrehdd]

I had an iPhone 5 that had intermittent issues with the sleep/wake button after about 11 months. I took it in and they were able to recreate the issue and gave me a replacement which was absolutely pristine and got way better battery life. They also extended the 1 year warranty by 90 days. The phone I gave back to them had about a year of normal wear and tear (scratches, little dings etc).

I too, was concerned about the quality of a refurb but the Genius manager explained that unlike other companies that buy broken iPhones and rebuild them (a lot of times with non-OEM parts), Apple only uses returned phones, replaces the casing and display and puts in a brand-new battery. He even said that in the paperwork you sign it states that it may be replaced with a remanufactured unit, but many of the replacements are in fact brand-new if there isn't a big enough stock of returned phones.

All in all I think it's a pretty fair process. With the example you give you're turning in 1 year old, used phone with a lot of the battery consumed. Why would you think that's equal to a new in box phone rather than a refurb (that may be new anyway)?

I completely understand the logic of this all. However, imagine buying a car brand new and after a few months you find serious issues that require an entirely new motor. Would you be happy to pay full price for a flawed unit and have a perfectly good rebuilt engine dropped in? Again there is logic but people pay for new unused equipment and due to error, they are then given a used item. - I suppose it is more an emotional issue than a logic/use issue.

 

[Kirsten Hollerd]

I completely understand the logic of this all. However, imagine buying a car brand new and after a few months you find serious issues that require an entirely new motor. Would you be happy to pay full price for a flawed unit and have a perfectly good rebuilt engine dropped in? Again there is logic but people pay for new unused equipment and due to error, they are then given a used item. - I suppose it is more an emotional issue than a logic/use issue.

I would definitely demand a new motor in a 3-month-old new car. However, comparing it to a 1-year-old phone that's been used is kind of a stretch since most people use a phone for about 2 years total before upgrading. Using the car analogy it would be more of a comparison to say a 3-year-old car that had an engine die and then demanding a brand new engine.

I get where you're coming from though, for a lot of people emotion overrides the logical or fair side of things.

 

[englishman]

My experience of Apple UK too in 8 years of ownership has been first class.

Recently had a problem with a new mac - replacement shipped out in a day or 2.

Pay a little more maybe but IMHO worth it - not to mention best resale values - and the only computer store that is cool.

Allowing a little criticism though - I wish they wouldn't be quite so idiosyncratic about interfaces meaning we have to buy so many damn adapters.