Yesterday, my Mighty Mouse, only 10 months old and the one I purchased with my iMac, stopped working – all I could do was scroll down and not scroll up. I decided to take it to the nearest Apple store in Natick – about 25 miles away. I also had a $600+ gift card from Apple and I intended to spend it. I am a great fan of Apple products (see my previous post where I have raved about Apple products). I walked in like a kid in a candy store confident that I will get a new mouse and then get some more of new toys with my gift card.
I talk to one of the reps at the store only to be asked if I have an appointment to replace my mouse. Excuse me, now I wondered if I have hearing problems. Yes, he was serious – he said I needed an appointment to talk to someone about getting a new mouse. He refers me to the manager who says the same thing – I needed an appointment with the Genius Bar and if I want, I could wait around 2 hours to see if they could squeeze me in – hallo, first of all, I don’t need a Genius to replace my mouse and two, I was not looking for a doctor’s appointment. I could see that there were at least 10 sales reps in the store, some selling new stuff, others just standing around waiting for customers to whom they could sell stuff. Now here I am, a very loyal customer being told to leave, drive back 50 miles, set up an appointment and then drive back another 50 miles the next day all for replacing a mouse.
None of this reasoning would go anywhere with the store Manager. He told me that they had a system in place and we had to follow the system (hallo, I am the customer) and it was put in place to be respectful of other customers – never mind, this customer being insulted. Only when I told him that I was intending to spend $700 in the store did something dawn on the manager. Not immediately, but after about 10 minutes when he saw me looking at the new iPod. He knew that I was serious about spending the money. He came by after 10 minutes and he said he will do me a favor (sure I am the customer and you are doing me a favor) and exchange the mouse. So why all the hoopla, if you could do this – it took him a mere 5 minutes. Amazing !!
Apple got away lucky – I had an Apple gift card and hence I was a captive customer. I could not exchange the card for money to spend it elsewhere – who knows even if I could do, I am sure that would need another Genius Bar appointment. I ended up spending all the money getting my new iPod, iPod shuffle and the Bose sound dock.
While I am happy with my new toys, I can tell you that I am still shocked at the horrible experience. Does this mean that as long as you churn out great products and the world is beating a path to your door, you can get away with horrible customer service? Maybe Apple will – but I don’t think this is a model anyone else would want to follow. After all, history is loaded with examples where companies once market darlings found themselves out of reckoning (Just ask Dell), when they forgot what got them there – the customer !! If my experience is what loyal customers get from Apple, maybe Apple deserves no better. Apple, you have got arrogant.
Software Product Manager by Gopal Shenoy 
Apple JerkBar is the worst most criminal front in front of the services that were promised and we paid for in apple care. I had a printout of a apple system test report saying the SSD was bad and I still had to wait 2 hours for the clowns to run a 10 minute test. Apple just knows how to take money but they absolutely STINK at repairs and service. Cretins.
I don’t like apple at all. I do have the ipod shuffle which I got for Christmas last year. My older 4th gen broke 2 years ago said I had to pay $100 to get it fixed because of outdated ipod. I was like WTF. Also twice I had gift cards which I spend $15 itunes for myself, and the code thingy was blank. We called and email says I cannot get the code to work because when I scratched it, cannot use it. I scanned and uploaded the card to them, and they never got back to me the 2nd time. 1st time same issue. So I will NEVER buy another HUGE priced items over $100 and no more itunes gift cards. I am making a banned promise to that! I hope the ipod shuffle will last a few years. Good thing I still buy CDs and DVDs. Will never re-buy items online. So much freaking cheaper to buy a $5 CD and DVD @ Walmart then $10 per Album or Movie. Like what??? Apple computer costumer service keeps on waiting on me, and few days later they say “Just checking in to see if AppleCare fixed ya problem” I was like NO with the gift card crap and paying more on my old broken ipod touch. I will NEVER spend $300 on an ipod ever again! However, I will buy the cheap $50 shuffles ^_^ Personally, Apple sucks, they do not have NO local stores near us compare to Walmart and Target and BestBuy to which I trusted over the years.
So.. Not a question, more of a statement, however any replies with words of wisdom will be welcomed.
I’m a bit of a apple fan, or at least I was.. I’ve got the 27″ iMac, MacBook Air, ipad4, 2 Apple TVs, iPhone 4S, and iPod. Normally everything is fine, until you have a problem…
I’ve been troubleshooting network issues on the iMac for a couple of months, and as a network engineer, working in the industry for a number of years I’m not stupid. So, after as much troubleshooting as I can I figured that unfortunately it might be a fault of the iMac hardware (I’ve already done a clean install of the OS along with new router, switch, cables etc etc).
I took the iMac to the Trafford centre apple store on the 22nd December 2012 for them to test. Agreed they’d leave it plugged to their network in the first instance to find out what’s going on. On the 27th December I collected the unit. No fault found, apparently.
When I got it home I plugged back in and found that for some reason they’d had the machine to bits…the screen wasn’t fitted correctly and their were fingerprints on the inside of the glass. The apple store weren’t really interested when I told them about this and I was told to bring it back. The store is a 1 hour drive from here, and on the middle of a busy shopping centre, and a further 2 trips would be required. I didn’t like the sound of this and wanted more options.
I then found that there is no real way of making a complaint to apple. No customer service department that you can contact and no centre for operations that have the ability to make decisions. After about 2 weeks of arguing, taking photos of the issue and speaking to a whole range of apple advisors, finally they agreed to collect it and send to a 3rd party authorised centre called Amsys. Amsys collected and the iMac found its way to them. Great. Progress. So Amsys called the next day and we confirmed the faults as being Ethernet related and the state of the screen.
A week later it was returned.
I plugged it in and to my horror saw that not only are the original prints still there, but now there are more, along with a whole load of dust and debris which is even visible with the screen off.
So I called apple again. It’s now over 1 month since I originally took it in. I spoke to 2 different AppleCare advisors, and then a very rude woman from customer relations. Basically I was told to drive back to the store to get it fixed.
I’ve photographed the state of the screen.
What the hell happened to customer service, quality control?
Apple have factories with every man and his dog churning out these devices – they are all spot on. Perfect. Give those devices to our supposedly intelligent certified dealers and engineers and they screw the whole thing up. And to top that off, you can complain. There is no one to listen. I’ve even been told by one AppleCare advisor that these situations don’t happen!!
So. Here I am. Apple don’t give a crap, and I’m stuck with an iMac that is worthless. I hate apple. I’m actually considering selling the whole lot of apple stuff on eBay and starting again with alternatives, which I might add have caught up with appe by making compelling desirable products too.
WAKE UP APPLE AND START TREATING YOUR PAYING CUSTOMERS RIGHT BEFORE THEY STOP BUYING!!
…I know, no point in shouting…they’re still not listening…
Same story for me. My iMac hard drive failed, it was sitting in my house waiting for money for the repair. I got an email from Apple saying that the hard drive was being recalled. Well that’s good.
Then I thought… geeze this computer is heavy and I’m going to have to schlepp it from the parking lot into the mall. So I boxed the computer back up in the original box I had kept, screwed up my will and took it to the mall.
I got into the Apple store and as usual, A TOTAL madhouse. More than half the people in the store were employees and the placed was loud and packed. With my giant iMac box in tow, I was redirected by one of the employees standing around doing very little to someone in the near the Genius Bar with a red ipad.
So I explain why I’m there, the hard drive has failed, it has been recalled and I need it replaced. Without asking if I have an appointment, she goes into her spiel about me needing one. So right off the bat, it is clear this is an ONGOING problem, people wanting service without an appointment (imagine that?).
I explain that I don’t want it fixed today, that I’m expecting to drop it off. Oh, but I need an appointment so they can do the diagnostic. I say I don’t need to be here for the diagnostic because a) the unit is recalled, you’re doing the repair no matter what b) it has already failed c) I already have the data off the machine, I can fill out whatever form you want.
Nope… she assigns me a person to help me fill out the APPOINTMENT FORM!
No more new Apple hardware for me. If I ever buy Apple equipment again, it will be used.
Seriously, have you ever needed an appointment to drop your car for service? I’ve certainly never needed one for computer service, so there’s no reason why I would have thought I needed it for this.
Sitting in the apple store right now. First time I made an appointment on the phone I got to the store and had no appointment. Got sent away. Good system. Them was 10 mins late because of rush hour traffic and was told I had missed my 15 min long appointment. After getting a wee bit angry with her. They found an 8pm appointment. Which I have now been waiting 30mins for. Then the guy says… Well I’m not a genius but I’m going to try. So here’s the deal. Have a service counter. Take a number. Like it was before when I worked for an apple dealer as a system engineer. I should be able to drop the thing off and pick it up another day… Rediculous
Apple – Absolutely. Worst. Service. Ever.
Apple WARRANTY SERVICE!!!!! I bring in my IMAC to a APPLE STORE for a warranty repair of another failed DVD reader/burner. The NERD finds he has one in stock – thats the good news – bad news 3 to 5 DAYS to install!!!!!! okay – 5 days no news – 7 days I call and I am told I am in the QUE!!!!! another 1 to 2 days!!!!! I guess when Steve died – so did the service level… Why would I ever buy another APPLE product – which, by the way, I bought the IPHONE and guess what – it drops calls – can’t hear who I am talking to – but it does take a great picture – guess i can send a picture of a fed up APPLE user to APPLE – should clearly show my scorn.
Apple service stinks! They couldn’t fix my Itunes so they suggested I buy a Mac! How convenient! Thanks, Apple for nothing!
I could not agree with you more. I love the iPhones but they have a serious flaw. There glass screen. I have spent more than $2400 on apple products not including screen replacements. The bottom line is phones get dropped. That has never been an issue for me with any other phone. This time I purchased the most expensive outter box which survived a drop but yet again the screen is shattered. Apple customer service rep says there is nothing we can do for you. We can replace your screen for $170. NO Thanks. The guy down the hall will do it for $120. Way to stand by your product. Try and gauge me again. Just change your screen to something particle and take care of your customers.
I wish I would have seen this page before I ever bought an iPhone 4. After having a great experience with my iPhone 3G and 3GS, I am now about to get my t3h iPhone 4 replacement. Yea that’s right I am on my 4th iPhone 4!!!!!!!
This process has been the most difficult time of my life. I have spent over 24 hours on the phone, driving to the store, restoring my phone, or talking to one of their “Geniuses”. HA! More like complete and absolute stuck up mother f#@king punks with a bad attitude and no actual people skills at all.
They refuse to do anything a normal company would do in the name of “customer service” and have given me a hard time every time I had to return one of their defective phones!!!
I will NEVER EVER BUY AN APPLE PRODUCT AGAIN!!!! I HOPE APPLE BURNS IN HELL!!!
After 4 separate visits to the store about our 5k Mac Pro they sill hadn’t resolved the issue. I ran the diagnostics test myself wich said it had hardware issues. Turned out to be the fan which runs excessively loud for no reason.
That means the store didn’t run a simple diagnostics test during their possession (4 weekends in a row)
sad.
I just purchased a Magic Mouse for my iMac from the nearest Apple store an hour and thirty minutes away. Checked me out really fast and told me it would work on my iMac purchased from them in 2009 no problem. I installed it, but it wouldn’t scroll. I called the store but the line connects to some central phone bank. After several minutes of talking to a computer, I finally got a person on the line. She told me that because my iMac was out of the 30 day period, and since the mouse came with no tech support, the only thing she could do was set me up with a plan for $49.00 that would proved 30 days of tech support or she could make me an appointment at the Genius Bar where I could drive three hours round trip with my mouse and iMac so they could help me. She was very rude and short with me when I explained that I didn’t need “tech support” for my computer, I just wanted someone to tell me how to setup my $70 mouse I’d just bought. Bottom line, I did a Google search and thankfully one of the hundreds of people with the same problem had a quick solution. All I needed to do was click the Apple icon, select Update Software, Install the update and restart. Took four clicks and about 3 minutes instead of three hours driving or $49 extra. I just don’t get why companies like Apple have to nickle and dime repeat Apple customers like me when all I want is to use my Apple products. But I guess shame on me for going back to them.
Apple sucks! It sucks in case of users. But the most it sucks in case with developers. You need to wait 3-4 weeks for response. They have been playing back and forth for two month and now they’re just keeping silence. I paid for developer acc from my Amex so I’m going to make a chargeback. Everybody who’d like to try developer’s license definitely should pay by Amex or avoid Apple at all. There are a lot of interesting platforms and opportunities as Android, Windows Mobile or Symbian.
If this post inspires one person to forgo purchasing an apple product, it would have been my little contribution to community service for the year. What a disaster this brand really is. Their customer service is perhaps the worst I have ever experienced, having dealt with hundreds of companies in my life. I’ve been waiting for… 18 days since my product replacement was approved by Apple and in those 18 days – THEY STILL HAVEN’T SHIPPED IT! Somehow, I can’t just pickup the product from an Apple store. They have to ship it, and they will do so whenever the hell they wake up. Their CS reps are between downright rude and utterly incompetent. I regret having bought two i-macs and i will NEVER, EVER buy another apple product again. What a right disaster this brand really is, behind the sleek marketing and the BS.
Apple is not interested in building long term relationship. Their failure to execute a full recall program on swollen batteries couple of years ago and recent iphone 4 athena design sega etc. indirectly admitted so!
Been back too the store 4 times to get a problem fixed and all they say is they understand my point. They should of fixed it the first 3 times. They expect me to drive it up a 4th time, they can k**s my a*s and then they get mad when i say i want my computer replaced? i didnt pay $2000 for nothing plus another 300 on a protection plan. I have had more issues with this computer than my cheap 300$ dell computer. Apple is not all what theyre cracked up to be!! stay away!
I agree entirely! My 2 month old iPhone 4 blew up on me–it wouldn’t turn on or stay on without the sync cable plugged in. Anyways l, I arrive 30 minutes prior to my appointment and asked If I could be looked at since my phone was not working and needed to get back to work. She didn’t care gave me the same system in place bullshit I even offered to pay extra to be looked at but nope the bitch didn’t care that I was out of a 700 dollar phone. Meanwhile there are people getting helped with how to update their pos macs and add attachments on safari or mail cmon. Needless to say a fellow genuis overheard everything and offered his help to get me a new phone. At first he thought I just didn’t charge it… Needless to say he attempts a dfu restore and fails so I get a new phone all in all it took 30 minutes not bad. But they could have done it in 5.
Called apple 5 days to get warranty support for my iPhone 3G. It was deemed my iPhone needed to be replaced under warranty. The apple guy setup an appointment for me. I show up at appointment and they also agree a warranty replacement is needed. However they have none of my model in stock and will order 1 for to arrive in 5 days. So now I’ve driven 3 hours and no phone replacent on my only day off and will have to spend another 3 hours again another day to get a working phone (hardware failure). No I’m sorry…nothing. Now the apple tech on the phone knew I was going to that store 5 days in advance, knew it was a long drive for me. With all the technology they have in place one would think they would have had a phone ready for me. Needless to say I’m very upset that Apple should have handled this better. Android here I come.
I have just had a very irritating email conversation with an iTunes CS person. I hate being treated like an idiot. My problem was that one of my downloaded TV show subscriptions doesn’t play in iTunes, QT or any other program and I’ve paid for a whole season. He gave me a long set of useless instructions on how to re-download the program. I had already explained that the problem was that the show didn’t PLAY. Not that it didn’t DOWNLOAD. In fact I had given him a very detailed description of the problem and my computer’s configuration. I had also explained that several other shows had worked perfectly.
I asked him to give me a more appropriate solution and asked him NOT to cut and paste a response that wasn’t pertinent to my problem. He gave me a curt offhand response and asked me to call customer service.
On what planet do you PAY for goods and services from a multinational corporation and get such poor follow-up service? In future, I’ll buy hard copy CD’s, DVD’s, BluRay discs, etc. And I’m starting to explore MediaMonkey in order to get away from Apple goods and services.
2 years ago I dropped my 2-month-old iPhone from waist height (fell out of my jacket pocket… apparently iPhones have a limited lifespan in locations which are subjected to gravity). After calling my wireless company and Apple Service many times I was told by the Apple Customer Service dept that the only remedy for fixing the cracked screen on my otherwise functional iPhone was to pay full price, plus shipping and taxes and replace it. I asked if there was any other remedy and was told “Don’t drop your iPhone”.
So now I have a BlackBerry Bold 9700. Love it. As it turns out, I find it’s much better for actual business use than the iPhone. Less glitz, fewer games, better keyboard, easier email. And I’ve dropped it many many times and never had a problem. I’m too busy to be really precious about my phone.
Apple will always limit their market share with this kind of service. There are so many places to get my PC’s fixed for cheap with great service that I’ll NEVER be tempted to buy a Mac.
the Apple IPHONE customer service is A HELL . OMG how such company hired those IDIOTS to handle cuustomer serivce issues???? I am very frustated, they dont even have a empathy with customer. I dont try to stereotype but my experience with almost 10 APPLE customer service was a HELL HELL HELL.
I cant imagina how a gigante company dont record , or even if they do, dont look deep inside those records.
Please please please….APPLE CEO do something about. I cant handle anymore.
I have being a APPLE CUSTOMER ALMOST 5 YERS AND GOING ABOUT TO CUT ANY RELATIONSHIP WITH THIS COMPANY.
Apple Customer Service is a shame. I bought a new MacBook Pro. The delivery time was not the one offered. I called the Customer Service Number for assistance and had me more than 40minutes waiting to speak to an agent!!! How can this happen in a company with the products of Apple???????? Also, there is NO WAY to contact someone in Customer Service via email or similar!!!!!!
G
Apple customer service is the WORST CS I could ever get in my life! I use so many different kind of laptop before and I always get decent customer service but for Apple, NO! its bad bad bad, So i order a installation disk last week, and there is something wrong with my address, I called the other day, which is on sunday, and they said the disk was already sent out, (I doubt if there is any mail service on Saturday anyways) and they told me to call back if I could not receive anything.
So today I called the CS and I got a guy called mike or something. Once I called him I can heard that he is really rude and I am much more polite than him and I am the customer! During the conversation he hung me up because he said he could not hear anything clear from me and just hung up without saying anything! (CS:try to call back next time, hung up) no bye bye no thank you! And then I called again with another CS but i did not got treated well neither. I asked him (his name is Daniel) for a number or link that I could complain the Customer service that I got, but he refused to give me. So I can only post here to let Apple really see the problem. And the problem of my installation disk is not yet solved now.
I called 5 times altogether and none of these times can satisfied me. I will go back to the other company next time. Never Apple again!
Well, it is mid-2009, and Apple still hasn’t done anything about its idiotic appointment system.
I went to drop off a laptop with a cracked screen, and was told by an Apple Automaton that I needed to schedule an appointment (the earliest required me to come back in 4 hours) so that a technical rep guy (presumably a ‘genius’) could diagnose the problem (idiots… I knew what the problem was… the screen was cracked). The Apple Automaton kept repeating that I had to make an appointment, and used more time than it would take to fill out a work order. It got to the point that I thought I was dealing with the government.
Eventually the Apple Automaton cracked, went to one of the display Macs, filled out a few fields on a repair web page, printed off two copies, and that was it. No appointment was needed, and the Apple automaton could have saved a lot of time by doing this in the first place (and then he would have had some extra time to hypnotize the suckers, er, potential customers, shuffling about the store drooling over the newest iPhones).
I completely agree with Gopal and other posters — Apple has almost entirely forgotten who the customer is, i.e. who butters their bread. It certainly is advantageous to have a hypnotized culture tolerates any abuse that Apple unconsciously dishes out.
For the record, I was once an Apple fan, back in the days of the G4 (circa 2003), which I got for editing home movies. It was largely a pleasant experience.
Today my G4 is nearly dead (seizes up without warning). My PC’s that predate the G5 are still running nearly as well as they did when they were new.
The more unpleasant experience has been a G5 with one of the last Motorola chips. This computer ran so hot from the start that I could see bad things ahead. True to my expectations, components on the mother board started blowing up from the heat. Since the system was under “AppleCare” (sounds like news-speak from Orwell’s ‘1984’), Apple replaced the motherboard three or four times until we entered the new phase of “AppleDontCare”. The G5 is now a useless chunk of plastic and metal, and provides no computer-related functioning whatsoever. The irony is that Apple could have saved money by simply exchanging the G5 for an Intel-based version the first time the motherboard had to be replaced, since they knew I’d be back in a few months.
Anyway, things go up, and things go down. The days of sincere caring by the customer for Apple, and by Apple for the customer, is now over. It is now all only about sales and profits, and keeping the customers asleep for as long as possible.
Automaton is the right word – not genius.
Agree.
I just got back from the genius bar. This has been a five day ordeal for me. The minimalist design that apple has revolutionized also applies to when it breaks. Because it either works completely or it doesn’t at all. So one morning i’m looking at the computer and a blue screen is shining back at me. “great” I say, and i put my ear to it to hear the harddrive clicking. Im the f*cking Mac whisperer now. So I carry it into the apple store. The concierge ask me if I have an appointment. I don’t, and I say “this is my internet” as I set down the Mac. While i’m talking to him he calmly walks away, as if he isn’t listening at all, to attend to another customer. He casually comes back and schedules me for an appointment that is three hours later. So I leave the mac there and I come back fifteen minutes before the appointment. The store is empty and I still see my name on the screen so I keep busy by looking around. But all of a sudden it’s past my appointment time and I still haven’t been seen yet. The genius who looked like a hobbit asks a man near him his name, the man says robert, and the hobbit asks him to sit down. This would be normal but it just so happens that roberts name was after my name… so i wait around some more… and then hobbit says to his bald friend “when is this andrew guy coming” (andrew is my name) and the bald guy says “I sure hope he comes to pick it up”. So i make eyes with both of them and I point to myself and then i continue to peruse all the useless crap in the store wondering why I ever bought a computer from here in the first place. So ten minutes later the bald genius sees me and apologizes for the time i’ll never get back. He tells me it’s by harddrive and I make sure to express that it has not been backed up recently. So he ends up “fixing” it which will allow me to back it up myself and then i would bring it in the next day for a repair. The mac freezes up on me while i try to back it up at home (murphy’s law). The blue screen taunting me. I carry it in the next morning and ask if they do back ups. The lady who was seeing me said she would go ask. She goes into the back room where apple employees drink their afternoon tea and talk about how shitty they treat their customers. She makes a joke or two with them about me and comes back fifteen minutes later with a few numbers she has pulled out of her pert round a$$. She has given me a price for the backups they offer and assures me that if they do end up replacing the harddrive that they will back it up for 60 dollars. I leave that place smiling thinking my problems are over. So yesterday I get a call, this is three days later from when I first went in, and a man is telling me they have replaced my harddrive and have fixed my mac. All I have to do is come in and pick it up. So I ask about the “backup” and he asks what I am talking about. They did not do a backup so I ask him to go ahead and to do that like the lady said they would do. So he says they will spend the rest of the day doing that and that I can expect to pick it up tomorrow. Well tomorrow is now today and I have lost complete faith in this fruit company that tries to make computers. I talk to a different man today who tells me that they have already shipped back my old harddrive, “what about the backup” I say, “what backup?” he says. So I talk to him and realize nobody is going to backup my computer and that nobody really cares. But I care that my old harddrive is in pieces now. All that was my computer is now gone and I have been raped by an army of apple employees. I finally convince the genius to go back in there room, to find my old harddrive and to find his manager. They both tell me they can’t do a backup and that I can’t leave the store with both my old harddrive and the computer they fixed that I need for schoolwork, work, banking, internet, e-mail. And that that’s against policy. I offer to buy the new harddrive. nope. All they do is look back at me while I tell them what is wrong with the store, while I tell them their apologies do me no good, while I tell them that neither one of them has done their job right and have not been helpful to any customers. The manager said he could try to do the backup but that I need to let them talk. So I said “thank you..” I said ” thank you.. for making me spend five days on my knees begging you to do what two seperate people have assured me they would do, and thank you for making me stay on my knees and to start bobbing on your limp dick to do it”… and then I left. So in 24-hours I will find out if they did do it.
I had similar experience with you, but with a defective Ipod Shuffle.
One of the scheduling ladies raised her voice and said either make an appointment or buy a new one.
I don’t hit people especially women, but I was so tempted to go postal and apeshit.
If this type of service continues, I predict someone who has deeper anger issues than I do will literally go postal and start going all Columbine on Apple Staff. Just wait and see.
Yep, I agree !! Just happened to me when I was trying to replace a bad power supply for my iphone, same thing — I needed an appointment! They have 4 “geniuses” behind the bar in Pasadena CA, they should designate 3 for appointments and at least one for “walk ins” — the bottom line: it was just an exchange — no need of appointments!!!
Yep, I agree !! Just happened to me when I was trying to replace a bad power supply for my iphone, same thing — I needed an appointment! They have 4 “geniuses” behind the bar in Pasadena CA, they should designate 3 for appointments and at least one for “walk ins” — the bottom line: it was just an exchange — no need of appointments!!!
i learned a lot from you guys… 🙂
coudn’t agree more with all above. I’ve been a mac user for 20 years, but their recent forays into the world of retail have driven me crazy. The “appointment” system is so ridiculous I can’t talk further about it without wanting to kill myself.
Need help on the phone? Each call is only 69 bucks.
I’m seriously contemplating a switch to microsoft shortly.
I agree completely. They are arrogant, and the so called genius bar makes you channel your complaints through one narrow passage that even if you make an appointment, there is essetially no appeal from the knucklehead who waits on you.
Apple products have good design, but there are lots of things not to like about them. They have this arrogant position in general that if they don’t think a feature is important, then I should not either.
Also, they are the kings of using a closed system and milking you for money. This is why iPod accessories are soooo expensive (you have to pay a huge royalty to apple for the interface rights) and why it is such a pain in the ass to manage songs you bought from iTunes (the DRM makes it impossible to use on other music players or move to other systems).
This arrogance and their support of closed systems is also why they got beat by Microsoft in operating systems.
Folks, I did clean the mouse – the point is their process for exchanges – imagine if every store requires you to set up an appointment for returns/exchanges. I don’t really care if Genius Bar appointments have been there for quite some time – it should not be for simple things like returning a mouse that does not work in spite of all the cleaning. It is a stupid process that Apple has in place. Their troubles are related to them not realizing the needs of their mainstream consumers who are not as tech savvy as their initial Mac cult. Customers are not the ones who bend to a vendor’s process, it should be the vendor that bends to their customer’s needs. Plus, if it was as simple as cleaning the mouse, why did the store manager at least ask me if I had tried it, instead of posturing about the appointment I had to make?
Yeah I’ve had a horrible experience as well with my iphone, left them a decent sized message tho. Not that they care xD
Apple care in my experience has been horrible. I can’t believe you charge people for customer service for single incidents? It’s pretty ridiculous if you really expect to keep customers. My phone was covered under a 90 manufacturers warranty when I called Apple for low battery life, the Apple customer service woman had me restore my phone on itunes, and since I work at radioshack it turned my phone into demo mode. I call Apple again because it didn’t solve my problem it only made it worse so a different customer service rep has me send it in, only to have it sent back for water damage. Fair enough, but what about the demo mode that was clearly a customer service persons fault? I talked to a supervisor who told me to restore it on my own personal computer on itunes which I did. It gave me back some features after a month of having a useless phone practically but I’m still unable to upload music to my phone from itunes because My itunes and music is full of demo mode music, that won’t play either. But since I don’t have any money invested in this company, why should you guys care. I mean that’s how your company comes off. Once my contract is up I definitely will never use another apple product for the simple fact of your terrible customer service. I hope someone reads this, you guys are terrible anymore.
Try cleaning the mouse.
hi gopal, i’d like to feature this story on my wowNshit blog.
i’ll send you an invite, and appreciate very much if you write this and any other wow and shit experiences.
thanks… mush