Apple, Worst Customer Service Ever?

[|Maxim|]

Apple, Worst Customer Service Ever? - when i saw the name of the thread i thought, 'you dont service a mac, you throw it out and buy a new one'

[[bear]]

OMGWTFBBQBOLDTAGS!!!1

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if you dont have anything to contribute leave the thread.

[chmsant]

To bear and all the others.. I wish to shed some light on the situation as an ex AppleCare employee.

The wait time, is a fluke thing, nearing November call times/wait times begin to spike and do not stop until 2-3 weeks into January. Granted 45min is a long time, but that is not the norm.

The first gal you spoke with was more than likely just an operator. If the phone tree does not pickup the customer's voice, they are sent to an operator who creates a case and gets the general details, and then forwards it on to the correct product group.

When someone asks to speak to a manager, 99.9% of the time the call will be escalated to a Product Specialist (aka: Tier 2). They are empowered to speak on behalf of management and rectify any issues you may have. They have some of the same "powers" that a Customer Relations agent would have. The actual team manager does not handle tech related calls, and generally, the only time a customer would speak to them, is if there was a complaint to be handled for a specific agent (harrassment, foul language) not "I'm upset with how the case is being handled".

As for the repair issues, DHL, etc.. I cannot speak to those, because I never had any experience with that side of things. For the repairs on my own Apple products, i haven't really had any issues (granted I live 5min away from Apple's shipping hub for the western hemisphere) but that's another story.

[[bear]]

To bear and all the others.. I wish to shed some light on the situation as an ex AppleCare employee.

The wait time, is a fluke thing, nearing November call times/wait times begin to spike and do not stop until 2-3 weeks into January.  Granted 45min is a long time, but that is not the norm.

The first gal you spoke with was more than likely just an operator.  If the phone tree does not pickup the customer's voice, they are sent to an operator who creates a case and gets the general details, and then forwards it on to the correct product group.

When someone asks to speak to a manager, 99.9% of the time the call will be escalated to a Product Specialist (aka: Tier 2).  They are empowered to speak on behalf of management and rectify any issues you may have.  They have some of the same "powers" that a Customer Relations agent would have.  The actual team manager does not handle tech related calls, and generally, the only time a customer would speak to them, is if there was a complaint to be handled for a specific agent (harrassment, foul language) not "I'm upset with how the case is being handled".

As for the repair issues, DHL, etc.. I cannot speak to those, because I never had any experience with that side of things.  For the repairs on my own Apple products, i haven't really had any issues (granted I live 5min away from Apple's shipping hub for the western hemisphere) but that's another story.

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yep that is pretty much how my calls were transferred, frustrating but oh well.. im just mad that they actually didnt even touch my laptop. Lying bastards.

[divinatum]

I've had to talk to applecare a few times, and every time has been awesome. My iMac G5 had a few problems, Apple Care over the phone said it may be the power supply. They sent me a new one, and gave me the extension of an engineer to talk to. Got the new one next morning (i was quoted 2 day shipping) Slapped it in, i couldn't make it fit. Called up the engineer he helped me put it in. Same problem. So he said its best to let a Mac Genius take a look at it in person. I could either take it to the store or send it in. Store was 5 mins away, i went to the store. He put me on hold for a few minutes. Called the store, spoke to a mac genius explained it and put me in priority of everyone there (there was a 3 hour wait that day. it was around the holidays) Mac genius opened it up, looked around at the midplane. Said i had popped capacitors and said it'll be ready tomorrow evening. He called the engineer back, had him overnight a new midplane and he would install it for me in the morning and i could get it in the afternoon. (Y) Fast forward a few months. One day, the Imac just... shuts off. So i power it back on thinking i hit the switch... Powers on and i hook up my iPod and it wont see it. So, i reset the PMU, NVRAM, etc Look in system profiler.. No firewire bus. :pinch: Called up applecare again. Explained what I did and he said he will transfer me to a level 2 tech. Puts me on hol for 10 mins to explain everything for me. Level 2 tech picks up and asks what i want a new Midplane or a new Machine. So i opt for the machine, i explain to him I need the machine quickly and he says as soon as i drop it off at fedex and its in the system as sent, He will dispatch my machine from the factory (it's bto) So, ive had this one since Febuary and it works perfectly.

Apple Care seems to have the most knowledagble phone techs and they all speak english!!!! (And not as a second language) So there's no accent gap to get over. my only problem of late with them is they wont replace my iBooks battery. But it is 2 years old so i shouldn't expect one.

Oh, and worst customer service... T-Mobile. They SUCK I just get my friend to do work on my account, even though hes an engineer. One day the lady mid sentence starts to talk to her friend!!! And i usually have to call back and double check that what i asked to be done is done. :pinch:

[IK47]

at least you got the webcam.

[Southern Patriot]

People need to remember one thing as well: Apple almost always ranks in the top spot in customer surveys for customer service. While problems do happen, they are certainly not the norm, nor are they "common" when compared with the millions of people who have very good experiences. As someone else pointed out, the only people you are ever likely to see post on a message board are the ones who had problems. You will hardly ever see people posting just to say, "hey, I had a really good experience with customer service".

[gunky]

My experience with apple support has been wonderful, to contrast yours. I bought a powermac g4 on ebay knowing that it had some problems. When I started to work on it, I realized I wasn't getting anywhere. I took it down to the apple store with no papers or anything, just the computer. They didn't require me to have any purchase information or warranty. They looked at the computer, tested a bunch of stuff with hardware they had on hand and figured out my problem without charging me a dime! Not to mention there wasn't a line so they took my computer to work as soon as I walked in. A guy even came to the front of the store to help me carry the case as soon as he saw me. I'm not saying your situation isn't bad, but I thought I'd offer my experience to contrast.

[Mrbinaryx]

samething happen with me and my gateway laptop. it had dead pxiels i sent in and all they wrote was drivers issues.

So i called and said i was going to sue them and they agree to send me a brand new laptop.

[chmsant]

People need to remember one thing as well: Apple almost always ranks in the top spot in customer surveys for customer service.  While problems do happen, they are certainly not the norm, nor are they "common" when compared with the millions of people who have very good experiences.  As someone else pointed out, the only people you are ever likely to see post on a message board are the ones who had problems.  You will hardly ever see people posting just to say, "hey, I had a really good experience with customer service".

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#1 in Consumer Reports 5 years running. Desktop and Portables!!

[VGVL]

I've had the logic board in my PowerBook fail and Apple replaced it quickly.

Two of my iPods failed and Apple replaced them without even asking me what was wrong with them.

I had two dead pixels on my PowerBook that could be rarely seen and wouldn't show up all the time yet Apple replaced the screen for free without any difficulties, now my PowerBook's screen is flawless.

The only bad experience I've had with Apple Support was the time they tried to charge me $750 to tell me how to use IPSec on my Xserve.

[[bear]]

#1 in Consumer Reports 5 years running.  Desktop and Portables!!

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well i just hope nothing like this ever happens again. I am seriously at a loss for words when I try to describe how I feel about this case.

[tgumbel]

I had my iBook logic board fail 5 times. That's right, 5 times. They finally figured out that it was getting a little rediculous and just sent me a brand new iBook G4 which has been working fine since.

[[bear]]

I had my iBook logic board fail 5 times. That's right, 5 times. They finally figured out that it was getting a little rediculous and just sent me a brand new iBook G4 which has been working fine since.

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yeah they told me they would absolutley not issue me a new one. They really didn't seem to care either.

[Matt T]

I'm really sorry to hear about your experience. I've only called Apple once before but I wasn't very impressed with their service either.

I was on holiday and my iPod simply turned off. It was only a few months old and it said the battery was more than half charged, so I saw no reason as to why it should of turned off. I called Apple to explain the problem, but to my absolute horror the person who answered my call was Indian. I'm not racist at all, but when I get transferred to another country it really ****es me off - because of their accent they can be really difficult to understand and sometimes they don't seem to understand what I'm saying. So anyway, I explained my problem to him, he asked me about my warranty and I told him the iPod was only a few months old - he told me that phone support had expired for my iPod (I already knew this). I asked him if it could be an issue with the battery - he asked me to read him my iPod's serial number, I did so, he then asked me to repeat it because he thought he may have "mis-typed" it. So again, I read him the serial number, one character at a time. He then told me no battery issues for my model had been reported to Apple so this could not be a battery issue. He then told me he would send me an e-mail with instructions on how to fix my iPod - since I was on holiday I had no access to a computer, and I told him this - he basically said "too bad". When I got home a few days later (after spending an iPod-less holiday) I checked my inbox and the e-mail he promised was there. What were the instructions? Hold down the menu and center buttons for a few seconds. I know I wasn't entitled to phone support, but surely he could have simply told me since the solution was so simple.

So although I did get my problem fixed, I was given a run around. I'm 100% happy with my iPod and I've had no other problems with it since, but I am very disappointed with Apple's service. When I live in Australia and I call Apple's Australian support number, I expect an Australian to pick up the phone and help me - not an Indian.

[blackice912 Veteran]

...to my absolute horror the person who answered my call was Indian. I'm not racist at all, but when I get transferred to another country it really ****es me off

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Just because they have an accent does not mean they are in another country. Comcast in Washington State (US) handles all calls locally inside the state. I had a guy call me once saying the last time he called us (the internet repair team), he was transfered out of the country (which was impossible, yet he said it because the guy had an Indian accent).

[Mike Mayer]

I'd say Dell has the worst customer service ever.

I had to exchange a 2005FPW today and the guy was just so loud and yelly.

Was my ~12th time exchanging a 2005FPW... (I have one and I bought one for my girlfriend and mine was retarded so I returned it a bunch of times and now I'm on the third one with hers...)

[sciguy007]

I'd say Dell has the worst customer service ever.

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ive never had that problem with dell (well, nothing major). when i exchanged my 2005fpw, they gave me a 50 dollar concession coupon.

as for apple, i brought my powerbook in a few times for a screwy keyboard (the keys kept getting stuck, brand new) and they were a bit agitated by my insistence that keys should not stick at all, even just one key. in the end, it took three trips to the repair depot to get it fixed right.

[flyakite]

I'd say Dell has the worst customer service ever.

I had to exchange a 2005FPW today and the guy was just so loud and yelly.

Was my ~12th time exchanging a 2005FPW... (I have one and I bought one for my girlfriend and mine was retarded so I returned it a bunch of times and now I'm on the third one with hers...)

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Have you ever thought about maybe NOT buying the exact same monitor twice? If I had to return a product a lot of times and then buy something for someone else it would definitely not be the exact same model I had a lot of problems with.

[Matt T]

Just because they have an accent does not mean they are in another country. Comcast in Washington State (US) handles all calls locally inside the state. I had a guy call me once saying the last time he called us (the internet repair team), he was transfered out of the country (which was impossible, yet he said it because the guy had an Indian accent).

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Good point - I didn't consider that. But still, I'd prefer to talk with an Austrlian so we can better understand each other.

[Yvo]

Just because they have an accent does not mean they are in another country. Comcast in Washington State (US) handles all calls locally inside the state. I had a guy call me once saying the last time he called us (the internet repair team), he was transfered out of the country (which was impossible, yet he said it because the guy had an Indian accent).

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No offense blackice, but I call BS on that.

I have called Comcast plenty of times (for multiple reasons) and i make it a habit to ask where I am calling and usually it is a city in Canada (most reps just say Canada...). However I got it pinned down to the EST time zone as he was talking about how happy it was that it was 9:30 and at the end of his shift.

Now I did called up by a lady from Comcast, she was a b*tch. I know how to talk and handle support (considering I've worked in the field) and she was just mean right off the bat. In the end everything is good, but they certainly don't do everything in WA state and even if they did, my experience seem to be better when I don't have someone from WA state :laugh:

[cdcase]

GET YOUR MONEY BACK.

and go buy something else.

[[bear]]

GET YOUR MONEY BACK.

and go buy something else.

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its really not that simple. I cannot get my money back. I can only get a replacement. I don't have an issue with the iBook, its great and OSX is spectacular. I just happened to have a logic board failure... I don't hate apple by any means. This is just an unfortunate situation I guess.

Anyways, Just an update. I recieved my iSight yesterday afternoon. I can't really use it while my ibook is gone but its nice I recieved it so quickly.

I am however unhappy with my latest repair issue. As of Friday my repair has been placed on Administrative Hold. AGAIN. Who knows what it could be this time. Im on the phone with apple to see whats up. Another 40 minute wait time is gonna happen i bet. Hooray... :no:

[[bear]]

got my laptop back yesterday night. They also had to replace the HDD because it failed in the 2nd repair loop. So in total the logic board, ram, HDD, and bottom case were replaced... took forever. Still had a terrible experience with customer support. :pinch:

[mattmatik]

No offense blackice, but I call BS on that.

I have called Comcast plenty of times (for multiple reasons) and i make it a habit to ask where I am calling  and usually it is a city in Canada (most reps just say Canada...). However I got it pinned down to the EST time zone as he was talking about how happy it was that it was 9:30 and at the end of his shift.

Now I did called up by a lady from Comcast, she was a b*tch. I know how to talk and handle support (considering I've worked in the field) and she was just mean right off the bat. In the end everything is good, but they certainly don't do everything in WA state and even if they did, my experience seem to be better when I don't have someone from WA state  :laugh:

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:laugh:

I had to call SBC to get my DSL in order. Had it for 3 years and all of a sudden last week it just went out. My wireless network was working, so it was something on the outside. Called up SBC and got through to a 'tech' real quick. He had an Indian accent and half-way through the call I asked him politely "Just curious but where are you located?" He said India. We then spent 10 minutes talking about a book I had just read ("The World Is Flat") and how it's main idea was the global economization and outsourcing. I told the 'tech' it's strange he could help me with my problem and he doesn't even use the same type of outlet voltage or TV signal but he could fix my internet issue. And he did, the thing works great.

As far as Apple goes, I can't say much about their customer service but ordering from them is fast. I've ordered 2 iPods from them and both got here in 2-3 days, the latter because of an engraving. Then again, more often than not, companies are quick initially when they get your buck. After that, it's a crapshoot.