Just thought I’d give kudos to the iPhone support I received from Apple this weekend. I’ve heard people talk about what a hassle the whole iTunes syncing/activating thing is, and some other complaints that just seem whiney. They’re not perfect, but the combination of services they offer, and the kind of support I’ve always received, is certainly way up in front.
For a while, I’ve had a very small imperfection in the screen of my iPhone. It was obviously not a scratch… it was perfectly round, and didnt appear to be on the surface. As freaky as I am about that kind of thing, I’ve lived with it… it was very small, and out of the way, most of the time.
Yesterday while I was driving, and talking, my iPhone just died. I tried to reboot it, and it gave me the dead battery sign. It had been more than sufficiently charged so I knew it was a dead battery.
I thought about all the complaints I’ve heard about not being able to change the battery yourself, waiting for it to be replaced, etc. and initially felt irritated with the idea of having to deal with this. but then, remembering my list of great experiences with apple’s customer service, I figured I’d just drive straight to the Apple store in Deer Park, Illinois… about 20 minutes away.
Even though the place was crowded, there were several folks asking me what I needed when I walked through the door, and I told them about my battery.
Bill told me he’d try to get a genuis to help right away, even though their "bar" was booked up for the afternoon. When he came back out and told me someone was coming right out to help me, I thought I’d mention the defect that had developed on my screen. Even though he’d never seen something like that, he agreed it didnt look like damage I had done.
I showed it to the genuis that came out to help me, and before I knew it, he had a replacement iPhone in his hand and was replacing my SIM. He asked me if I had everything synced, or if I was worryed about content on the phone. I said no, and was on my way with a new, fully charged iPhone.
Thing is… from what I could tell, they treated me like this before they even looked me up in their system, where they could see I had purchased three iPhones and three aluminum iMacs in the last few months. Not to mention countless other hardware over the years.
So once again, I’m impressed with their attitude about taking care of their customers. I know folks who should have been treated as well taking in their 6 month old Beamer with a problem. I’m sure there are folks who’ve had worse experiences with Apple’s customer service, but it is very much the exception, not the rule. Those negative stories always get attention online, so I hope to ad some perspective.
January 27th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
My experiences have been nothing like this. I sure wish they had been. I live over 200 miles from the closest Apple Store, so I first chose to send my iPhone in for repair since it was the most convenient. I had many pixels stuck on my screen and one very large cluster. I received my iPhone back with a note saying that there was no problem and there was nothing that they would do. In addition, there was a scratch that went through the screen protector onto the screen, so it must have occurred during the packaging. I had never even removed the original screen protector from the iPhone because I sent it in as soon as I brought it home from purchasing it. I immediately called up the service line again, and they told me that they had seen no problem. All I could do was drive over 200 miles to Houston to the Apple Store in the Galleria. This was on Black Friday, but I wanted my iPhone fixed.
So my friend and I took the drive that night. I set up an appointment and waited a few minutes for them to call my name. I went up to them and first showed them the scratch to the screen, and they acted like it was not their problem since they had not caused it. Next, I showed him the pixels out. My phone had been reset to the factory settings before it was sent in for service, so it had the default world picture as the wallpaper. The “MacGenius” tried to argue with us that it was a problem with the .GIF file and not the pixels. I showed him the phone in the startup and shutdown stages, and he still wanted to argue with us that it was a .GIF file and that there must be a problem with the background I had installed. I explained to him it was the default background, and he said that he had not noticed. He told me that he would give me another iPhone since it was less than 14 days since my purchase, but that was the only reason he could find. The screen on this one was not perfect but much better than my last. Needless to say, I was very unhappy with this encounter and his lack of intelligence. He tried so hard to convince us that it was just a .GIF file and there was nothing that could be done.
As soon as I began using the new iPhone, I noticed that there was significantly less battery life than my friend’s iPhone that I had used almost every single day that I had been without mine. I had a feeling that the iPhone they had given me was a refurbished one because of the white box and foam wrap that looked identical to the service iPhone that I had been sent when my iPhone was sent in for servicing. I would save power any way possible, and my friend would keep every draining option on his phone activated. His phone would still last twice the time that mine would.
So I decided to take my iPhone into the Apple Store in Tulsa to see what they could do, since I was on vacation with nothing to do for a few hours. I had to wait over 15 minutes past my appointment time when all the workers were doing was standing around chit-chatting with each other. When they finally called my name, I explained the problem I was having, and the “MacGenius” immediately got upset with me for suggesting they had given me a refurbished iPhone as my replacement. I argued with him for over 15 minutes and finally convinced him to give me a replacement. He said he would only give me the replacement after adding a note into my account saying that this service, like the other, was for an iPhone that was still in specs. He even made the comment that the last iPhone should not have been replaced since there was a 5-pixel minimum for replacement. Well there were many more pixels out on the other screen, and he had no idea, so he should not have made that comment.
He went to the back and grabbed another iPhone, and I asked to look at it before he went through the process of the replacement. Everything was fine on it besides a few wear marks on the battery cover. Once again, the iPhone was wrapped in white foam and held in a white box identical to the service box. I asked him why there was wear on the battery cover if it was a new iPhone, and he told me not to worry about it and that I should not be so picky. I paid for a new iPhone less than a month before not a refurbished one. I took the iPhone and walked out of there. I had more than enough of him for that day.
Other than the battery cover, this iPhone has been fine. I have no problem with the products that Apple makes, only their service that I have received.
January 28th, 2008 at 5:02 am
I only wish they started opening up some stores in Germany as well.
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