Apple-Shocking Customer Service

[Torres09]

It's the wife's birthday tomorrow so I bought her an iPhone 3G for €210 ( + the €45 a month) So came home last night and set it up with iTunes, put some tunes on it, transfered all the contact details etc, etc

So I rang her this morning and she could hear me but I could'nt hear her, nothing, nada, zilch. Came home and done all the usual Sync, turn off/on, check all the settings blah,blah,blah still would'nt work-obviously a faulty unit.

I brought it back to Carphone Warehouse and they rang Apple Support, this is where the fun started, thay asked all the stupid questions like Did I Sync it with iTunes, Check the Settings, Check the Volume they went through every permutation possible as to what could/could'nt be wrong with the phone,they just would'nt accept that it was faulty

So after 45 minutes Apple Support said they would have a courier come pick it up in the next 7-10 days free of charge or I could pay €35 to have UPS come collect it over the next 24-48 hours!!!

Luckly the sales assistance went against Apple's policy of not replacing the unit ( Well that's what she told me) and gave me a new one after nearly an hour in the shop. I only had to go home and Set up, Sync, Change settings all over again[]

Shocking.............

 

[Anonymous]

now that would make me angry torres , i had something similar recently with a vodafone broadband modem , these large companies are fine till something goes wrong with one of their products , then the customer gets told its company policy to repair , and you have to wait up to 3 weeks , what a joke ..

i didnt wait by the way , i told them its my policy to get an instant refund , and i did , and i felt great

 

[Frank Harvey]

I don't think this is an isolated case.

More and more products, no matter what they are, are made far cheaper nowadays than they used to be. They're made faster, use cheaper components, they're not fully tested before they're hurriedly sent to retailers etc etc. Hence, they're less reliable. It's all down to profit.

I think more products go faulty nowadays then ever before, and these manufacturers are receiving more returns. Obviously it's an expensive business to replace all of them, so they'd rather repair or do whatever they can not to replace. Of course, this goes against certain basic rights as consumers, but manufactures will try and ignore them nonetheless. Although, it's the retailer that cops it, not the manufacturer as the contract is with them.

Take the iPhone 4 fiasco. Not properly tested before it's released, they lose their signal because no one noticed that the aerial doesn't work if the phone is held in a completely normal way. They've sold over 1.5 million of them - are they going to recall them? Nope. Because that would cost them too much. There's not even going to be a fix for it. You have to pay even more money to buy a rubber case for it. I find it shocking that a major company can be so wreckless and treat their buying public this way.

That's just one example.

 

[Anonymous]

My iphone 3gs died just 3 weeks before the expiry of the 1 year warranty. I took it to the apple store and they replaced it immediately. Not one hour passed between the demise of my previous unit and the replacement one, so I was very pleased with Apple's customer service. I'm sure had the breakdown occurred 1 day after the expiry of the warranty, I wouldn't be quite so happy. That said, my phone shouldn't have died within one year, and the fact that I didn't have it synced with my macbook meant that I lost all my music and contacts (it was previously synced with my old non-functioning computer and the iphone wouldn't let me sync with more than one) which wasn't great.

 

[chebby]

My iMac's HD died just over 3 weeks before the end of it's 3 year Apple Care cover.

I rang the support helpline and they arranged a courier to arrive the following day a.m. and take the computer away for a replacement HD (even though there is an Apple store 25 miles away).

It was returned after a few days with them (after a phone call to me to arrange the best day for the courier to deliver it).

When I was restoring the system I noticed my old 250gb HD had been replaced with a 320gb drive. Bonus!

 

[XMB]

Sounds more like a problem with Carphone Warehouse than Apple to me. After all it is retailers duty under UK consumer law to repair or replace the item, not the manufacturer. Retailers, Carphone Warehouse, like to try it on on save themselves money!

Apple like all manufacturers are subject to the vagaries of modern production so are not immune to faults. High technology items are also difficult to support as many users fail to operate them correctly adding to the manufacturers problems.

A friend recently purchased an iPhone 3GS on PAYG but could not get the GPS function to work. I had a look and all the settings seemed to be OK so assumed it was a faulty phone. But before he went back to the shop I told him to try restoring the software, low and behold this cured the problem and just shows how devices that have complex software can through up issues that would not have occurred in equipment 10 years ago.

Apple service is generally good but is is no different to any large company in that sometimes it falls short of expectations! This is not helped by poor retailers and the vagaries of individuals who are employed by these large corporations.

 

[Torres09]

XMB:

Sounds more like a problem with Carphone Warehouse than Apple to me. After all it is retailers duty under UK consumer law to repair or replace the item, not the manufacturer. Retailers, Carphone Warehouse, like to try it on on save themselves money!

Apple like all manufacturers are subject to the vagaries of modern production so are not immune to faults. High technology items are also difficult to support as many users fail to operate them correctly adding to the manufacturers problems.

A friend recently purchased an iPhone 3GS on PAYG but could not get the GPS function to work. I had a look and all the settings seemed to be OK so assumed it was a faulty phone. But before he went back to the shop I told him to try restoring the software, low and behold this cured the problem and just shows how devices that have complex software can through up issues that would not have occurred in equipment 10 years ago.

Apple service is generally good but is is no different to any large company in that sometimes it falls short of expectations! This is not helped by poor retailers and the vagaries of individuals who are employed by these large corporations.

Well I dont know who the decision lies with, but here in Ireland if may be different ( As in Apple's return/repair policy) because as soon as I explained the problem the sales assistance rang Apple Support, like that was the protocol, and only offered a replacement when I was getting quiet annoyed with Apple's charges to return the phone.....
Ah well, the new one works so all good...........