Boro

iTrader: (1)

... no it's not some trendy pub

My girlfriends iPhone5 had been acting up. The camera would display some weird purple lines every now and then, so she had a gallery with about 4/5 screen shots on when it went weird.

Anyway, long story short, she booked an appointment with the Genius Bar yesterday, went in there today and within 10mins was given a replacement phone.

No questions, no hassle.

Made me think of the time my Samsung Galaxy S3 went wrong and I had 6 weeks of no phone and loads of agro trying to get it repaired under warranty.

Still love my S3 but fair play to Apple for their customer service! Credit where credit is due

RA Dunk

***Sits and waits for all the Apple haters to come along and tell you how sh1te Apple really are***

I can never fault them either TBH.

Boro

iTrader: (1)

To be fair, I'm one of them lol. I switched to Samsung about a year ago and got the S3 and love it.

I did have 6 weeks worth of agro when it went wrong and they refused to repair it under warranty. Eventually got it repaired but it wasn't easy.

Today made me realise the difference in customer service between the two companies.

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

Yep the service should be like that, to offset the extra massive premium you have to pay just for the "privilege" of owning an iphone5

Friend of mine dropped his S3 and the screen stopped working, he simply said it had failed and he got it replaced under warranty in a week, guess it was bad luck Boro?

scunnered

iTrader: (1)

It costs next to nothing to manufacture due to the cheap Chinese labour. So obviously it costs next to nothing for Apple to replace it. It makes their customer service look good. They make such a huge profit from fans of the Apple hype they can easily afford to take a hit once and a while.

Boro

iTrader: (1)

Maybe bad luck, but I found out that Samsung don't carry out their own repairs, it's outsourced to a number of different independent repair centres dotted all over the country.

Basically the repair centre that had mine originally were trying to charge for the repair which should have been done under warranty.

Samsung themselves were next to useless and all they could suggest was sending it to a different repair centre for a second opinion.

RA Dunk

^^That alone is enough to make me not buy one, I was actually thinking of deflecting over as well..

Boro

iTrader: (1)

Don't get me wrong though, the phone is brill. Before it I had the 3GS and then the iPhone 4 and loved them both but wanted something with a bigger screen hence the S3.

If Apple made a bigger phone I'd probably go back.

mart360

Lol, I love the way, that by being given a replacement for a duff phone makes everything ok....

Blackberry do the same BTW, but it still doesn't change the fact that the phone was defective..


Kinda blows the "It just works" thing out of the water lol.




MArt

RA Dunk

Customer service goes a very long way Mart.

Boro

iTrader: (1)

I've accepted that stuff just breaks and doesn't always just work.

I'm just comparing my experiences with Samsung and today Apple in the way the whole process is handled.

With Samsung, I had to call them, wait for a postal bag to come out, send it off and wait about 2 weeks, for it to be returned un-repaired, then go through the same process again after a few heated conversations with Samsung and the first repair centre.

With Apple, booked appointment online for the following day, turned up, got new phone.

So much easier.

RobsyUK

iTrader: (2)

I do like Apples customer service shops. Besides theres this 18yr old peach that needs tapping there. Just wish I still had an apple.

PaulC72

Glad you got it sorted. One thing I do know is they do look after customers, however for me as a personal choice I still wouldn't buy one. I try to avoid sheep syndrome where I can baaa.

RA Dunk

I would rather have the after sales and be a sheep TBH

scoobysteve1983

i read somewhere that an iphone 4s costs apple £142 to make. i thought it would be cheaper than that but when they sell them for £500 thats still a massive profit!

Berks-Jack

iTrader: (10)

Wtf is a genius bar?

written on my iPhone 4 by the way....

scunnered

iTrader: (1)

I've worked in the electronics manufacturing industry since 1982. My experience tells me that £142 figure cannot be true. The prototype costs and NPI run would be expensive, however the bulk manufacturing unit cost is more likely to be less than £50. More like £30 since they're built in China.

Ant

I love people say how expensive apple are and the s3 when released wasn't far off and you think Samsung haven't made a huge profit on their handsets."?

Mongols

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

My uncle broke the screen on his ipad, took it back to Apple who offered to swap it for a reconditioned one, plus £250 their way.

Local Pc shop replaced the screen for £70 .. I would have done it myself for the £25 cost of the screen ..

Awesome customer service..

riiidaa

iTrader: (2)

worth the 70 quid imo
http://www.imore.com/how-replace-cracked-screen-ipad-2

the iPhone screen replacement is tricky too

JackClark

Samsung invested billions in creating an operating system and unique designs for it's products, of course they need to charge the same as Apple for their plastic phones.

dpb

Still don't see how it's a work of genius to hand over another phone

JackClark

It's not, it's how any company making that amount of money should treat it's customers.

judgejules

Stop the press...

Shop in faulty product replacement shocker!!!

My bro had a new galaxy note 2 because of a faulty stylus and buzzing power adapter, took them under 10 mins to sort it and we didn't need to book an appointment with a "geniearse".

Didn't feel the need to post about how amazing the service was... broken product... product replaced, I would expect nothing less.

Big up phone4u and all that jazz...

Ant

What would of they done If the phone was actually faukty! They would send it off repair and you know it!

alistair

I dropped my iPhone and smashed the screen. There were plenty of people who would have done a replacement, but I decided it was worth going to Apple and getting a warranty.

I'd bought the phone in eBay, so no contract or anything - I always go SIM only.

So I went to a store - and despite there being plenty of staff around, was politely informed that I needed to make a Genius appointment !

Luckily they helped me do it and there was one available not much later.

Anyway, the Genius checked it out, told me it wasn't covered under warranty and what the price would be - I said OK - then he told me that this time, he was going to replace it for free. I have no idea why and didn't really like to ask.

Needless to say, I left a happy customer.

It worked though as my PC and laptop needed replacing this year - I now have a Mac mini and a Macbook Pro Retina and am very happy with them.

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

That's brilliant for you, but pretty stupid by the "genius" haha are they really called this? How stuck up. Anyway maybe he was feeling guilty about the huge amounts of coin he had already leeched out of some other unfortunate sheep's iphones which were also out of warranty or not covered, so gave you the benefit

alistair

Sad but true - www.apple.com/uk/retail/geniusbar/

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

genius should simply be renamed geek.

DerekMack

Yeah my iphone 5 did that too, purple lines kept coming up and covering the screen, also had a purple haze showing up on some photos.

Took it to apple and explained it, they changed it out with a brand new one.

I really cant complain about apple, my first iphone 4 rear screen smashed and they gave me a replacement phone for that, next i smashed the front screen but it was more of a crack so they replaced it again, and my last replacement on a 4 was when the phone kept saying the headphones were plugged in so i couldnt answer calls without the earphones in.

The customer service is whats keeping me with apple, its certainly not the bloody itunes layout thats for sure.