Apple Customer Service
 

Well, despite all the recent threads on here lately about Apple, I feel the need to report my dealings with the Apple store today.

I booked an appointment online to see a genius about my Macbook which seems to have a broken hard drive and also my iPhone which had developed a fault with the screen which left grey lines across the screen, which got bigger as the days went on.

I was quickly introduced to the lady handling the appointments who seated me with the genius, all the time referring to me by my first name.
The guy was knowledgable and quickly diagnosed that my hard drive had gone. My Macbook is 5 years old now so i've had a good run with it so far. The "Genius" guy said they could fit a new one for £140 or I could just go and buy one and fit myself as its so easy... the cost would be £30.

Great to be advised this even though Apple won't benefit in any way.

I also showed him my cable which had come away from the casing at one end. He quickly called someone over to get me a new one free of charge.

Now, on to my second appointment to see another genius about my iPhone.....

Again the guy was really friendly and took a quick look at my phone. He asked how old it was, to which I replied just over 2 years old.... He said it would need a new screen which is £79.00 and that Apple have a grace period after your 12 month warranty but i'd missed out on that date but since i'd had a "torid time" (his words) with my Macbook and iPhone both going wrong he would replace the screen for free.

He tapped away at his ipod till thingy and a couple of minutes later opened a drawer behind him and pulled out a black box with "Mr Mamoon2" (not actual name ;)) on the front. Nice trick... they must have people in the back sorting the orders out and putting them into the drawers so it looks like magic.

To my surprise he pulls out a brand new phone and begins to wipe the old phone and swap my sim card over. He said they give new phones to speed things up.

Fantastic! I've now got a new phone and cable for free and know it will only cost me £30 to fix my Macbook.

Nice one Apple, you've just reminded me why I buy your stuff :notworthy

I just read all that and deduce that apple products fail quite often ;)

You deduce wrong

http://regmedia.co.uk/2010/11/10/square_1.jpg

To be fair that is excellent customer service. Nice to know such a thing still exists in this day and age.

Great to hear, shoves a finger up to all the 'marketing hype, fashion accessory, overpriced" types. You get what you pay for.

Why? Apples products are hyped, overpriced fashion accessoriies... backed up by great customer service. ;)

I'll give you that one.

That's good service I'm yet to experience the genius service but it looks good .

Great to hear that Apple have once again lived up to their reputation for good customer service. I have been subject to their award winning service as well and you cant beat it.

Contrast that to my daily dealings with several other manufacturers from HP, Lacie, Cisco, you name it and they are like a shining beacon of loveliness amongst turd filled swirling waters of <insert other customer services>

Not perfect and sometimes frustrating as hell

It doesn't get much better than that.

Sounds like that all got sorted quicker than my phone call to HP today just to log an issue. The times I had to spell my name and address was shocking.

Last year I took my macbook pro to apple to have the screen changed as it had a few dead pixels....(£470 odd)

....2 weeks after the logic board went so was back again to have that replaced (bout £800)

...week later it starts shutting down on me all the time, put up with it for ages then went back, they said they probs damaged the heat sink when it was last in for repair...

....they changed the heat sink and temp. sensor, i switched it on in the shop before going home, it crashed. They then told me 5 mins later the logic board had friend when starting it up (sensor + another logic board @ £880)

I wrote to apple complaining that i hadnt been impressed with my purchase, considering i paid nearly £2000 for it. Thankfully the further 2k worth of repairs were all covered under the applecare plan which i bought. I never had any response from apple.

Glad your experiences have been better though.

Considering the cost, I'd expect a top level of customer service.

Good to hear about some good customer service for once.

Les

+1

If a product runs with high margins, it allows for such great aftercare services.

Its what annoys me about modern day buying culture, everyone wants everything cheap but when it goes wrong where do they expect the money to come from to provide good aftersales care?

All I expect is they honour what they state, so if its 12month warranty, then I expect to have the item exchanged/replaced for free at any point in that period without being diddled about.

What annoys the hell out of me is when they send items off for repair, mobile phones and computers especially. I don't want to wait two weeks for some repair centre to recieve the item, assess it, then repairs it, then sends it back. When they could sawp it for a new one or reconditioned one on the spot or within 24hours. The same with car dealers that fob you off - even with a maufacturer's warranty.

Out of warranty though, its hard cheese. And certinaly down to brand reputation to offer any goodwill.

I've had success with Canon - they repaired a camera with a faulty CCD...Twice! (it came back with two dead pixels on the new CCD), yet it was out of warranty by over two years! Panasonic also repaired a DVD recorder of mine at labour cost (£20) when parts were quoted at over £150, they admitted it was unfair that an expensive (£250) DVD recorder should only last 18months before failing, even though its a 12month warranty had expired. :cool:

:cuckoo:

Arrgghh, I've been lightboxed :mad: