Anyone else feel like the “great customer service” at Apple is almost mythical?

[AppleMatt]

My first Mac was a Performa 630, and I’ve owned hundreds of Apple products since then. So I’ve had a long arc of very occasionally dipping into Apple Support along the way.

My own experience is that for a very long time it was simply unbeatable - and a huge reason why I was happy paying more for Apple products, and why I used to advocate that others should do too. I’d say this was from around 1994 to 2014-ish. I felt confident that Apple’s products were high quality and Apple stood behind them.

Then between 2014 to 2020, my experience considerably changed. These were the years when many complained that they felt that Apple saw them as walking wallets to dip into, not customers. I had a few problems with two Apple products and for the first time ever, Apple were *highly* obstructive - ultimately saying ‘pay for a repair or go away’. Even though I could show one of them was defective from the day of arrival: I had endless videos of a BTO MacBook Pro’s screen flickering on and off. The quoted repair costs were eye-watering. Priced at a level to just get you to buy new products. I escalated it up to a complaint but they sent me a one sentence(!) letter saying my only option was to pay for repair. It was quite jarring going from support where you were treated well to support where you were treated with indifference if not a customer-hostile approach.

Now, I think it’s middle ground. On the rare occasions I do need support, I don’t have amazing experiences but honestly? They’re not bad either. It’s just like dealing with any other corporate - the Apple shine has gone, but so has the overtly customer-hostile approach. I would add though that I missed the date to purchase AppleCare for my AirPods and after some polite discussion, they allowed me to purchase out of time. I thought that was particularly good.

Overall, I’m happy that I had some really bad experiences with Apple Support! Those fundamentally changed my buying habits, and how much stall I place on Apple generally. Whereas I used to frequently read about and buy endless Apple products, and upgrade my iPhone every year without fail, I now have a background interest and buy a small handful and run them into the ground. Whereas I used to spec out a high-end BTO PowerMac or iMac, I now have a standard and lowest-end Mac mini with a Dell monitor and Logitech mouse. Because I was angry in 2018 I cancelled my Apple subscriptions but you know what? I don’t miss them (the only one I restored was iCloud space as 5 GB is just not enough). I now enjoy using Apple products more because I’m not worried - if the Mac mini goes pop, I’m not gonna fight Apple, or buy a new Mac mini; I’ll just use an old iPad until that goes pop too. The only ‘nice’ Apple product I have is a new iPhone 15 Pro. The knock-on of all this is that I feel a lot less guilty about spending too much on products I didn’t need (and consumption that the environment cannot support) and services I occasionally used. More broadly I’ve ‘distanced’ myself from Apple into wider interests and hobbies. Apple is now a detail in my life, no longer a big part of it. If I hadn’t have had the bad support years with them I would still be on a 1994 mindset.

 

[HDFan]

Anyone else feel like the “great customer service” at Apple is almost mythical?

Not at all.

In my experience Apple has the best customer service out of any business I’ve dealt with.

Yes, but that is not to say that all your experiences will be good, or that you will get the result that you want. It depends upon whomever is working your case. I have had thousands of support cases that I've worked on with 100's of companies. Apple is almost always the best.

 

[motorazr]

My first Mac was a Performa 630, and I’ve owned hundreds of Apple products since then. So I’ve had a long arc of very occasionally dipping into Apple Support along the way.

My own experience is that for a very long time it was simply unbeatable - and a huge reason why I was happy paying more for Apple products, and why I used to advocate that others should do too. I’d say this was from around 1994 to 2014-ish. I felt confident that Apple’s products were high quality and Apple stood behind them.

Then between 2014 to 2020, my experience considerably changed. These were the years when many complained that they felt that Apple saw them as walking wallets to dip into, not customers. I had a few problems with two Apple products and for the first time ever, Apple were *highly* obstructive - ultimately saying ‘pay for a repair or go away’. Even though I could show one of them was defective from the day of arrival: I had endless videos of a BTO MacBook Pro’s screen flickering on and off. The quoted repair costs were eye-watering. Priced at a level to just get you to buy new products. I escalated it up to a complaint but they sent me a one sentence(!) letter saying my only option was to pay for repair. It was quite jarring going from support where you were treated well to support where you were treated with indifference if not a customer-hostile approach.

Now, I think it’s middle ground. On the rare occasions I do need support, I don’t have amazing experiences but honestly? They’re not bad either. It’s just like dealing with any other corporate - the Apple shine has gone, but so has the overtly customer-hostile approach. I would add though that I missed the date to purchase AppleCare for my AirPods and after some polite discussion, they allowed me to purchase out of time. I thought that was particularly good.

Overall, I’m happy that I had some really bad experiences with Apple Support! Those fundamentally changed my buying habits, and how much stall I place on Apple generally. Whereas I used to frequently read about and buy endless Apple products, and upgrade my iPhone every year without fail, I now have a background interest and buy a small handful and run them into the ground. Whereas I used to spec out a high-end BTO PowerMac or iMac, I now have a standard and lowest-end Mac mini with a Dell monitor and Logitech mouse. Because I was angry in 2018 I cancelled my Apple subscriptions but you know what? I don’t miss them (the only one I restored was iCloud space as 5 GB is just not enough). I now enjoy using Apple products more because I’m not worried - if the Mac mini goes pop, I’m not gonna fight Apple, or buy a new Mac mini; I’ll just use an old iPad until that goes pop too. The only ‘nice’ Apple product I have is a new iPhone 15 Pro. The knock-on of all this is that I feel a lot less guilty about spending too much on products I didn’t need (and consumption that the environment cannot support) and services I occasionally used. More broadly I’ve ‘distanced’ myself from Apple into wider interests and hobbies. Apple is now a detail in my life, no longer a big part of it. If I hadn’t have had the bad support years with them I would still be on a 1994 mindset.

This timeline is accurate for support changes; and I share the sentiment to buy fewer Apple things. It simply isn’t worth giving Apple bundles of cash to be treated like a thief for seeking warranty or reasonable good-faith repairs.

In 2014 my iPhone 6 was about two months old and developed a hairline crack. I was informed by a genius it was bent (based on it rocking on a table… forgetful of camera bump…), and informed I would need to pay half the price of the phone to replace it.

Better yet, I protested about a bend, and was then accused of wearing tight pants and the phone must have bent in the pockets (I demonstrated how loose the pant legs were after this). I used normal volume and tone, with a framing of “how do you figure” - and they still just walked away at that point.

Took to another store in the area, and they replaced the display at no cost since it *was* a hairline crack, and there was no bend.

Apple and other computer/device manufactures have avoided consumer regulations by being consumer friendly for a long time, but as that’s changed, Apple is the last card to fall— and I hope to see some consumer protection laws in the US similar to automotive but more relevant to phones and that.

 

[ignatius345]

Anyone else feel like the “great customer service” at Apple is almost mythical?

Nope.

 

[Warped9]

Customer expectations also play a big part in service/support interactions. I’m sure most people don’t see themselves as unreasonable or ridiculously demanding, but quite a few can be.

We have a thirty day return policy. If they come in on day 32 or 35 we usually won’t sweat it. But when they come in several months to even 1-3 years later demanding to return something it’s getting absurd. This actually happened last week. A woman claimed she ordered laser toner from us online for her printer and when she checked she had received the wrong toner. When I checked the order it was from three years ago. I told her there was nothing I could do, but she insisted it was our mistake even though she hadn’t checked what she had received until three years later—it made no sense. Who orders something and doesn’t verify it immediately upon receipt?

I’ve had people try to return a phone or tablet they have locked themselves out of. The device isn’t defective, but doing what it’s supposed to do when someone inputs something incorrectly too many times. I’ve had people upset because we don’t retain records of their passwords when we do setups even after reminding them we don’t retain their passwords for the sake of their own data security.

There has to be a limit.

 

[avkills]

Has anyone ever eavesdropped on someone else at the genius bar and called the so called genius out for blowing smoke? I've had to do that a couple times; but I would generally wait until the genius was gone and tell the other customer, uhhh, no, it does not work that way. 😂

As anyone can attest, building a hackintosh you learn a whole **** load of how stuff is supposed to work behind the scenes. The windows rig in my sig used to be my hackintosh (although at the time it had an older motherboard and older CPU.) Totally slaughtered everything that Apple was selling at the time. And I wasn't shy about telling Apple Store employees about it either.

 

[fatTribble]

I’ve literally never had anything other than excellent customer service. I’ve called with questions when AC has long been expired. Both on the phone and at my local store I’ve always felt like they just wanted to solve the issue.

Call me all the names you like. That’s been my experience.

 

[mjs916]

I've always had good luck at the Apple Store. I can't vouch for anything of theirs over the phone.

Now if you want some BAD customer service, try calling Amazon to get back into a locked account. There is a higher chance of snow in Miami in August than getting your account unlocked from them.

Ok so it’s not just me! I had to abandon my Amazon account not because it was locked, but because the OLD phone number on file is deactivated and while I did update it on my Amazon Flex account this didn’t apply to my Amazon shopping account. Two factor still goes to the old number and there is no way to update it.

The rep on the phone pretended (apparently) for several minutes to make the change on my behalf then said “ok sign in now I’ve updated it”. So I sign in and it sends to the old number still. Rep says “You just need to create another account”.

I asked what update they made and they said it can’t be updated, so I don’t know why they told me they did at first.

I made a new account.

🤷🏾‍♂️

 

[mjs916]

And I wasn't shy about telling Apple Store employees about it either.

Out of curiosity, how did they react?

I’m wondering what they did with that information once you told them. Shrug? Ask what a Hackintosh is? Rend the Apple t-shirt from their flesh in the middle the store?

 

[jwolf6589]

Anyone else feel like the “great customer service” at Apple is almost mythical?

I’ve only interacted with them about three times, but each time has been a nightmare. In the most recent example, I have a power cord with new iPad that isn’t working. After thirty minutes of questions I finally gave up and bought Anker replacements. It’s a power cord, with a new device no less. Just replace the dang thing. Oh, and the new device has AC+, so you’d think they’d be more willing to help.

Previous examples include refusing express replacement on a device covered by AC+ (when I love hours from the closest store), and similar experiences.

Then I hear about folks having random replacements of entire computers and that sort of thing. I’m not being a jerk on these phone calls, because i know customer service is a difficult job to be in. Not to mention one where you have to deal with customers with broken equipment.

Losey customer service. Once I had a Mac problem and was transferred to a “Mac person” and the person I was speaking with thought I was using an iPhone and tried to give advice like I was having issues with an iPhone. Sometimes they are able to solve issues but many times they are not.

 

[boss.king]

I’ve had some middling and some decent experiences in stores, and one great experience. Their online customer service is terrible though.

 

[avkills]

Out of curiosity, how did they react?

I’m wondering what they did with that information once you told them. Shrug? Ask what a Hackintosh is? Rend the Apple t-shirt from their flesh in the middle the store?

Surprisedly, most of them were cool about it. I mean basically at that time Apple didn't make anything suitable. The 6,1 was a joke; cool when it was released, but just too many issues. The D700s just couldn't hack it. When Nvidia released the 1080ti, it was game over. Hackintosh just crushed with that 1080ti.

They actually had more questions about updates and all that. I was honest and said updating was a total pain in the ass, and that I'd bricked it a couple of times and had to start from scratch. Although once Clover came out that made things a lot easier. It was a fun experiment. Learned a lot.

 

[maxoakland]

So far I've experienced good customer service. The closest thing to an exception is some kind of Time Machine bug no one could fix. They said they sent it to some engineering team or something and I don't think I ever heard back about it

But the woman I worked with (over the phone and then email) was very helpful and kind over the course of several weeks and was very responsive to emails

My issue is more with the software quality than the quality of customer service

 

[TruthAboveAllElse]

Customer expectations also play a big part in service/support interactions. I’m sure most people don’t see themselves as unreasonable or ridiculously demanding, but quite a few can be.

We have a thirty day return policy. If they come in on day 32 or 35 we usually won’t sweat it. But when they come in several months to even 1-3 years later demanding to return something it’s getting absurd. This actually happened last week. A woman claimed she ordered laser toner from us online for her printer and when she checked she had received the wrong toner. When I checked the order it was from three years ago. I told her there was nothing I could do, but she insisted it was our mistake even though she hadn’t checked what she had received until three years later—it made no sense. Who orders something and doesn’t verify it immediately upon receipt?

I’ve had people try to return a phone or tablet they have locked themselves out of. The device isn’t defective, but doing what it’s supposed to do when someone inputs something incorrectly too many times. I’ve had people upset because we don’t retain records of their passwords when we do setups even after reminding them we don’t retain their passwords for the sake of their own data security.

There has to be a limit.

I don't think the people complaining in this thread are talking bout extreme examples such as these.

And also, try working at Nordstrom. There doesn't actually have to be a predefined limit.

 

[Jumpthesnark]

Losey customer service. Once I had a Mac problem and was transferred to a “Mac person” and the person I was speaking with thought I was using an iPhone and tried to give advice like I was having issues with an iPhone. Sometimes they are able to solve issues but many times they are not.

You contacted Apple for service and they had to transfer you to a "Mac person?"

 

[ThunderSkunk]

I had the best service of any company I’ve ever done business with at my local Apple Store when I lived in in La Jolla. Three separate times they went out of their way to help me out above & beyond what was necessary. I moved from La Jolla in 2012, and at every Apple Store since, it’s been the opposite experience. I usually kill time in the moments of waiting with a general compliment about how much Ive enjoyed that great service, and more often than not I hear “yeah those days are long gone. Wr don’t have the freedom to do anything like that anymore.”

Sounds like every penny has been wrung out of Apple retail by this leadership.

 

[macfacts]

I went once to an apple store with a software problem and they just gave me a 1800 phone number.

 

[Chuckeee]

I went once to an apple store with a software problem and they just gave me a 1800 phone number.

Well they at least they gave you the 800 number. I went into the local BMW dealership and thy told me to go on the internet to find and call the 800 number myself. And they weren’t even busy, with all the salesman just standing around. (BTW ended up buying a Volvo instead)

Like I said previously, the threshold for good services has gotten much worse in general everywhere. And in perspective to what is generally available today, Apple still provides great customer service. Although no where near the quality of they service provided 10 years ago.

 

[Unggoy Murderer]

Always been excellent for me in the times when I've had to contact them, or go into a store. From being just generally helpful to being patient and helping me diagnose an issue, I'd always say they've went above and beyond.

Although I haven't always had the outcome I've hoped for, but that isn't a reflection on how they treated me or conducted themselves.

 

[Unami]

I've had some good service around 2000-2015 but in recent years my
interactions with Apple have gotten worse. It probably depends on your culture, but in my country, service in Apple stores is now pretty bad compared to other companies. It's always a fight to get them to repair anything under warranty - they'll try to worm their way out and tell you with a slick politeness that borders on rudeness that they are so, so sorry, but they can't help you - so you either have to escalate endlessly (which becomes harder and harder every year) or go to consumer rights advocates to help you. It's literally Apple trying to dupe you out of your rights on principle and trying to get away with it unless you actively fight that. Again, I get that they are a profit oriented company and that they rather care about their bottom line than their customers. But while other companies at least try to be helpful and keep you a happy customer within reasonable/profitable borders, with Apple it's all a smiling "f you" - which feels even more frustrating when you consider that it correlates less and less with the money their stuff costs. And that's something that has - like repairability, expandability, software quality and design - at least in my experience - declined dignificantly over the last years. Their user base still seems to grow fast, so most new users wouldn't know it any different, but it sometimes feels like Apple now lives on borrowed time.

 

[zhtfreak]

I've always had good experiences with Apple support. Back in 2018, I tried, and failed hard, to work as a phone-based tech support agent for one of those contractor companies. I used to think that would be a good starting point for work because I could in theory help people not to have the same kind of bad customer service experiences I've had with various organizations. Oh, how naive I was!

I thought the worst part would be dealing with rude, entitled demanding customers, and while that was bad, the thing that pushed me away was the demanding crazy fast paced environment. After six weeks including training, I had to quit because the stress was literally making me sick. It was either quit or be fired so I was out.

What that taught me though, is that it takes a certain type of person and a certain skill set to do well at a job like that which I don't have enough of. People have to take little bits of information and figure out what to ask to figure out what's going on. Not everyone can do that. It reminds me of when you go to the doctor and you get one of those nurses who comes in first and takes really good notes to help when the doctor comes in.

So now whenever I have to interact with any customer service, I make a point to try to be extra nice because I've actually done their job and know what they deal with. I willingly do the surveys they send you afterward because I know how the support reps are measured on those.

 

[Warped9]

Customer service does indeed require a certain skill set you won’t know you have or can learn until you do it.

Rude and demanding people are not the only ones that can get to you. The totally helpless ones who cannot seem (or refuse) to understand anything you’re trying to tell them. Some of these people shouldn’t be near any technology beyond a pad of paper and a pen. They can really try your patience.

People who balk at pricing for certain services can also be annoying. It’s as if they feel you should be doing repairs or setups for free. If I’m fixing or setting up something for someone then I’m not on the sales floor being productive. And if you need me and my knowledge and ability to do something for you then why should it be done for free? If you think it’s not such an involved thing to be done then you should be able to do it yourself, right?

On top of which the prices of our most common services haven’t changed in more than five years!

When I started here eight years ago the cost of a tablet setup was $79 CAN. It’s still $79. Eight years ago AppleCare for most iPads was $99 CAN. Today the cost of AppleCare for 9th and 10th generation iPads (as of four or five years ago) is $79 and now includes unlimited accidental incidence coverage and you can now extend the coverage after the first two years annually or monthly. WTF do you want?

People can be very trying.

 

[bluegt]

Sorry, Apple Service is terrible

iPhone 14 Pro Max
1. Camera photos coming out blurry
2. Sent in for service at Apple Store
3. Told my device was “modified”*
4. Charged $130
5. My physical letter to HQ & emails to Tim ignored
6. Apple Phone Support after escalation: “Sorry, we can’t help.”

Result: Broken Under Warranty Phone and out of pocket $130.

Not only is Apple’s service terrible, they made the situation worse!

*Phone was purchased at an Apple Store outright and was never serviced before this incident

 

[Macky-Mac]

...My own experience is that for a very long time it was simply unbeatable - and a huge reason why I was happy paying more for Apple products, and why I used to advocate that others should do too. I’d say this was from around 1994 to 2014-ish. I felt confident that Apple’s products were high quality and Apple stood behind them.

Then between 2014 to 2020, my experience considerably changed. These were the years when many complained that they felt that Apple saw them as walking wallets to dip into, not customers....

Unfortunately, I have to agree.

Early on, customer service was great, but things seriously declined in approximately the time frame AppleMatt mentions.

 

[jbmelby]

I’ve always had great results with Apple service, for both hardware and software problems. I do a lot of beta testing, and some time ago I had a macOS problem with a beta. They gave me the spiel about not supporting beta versions, and once that was finished, they went ahead and helped me fix it anyway.