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Apple At-Home Advisor...
- Thread starter iHalo
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Go to peoples houses and install cable for a day. Guarantee you will think you have something special after that. I haven't started yet but am truly grateful to be able to work from home and work for Apple. I bust ass everyday showing empathy to customers in their homes, I am sure it is way harder than over the phone. When you are in a customers home it is a whole new ballgame. I am truly happy I applied for this job no matter what anyone says.
Kinda like when the AT&T store tells somebody to call Apple and get a free iPhone because he was having a hard time accessing the app store, when anybody at Apple knows damn well that we're not giving you a free phone because you can't access the app store.
Like when a call director sends you an obviously ineligible for tech support case and classifies it as non-technical, because he/she didn't have the guts to do the job right, so now you get to tell this person who has been "transferred to tech support" that it will cost $19 if they want you to take four minutes and show them how to restore from an iTunes backup.
xqwhatever's point about going into someone's house is well taken, but again I will suggest that people would be well advised to know what they're getting into. Those angry customers that you sometimes encounter while installing cable - they're the only ones who will be calling you. Those happy customers that you sometimes encounter while installing cable - you'll never hear a peep from them.
It's not that the customers are all rude or belligerent. Most of them are actually fairly friendly. It's that you're always starting from a point of disappointment or frustration. Even the morons who forget their Apple ID passwords and can't manage to reset them seem to think that they're owed something.
So when I call to tell you my phone's wifi blows, and you know damned well that my phone's wifi blows, but your job requires you to pretend that a software restore will fix the issue, and you also know that I know that you're just blowing smoke up my ass - at that point I'll welcome your feedback on just how special the job is. 'Cause from where I'm sitting, it's just a job. It's not a terrible job and it's not a great job. It's just a job.
I can understand why people would want this job but I'd give it up in a heartbeat to be back in a server room. Without question, this is the absolute worst technology related job I've ever had.
A friend recently had this experience--a software restore being required for what was obviously flaky hardware. Why pretend this? What am I missing?
We pretty much have to do a factory restore on most any device prior to setting it up for repair(assuming it powers on). I tend to skip this step with stuff that is obviously hardware related, e.g. speaker or unresponsive display. WiFi issues are not always that cut and dry though. Many of the cases I've had ended up being a router issue, not a device issue.
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You lie
So I saw your name on the list of winners for those goofy summer fest puzzles... they send out anything interesting?
Is there a way to submit feedback about this sort of thing? This is like a T1 sending an easy issue up to a T2 because they didn't feel like handling a call, and I imagine THAT has repercussions.
A lot of people use the peer feedback that's built in to the logging software but it seems to be ineffective at best. However, if a T1 rep continues to escalate easy stuff, he or she will be called on the carpet for it at some point.
Once in a while I get something weird that comes in but for most of the calls... SSDD.
I like you. You're real. I'm starting on August 26 in iOS, and I feel like there's so much hype to work for Apple that people start to have unrealistic expectations, thus the high turnover rate.
I come from a social work background, and for the last seven years have worked with people who live in poverty and suffer from severe mental illness. Part of my job was obtaining different community/government services for them, and when things didn't go according to plan, listening to them threaten me and call me all kinds of pretty names. I had to go into some extremely unsafe neighborhoods, into homes that were infested with lice, bedbugs, fleas, etc.
Apple will definitely be a step up from that and I'm grateful for it. But, as with anything, a job is a job is a job. It's about level of expectation, energy put into it, and keeping all things in perspective.
I'm feeling chatty this morning. So..sorry about the lengthy post! Just wanted to say that I think you share great perspective and provide a level of realism that is needed.
I think you'll do fine, the customers you'll run across can be difficult at times but most are reasonable. Once you get through the learning curve the job is neither difficult or stressful... it is however, a customer service job and the hardest part for me is dealing with consumers rather than technical challenges. In the end... it's just a job and Apple is just another huge tech company. There is a staggering amount of hype and kool-aid drinking that goes on, however. And for a pragmatist/realist like me, that takes some getting used to.
Actually, most days I'm OK with doing this AHA stuff but once in a while I'll get a string of calls that make me ask,"Why am I doing this to myself?". 50 minutes on a call with an 82 year old woman that has never used an iPad or computer before and I was ready to gulp down a handful of valiums.
Sorry for the delay in response. Yes CPU. In fact it just got here...WTH cant openit until Monday! ARRRRRRGHHHHH!!! lol
Good to meet you.
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Me too. iMac just got dropped off by FedEx about 10 minutes ago...seriously..hardest box I have never opened....I am going to hide it out of site so it does not tempt me! LOL
Yes, because it could theoretically be a software glitch causing the problem. For a lot of people, you can spin it as getting all the data imported and backed up in case a repair is needed. From that point a restore is only one more click. For some cases though, it's stupid.
Just wondered if anybody else saw this...
http://www.wahm.com/forum/telecommu...ne-worked-apple-home-advisor.html#post3119572
Scroll down a bit to find the evaluation of the AHA job from someone who did it for two years. She lays out both pluses and minuses.
You experienced folks--is it true about needing five good surveys to make up for one bad one?
http://www.wahm.com/forum/telecommu...ne-worked-apple-home-advisor.html#post3119572
Scroll down a bit to find the evaluation of the AHA job from someone who did it for two years. She lays out both pluses and minuses.
You experienced folks--is it true about needing five good surveys to make up for one bad one?
Some people do... I personally wouldn't do a restore for that unless they're right next to their computer. Restores are always worth a shot...
That's actually pretty close to the mark. And yeah... one bad survey and you're in a hole that's hard to climb out of. The best defense is to get as many surveys as you can.
That article scares me
As well it should... it's pretty spot on. The only thing that has changed is that the managers don't wing it as much as they used to... there are still kinks in the system tho.
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