Apple Customer Service Sucks Arse

[wpotere]

Like I said, I am not in the habit of being disagreeable with anyone. I've worked in CS as well. I'm well aware that CS reps are human beings and the difficulties of the job.

If you were adjusting the level of CS you were providing according to your "mood", I'm glad you moved on to other endeavours.

I still do it but in a managerial mode and under a contractual environment. Treat people how you want to be treated and no, the customer is not always right. The OP came here and is snipping at everyone and you are going to back him? I get that he is upset, but he needs to chill out or he won't get any help.

How has Apple "tried to offer help"? If a customer lives far away from the nearest service center Apple should allow mail in, period, end of sentence. It is how they do it here in Japan. Why should he have to drive over an hour each way to have Apple replace a part they're recalling as defective?

"Get off his duff"?? OK, sure.

They offered to come to his place. What the OP has yet to tell us is if they have someone close enough to do it, not that they wouldn't. This is something that he didn't pay for up front but hey were attempting to make it happen even with his poor attitude. Japan is a lot smaller than the USA and shipping a huge computer is not an endeavor they are willing to do here (perhaps it is because the carriers here use parcels as footballs). Either way, this is easily solved by the OP driving to the newest service center and getting it repaired. I'm willing to bet there is something nearby but he hasn't looked.

As for getting off his duff, yep, that is exactly what he needs to do. He bought a product, it has issues, go get it fixed.

 

[Tech Elementz]

I just bought a new iMac a few weeks back and everything has been fine. Then, I got an email today stating that my iMac may have a faulty hard drive and it needs to be replaced asap. Ok, so I call Apple to see what I have to do. Basically, after talking to numerous people and getting angry the last person I spoke with hung up on me.

Here is why I eventually was angered. They told me that unless I buy Applecare (2 extended years of warranty) I don't qualify for on site service which means they send someone to your home to repair your unit on site. That sounds pretty odd seeing as I have a 1 year warranty on my computer and I haven't even had it for 1 month. So I asked to speak with a supervisor, and he agreed to pay for the on site service but stated he wasn't even sure the repair facilities would drive to my home seeing as they are an hour away, one way.

The nearest Apple store is a 1 hour drive each way so if I ever need a repair to my computer I have to drive a minimum of 2 hours and sit there while they repair it. Ridiculous.

They won't let me send it in to them for repair as they state they only do that for laptops. All I wanted to do was send it in for repair.

Needless to say. I will never buy an iMac again.

Why are you letting one issue restrain you from buying an iMac? This was a simple issue they had and I don't think its too much to ask to drive to an Apple Store to let them fix it, especially since there covering the fees... Computers can have issues... Every company can have issues.... It's a part of life... Even some of the best have there ups and downs... The least you can do is backup if you hard drive were to crash if possible...

 

[gnagy]

Be nice to customer service reps and they will be nice to you.

You need to remember that they speak to douchebags like you all day.

I really really really dislike that argument. Nobody forces them to become customer service reps. It's their choice.

It's like saying the landscaping guy hates cutting grass cause he does it all day long, so don't get mad when he does a crappy job. Of course I'm going to get mad. That's the dude's profession. A service rep better be prepared to deal with douchebags all they long. It comes with that line of work.

 

[GaresTaylan]

I will. At least if my hard drive fails, I can change it myself within 2 minutes and not void the full warranty of my computer.....I also won't waste $60 in gas, days of downtime, time spent talking to a bunch of douche bags on the phone, and 4 hours sitting in a vehicle.

Then why are you still posting here? Sell it, get over it, and stop.

 

[mackage]

Correct. If you're nice, friendly & polite to people, they are much more likely to go the extra mile and help you. If you are not, they will stick to the rules and apply them rigidly.

It may not be right, but its the way the world is. That's why some people often get things done, and others seem to spend their entire life frustrated and complaining.

Then how do you explain the fact that I was very calm and polite for the first 29 minutes of the phone call and nothing was accomplished. They were still giving me the run around and telling me I had to drive for hours? You can't. Also, did you read the thread to even understand that I didn't start getting angry until the very end....I guess not.

Why do so many of you come in here and state your opinions when you don't even take the time to access the facts? Rhetorical.

 

[mackage]

You know they make fun of you as soon as you are off the line right? Even the supervisors make fun of you? Now you do.

...and while I am talking to them I am secretly laughing at them for all they have accomplished in their lives to become a customer service phone operator for Apple. I am secretly laughing at the wage they earn.

 

[mackage]

Either way, this is easily solved by the OP driving to the newest service center and getting it repaired. I'm willing to bet there is something nearby but he hasn't looked.

What are you willing to bet? I am sitting here waiting to take your money. I looked and the Apple rep looked as we were on the phone. The nearest service center is in the same city as the nearest Apple store. All this has been covered, but you wouldn't know that unless you read the thread before posting.


I am an Apple fan.....but there is a difference between a fan and a fanboy. Fanboy's truly believe Apple can do no wrong and it's acceptable to drive hours and hours out of your way, spend a ton of money on gas, and then waste your time in the Apple store.

Apple lets you send in iMacs for repair, but not for this repair. As was previously stated, they are only willing to make this right if you are willing to go way out of your way to let them. It's simply a way for them to say we are doing something about it without really having to fix half of them.

 

[wpotere]

What are you willing to bet? I am sitting here waiting to take your money. I looked and the Apple rep looked as we were on the phone. The nearest service center is in the same city as the nearest Apple store. All this has been covered, but you wouldn't know that unless you read the thread before posting.


I am an Apple fan.....but there is a difference between a fan and a fanboy. Fanboy's truly believe Apple can do no wrong and it's acceptable to drive hours and hours out of your way, spend a ton of money on gas, and then waste your time in the Apple store.

Apple lets you send in iMacs for repair, but not for this repair. As was previously stated, they are only willing to make this right if you are willing to go way out of your way to let them. It's simply a way for them to say we are doing something about it without really having to fix half of them.

I'm so sorry, I guess I didn't read it or comprehend it to your liking. Please forgive me for being so stupid. Would you like me to come get it and take it in for repair?

FYI, I am a Windows programmer and only have a Mac to bang around on for the fun of it so no fanboi here. Enjoy your machine!

 

[chrono1081]

That's BS, I've seen mean people get taken care of all the time. That has nothing to do with it. The dude payed $2500 for a computer that's less than 30 days old, they have to take care of him. If they don't, he can and should return the iMac.

I will simply return mine if they don't take care of the problem. I paid for it with AmEx and I know I can still return it. If Apple doesn't take it back, AmEx will definitely take care of disputing the charge. With AmEx you have a 180 days to request a refund, and the reason could be as simple as you don't like the product.

My statement is not even REMOTELY close to being BS. Its obvious you have never worked a support job or worked in retail. Before I worked in IT I worked at many different support jobs and retail jobs at every single job I've worked at, if you are mean, the employee will not go out of their way to help you. If you are nice, they usually will go out of their way to help you.

Not to mention bringing in a dollar value to something means nothing. There are many people who spend much more than that. Apple didn't create the faulty hard drives, Seagate did.

 

[gnagy]

My statement is not even REMOTELY close to being BS. Its obvious you have never worked a support job or worked in retail. Before I worked in IT I worked at many different support jobs and retail jobs at every single job I've worked at, if you are mean, the employee will not go out of their way to help you. If you are nice, they usually will go out of their way to help you.

No, I never worked retail. But I know some pretty mean people, and they always get what they want.

Not to mention bringing in a dollar value to something means nothing. There are many people who spend much more than that.

Did you even think about what you said? You state that dollar value is meaningless. In the next sentence you make fun of the fact that I only spent $2500 on my iMac, and point out that many people spend more. Clearly dollar amount has a lot to do with it.

The more you spend the better you are treated. That's a fact. I know you spent more on your Hexcore MacPro with dual 27" displays, and I guess you probably get special treatment. They probably give you hand jobs at the Apple Store for spending that much on a computer.

Apple didn't create the faulty hard drives, Seagate did.

Since it's a Seagate hard drive, Apple is not responsible. That makes perfect sense now.

 

[Icaras]

No, I never worked retail. But I know some pretty mean people, and they always get what they want.

It's hard to take seriously the viewpoint of one that's not had the experience. I'll take your opinion about customer service with a grain of salt.

 

[HBOC]

To the OP, I have heard of Apple reimbursing people who have to travel in the form of gift cards. I am unsure of what the circumstances that occurs, but I have seen it happen while I was at the genius bar.

I would be mad as well if they wouldn't let me send in the iMac for repairs if I lived a bit of ways from the nearest store. If that is the only option, you could perhaps call the Apple Store closest to you and make arrangements to have the computer on a high priority fix perhaps. It shouldn't take them more than 20-30 minutes to swap out the HDD and have it back in your hands and maybe a $20 iTunes GC would be nice. That is not an unreasonable request. Just explain your story to them.

Apple just gave me two $15 GC for Lion, as I bought my iMac on 5/26 and if you bought a Mac on 6/6 or later, you get Lion for free. So if they did that for me, I would think they should (and would) hook you up.

Good Luck.

 

[TraceyS/FL]

To the OP, I have heard of Apple reimbursing people who have to travel in the form of gift cards. I am unsure of what the circumstances that occurs, but I have seen it happen while I was at the genius bar.

I would be mad as well if they wouldn't let me send in the iMac for repairs if I lived a bit of ways from the nearest store. If that is the only option, you could perhaps call the Apple Store closest to you and make arrangements to have the computer on a high priority fix perhaps. It shouldn't take them more than 20-30 minutes to swap out the HDD and have it back in your hands and maybe a $20 iTunes GC would be nice. That is not an unreasonable request. Just explain your story to them.

Apple just gave me two $15 GC for Lion, as I bought my iMac on 5/26 and if you bought a Mac on 6/6 or later, you get Lion for free. So if they did that for me, I would think they should (and would) hook you up.

Good Luck.

The store went to for my keyboard replaced on my MBP reserved the 8am appointment for same day repairs. It was actually quite nice sitting a totally empty Apple Store. But should you need to travel, be sure to ask about that option.

My first experience with Apple Customer Relations, after the genius threw away my entire mail app and messages - without warning, or asking if i had a backup - was the nice lady saying, "We here at Apple know that without our customers, we would not have jobs." They do want to make it right.

I've worked Customer Service, I like working in Cstomer Service, but I'm pretty sure that the area i live in would make me hate it. The customer may not always be right, but 1 pissed customer is going to tell everyone about that experience while the other 10 happy ones right before probably won't tell anyone. A good CS team can turn that around while not totally "giving away the farm".

Anyway, I'm still hoping for a satisfactory outcome for you on the phone tomorrow with Customer Relations!

 

[chrono1081]

No, I never worked retail. But I know some pretty mean people, and they always get what they want.

This says it all, you never worked in retail so you don't know. I'm not saying thats a bad thing, retail sucks but it does but a big perspective into the customer service realm.

And although mean people may get something that satisfies them, they wouldn't get near the best treatment that they could.

Did you even think about what you said? You state that dollar value is meaningless. In the next sentence you make fun of the fact that I only spent $2500 on my iMac, and point out that many people spend more. Clearly dollar amount has a lot to do with it.

Where did I make fun of you for spending $2500 on a Mac? I'd like specific sentence please.

What I'm saying is literally dollar amount doesn't matter. People use it as a threat to customer service associates all the time by saying things like "I spent $x here in the past three months" and such, truth is the customer service person doesn't care and usually doesn't have the ability to look up such things unless you bought directly from that store. Its not a basis for treatment unless you are someone who consistently spends thousands of dollars a month at a particular store on high markup items.

The more you spend the better you are treated. That's a fact. I know you spent more on your Hexcore MacPro with dual 27" displays, and I guess you probably get special treatment. They probably give you hand jobs at the Apple Store for spending that much on a computer.

No I got special treatment because I was very polite on the phone. The lady who helped me even said it was refreshing to have someone who was nice to her for a change and got ahold of her supervisor to see what help she could give me. I never asked for anything except to get my monitor fixed yet Apple went above and beyond.

Since it's a Seagate hard drive, Apple is not responsible. That makes perfect sense now.

You missed the point.

 

[MacHamster68]

I just bought a new iMac a few weeks back and everything has been fine. Then, I got an email today stating that my iMac may have a faulty hard drive and it needs to be replaced asap. Ok, so I call Apple to see what I have to do. Basically, after talking to numerous people and getting angry the last person I spoke with hung up on me.

Here is why I eventually was angered. They told me that unless I buy Applecare (2 extended years of warranty) I don't qualify for on site service which means they send someone to your home to repair your unit on site. That sounds pretty odd seeing as I have a 1 year warranty on my computer and I haven't even had it for 1 month. So I asked to speak with a supervisor, and he agreed to pay for the on site service but stated he wasn't even sure the repair facilities would drive to my home seeing as they are an hour away, one way.

The nearest Apple store is a 1 hour drive each way so if I ever need a repair to my computer I have to drive a minimum of 2 hours and sit there while they repair it. Ridiculous.

They won't let me send it in to them for repair as they state they only do that for laptops. All I wanted to do was send it in for repair.

Needless to say. I will never buy an iMac again.

first sorry for your bad harddrive , but its a normal thing for those to fail ,some sooner others later , but eventually they all will fail

yes you got a 1 year warranty but it is called a limited warranty and what that means you can read here
http://images.apple.com/legal/warranty/docs/cpuwarranty.pdf

so it is your fault for not reading here on the forum as i always say to everybody to buy apple care if he wants full support from apple , otherwise they might even refuse after 90 days from the day you got the iMac to even talk to you over the phone

and as you did not buy apple care you got a very good service, only because you thought every warranty gets on site service does not make that true , and 1 hour drive to a apple store is nothing really here are people who have even to travel into other countries to find a apple store , and i bet some might need to travel for days to get to a apple store by car (think about remote locations in canada or australia or russia .... ).. i mean Apple cant possibly build a apple store in walking distance of every Apple customer

and you wont get better service from other pc manufacturers , some dont even have shops to go to in first place

 

[Helenasia]

Small consolation

I used to work for Apple, in one of the stores, and I am not a patient person myself when it comes to dealing with phone customer service.
More often than not I feel like I am dealing with someone who is doing no more than reading lines from a script, especially so with Applecare....

So I hope the following will come as some small consolation... The people in retail stores are 6 billion times more helpful than Applecare. And if you escalate things to a manager, you will definitely get what you want, even if in some cases, this is a new iMac.

Before you head into the store make sure you back up all your files on a hard drive, as not doing so will mean they either have to do it there (while you wait for aaaaaages), or they will send you away again. Or you lose all your files.

Also, if you choose to settle for a repair, rather than just getting a replacement mac (which is what I would fight for), then make sure you book an appointment at the Genius Bar, as its very very hard to book standby "on the spot" repairs for Macs, especially iMacs, and without an appointment you would end up waiting even longer.

Just a tip from a former employee at a very very busy Apple store.

 

[AppleDApp]

think about remote locations in canada or australia or russia .... )..

haha I'm from Canada it isn't remote but I agree it would be hard for Apple to have a store in every city as Major cities aren't present in every province. I'm lucky to live within walking distance of my Apple store.

 

[shotts56]

Then how do you explain the fact that I was very calm and polite for the first 29 minutes of the phone call and nothing was accomplished. They were still giving me the run around and telling me I had to drive for hours? You can't. Also, did you read the thread to even understand that I didn't start getting angry until the very end....I guess not.

Why do so many of you come in here and state your opinions when you don't even take the time to access the facts? Rhetorical.

OK then, you must be right. Your way of doing it must be the right way. That's why you've had such a satisfactory outcome from them.

 

[Howie55]

Condescending, rude, uninformed, patronizing customer support

Apple phone support is consistently condescending, rude, uninformed and patronizing. Their customer service reps are the worst part of owning an Apple product.

If Apple wants its stock price to improve, it should hire informed and friendly customer service reps. The ones they have currently are excruciatingly rude, insulting and ignorant.

 

[MacOG728893]

Apple phone support is consistently condescending, rude, uninformed and patronizing. Their customer service reps are the worst part of owning an Apple product.

If Apple wants its stock price to improve, it should hire informed and friendly customer service reps. The ones they have currently are excruciatingly rude, insulting and ignorant.

Right, that's why all the stockholders are concerned, because of the slow and painful "decline" of Apple's customer service.

Btw, way to revive an almost two year old thread.

 

[Raima]

I do have Apple Care but I haven't seen anything about in-home repair.

I've got apple care with my 2010 iMac 27, and I've used it several times.

Generally you call them up and tell them about the issue, they generally help diagnose the problem. If they determine it's a faulty item, they normally order the parts required. When the parts arrive, the arrange a time to visit your place. When the technician arrive, they pretty much replace the part in doubt.

Had 3 screens replaced (yellow tinting issue), and a super drive replacement. My HDD did actually fail before they announced the recall, but I unfortunately threw it out. I couldn't be bothered getting it replaced as the iMac already had a SSD installed.

Never buy an iMac without apple care. Like some others said, you don't want to possibly scratch and damage your iMac when you take it in for repairs.

I can only give feedback on my experience, so I'm not discrediting what anyone has said. I've found my personal experience with customer service amazing.

 

[macthefork]

Hmmmmm... I wonder why this old thread was resurrected.... Even the OP hasn't posted here for a year and a half.

BTW I've had nothing but excellent CS from Apple over the years--in every case I've needed them.

 

[jbachandouris]

Hmmmmm... I wonder why this old thread was resurrected.... Even the OP hasn't posted here for a year and a half.

BTW I've had nothing but excellent CS from Apple over the years--in every case I've needed them.

I agree. Never had a problem with Apple CS.

Not a fan of resurrecting threads for NO reason.

 

[virginblue4]

Apple phone support is consistently condescending, rude, uninformed and patronizing. Their customer service reps are the worst part of owning an Apple product.

If Apple wants its stock price to improve, it should hire informed and friendly customer service reps. The ones they have currently are excruciatingly rude, insulting and ignorant.

Well I think we all know that's not true. Apples customer service is the best out there, I have received top notch service EVERY single time.

Oh, and well done for bringing up a thread from 2011.

 

[steve119]

Then how do you explain the fact that I was very calm and polite for the first 29 minutes of the phone call and nothing was accomplished. They were still giving me the run around and telling me I had to drive for hours? You can't. Also, did you read the thread to even understand that I didn't start getting angry until the very end....I guess not.

Why do so many of you come in here and state your opinions when you don't even take the time to access the facts? Rhetorical.

I think he was referring to the way you have been on this thread........

Your attitude stinks, I also have a two hour round trip to my nearest apple store.

Do I complain? No.
Do I treat my fellow forum users with the contempt that you have over it? No.

I suck it up and utilise any positive comments that are given, and those I don't agree with, I debate with, not tear strips off.

I do see why you are frustrated but the guy who followed up your intitial thread?

Rightly or wrongly he was only trying to help.

Geez I didn't realise the thread was that old, oh well, still needed to be said lol.