Apple store - superior customer service (being friendly didn't hurt either)

[sandydlc]

Just wanted to report my experience at the Apple Store on Saturday (Washington State). I purchased my 64gb wifi iPad on launch day and have struggled with wifi performance from the beginning.

Part of my problem was that I'm using a Sprint Overdrive to connect to the internet and the first one I was given was defective. Even after it was replaced I was still getting consistent time-outs when trying to hit links in Safari, iCab and Perfect Browser. I'm really patient so I have been just dealing with it over the past two months (turning off my wifi, turning it back on, turning off my iPad, turning back on - resetting my Airport Extreme...everything!).

I finally made an appointment with a Genius to take a look at my iPad after a very fruitless morning of attempting to surf online while my husband was watching the World Cup. They verified that there was some software corruption on my iPad and asked if they could do a restore, which I okayed.

Even after the restore, the guy who was helping me was able to reproduce the time-outs when hitting links in a browser, though he did have to try for a few minutes.

He then asked me what every customer wants to hear, "What will it take to make you happy?". <happy sigh> So, I inquired whether it would be possible to swap out my wifi iPad for a 3G version and pay the difference. He checked and miraculously, they had a 64GB 3G iPad in stock and returned my original iPad with *no restocking fee*.

I'm beyond thrilled and very happy with my experience overall. It did take nearly an hour for the entire process from start to finish and I was very patient and friendly with the staff while I was there, which I'm sure was very instrumental to getting my original iPad returned without a fuss.

While I was waiting some guy came in complaining about his iPhone (didn't hear the details) but he literally slammed his fist on the table when he didn't get the answer he wanted. You could see everyone getting very uncomfortable and he left the store without anything a few minutes later.

Moral of the story - be nice!! It never hurts!!

Sandy

 

[Mrrikki]

Nice result glad it worked out for you, I am always polite to the guys in Apple they are always vey helpful in my experience and seem to be more willing to go further for nice relaxed customers in my experience. Still you need to be firm but polite if you are no happy of course

 

[sandydlc]

Yes, firm but polite. I try to base my statements on fact rather than emotion and that always does the trick. Being able to state that I'm a participant on a Mac users forum and therefore know that the wifi issue is fairly widespread was helpful in pleading my case.

Considering that my request was fairly reasonable and that I was lucky enough for them to be able to reproduce the problem while I was in the store made it an easy fix for them.

I'm sure if I had been a jerk, they could just as easily offered me a refurb iPad or nothing at all.

 

[The Mad Kiwi]

Moral of the story - be nice!! It never hurts!!

Sandy

Too true, I'm in retail we bend over backwards for nice customers and do everything in our power to make the whole experience as difficult as possible for the rude and obnoxious.

I love the rude people who finish saying "I'll never shop here again" like we wanted them to come back in. Too funny.

 

[ngenerator]

Wow, pretty lame blog post.

 

[undrpsi]

Wow, pretty lame blog post.

What? Just because it's nothing you can wank about? Some of us appreciate posts like this...piss off.

OP..thanks for the post.

 

[sandydlc]

What? Just because it's nothing you can wank about? Some of us appreciate posts like this...piss off.

OP..thanks for the post.

Thanks!

I do think that IRS far too common for people to be extremely vocal when they don't get what they want but they rarely shout from the rooftops when they've had a good experience. I'm trying to start a trend!

 

[magiclaffs]

Great Post

I don't understand why the other post was so negative...maybe one of the rude customers Apple gets?

Sandy's post was great- I often read consumerist.com and there are horror stories of terrible customer service (no service) and this was refreshing to read. We have an apple store about 5 minutes from my home and they are ALL great- A couple of days after my Ipad arrived I went in and asked them about cases, screen protectors, etc. They didn't treat me like a mark; i.e., someone who they wouldn't deal with since I already had purchased an Ipad, but walked me over to the accessories, explained different ones, told me that certain cases would not work with my Apple Ipad case, etc. They made a deposit in future purchases from me with their great service. It sure beats best buy where you can consistently find 3 or more "employees" playing with their cell phones, talking about getting trashed the night before while customers stand waiting to be served and children are pretending the laptops are hammers.