Apple took my money, and has given me nothing in return

[japanime]

Let me ask you this: are you still in possession of the machine? Because if you are not, then you should definitely cancel payment.

I wish I was. But no, I sent it in to AppleCare, as they requested. (They said, "Send it to us, and we will then replace it within a week.")

When I first brought the machine to the Apple Store in Ginza, and was told by the Genius that there was nothing they could do for me right there, I almost felt like leaving the thing on the counter and simply walking out. I figured they would then probably chase me down and try to make things right. But to do that wouldn't have been very Japanese of me (it would have made the Apple Store Genius lose face), so I played nice and simply packed up my MacBook and left the store.

I've already lost the war, though. My wife told me tonight that she never, ever wants me to buy her an Apple computer, and that she's sticking with Windows. Which means every time her computer gets a virus or suffers another hard-disk crash (three times already in the past 12 months), I'm the one who has to fix it. That's why I wanted her to get to know and love Macintosh.

I'll continue to use (and love) Macintosh computers, but I certainly have lost all respect for the way Apple Japan treats its customers.

 

[WinterMute]

I've already lost the war, though. My wife told me tonight that she never, ever wants me to buy her an Apple computer, and that she's sticking with Windows. Which means every time her computer gets a virus or suffers another hard-disk crash (three times already in the past 12 months), I'm the one who has to fix it. That's why I wanted her to get to know and love Macintosh.

I'll continue to use (and love) Macintosh computers, but I certainly have lost all respect for the way Apple Japan treats its customers.

Answer to that is simple, don't fix it, when it crashes beyond her capacity to fix it, simply smile from behind the non-crashing MacBook you are (hopefully by then) using...!

Worked a charm here, although the offending PC belonged to my father-in-law, still, we're an all Apple family now.

On the customer service note, I've always thought that Apple work harder than most companies to be nice to their customers, it may take a little time, but they will usually come through.

Try not to let it spoil your enjoyment of the machine when it does arrive.

 

[sushi]

In Japan, it's different. Credit cards are simply debit cards. You charge something, and then you have one month (or sometimes, two months) to pay it back.

This doesn't sound right.

My wife is asleep so I will have to ask her tomorrow to be sure. But Japan has credit cards just like anywhere else. They charge a high interest (delayed payment/penalty interest) rate as well.

However, most stores allow you to break the payment down over a period of months. For expensive items, this can be up to 6 months. For example, if I purchase a TV, I could have 6 equal payments with a small interest rate charged.

Anyhow, are you from the US? If so, why not get a US issued card. They (AMEX, Visa, Mastercard, etc.) work fine in Japan.

My wife probably thinks unfortunately at the Apple store in the Ginza since they tend to drain my card a bit.

Using a US card in Japan you cannot get cash advances at all places and you cannot break the payment down. Of course you can always make minimum payments on your card and get charge a huge amount of interest!

As for getting two charge backs/credited amount to your charge card, I do it all the time and have never had a problem. In fact, I just did it on a 4GB SD card. I was not sure of my camera model number and so the salesman said give it a try and if it doesn't work, we'll refund your money. Well it didn't work, so I returned it and got a 2GB card. No problems at all with the charge back to my US card.

 

[navigator]

But to do that wouldn't have been very Japanese of me (it would have made the Apple Store Genius lose face),

That's so cute
Its fun to read about these cultural differences, keep the stories coming!

 

[sushi]

I wish I was. But no, I sent it in to AppleCare, as they requested. (They said, "Send it to us, and we will then replace it within a week.")

That sux!

I've already lost the war, though. My wife told me tonight that she never, ever wants me to buy her an Apple computer, and that she's sticking with Windows. Which means every time her computer gets a virus or suffers another hard-disk crash (three times already in the past 12 months), I'm the one who has to fix it. That's why I wanted her to get to know and love Macintosh.

Naw, the war is not over. Maybe you lost a battle, but don't give up the ship.

As WinderMute said, wait until it crashes then don't fix it. Just keep happily using your Mac!

 

[japanime]

This doesn't sound right.

My wife is asleep so I will have to ask her tomorrow to be sure. But Japan has credit cards just like anywhere else. They charge a high interest (delayed payment/penalty interest) rate as well.

However, most stores allow you to break the payment down over a period of months. For expensive items, this can be up to 6 months. For example, if I purchase a TV, I could have 6 equal payments with a small interest rate charged.

Anyhow, are you from the US? If so, why not get a US issued card. They (AMEX, Visa, Mastercard, etc.) work fine in Japan.

My wife probably thinks unfortunately at the Apple store in the Ginza since they tend to drain my card a bit.

Using a US card in Japan you cannot get cash advances at all places and you cannot break the payment down. Of course you can always make minimum payments on your card and get charge a huge amount of interest!

As for getting two charge backs/credited amount to your charge card, I do it all the time and have never had a problem. In fact, I just did it on a 4GB SD card. I was not sure of my camera model number and so the salesman said give it a try and if it doesn't work, we'll refund your money. Well it didn't work, so I returned it and got a 2GB card. No problems at all with the charge back to my US card.

I think we're defining "chargeback" in different ways. What I'm talking about is contacting the credit card company and disputing a charge. I think you're referring to simply asking for/demanding a credit. The credit card companies view credit requests and chargeback requests differently. Credit requests are usually honored by the retailers. Chargebacks are done without consultation of the retailers (and leave the retailers high and dry--they don't get a cent, nor do they get their merchandise back.)

In any case, I'm too nice too file a chargeback against a retailer who sold me a bad Apple. It wasn't their fault the thing was a dud when it left the factory. I'll just have to be a bit more patient and let Apple resolve this problem.

Again, though, thanks to everyone for their advice. I'll report back here with the outcome (when that day finally comes--hopefully soon!).

 

[japanime]

So, I'm still waiting here for the replacement. Almost two weeks to the day I bought the machine and discovered it scratched up and misaligned right out of the box.

Called AppleCare today, and they told me that a supervisor would call back.

A few minutes later, the supervisor called and said that I would have to call him back if I wanted to talk about this issue--that he couldn't be calling me (despite the fact that he just did call me).

This is not only the worst experience I've ever had with AppleCare, it's just about the worst experience I've ever had with any "customer-service" department.

 

[PatrickF]

Called AppleCare today, and they told me that a supervisor would call back.

Yeah I know those "someone will call you back" jobs very well. Happens about 1% of the time if you're lucky.

A few minutes later, the supervisor called and said that I would have to call him back if I wanted to talk about this issue--that he couldn't be calling me (despite the fact that he just did call me).

That is simply unacceptable behaviour of ANY company. I know a lot of call centre staff don't have the ability to dial out, however, supervisors should not (and in this case obviously don't) be restricted by this.

I would play hardball after this. Sure you've been nice to them, sure it can take a while to resolve an annoying issue but it's been two weeks and all you've received from them is this cheek?

Just call them up and demand that they send you a new notebook or an immediate refund. If they don't play along then just threaten legal action and tell them you'll file for a chargeback on your credit card. Credit card companies fine huge amounts to companies where they have issue a lot of chargebacks. Also a friend of mine has had good success playing the legal action card against Apple.

There should be no reason for any company to act like this. Oddly reminds me of BT in the UK where I got a call from them and then passed from department to department without the original caller telling each person he transferred me what was going on, so everytime the people were like "What can we do for you?" ... "Erm... I don't know - you called me, shouldn't you be telling me?"

 

[lonepilgrim]

Apple took my money, and has given me nothing in return

Interestingly, Apple gave me a MacBook Pro but didn't take my money.

 

[jacobj]

I feel your pain (I went through the same thing w/ Apple), however, every company (not just Apple) does the same thing. Any company's number one goal is sales/revenue. They'll go to any means (usually, powerful marketing techniques) to sell you their product. After the purchase, they'll look for the next person to buy their product and put you out of focus. I admit, Apple's powerful marketing skills made me buy and iPod (even though I had a fully functional panasonic sv-sd80), which led to a MacBook Pro a couple of months later while I was in the market for a new laptop.

There is another coporate philosophy that says that a company's reputation is its most valuable asset. In the case of Apple their reputation allowed them to survive incredibly difficult periods because of a loyal base of customers that really should not have risked buying a machine from a company that may have gone bust at any moment.

These incidents are always going to occur, but if they become too prevalent then the company's reputation is at risk.

 

[The Man]

Kevin...

I've spoken to reps in both Japanese and English. And you are correct--it's hard to sound rude in Japanese. (Though, actually, it can be done!)

But I always approach customer-service folks very politely. I realize it's not their problem that I'm having trouble with whatever it might be that I'm having trouble with. They are simply employees, and deserve the same sort of respect that I expect them to show me.

It's the policy that I'm upset with...

Of course, you should treat anyone with respect in the first place. But if they don't show you the respect you deserve, meaning a quick computer turnaround, they should be humble and apologize to you. At one point, you have valid reason to be upset and you should show that in a decent way. It doesn't mean you should go mad, but it does mean that you should state in a very firm tone why you are upset. State that you have always regarded Apple highly and never had any problem before, but because of this, you are changing your mind. Or you can exaggerate a bit, say that you depend on this computer for your job, and that their conduct has caused you a lot of trouble with your boss, and such.

I now read that you bought it at an Apple Store. If so, they should have helped you out without any objection on their part. You should have shown that you felt you were treated with disrespect because you are a loyal customer. If within 10 days of purchase you find anything wrong, you should be able to exchange it via the store you brought it from - assuming that they also have a 10 days policy there. After that, yes, AppleCare takes over, as it's about the warranty, and service might take longer.

 

[DeVizardofOZ]

APPLE needs to get their act together....

Apple has to work on quality...
Just talked to a couple of people here in Beijing.
One has a 17" PB and will have the 5th (FIFTH) screen change! Others have all the issues described in diverse forums here. When NOT ALL have problems it simply means that QUALITY CONTROL on a manufacturer level stinks big time. It is APPLE's responsibility to fix this quick otherwise they lose customer confidence, and that is harder to fix than hardware quality....

To release a product with faulty hardware- parts, heat issues, etc. means screwing the customer. That has actually been the style of Microsoft where millions of paying customers had to do the R&D after paying good money. and spend millions of man hours to get faulty software working... THAT cannot be the style of APPLE CORP. Especially not when challenging WIN based users to switch to OSX and APPLE hardware.

I am an advocate for a class action lawsuit against corporations who sell junk or unfisnished products, i.e. by Windows application users sueing MS for compensation of at least 5 to 10 man hours per year per customer. In addtition I vote for sueing Microsoft for spying on customers by transmitting information from personal equipment to MS on a continuous basis with their knowledge. And if APPLE Corp./Steve Jobs do not get their act together show them, that if their take our money, they must give us aworking faultless product.

 

[japanime]

Issue resolved!

I finally got fed up with the way the moron who answers ALL the English-language calls to AppleCare Japan was handing my situation. (For the record, his name is Mr. Nakajima. If you ever call AppleCare Japan and get him on the line, either ask for a supervisor or hang up. He's worthless.)

Anyway, I demanded that he put somebody in charge on the phone. I finally got a true professional, somebody who told me that the way my situation was being handled was totally wrong. He apologized, and told me to go to the Apple Store in Ginza, where a replacement machine would be waiting for me. On top of that, he offered me 2 gigs of RAM free of charge (sent to me from the Apple Japan online store).

So, not only did I get my replacement machine (including the stock 512KB of RAM), I got two 1GB sticks free of charge.

I'm still not happy about how this whole thing played itself out, but the issue at least has been resolved.

(Oh, and yes, my new Macbook makes the mooing sound. I'm hoping that will be fixed in a software update...)

 

[PeterKG]

The mooing sound was fixed already with the last firware update. So install it and the cow will be gone.

 

[kevin.rivers]

Good for you. Glad it was taken care of. Yeah it was a messed up situation, but that 2GB of RAM should make you forget it even happened.

Cheers

 

[japanime]

Just want to thank everyone for their show of support here.

Cheers!

 

[japanime]

The mooing sound was fixed already with the last firware update. So install it and the cow will be gone.

Unfortunately, the firmware update to which you refer was for the MacBook Pro, not the MacBook.