Not that I don't agree, but is there a point here?

blasphemy!

all the big companies make reps read from scripts, and even if the rep does know the answer to something, they still have to follow procedure.

Steve Jobs is probably going to email you now and offer to personally give you a reach around to change your mind.

Just like some places have a reputation for the WORST customer service and sometimes you call and you get just luck out and get someone who is completely helpful.

You can't have perfect customer service all the time (oh, but wouldn't that be nice) just like it's pretty hard to have awful customer service 100% of the time.

@Spyrojoe: Ditto.

I don't understand the point of this post.

The least you could do is relate whatever circumstances I'm assuming led up to this sudden declaration.

Am I missing the link here? I mean, there's usually a link or some actual story behind it, an example as to why circumstance A makes me want to do B to Company C's customer service reps.

But I must say...I had to get a very minor thing on my macbook fixed last week. Made an appointment, lounged in the store for 5 minutes and got it fixed in another 5. I spent a total of 10 minutes in the Apple store, and had good customer service.

@AlisonAshleigh: or a wedgie!

What Apple has over anyone else though, is the option to go into any Apple store and speak to someone who most likely does know what they're talking about.

Plus, if you're getting bad service over the phone, hang up and try again. Of course it'll happen sometimes, but they do have pretty durn good customer service.

Pobody's nerfect.

If you're outside of applecare and can't find the answer among documents on Apple's site, go to their forums. They offer some kind of incentive to people who will hang out and successfully answer questions. It really works well. Whatever the incentives are, they must be hot, because the geekiest Apple freaks compete to get to the bottom of your problem first.

go to an apple certified retailer. i walked in , handed them my powerbook and said the shift key doesnt work... and they slapped on the new keyboard for me. No hassle. no jumping through flaming hoops... and its a legit repair.

Watch out, Apple might sue you for libel.

Oh and why can't every rant be this short? I think Ben forgot to ramble on for 4 more paragraphs about the nuances of the guy's accent.

AP Exchange Story ID AP658974-874
BREAKING FLASH: Huge multi national company that is not 100% perfect! -30- Details to Follow.

Isn't this ANY large corporation at work?

The most evil multi conglomerate sometimes provides excellent customer service and the golden boys of corporate America sometimes suck.

@casey451: Excellent point for tech help! The Apple forums are the first (and nearly always the last) stop for me in resolving an issue. One thing I particularly like is that somebody can post: "Hey, I'm thinking of buying ______, so that I can do _______. Do you think it's a good choice for me?" and people will give very candid and thorough answers.

"Sometimes Apple Customer Service Ain't That Amazing"

And sometimes articles on Consumerist ain't that amazing, as proven here.

But hey, can't will all the time.

Bought a 20 inch iMac a few years ago, had an overheating issue. I had Apple Care and lived way out in the middle of nowhere Texas. Called CS, a Technician came to my house the next day, diagnosed the problem and said he needed to order parts. I called CS back and asked what I was supposed to do without a computer for two weeks, they apologized and sent me enough RAM to max out my system. Two weeks later, the Technician returned, fixed the computer and installed the RAM. Haven't had a single problem since. APPLE ROCKS!

@AlisonAshleigh: That's very rude.

Oh Ben, do you need a hug?

@casey451:
There is no incentive that I know of for the forumites helping you other than a sense of community. My boyfriend visits a slew of them every day in a never-ending quest to customize every machine we own. They are very helpful and all you need to do is thank them for their help.

On a side note: The last time I talked to an apple tech support person over the phone, she said that they all get trained at 2 training centers for the whole country. It would be no surprise that a few crappy techs slid through the cracks.

Apple has amazing customer service, IN STORE. Their service hotlines are no better or worse than any other PC maker, but if you are fortunate enough to live near an Apple Store, you will never be taken care of better. You have the added advantage of being within earshot of hundreds of potential customers, and the people there will bend over backwards to make sure you don't convince someone else in the store not to buy. Use the phrase 'I never would have bought an Apple had I known this beforehand' loudly and often.

As noted, you are better off going to an Apple store for support (if that's an option).

However, if you first try to get someone to help you over the phone DO NOT let them make an appointment for you w/a Genius at the store. I've done that twice and twice they've screwed up my reservation.

Apparently, it is too much to expect Apple Care phone reps to actually know the hours of operation for Apple stores. When I have a problem I generally got to the 5th Ave store in NYC, which is open 24hrs (I work in NYC, but live in NJ). I've had appointments that were supposed to be scheudled for 5:45PM and 12:15PM only to arrive in store and find that my reservations were set up for 5:45AM and 12:15AM, respectively.

Apparently, nobody at Apple Care realizes that some Apple stores don't reside in shopping malls that close at 10PM.

DON'T FEED THE TROLL!

Sorry Ben.

I go to the store. I've learned to feel out which stores are the best in each market; in Seattle, Tukwila and Lynnwood, in New York, the 5th Ave store is the way and the light, and in San Francisco, either Emeryville or Palo Alto, etc.

It can be a hike but the store employees at worst are better than the support line, and in the generally good stores, they're amazing. Brandon at the Tukwila, WA store is a shining example of how to do customer service right. Tukwila's a little, crowded store that's out of my way, but our fleet Macs and my personal Mac get the best care there.

I mean, when they actually break down. *grin*

I can testify. I had an issue with my monitor on my iMac G5, and I was transferred to a woman with a foreign accent (maybe filipino), who insisted my problem was because I didn't have an iSight plugged in to my computer, and wouldn't listen to the fact that my monitor was not working.

As a Senior support tech, we all have bad days.
Maybe the coffee was weak this morning.

Maybe they got rear-ended on their way into work.

Maybe they have heard the issue you called in about 250 times in the last two weeks, and will you please, please read the Readme file, or the big hot-pink release note that came in the box. It really does tell you all about it.

Maybe the problem was one they predicted, but no one would listen to them about it and fix it. Now they have to take support call after support call with angry unhappy customers about the very issue they tried to get a ship-hold on.

So for the outsourced guy making a fraction of what he should be getting, working with too little information and not enough equipment to really answer your question: I'm sorry.

%%%%%% technical support, how can I help you...

I was really bummed out when I called Apple to order a computer this week. I wanted to make sure the refurb Macbook Pro model I was looking at had an LED backlight like the current MBP models.

I called and the guy on the phone said only 17" MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs have LED backlights, which just isn't true. I hung up the phone, checked around the internet and found that the processor speed I was ordering only ever came with the LED backlight and I went ahead and ordered the computer.

Umm, what is the point of this exactly? Are you serious about this story or are you just riding the wave Apple's popularity to get people to read the blog? Every company suffers from at least one person that provides terrible service. Can't you at least elaborate on why it sucked, particularly this time? There's no story here. If you actually need a story about Apple's customer service sucking on some random occasion, then I'm sure you can look in these comments and find one about why Apple sucks. Hell, I can give you one or two myself after a lifetime of buying Apple products. "Sometimes the Consumerist runs crap for stories. There, I said it."

Kudos to Apple!

I ordered a new MacBook on Thursday and I sprung for the 2-3 day shipping. I didn't realize that this would be a holiday weekend when I did that. 2-3 day shipping turned into 3-8 days because of the long weekend.

I spoke to Stephan with Apple Customer service by calling into the 800 number. He explained where he thought the computer might be now, why it would take longer (customized memory) and when he suspected it would arrive (next Wednesday).

He then went ahead and took off the $18.00 2-3 shipping cost while leaving the priority notice on the order. I didn't even ask him to do that.

I fully expected Apple to not have a clue where my computer was or for them to tell me "to bad bone-head, you paid for an impossible 2-3 day shipping, you're stuck with it."

Instead I got a courteous and informative answer with a solution to a problem that was my own making.

Thank you Stephan.

Agreed.

I once had to explain to an outsourced (obviously) Apple rep that yes, Montana is a state and no, there aren't any apple stores here. She suggested driving to a "major-metropolitan" area and fixing my problem - never mind the closest one is about nine hours away.

I bought a Macbook in the summer of 2006, when they were coming with batteries that die a bit pre-maturely. Recently, my battery, fully-charged, would last only 2 hours at best. Realizing this problem, Apple extended the warranty of macbook batteries purchased through April 2007, IF they had gone through less than 300 charge cycles. Well mine had gone through 310, which is pretty close. I called Applecare, and they refused to fix it. So I took it to an Apple Store, and the genius bar rep immediately agreed to order me a new battery for free. Well as it turned out, the day before I was to pick it up, the backlight in my screen burnt out. When I went to get the battery, they agreed to send off the whole machine for a new backlight. To my surprise, the computer came back with a brand new key board and interior surface (both of which had gotten a bit skanky overtime). I was quite impressed!

All right, Ben. What happened? PO'ed that your old 5th-gen iPod won't handle iTunes movie rentals?

My Mac laptop suddenly did a weird thing one day. It just shut off... at full power and while aparently preforming fine. The weird part is... that I couldn't get it to turn back on... for three days. I had bought it about 6 months earlier and it was still in good working order. Either way, I let it slide. Then about a month later.. the same thing. This time we really couldn't get it to turn back on. After removing the battery a couple times, it came back on about as randomly as it went off. So I decided to call Apple. Since It was less than a year old.
When I called he looked up everything. I bought my mac off the shelf at a discount, and I guess the warrenty goes into affect once its opened... not once its sold. When the customer service rep realized this he refused to help me, saying that the one year warrenty has expired. Now, I understand that compeletly if I was aking for it to be repaired or sent away... but all I was asking was 'what could have caused it to do that?'. He wouldn't tell me ANYTHING. He just kept saying he couldn't talk to me because I didn't have warrenty. I wasn't asking for him to send me anything, pay for anything, or even work really... just a simple 'what would cause this, should I be worried' kind of question.
Is this normal? To not help a phone caller because of no warrenty? He literally just waited on the line for me to hang up.

Lucky for me, it never happened again and it's been about a year since... but I have no clue why it did it in the first place and no clue why it just came back on and worked. One thing I do know is, that I wont be calling apple again anytime soon.

You're an editor, Ben. Of course Apple customer service isn't perfect, but you as a quasi-journalist should back up your statement with facts. To do otherwise isn't just irresponsible, it's bad reporting.

Anyone know why my MacBook's power levels linger at 98% rather than 100% even though I haven't disconnected the cable in days?

@JD: Because it's bad for lithium-ion batteries to be overcharged.

@melanie.dawn: Yikes. Too bad you didn't get his name. I would have said "Give me your supervisor" and filed a complaint about him.

@onlythebritishfly: You got the sky and land; I got the smog and congestion (Boston). You will see sunsets I never see. That's the penalty of living where you live, and where I live. There are trade-offs that are not the fault of Apple.

Buuuuut remember, UPS/Fedex cater to us both if/when needed.

I've never gotten anyone in the least bit competent when calling Apple for service. Total script-reading automaton territory. And this was supposedly support for corporate accounts. (used to do IT work in schools) But apparently (at least at that time) you got transferred to a completely different call center if you had a Powerbook, as friends raved about the great service.

On the other hand, everyone hates Comcast yet the couple of times I've ever had to deal with them I've gotten people who right off the bat realized I was a techie and worked with me to resolve the issues promptly. Maybe I somehow lucked out and got put through to Level 2 support by mistake.

Seriously, Ben? Someone payed you to write that? Wow.

@NoWin: Yea there are trade offs for living where I do, and I have relied on UPS/Fedex numerous times to get stuff done. Of course this is not Apple's fault! BUT I do think that I shouldn't have to repeatedly explain to the person who answers their support line that Montana is a state and that taking my IMac to an apple store isn't an option. I asked if there were other methods to get it fixed and she just kept asking me to take it to an Apple store. I hung up.

@AlisonAshleigh: But don't take it! It's a trap!

Yyesterday I downloaded a song from iTunes that had a skip in it. I reported it, and within a few hours they credited me a song. I tried to download the same song, but it still skipped. Obviously it's the file. So I wrote back to them, and they sent me another credit. This is all within 24 hours, mind you. The clincher is that the second time was completely my fault, as the email they sent me told me not to download that song again for two weeks so they could check it and fix/remove it. And I still got the credit, no questions asked. Not too shabby.

@glass: ZING!

Maybe he was trying to see how many times he would get insulted/made fun of/flamed by posting a negative Apple post. Never having tried one, I am sure Apple puts out a good product but I get so tired of hearing how great they are. They aren't noble and kind and good. They want your MONEY and that's why they bend over backwards on all this customer support. I probably would never buy an Apple anyway as I don't require anything but a base computer for most things I do and think that paying the price that they want would be a waste of my money because of that. I don't have all the Windows issues that a lot of people do as I try to maintain my systems regularly and keep firewall and virus protection up to date. I even have a HP with Windows ME (and even I agree that operating system was a DOG) that still runs quite decently. Besides, part of the reason Consumerist is a good website is the people that comment and the variety of comments that they post and you have to admit that an Apple post is a good way to motivate that.

@jawacg: "Maybe he was trying to see how many times he would get insulted/made fun of/flamed by posting a negative Apple post."

The responses here have for the most part been measured and civil. So if you are right about Ben's intentions, I'd say he's only proven that a lot of his readers are better at articulating an objective opinion and backing it up (e.g. HIS JOB) than he is.

I don't care whether this post is about Apple, Best Buy, or the Ottoman Empire. I'm simply bothered that Ben failed to include one word of substantive information here. He simply grabbed his readers' attention with an inflammatory headline, then made a blanket statement that he didn't even try to back up. This undermines the credibility of the site, and makes readers less likely to take it seriously when he actually does manage to post something relevant and compelling.

Come on, Ben, spill the beans. What happened?

Anyway, I agree. I work for the aforementioned company (I'm currently on hiatus), and one of the reasons I work there part-time is because the majority of the time (the vast majority) their customer service skills are aligned with mine. And they're simple at that. Treat the customer the way you would like to be treated (and then under promise and over deliver) Its the Mac way!

However, we've had our share of employees who come through our store who aren't like that. From the guy who doesn't know jack sh*t, to the guy who knows everything there is about Apple and treats you like and idiot for not knowing it.

Customer service is something that some people are not that familiar with. Its a foreign concept.

Case and point, I called AppleCare from the store to tell them a customer had ordered an English keyboard and wanted a Spanish one. First the guy wanted all my info, and kept asking despite the fact that I kept telling him I was an employee. Then after getting through his thick skull that we were on the same team, he told me it was impossible. They would have to return the computer and order it again with the correct keyboard. And he was totally apathetic. Then when I told him that was unacceptable, we need to find a solution, that triggered him into reading his scripted "thank you for calling, blah blah blah.

So we went the extra mile and tried to find alternatives to the problem and a solution. And thanks to my awesome manager we did.

So, whenever you talk about CS, remember to add the phrase "in general" or "generally" to it....unless your talking about Best Buy (they flat out suck).