Apple Sells You The Wrong AppleCare Package, Then Loses Your Refund
Apple sold reader Melody the wrong AppleCare package, but instead of switching her to the proper coverage, they issued a refund and told her to re-purchase the warranty extension. They even gave her American Express transaction reference numbers so she could track the refund, but AmEx says the numbers are invalid and that they have no record of a refund posting. Melody's been out $195 since February, and thinks it's time for Apple to cough up her money.
Melody writes:
Apple is supposed to have the best customer service, but my experience with them has been nothing short of frustrating. I was hoping you could help out.I had ordered Applecare along with my Macbook Aluminum on October 14, 2008 through the Applestore. I later called to upgrade it to a 2.4ghz Macbook instead, and the CSR ended up making a mistake and inputting a purchase for AppleCare international instead of the US Applecare. When I took my laptop to get repaired on January 30, 2009, I was told I did not have AppleCare. I made numerous phone calls to AppleCare (case number 116149917) and even went to an Applestore and showed them my AppleCare agreement paper I went sent in the mail. They insisted that they had no record, but on my apple account, there is an order on October 14, 2008 that shows I purchased AppleCare with my computer purchase. I already went through a lot of difficulty with the original purchase because when the CSR upgraded my laptop from the 2.0 to the 2.4, she put a return on my printer, which I wanted to keep, and thus prevented me from obtaining a rebate. That took numerous phone calls to resolve. The situation with my AppleCare warranty was even more of a nightmare.
After several phone calls and getting transferred to separate departments, I finally was able to spoke to CSR Julia at (512) 674-2500, ex 41224. My case number is #116149917. After speaking to her, she figured out that the Apple customer service representative had make a mistake and sold me AppleCare International, so that's why it wasnt working. She wasnt able to switch that to regular US AppleCare, so she said that she would arrange a refund of the cost of the AppleCare to my credit card I used for my purchase and I should repurchase AppleCare again. She said it would be processed by the end of that week. That was on February 3, 2009. So I bought AppleCare again online, anticipating my refund from Apple. By February 18th, I still had not received credit back to my credit card for my AppleCare. I called Julia, and she told me that she never told me it would be done by a week, that it would take 10 business days, and that it would be 2 cycles to be credited to my card.
Today, I called Apple once again because the credit has not showed up on my credit card and it has been two billing cycles already (my billing cycle ends on the 18th). After talking to the CSR for an hour, they figured out that they had refunded back my purchase on my American Express back in February. They gave me two transaction numbers (******3703 and ******2091) to check on with American Express. I called American Express, and guess what, those numbers don't exist and there is no refund from Apple. I called back customer service, and was told they would "escalate" the refund. The new CSR I talked to said that a refund was never processed. What?? He said he would escalate it, and they would take a few days to ten days to process, and another 2 billing cycles to credit to my account. He said to call back again in 48 hours to check on the process, and gave me a new case number of 120786610.
So now, I'm just really really pissed off. Something that wasn't my mistake to begin with has already cost me 10 hours of talking to CSRs and getting put on hold, and re-explaining everything. And now, potentially it will be another 2 months until I get my refund. I emailed sjobs@apple.com on February 19th, and had no reply. I don't know what else to do to speed up the process. Calling customer service gets me nowhere…apparently I get made-up American Express refund transaction numbers and get lied to. Who else can I call? I'm a big fan of the Consumerist, so I was hoping maybe you could publish my story and some Apple higher-up or something might see it. I love my Macbook Aluminum (except for the problems w/ its keyboard), and I've been a Apple customer for years (iBook, iPod touch, iPods, Macbook). But, I've never been so frustrated with Apple in my life. I've spent way too much time trying to explain and get this problem solved.
I'm going to check on the status of the case again in 2 days, but as of right now, I have no faith…and I cant believe I have to wait another 2 months for the money for a product I never received. I bought this in October…and its going to be possibly May/June until I get my money back. I'm a student, so the $183 + tax ($195) is a lot of money to me.
Apple, care to fix this one for Melody? Sending her the $195 you owe is a good start, and if you really feel bad for the unnecessary bauble, nothing says "Sorry We Lost Your Refund" like a new iPod shuffle.
(Photo: robotpolisher)
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Comments:
This letter has multiple grammar and word errors in it. If you're going to write something to a professional in hopes action is taken on it, you can't write it like you would a forum comment or blog entry. It is also written in a conversational style with examples like "guess what." I would not use phrases like "pissed off." If you write a better organized, more streamlined, more professional letter, you are more likely to have action taken on your grievance.
The one thing I did like about the letter is the amount of care that Melody put into incorporating transaction numbers and references for verification. That is huge and it should help Melody receive her refund.
@crazyasianman: Exactly!
Or, she could trade it for an iRiver or SanDisk player! Both have less than stellar interfaces when compared to iTunes, but both have players in their respective lineups with much better build quality and sound quality.
@Blinky987: She wrote it to the Consumerist, not to Apple. Your blame-the-OP comment has assumption errors in it.
@unobservant: I was just about to point out the same thing. I think there is a reason it sounds like it was written for a blog.
Unrelated, but this cracks me up: The Entourage e-mail client on my friend's Mac started flaking out and doing weird things like constantly complaining about a send error when nothing is being sent.
Frustrated, my friend went to one of those Apple Genius Bars, and the Genius fixed the problem by telling him to start using Gmail instead.
That's like having a plumber tell you to poop on your lawn because your toilet is backed up.
Wish I could help my friend, but I'm a PC. :P
@unobservant: @Bram Verdoes: Except I'm not blaming the OP. I'm trying to help her. Please point out where I blame the OP. CAN YOU DO IT?
If she did not forward this to Apple representatives and only wrote to the Consumerist, then she is still wrong and not writing for her audience. The end-goal here is for someone at Apple to have eyes on this piece and assist with her problem. A quick edit and readthrough (especially regarding the use of the wrong words- ie "I went sent") would help this piece greatly in giving it a more professional look. It would also make it much easier to read for the Apple employee.
"Melody's been out $195 since February"
No, Melody should have filed a credit card dispute with Amex by simply sending a letter explaining Apple said they refuded her and give Amex the "fake" numbers. Then, Amex can go to work fixing this and credit her.
I left my credit card company handle this stuff when it happens. If the merchant doesn't immediately make right, a letter goes off the my CC and I have not lost a dispute yet.
I love this site and hate to put down those sending in stories, but 50% of the time there was a much easier route to resolving the issue... like this one.
Just a general question: Why does a refund take 2 billing cycles to hit the credit card? When I turned in my car (the lease was over), I called GEICO that afternoon and told them I no longer had the car and I'd like to get a pro-rated refund of the insurance policy. Zip-boom-baah the credit hit my card in a matter of days. In case you're wondering I might be driving around in someone else's car with no insurance, I got the "GEICO Named Non-owner policy which would give you coverage as a driver of a private passenger vehicle, but would not charge you for a specific vehicle on your policy."
Hence why it's not a bad thing sometimes to use a non proprietary system where the hardware, sales, and software are all under one company...
Question, did the OP have to pay for that repair on their MacBook when they denied the warranty?
Also if there's a keyboard issue why have they not addressed that?
@unobservant: Also, to be clear for you buffoons, I think the way Apple treated this girl is completely ridiculous and why I put no faith in customer service phone calls. Anything beyond the most miniscule fuck-up is beyond the reach of these people. It's like I could see everything that happened.
Accountability:
Basically, a bunch of Apple employees took actions that they hoped would work. None did, but none would be responsible for the continuing problem. There is no accountability here. Melody is out her $200, and none of them have to be accountable to get her that money back. It does not affect them. Each person did the bare minimum that they could to get this going, not giving it a second thought once they took the action. None of them will be reprimanded for their failure to do their job. The only one that suffers is Melody, and Apple does not suffer in the slightest. Pathetic.
@nybiker:
seconded, I've had multiple refunds issued to my credit card before that posted within days
@Blinky987: Folks, let's show some civility in this thread. Calling names (even just 'buffoons') is not going to help solve the OP's problem, and it's not going to generate interesting discussion.
@PSN: kingpsyz:
I think she might be referring to the inherent design of the new macbook aluminum having something of an edge in front of the keyboard
Does anyone know if there is a channel to make a complaint about an Apple retail store to someone in the corporate structure? I was overcharged for a purchase and didn't pick up on it until I got home to see my receipt which had been conveniently emailed to me. I called the store and was told this could only be fixed by coming back to the store.
Now, it's bad enough that I walked into the store knowing what I wanted but still had to wait almost a half hour for a sales associate to assist me, yet know they want me to come back and wait so they can fix a mistake that should be easily fixed over the phone.
I asked to speak to a manager and after being put on hold was told one would call me back (which never happened).
Would love any advice from commenters. Remember when Apple had impeccable service? I think it was before the iPod came out.
@rinse: That's like asking Dell to fix a problem in Thunderbird for Windows. Entourage is a Microsoft product. Wouldn't it make more sense to try getting support from Microsoft?
I would be more worried that my brand new laptop needed fixing after only 3 months. I thought Mac's were good? Not that I have ever used one.
@Jody Figueiredo: "Good" doesn't mean "nobody's ever had a problem with them," though. Nothing you buy ever comes with that sort of assurance. Things like the Consumer Reports repair statistics can give you an idea of how different brands compare, but there can be variation within models from the same brand as well, and brands can change from year to year.
@Blinky987: Does saying that her colloquialism-laden letter will get her nowhere count as blame?
I can't tell. We buffoons have problems with teh langwedge.
@Consumerist-Moderator-Roz: Seriously.....I was going to call Blinky some nasty things and then point him here: [boingboing.net]
It links to a podcast by Stephen Fry about "stupid futility of linguistic pedantry" and is very well said. Listen to it Blinky. You may be soulless, uncreative, and inhuman, but many of the rest of us care about expressing things the way we want rather than in a way that complies with your grammatical specifications.
@Jody Figueiredo: They are, but much like with any other company and/or product, you can get a turd every once in a while. It happens, although in this instance, it should and could have been handled much better and more efficiently.
Apple is known for the proprietary nature of their products and good customer service. They are, however, far from infallible. As can be seen from this particular example.
\@oneswellfoop: If a person is going to choose the English language as their primary form of communication, one should at least make an effort to make themselves easily understood (not necessarily the way you want) and master it. Are you arguing that she is better served with this error-filled letter as opposed to one that has been proofread? That's what is being discussed here.
@unobservant: Did you find the part where I blame the OP? Could you quote it? I can't tell. You didn't respond to my post.
@oneswellfoop: "You may be soulless, uncreative, and inhuman" -- you're joking, right? Did Blinky kill your grandma or something?
I do think grammar is important, but I can't count how many times I've read something over and over only to see embarrassing mistakes in it after the fact. But it doesn't make the OP's point any less valid.
@rinse: I suspect the Genius actually told your friend he or she can use Mail (the name of the e-mail client app that Apple includes with OS X) instead, and your friend misheard the Genius, or you misheard your friend.
@Blinky987: I have a Sansa Sandisk e280 with rockbox installed. I originally bought it as a cheap media player to hold me over til I could afford a cowon 02, but I've found it to be an awesome little media player and decided to keep it as my main player. If you can, I highly suggest obtaining one that could support rockbox if your looking for a new mp3 player.
@nybiker:
In case you're wondering I might be driving around in someone else's car with no insurance, I got the "GEICO Named Non-owner policy which would give you coverage as a driver of a private passenger vehicle...I'm missing something here. Judging from your commenter display name, you're in New York. In New York, an auto insurance policy covers anyone who is driving the car, not just the drivers listed on the policy by the owner or lessee.
@Blinky987: Just on the long shot that you're trying to be constructive here, perhaps you would appreciate some advice in return. Try being polite, it helps.
Question, did the OP have to pay for that repair on their MacBook when they denied the warranty?I can't imagine she did, the included warranty on Apple hardware, without AppleCare, is one year.
@Blinky987: If a person is going to choose the English language as their primary form of communication, one should at least make an effort to make themselves easily understood
So, which part of the letter did you not understand?
I understood the letter perfectly well. Sure, it may not have been the way I would have put it, but it was perfectly understandable.
Just because you don't like how the letter was written doesn't mean that the OP doesn't have a firm grasp of English.
Maybe she should do a little bit of research first, first off there is no difference between US applecare and international applecare, particularly if she ordered it off the US site and was able to use her student discount which would make it cost 183+tax. Second if she went to the applecare page it tells you how to fax or mail in a copy of the receipt and applecare notice, etc if it is wrong on the site and they will change it, usually between 24-48 hours. Third if she had received and Applecare agreement in the mail she wouldn't have been able to register it twice. Is she asking for the education department because she bought it as a student? Or simply bring the two registered applecares if she managed to do that to a local applestore and it will be refunded immediately. She is not free of mistakes.
@liquidnumb: That would be my greatest shortcoming as a person operating in our society. It's something I'm working on, but I don't like when people take an aggressive stance with me when I'm right and then just ramble when they can't argue properly.
@Shaggy: You missed the fact that I was responding to someone else when I wrote that, not the OP.
The way in which I write on these articles can be comprehended with little effort, but it's not the way I would speak in a formal letter or when asking a party to remedy a grievance. I have pretty sloppy grammar when I'm simply commenting on these articles, but again, I'm writing for a specific audience and I don't believe proper grammar is of high value when conducting a conversation on these Consumerist pieces.
I think my suggestion of people proofreading their own work before submitting it for public consumption is a positive one, with perhaps my own negative tone giving it a negative spin.
Finally, I don't understand why anybody would argue against someone taking a professional tone when submitting a letter for publication or contacting a business.
@Jody Figueiredo: It happens with everyone, but on average Macs do last a LOT longer than PCs.
Case in point we just got a 25 macbook cart. One of them was bad and they replaced it within a week, no problem.
In comparison on average we have at least 2-3 Dells per order of 20-40 get sent back to them because they where failures out of the box. Sometimes its simple shit like badly seated cards, but when we send them back its 99% of the time the whole motherboard is fracked.
Now over the life of our machines, we have a 2 year cycle with the Dells. After 2 years they are pretty much useless regardless of repairs. Some make it longer, typically desktops make it 3-4 years, but even they become slow to the point of useless even with new images and full memory.
We HAVE no cycle on our Macs. We still use 6 year old macs which perform as good today as they did when I took them out of the box. Our 10 year old macs are showing their age, but even them, if I put a gig of memory into them, are still completely useable unlike a 5-6 year old Dell.
Yes this is antidotal, but it was enough to turn the tide of Dells at my job back toward macs as the people using them who WANTED the Dells, now cant deal with how poor they preform and how much its costing us to support them (5 full time techs compared to just one tech for the macs who does both repairs AND systems management.)
Apple a evil corp. ...NO!
@rinse: longshot but hope it helps... look into changing the port numbers! alot of major ISP's are now blocking the default port numbers for email. I know this is off topic but whatever ;)
Apple will fix this if she gives them the chance. What she needs to do is call AppleCare, and as for customer relations. They will hear her out and make this right. Apple isn't in the habit of deliberately screwing someone over. Also, if she had talked to a manager at an Apple store, I can guarantee that the problem would have been fixed. I worked at an Apple store for over 4 years. I saw worse snafus than this. We always made them right.
@BridgetPentheus:
First point, that is what she was told by the CSR as the reason for not having applecare. If there is no difference, fine, then she was lied to and is still out money.
On your second point, I believe that is for retail store sale differences. Some warranties "start" with the initial order from the retail store (ran into this with an older Ipod I bought new, but a gen old). When you purchase, you are still on that old date. You can send in your proof of purchase/receipt plus applecare info and have it adjusted. I don't think this applies as she states it was ordered direct.
I don't understand your third point. Applecare wasn't applied to her notebook the first time around correctly. If it were, she wouldn't be in this mess. She states she repurchased applecare per the CSR recommendation, and doesn't seem to have an issue with that now. Just now she is still out two times the money.
@rinse: The Geniuses are not obligated to help your friend with Microsoft's crappy e-mail client. I've tried using Entourage and found it to be a confused mess. It doesn't hold a candle to its PC equivalent (Outlook).
@Hyman Decent: You are correct. I live in NYC. As I understood things, by canceling my policy I would have had no insurance whatsoever and would have had a problem if there was an accident while I was driving a friend's car. Granted, my friend's car would have a policy, but I was led to believe that this non-owner policy would cover me not so much the car. I am going to call them back and see exactly what I bought. Thanks.
Oh, one more thing: When I turned in car to the dealer, I kept my vanity plates (let's face it, we all pay a large fortune to get them, so I am not about to let them get destroyed). I got a letter from NYS DMV saying they wanted the plates back. It turns out that I still have to give them back, but they will keep them in storage. They don't trust me to not put them on another car. My only cost? The $4 parking fee for the parking lot since there's no onstreet parking available nearby.
/sorry for the off-topic stuff.
@kreatre2009: You really don't think she's given them the chance to make it right? Like she was holding out or something.
@Charlotte Rae's Web:
Its possible since she is probably going through the Agreement Admin department(they handle all Applecares and issues with them) and they have multiple levels.
Also Customer Relations loves to give you free items and accessories for these type of issues. Or she should try to get up to Executive Relations but they are only for really extreme circumstances.
@Charlotte Rae's Web: By placing "holier than thou" before "attitude," you didn't hyphenate your compound adjective! Make way for the fallout! ;)
Never, ever call AppleCare for stuff like this. Go to the store. Then have someone from the store call AppleCare and yell at someone. I promise that will work. I work at Apple.
but preferably one of the last generation shuffles without the proprietary interface to lock you into further apple or apple-licensed purchases that might require their customer care :)