4 ms·

Also, similar to Amazon, they treat customers really well. Customer centricity definitely played a role in Apple's rise.

Dirlewanger 6y ago
A clean and simple product UX != treating the customer well. Gouging their customers for repairs and being outright hostile to anyone other than themselves managing the device is not being customer-centered.
- auggierose 6y ago
  I once brought my old 17 inch MacBook Pro into an Apple Store because it had died. Apple Care had expired. They fixed it anyway (exchanged the motherboard in the process), at no cost. That's pretty customer centric.
  - TheOtherHobbes 6y ago
    It's also pretty untypical.
  - unkle 6y ago
    I think that varies by customer. I wouldn’t call my experience customer centric or even close. I had a 2015 MacBook Pro that had died recently and like you Apple Care had expired. This is my work laptop and was not be able to earn anymore income until it was operational again. I did all the basic troubleshooting myself resetting PRAM, etc and nothing helped. I contacted Apple support and they had me do the same tests and some additional ones without success. This all happened two weeks ago and due to Covid-19 the area I’m in has no in person support available. The only solution offered was to wait until Apple stores open or buy a new one. I tried to find third party to help with no luck. I decided to take a crack at repairing myself by buying individual parts from Amazon. I soon realized this isn’t as simple as it should be. I had to buy Apple specific tools to open the MacBook case and then realized even the SSD on a 2015 MacBook Pro is a proprietary version so I had to buy a specific over priced version to replace the drive. I felt like the last thing they wanted was for the customer to try and repair the laptop. Nothing ended up working. So, I had to buy a new one. I thought I could at least use this current MacBook Pro to get some trade in discount. Nope, they offered zero trade in since it didn’t turn on even though it was in excellent physical condition. I ended up buying a new one from Amazon and restored data from a previous timeline backup. IMO, The least a company this wealthy could have done is offer a small discount considering the times we are in. I was very disheartened with my experience.
    - auggierose 6y ago
      Sorry to hear that. I guess Covid-19 is special, and my incident was also over 5 years ago. I hope you upgraded to a 16 inch one! Sounds like a good update anyway.
      - unkle 6y ago
        I agree. I wanted to share a bad experience. Otherwise, I have rarely needed any support from Apple in the last ten years. I did, and it hurts looking at my previous one I loved right across from me considering the price I paid for the new one. "Well, at least I have Touch ID now" is what I keep telling myself.
    - keyb0ardninja 6y ago
      I hope you didn't buy another Mac after that experience.
      - unkle 6y ago
        I didn't want to and tried using a windows based laptop for time sensitive work as I was waiting for parts to arrive. I spent more time troubleshooting getting stuff to work on a windows machine. Some tools I use and App dev work I do requires a Mac OS. Luckily, I had some savings to use but others in the same situation may not be very fortunate or even have options. Now that I think about it, I could probably get away with a Hakintosh setup. I didn't consider it with everything going on.
- kube-system 6y ago
  > being outright hostile to anyone other than themselves managing the device is not being customer-centered. But it is. The customer isn't you, the tech literate professional; their target customer is the average person on the street. Apple doesn't want their device ecosystem to be inclusive to the things that confuse, defraud, or frustrate non-savvy users: unethical or unqualified repair, advanced (mis)configuration, side-loading apps, etc. Back when I worked as an IT tech, upwards of 80% of issues I dealt with were caused by one of those confusions that are completely solved by a walled-garden approach. It might not be your preference, or my preference, but there's no denying the utility it has for others.
  - bengale 6y ago
    I’m not sure the tech literate professional is the right group there. Plenty of us pick Apple products because we’d rather use our time and skills to make money instead of tinkering with gadgets.
    - kube-system 6y ago
      Yes, I'm suggesting that their viewpoint might be biased by their expertise -- not that all with expertise share that same bias. I have some Apple devices for exactly that same reason.

Dirlewanger 6y ago

A clean and simple product UX != treating the customer well. Gouging their customers for repairs and being outright hostile to anyone other than themselves managing the device is not being customer-centered.

auggierose 6y ago
I once brought my old 17 inch MacBook Pro into an Apple Store because it had died. Apple Care had expired. They fixed it anyway (exchanged the motherboard in the process), at no cost. That's pretty customer centric.
- TheOtherHobbes 6y ago
  It's also pretty untypical.
- unkle 6y ago
  I think that varies by customer. I wouldn’t call my experience customer centric or even close. I had a 2015 MacBook Pro that had died recently and like you Apple Care had expired. This is my work laptop and was not be able to earn anymore income until it was operational again. I did all the basic troubleshooting myself resetting PRAM, etc and nothing helped. I contacted Apple support and they had me do the same tests and some additional ones without success. This all happened two weeks ago and due to Covid-19 the area I’m in has no in person support available. The only solution offered was to wait until Apple stores open or buy a new one. I tried to find third party to help with no luck. I decided to take a crack at repairing myself by buying individual parts from Amazon. I soon realized this isn’t as simple as it should be. I had to buy Apple specific tools to open the MacBook case and then realized even the SSD on a 2015 MacBook Pro is a proprietary version so I had to buy a specific over priced version to replace the drive. I felt like the last thing they wanted was for the customer to try and repair the laptop. Nothing ended up working. So, I had to buy a new one. I thought I could at least use this current MacBook Pro to get some trade in discount. Nope, they offered zero trade in since it didn’t turn on even though it was in excellent physical condition. I ended up buying a new one from Amazon and restored data from a previous timeline backup. IMO, The least a company this wealthy could have done is offer a small discount considering the times we are in. I was very disheartened with my experience.
  - auggierose 6y ago
    Sorry to hear that. I guess Covid-19 is special, and my incident was also over 5 years ago. I hope you upgraded to a 16 inch one! Sounds like a good update anyway.
    - unkle 6y ago
      I agree. I wanted to share a bad experience. Otherwise, I have rarely needed any support from Apple in the last ten years. I did, and it hurts looking at my previous one I loved right across from me considering the price I paid for the new one. "Well, at least I have Touch ID now" is what I keep telling myself.
  - keyb0ardninja 6y ago
    I hope you didn't buy another Mac after that experience.
    - unkle 6y ago
      I didn't want to and tried using a windows based laptop for time sensitive work as I was waiting for parts to arrive. I spent more time troubleshooting getting stuff to work on a windows machine. Some tools I use and App dev work I do requires a Mac OS. Luckily, I had some savings to use but others in the same situation may not be very fortunate or even have options. Now that I think about it, I could probably get away with a Hakintosh setup. I didn't consider it with everything going on.
kube-system 6y ago
> being outright hostile to anyone other than themselves managing the device is not being customer-centered. But it is. The customer isn't you, the tech literate professional; their target customer is the average person on the street. Apple doesn't want their device ecosystem to be inclusive to the things that confuse, defraud, or frustrate non-savvy users: unethical or unqualified repair, advanced (mis)configuration, side-loading apps, etc. Back when I worked as an IT tech, upwards of 80% of issues I dealt with were caused by one of those confusions that are completely solved by a walled-garden approach. It might not be your preference, or my preference, but there's no denying the utility it has for others.
- bengale 6y ago
  I’m not sure the tech literate professional is the right group there. Plenty of us pick Apple products because we’d rather use our time and skills to make money instead of tinkering with gadgets.
  - kube-system 6y ago
    Yes, I'm suggesting that their viewpoint might be biased by their expertise -- not that all with expertise share that same bias. I have some Apple devices for exactly that same reason.