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I recently decided to trust Apple with my emails after witnessing a friend lose access to his free account due to some mistakes on his part. After he reached ou

by 037 3y ago

I recently decided to trust Apple with my emails after witnessing a friend lose access to his free account due to some mistakes on his part. After he reached out to Apple's customer service, I was genuinely impressed by the helpful and knowledgeable support team. They escalated the issue efficiently through multiple levels, involving several phone calls over a short span of one or two days. What stood out the most was their unwavering dedication to resolving his issue, despite him only utilizing a free 5Gb account. Maybe hardware investments marks you as paying customer? Knowing that if an issue arises there'll be a team of humans eager to help is quite reassuring. [Another feature I value is Apple's "Hide My Email" (unique to paid accounts). While other services offer similar redirect/disposable email, Apple uses its @icloud.com domain, so the services you subscribe can't just ban the domain, they have to accept it]. My only issue with iCloud these days is the excessive amount of legitimate emails ending up in the spam folder, but I've noticed this problem persistently with Gmail as well. Full disclosure: I am not the CEO of Apple, just a (mostly) satisfied customer.

philliphaydon 3y ago
[dead]
dwaite 3y ago
I remember a boss telling me about his personal experience at Nordstroms, with a lady irate about a set of defective tires she bought. She didn't have a receipt, but the sales clerk said that he was fine with taking them as a return if she could say how much she spent on them. It's worth noting for people who are unfamiliar with the store - while they do sell some home goods in addition to clothing and beauty/jewelry, they do not sell tires. When asked afterward, the clerk said he did not know/recognize the woman. Some companies just recognize how vital points of contact are with people and try to empower their employees to help customers and more generally people, because they consider it a priority to maintain a positive perception. AppleCare support has historically tended to be very open, covering phone/online technical support for all of your Apple devices and services if any of them are actively covered. There are certainly parts of interactions with Apple that _are_ frustrating, such as certain classes of device repairs where they gate the ability to e.g. get a battery replacement based on the results from a diagnostic tool. Employees and even managers appear to have very limited capability to override those processes, presumably because you could otherwise ask for a battery replacement for a devices with a damaged screen and back panel, and pay an order of magnitude less than a repair on the damaged display and back.
- brokenmachine 3y ago
  >presumably because you could otherwise ask for a battery replacement for a devices with a damaged screen and back panel, and pay an order of magnitude less than a repair on the damaged display and back. So there's no way to get a battery replaced on a device with a damaged display?
  - duskwuff 3y ago
    > So there's no way to get a battery replaced on a device with a damaged display? Replacing the battery on most iPhones involves removing the display. If the display is already damaged, it's likely that removing it will damage it further, possibly to the extent of making it stop working entirely. Apple is, understandably, hesitant to either 1) potentially return a device to a customer in worse shape than they got it, or 2) eat the cost of replacing the display when servicing batteries.
    - brokenmachine 3y ago
      This is shit design.
- devjab 3y ago
  I think there may be a difference between the support you get in countries with an Apple presence and in countries without it. In Denmark where I live we have 3rd party support, and it’s very, very, terrible from my anecdotal experience. Even for things that are entirely digital. I’m pretty sure it’s better than Google’s automated no-support, but it’s certainly nothing to praise.
- evmar 3y ago
  FWIW the tire story is a legend from decades ago: https://press.nordstrom.com/news-releases/news-release-details/nordy-pod-truth-about-nordstroms-legendary-tire-story https://press.nordstrom.com/news-releases/news-release-detai...
  - jakub_g 3y ago
jesterson 3y ago
As someone who interacts a lot with customer support on many levels across industries, I assert your friend was lucky to get someone who genuinely cared. However extrapolating this attitude to general company behaviour would be a mistake. In current state of affairs support largely relies on individuals who are knowledgeable and capable. Those are 1% by most optimistic expectations. Everyone else is giving BS responses just to get you off the line. Apple is no different - in my recent case support was little bit less that terrible. Sometimes I think what happens when those people eventually leave and new generation will take their place. Would be a sad state of affairs.
throwaway67743 3y ago
I have the exact polar opposite experience (as I'm sure many do) - as a prior iPhone user (because at the time Android was pretty awful) I obviously had an apple ID and icloud account, fast forward a few years and my remaining Apple device dies, I forgot the number of the temporary sim I had in it etc etc, Apple are still refusing to either change the phone number on my account or erase it (as required by law) without me giving them the full temporary number I had on my last device, which obviously I don't have this far down the line. Apple "support" make no attempt to help they just say no number no deal, so at this point I've had to resort to pointing out their obligations under the law for removing any data and history, still waiting to see what they'll do though. Even while I was an Apple user their support was variable at best, some issues just would not be resolved (like keychain issues etc, "we don't understand why it's broken sorry, case closed") and would not be escalated.

by 037 3y ago

philliphaydon 3y ago

[dead]

dwaite 3y ago

I remember a boss telling me about his personal experience at Nordstroms, with a lady irate about a set of defective tires she bought. She didn't have a receipt, but the sales clerk said that he was fine with taking them as a return if she could say how much she spent on them. It's worth noting for people who are unfamiliar with the store - while they do sell some home goods in addition to clothing and beauty/jewelry, they do not sell tires. When asked afterward, the clerk said he did not know/recognize the woman. Some companies just recognize how vital points of contact are with people and try to empower their employees to help customers and more generally people, because they consider it a priority to maintain a positive perception. AppleCare support has historically tended to be very open, covering phone/online technical support for all of your Apple devices and services if any of them are actively covered. There are certainly parts of interactions with Apple that _are_ frustrating, such as certain classes of device repairs where they gate the ability to e.g. get a battery replacement based on the results from a diagnostic tool. Employees and even managers appear to have very limited capability to override those processes, presumably because you could otherwise ask for a battery replacement for a devices with a damaged screen and back panel, and pay an order of magnitude less than a repair on the damaged display and back.

brokenmachine 3y ago
>presumably because you could otherwise ask for a battery replacement for a devices with a damaged screen and back panel, and pay an order of magnitude less than a repair on the damaged display and back. So there's no way to get a battery replaced on a device with a damaged display?
- duskwuff 3y ago
  > So there's no way to get a battery replaced on a device with a damaged display? Replacing the battery on most iPhones involves removing the display. If the display is already damaged, it's likely that removing it will damage it further, possibly to the extent of making it stop working entirely. Apple is, understandably, hesitant to either 1) potentially return a device to a customer in worse shape than they got it, or 2) eat the cost of replacing the display when servicing batteries.
  - brokenmachine 3y ago
    This is shit design.
devjab 3y ago
I think there may be a difference between the support you get in countries with an Apple presence and in countries without it. In Denmark where I live we have 3rd party support, and it’s very, very, terrible from my anecdotal experience. Even for things that are entirely digital. I’m pretty sure it’s better than Google’s automated no-support, but it’s certainly nothing to praise.
evmar 3y ago
FWIW the tire story is a legend from decades ago: https://press.nordstrom.com/news-releases/news-release-details/nordy-pod-truth-about-nordstroms-legendary-tire-story https://press.nordstrom.com/news-releases/news-release-detai...
- jakub_g 3y ago

jesterson 3y ago

As someone who interacts a lot with customer support on many levels across industries, I assert your friend was lucky to get someone who genuinely cared. However extrapolating this attitude to general company behaviour would be a mistake. In current state of affairs support largely relies on individuals who are knowledgeable and capable. Those are 1% by most optimistic expectations. Everyone else is giving BS responses just to get you off the line. Apple is no different - in my recent case support was little bit less that terrible. Sometimes I think what happens when those people eventually leave and new generation will take their place. Would be a sad state of affairs.

throwaway67743 3y ago

I have the exact polar opposite experience (as I'm sure many do) - as a prior iPhone user (because at the time Android was pretty awful) I obviously had an apple ID and icloud account, fast forward a few years and my remaining Apple device dies, I forgot the number of the temporary sim I had in it etc etc, Apple are still refusing to either change the phone number on my account or erase it (as required by law) without me giving them the full temporary number I had on my last device, which obviously I don't have this far down the line. Apple "support" make no attempt to help they just say no number no deal, so at this point I've had to resort to pointing out their obligations under the law for removing any data and history, still waiting to see what they'll do though. Even while I was an Apple user their support was variable at best, some issues just would not be resolved (like keychain issues etc, "we don't understand why it's broken sorry, case closed") and would not be escalated.