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Two things make me think Apple are not giving such great service - 1) A simple firmware update rendered your screen unusuable 2) They only replaced your batter

by somabc 18y ago

Two things make me think Apple are not giving such great service - 1) A simple firmware update rendered your screen unusuable 2) They only replaced your battery because they had sold you a faulty battery in the first place. They are not being nice they are fixing mistakes that should never have been made in the first place.

potatolicious 18y ago
But the truth of the matter is that these mistakes will be made, regardless, by everyone, not just Apple. Laptops in general have a failure rate that is actually pretty high. Given that no matter where I go I can't avoid things being potentially broken, I'd rather be well taken care of, instead of not.
- somabc 18y ago
  Yes but I am saying we should not accept these mistakes, they are not inevitable but down to flaws in manufacturing and quality control. As a premium product these mistakes should not have occurred. Apple make a choice to allow a certain failure rate or to skip testing of updates as getting it right 1st time is not as profitable as allowing mistakes which may or may not be cleared up at the Apple Store.
  - potatolicious 18y ago
    To think that these mistakes can be eliminated entirely is somewhat delusional. Yes, Apple could be doing more to increase the quality of their products, more rigorous testing, etc etc, but in the end there is an engineering limitation to how far they can take this. Things breaking down, or manufacturing defects, can be reduced, but never eliminated. So there are currently two choices in the market: - Things that break down often, with no customer support. - Things that break down often, with great customer support. I think it's pretty clear which one I'd choose :)
GHFigs 18y ago
Those are quality assurance issues, not customer service. Both factor into your satisfaction with a product, but they are not the same thing. Even though the ideal is both, it's entirely possible to have great QA but shitty CS, or shitty QA and great CS, and still have happy and loyal customers. It's impossible (or at least extremely impractical) to have perfection in either. This story is about a positive customer service experience, where 1) the service person lacked a prescribed solution to the original (firmware/screen) problem, but the customer left satisfied and 2) the service person was attentive enough to solve a second problem (out of warranty, at company expense) that the customer hadn't even expressed as a complaint. If you can't see why that's uncommonly good service, you're not paying attention. Of course it's not that way all the time, at every location, for every customer, but it indicates Apple's atypical strategy of having their own retail stores with that kind of one-on-one support is one that can have atypically big pay off in customer satisfaction. For comparison, Best Buy's GeekSquad would have charged the customer a minimum of $50 to even look at the problem, and on the off chance they even knew about the recalled battery, would not have been able to replace the it on the spot for free. Local shops are mostly the same story. In short, the author could not have had had the same loyalty-generating positive experience with any other brand of computer.
- somabc 18y ago
  As a counterpoint though I have found Apple to be less than helpful when it comes to hardware issues. My Macbook Pro developed a hardware fault after I upgraded my Hard Drive. The design of the MBP is surely aimed at discouraging you from upgrading the HD, you practically have to dismantle most of the laptop. I took it to an Apple Store in London who would not help as it was out of warranty. The store employee advised me I would be better buying a new one than repairing the laptop. So I went to an Apple Authorised Repair Shop where they quoted £120 just to look at the laptop, then parts and labour (again this would likely be £600+). I then went to an Unauthorized Apple repair shop where they took 6 weeks to repair the issues and charged £250 to replace the superdrive. The only faults found were a broken clip jamming the superdrive and a reinstall of Leopard. It is not easy to get Apple parts to repair it yourself. So a design flaw cost me 2 months without my Laptop, the Apple Store were not interested without serious £££'s, and the Apple dealer was the same.

by somabc 18y ago

potatolicious 18y ago

But the truth of the matter is that these mistakes will be made, regardless, by everyone, not just Apple. Laptops in general have a failure rate that is actually pretty high. Given that no matter where I go I can't avoid things being potentially broken, I'd rather be well taken care of, instead of not.

somabc 18y ago
Yes but I am saying we should not accept these mistakes, they are not inevitable but down to flaws in manufacturing and quality control. As a premium product these mistakes should not have occurred. Apple make a choice to allow a certain failure rate or to skip testing of updates as getting it right 1st time is not as profitable as allowing mistakes which may or may not be cleared up at the Apple Store.
- potatolicious 18y ago
  To think that these mistakes can be eliminated entirely is somewhat delusional. Yes, Apple could be doing more to increase the quality of their products, more rigorous testing, etc etc, but in the end there is an engineering limitation to how far they can take this. Things breaking down, or manufacturing defects, can be reduced, but never eliminated. So there are currently two choices in the market: - Things that break down often, with no customer support. - Things that break down often, with great customer support. I think it's pretty clear which one I'd choose :)

GHFigs 18y ago

Those are quality assurance issues, not customer service. Both factor into your satisfaction with a product, but they are not the same thing. Even though the ideal is both, it's entirely possible to have great QA but shitty CS, or shitty QA and great CS, and still have happy and loyal customers. It's impossible (or at least extremely impractical) to have perfection in either. This story is about a positive customer service experience, where 1) the service person lacked a prescribed solution to the original (firmware/screen) problem, but the customer left satisfied and 2) the service person was attentive enough to solve a second problem (out of warranty, at company expense) that the customer hadn't even expressed as a complaint. If you can't see why that's uncommonly good service, you're not paying attention. Of course it's not that way all the time, at every location, for every customer, but it indicates Apple's atypical strategy of having their own retail stores with that kind of one-on-one support is one that can have atypically big pay off in customer satisfaction. For comparison, Best Buy's GeekSquad would have charged the customer a minimum of $50 to even look at the problem, and on the off chance they even knew about the recalled battery, would not have been able to replace the it on the spot for free. Local shops are mostly the same story. In short, the author could not have had had the same loyalty-generating positive experience with any other brand of computer.

somabc 18y ago
As a counterpoint though I have found Apple to be less than helpful when it comes to hardware issues. My Macbook Pro developed a hardware fault after I upgraded my Hard Drive. The design of the MBP is surely aimed at discouraging you from upgrading the HD, you practically have to dismantle most of the laptop. I took it to an Apple Store in London who would not help as it was out of warranty. The store employee advised me I would be better buying a new one than repairing the laptop. So I went to an Apple Authorised Repair Shop where they quoted £120 just to look at the laptop, then parts and labour (again this would likely be £600+). I then went to an Unauthorized Apple repair shop where they took 6 weeks to repair the issues and charged £250 to replace the superdrive. The only faults found were a broken clip jamming the superdrive and a reinstall of Leopard. It is not easy to get Apple parts to repair it yourself. So a design flaw cost me 2 months without my Laptop, the Apple Store were not interested without serious £££'s, and the Apple dealer was the same.