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you should understand that they just push cost around, and put a better face forward by focusing on the 'valet' type service model. you actually pay for this, f

you should understand that they just push cost around, and put a better face forward by focusing on the 'valet' type service model. you actually pay for this, for eg. when you pay an extra $100 for 16gb of ipad memory; which should really cost you $15 as an sdhc expansion.

stretchwithme 15y ago
You absolutely pay for it. And I totally expect to pay for it. Its not free. When I bought my first MacBook, I wanted someone to stand behind it and just handle complex, hard-to-diagnose problems. Downtime can be very costly. You pay for that too.
- crikli 15y ago
  Yup. Upfront cost is of negligible importance. Reliability and support have far greater financial impact.
tptacek 15y ago
Products are not priced according to the sum of their costs. If your logic was valid, similarly priced products using similar components would naturally have comparable customer service, because the cost of excellent customer service would be "built in" to the COGS of the product. But of course that's not the case. The extra hundred dollars you spend for "RAM" has nothing to do with the cost of RAM; it's that Apple uses RAM to segment customers by price sensitivity. If you want more RAM in your iPad so much that you'll spend $100 to get it, that makes you less sensitive to price, and so Apple can soak you for the price you're willing to pay while still letting people less agape with the iPad pay less. I suppose that could irritate you, but then I've got real bad news for you about the market for automobiles, plane tickets, organic food, hotel rooms, TV sets, and furniture. Obviously Apple can provide good customer service because of their high profit margins and spectacular overall profitability. But it is not then the case that when Apple sells products with lower margins and worse COGS that you get poorer customer service. If your observation is that ultimately, good customer service is simply part of marketing a product: that's absolutely true, but a bit banal.
jerrya 15y ago
Good customer service reaps a customer that makes a lifetime of iPad purchases. Assuming their prices keep up with inflation than every two years that's $500 in today's dollars to Apple for say, 50 years. Your iPad purchases, when you are happy, is thus worth $12,500 to Apple, not counting all your friends, parents, lovers, and kids that you start on Apple. It's not that every product you purchase from Apple has to have this good customer service cost built into it, because you're not going to need a new screen for each. It's that they can justify the cost of good customer value by taking it from your lifetime value to the company if they keep you a happy customer. Or something like that. cf Nordstrom.

stretchwithme 15y ago

You absolutely pay for it. And I totally expect to pay for it. Its not free. When I bought my first MacBook, I wanted someone to stand behind it and just handle complex, hard-to-diagnose problems. Downtime can be very costly. You pay for that too.

crikli 15y ago
Yup. Upfront cost is of negligible importance. Reliability and support have far greater financial impact.

tptacek 15y ago

Products are not priced according to the sum of their costs. If your logic was valid, similarly priced products using similar components would naturally have comparable customer service, because the cost of excellent customer service would be "built in" to the COGS of the product. But of course that's not the case. The extra hundred dollars you spend for "RAM" has nothing to do with the cost of RAM; it's that Apple uses RAM to segment customers by price sensitivity. If you want more RAM in your iPad so much that you'll spend $100 to get it, that makes you less sensitive to price, and so Apple can soak you for the price you're willing to pay while still letting people less agape with the iPad pay less. I suppose that could irritate you, but then I've got real bad news for you about the market for automobiles, plane tickets, organic food, hotel rooms, TV sets, and furniture. Obviously Apple can provide good customer service because of their high profit margins and spectacular overall profitability. But it is not then the case that when Apple sells products with lower margins and worse COGS that you get poorer customer service. If your observation is that ultimately, good customer service is simply part of marketing a product: that's absolutely true, but a bit banal.

jerrya 15y ago

Good customer service reaps a customer that makes a lifetime of iPad purchases. Assuming their prices keep up with inflation than every two years that's $500 in today's dollars to Apple for say, 50 years. Your iPad purchases, when you are happy, is thus worth $12,500 to Apple, not counting all your friends, parents, lovers, and kids that you start on Apple. It's not that every product you purchase from Apple has to have this good customer service cost built into it, because you're not going to need a new screen for each. It's that they can justify the cost of good customer value by taking it from your lifetime value to the company if they keep you a happy customer. Or something like that. cf Nordstrom.