4 ms·

Apple has great customer service in general. At least in the US, dunno about Asia. I got them to replace my 27" iMac screen, on site, without taking it to an a

Apple has great customer service in general. At least in the US, dunno about Asia. I got them to replace my 27" iMac screen, on site, without taking it to an apple store, just by sending them pictures of it. Had some intermittent discoloration. And it got replaced the very next day. Their phone system is also great now. No waiting on hold or typing numbers into your phone 3 times each, then repeating them to each agent, like with comcast and others.

sirn 15y ago
That's the exactly problem: they have great customer service in US but for some region (e.g. South East Asia) it's almost on the same level as all other companies out there.
- malandrew 15y ago
  It's cultural. There's only so much Apple's customer service culture can do to overcome the customer service culture in a country, when the staffing of the company sources people locally who have different ideas of what constitutes customer service. The US has great customer service and of companies operating in the US, Apple is the cream of the crop. So it's effectively the creme de la creme in the US. Customer service in southeast Asian countries is largely crap across the board (I lived in China for 1.5 years and I'm speaking from experience). One of the cultural phenomena that backfires customer service-wise is the collectivistic culture versus individualistic culture. Business people see customers as a collective and not a group of individuals. In this environment, no matter how good Apple's policies are, the judgement of whether or not your case/issue will be judged on a case by case basis and deemed worthy of meriting a replacement is going to break down because the people you ultimately deal with don't see or treat you as an individual or your case as unique. There are benefits of collectivistic cultures, but customer service isn't one of them.

sirn 15y ago

That's the exactly problem: they have great customer service in US but for some region (e.g. South East Asia) it's almost on the same level as all other companies out there.

malandrew 15y ago
It's cultural. There's only so much Apple's customer service culture can do to overcome the customer service culture in a country, when the staffing of the company sources people locally who have different ideas of what constitutes customer service. The US has great customer service and of companies operating in the US, Apple is the cream of the crop. So it's effectively the creme de la creme in the US. Customer service in southeast Asian countries is largely crap across the board (I lived in China for 1.5 years and I'm speaking from experience). One of the cultural phenomena that backfires customer service-wise is the collectivistic culture versus individualistic culture. Business people see customers as a collective and not a group of individuals. In this environment, no matter how good Apple's policies are, the judgement of whether or not your case/issue will be judged on a case by case basis and deemed worthy of meriting a replacement is going to break down because the people you ultimately deal with don't see or treat you as an individual or your case as unique. There are benefits of collectivistic cultures, but customer service isn't one of them.