6 ms·

Apple’s latest deleted comment

60 points by jamesbritt 13y ago

cstrat 13y ago
This sounds strange, I know plenty of people with old iPhones on iOS7 that haven't got issues with wifi.
- dman 13y ago
  Lets blame the user.
  - general_failure 13y ago
    Its clearly pebkac. Case closed.
  - cstrat 13y ago
    haha that isn't what I meant, I was pointing to it not being a systemic issue with older iPhones... however if what @hrrsn says is true then it does sound like it is a big issue. I wonder if there are any specifics that lead to the wifi issue, like a certain batch of devices.
- acqq 13y ago
  I have iPhone 4, iOS 7.0.3 and no problems.
  - hrrsn 13y ago
    I work at a third party Apple repairer. We get 1-5 calls a day about the greyed out WiFi issue. 99% of the time, it's a 4S and we have to refer them to Apple for repair. It can usually be fixed by resoldering the WiFi chip but we can't guarantee the repair, so we don't offer it. Not an iOS 7 problem either, but a common thing is for it to happen after an OS update.
    - acqq 13y ago
      That explains the claim from the deleted post: behind "somebody heats the chip to 300 degrees and then it works" is actually hidden "resoldering sometimes helps." Heh.
georgemcbay 13y ago
I haven't previously heard about any wifi problems on iOS 7, but deleting comments of this sort has been Apple's typical MO for a long time. See: yellowing macbooks, cracked Cubes, Antenna-gate, nVidia GPU failures, etc. Pretty much any time a problem like this comes up with their devices they suppress and deny for as long as possible until the complaints reach a crescendo and then finally they might do something about it without really ever addressing the period in which they were trying to delete the problem away. Obviously this behavior hasn't hurt their ability to keep selling systems and devices to many, many people, so I guess they might as well keep going with what works for them.
- vor_ 13y ago
  I realize the knee-jerk reaction is to assume it's a ploy by Apple to ignore customer complaints as long as possible, but it's more likely that just don't want their message boards to become a caustic cesspool of trollish complaining, like most company forums.
  - general_failure 13y ago
    Heh, What an overreaction/over the board inference. Caustic cesspool? Nobody from apple has even bothered replying. Yet they are busy deleting stuff. This has nothing to do with quality of their message boards.
    - waylonrobert 13y ago
      To my knowledge, Apple has never replied officially to any post on their company fora. It appears as though it is intended for Apple customers to communicate with others in the "community" - probably why they use that term in their fora. That aside, I've never understood their post policing strategy. Obviously someone at Apple has moderation duties.
      - ixobelle 13y ago
        Forums
RexRollman 13y ago
Personally, I've never understood why Apple even has message boards. They offer nothing that can't be found elsewhere and if they are not going to respond to users, what's the point?
- shadesandcolour 13y ago
  They are for users to talk to other users. Not everyone knows about StackExchange. And you can get there from the support site, which is a good place for a user with an issue to be.
  - lukifer 13y ago
    Apple could vastly improve their user experience if they embraced StackExchange and linked there directly.
    - Steko 13y ago
      Right where most of the items have 0 responses and it's aimed at power users. Maybe everyone who think they can easily one up Apple's award-winning-by-a-mile-over-the-rest-of-the-industry customer service should start making phones and show us all how it's done.
      - lukifer 13y ago
        When Apple provides customer service directly, it's nearly always stellar, but their user-to-user support forums tend to vary between "deserted wasteland" and "noise factory". Apple's philosophy is deliver a kick-ass experience, or if they can't, then do nothing at all. If they can't deliver as good of an experience as StackExchange at minimum, and ideally employ real staff to answer questions, they should archive the forums and advise users to take advantage of the rest of the internet.
- clamprecht 13y ago
  Maybe they'd rather control the boards where users discuss Apple products, than let third parties have control. Case in point, this thread.
thetrb 13y ago
Deleting a comment that is threatening with a lawsuit is not a surprise to me. I'd like to know if the same comment without the threats and accusations would also get deleted.
charlesemerson 13y ago
My wifi went gray on my 4S during iOS6. I could fix it temporarily with resets but it'd always go back to being completely greyed out. Applecare replaced it without hesitation. Not sure the issue is necessarily tied to iOS7...
kposehn 13y ago
This comment was likely deleted because it is caustic, unhelpful and generally useless. I think any forum administrator would be perfectly reasonable to delete a comment of this ilk.
- reedlaw 13y ago
  It seems like a genuine plea for help to me. How should he have worded it better? Edit: I skimmed the last paragraph at first. He should have left that part out.
- ekianjo 13y ago
  So a customer expressing a valid complaint is unhelpful and useless? You have an interesting idea of costumer support.
  - kposehn 13y ago
    He has a valid complaint, for sure - but he chose to be caustic and confrontational in a public forum.
    - dhughes 13y ago
      So are you.
      - kposehn 13y ago
        To be fair, my original comment could be read easily in a way I didn't intend and could come across badly. I'd say I'm not being caustic and instead stating my opinion on the post in a very direct way. That said, it could be put much better than I said originally.
    - ekianjo 13y ago
      OK, but why not take the higher ground and understand why the user is upset in the first place, and answer accordingly ? Deleting a complaint does not make it go away. It just pisses people off even more and create bad mouthing in the end.
shadesandcolour 13y ago
Because this is again an unhelpful comment that goes agains the TOS. He/She also makes some interesting claims that iOS 7 went untested which is just funny.
- general_failure 13y ago
  It turns out this is how normal human beings interact. They cannot always stick to a specific point. It is a discussion forum and not jira or bugzilla to demand developer like wording and focus.
  - Steko 13y ago
    They're not demanding developer like focus, they're asking people not to be huge assholes.
    - general_failure 13y ago
      You dont get people. This is a normal behavior by most people. People get frustrated when things do not work and they feel helpless. Not a happy feeling. And they vent their anger in forums and customer service. This does not make them an ass hole. If anyone is an asshole, its apple. For not replying when previous customers reported nicely.
      - Steko 13y ago
        "You dont get people. This is a normal behavior by most people. People get frustrated when things do not work and they feel helpless. Not a happy feeling. And they vent their anger in forums and customer service. " Or maybe I do. I worked in college for an airline in lost luggage. I know a thing or two about angry customers. "This does not make them an ass hole." Or maybe it does. At the end of the day it doesn't matter what label you want to put on it. "Asshole" is the generic term I happen to use for "legal behavior which will not be tolerated". The guy being asked to leave the party/restaurant? It's because he was acting like an asshole. The guy who's comment got deleted for screaming about FREEDOM like he was an extra in Braveheart on the customer service website? What an asshole. "If anyone is an asshole, its apple. For not replying when previous customers reported nicely." They say up front they aren't going to reply on those forums, who expects them to reply when they haven't replied once there in 10-15 years?
smoyer 13y ago
I'll be really impressed when Apple deletes the posts from his blog ... the Borg were way too powerful to simply delete comments from their own forums.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
37prime 13y ago
FTP: "The issue I have with getting a replacement is that I purchased this iphone 4s from someone who upgraded to iphone5. Which means the serial number is not matching with my apple account.” From my personal experience, I didn’t have any trouble getting an iPhone replaced even though it was not purchased using my account. Apple checked the serial number to verify the Warranty status, and I was given a replacement at the Appel Store Genius Bar. I am not sure if Apple maintained a blacklist of reportedly stolen iPhones. This past Summer 2013, a friend of mine bought a used iPhone from Craislist (red flag #1) and found out that the phone was reported stolen 2 weeks after. The iPhone was somehow blacklisted from connecting to AT&T network.
- sitharus 13y ago
  All phones have a factory-defined IMEI number that's broadcast as part of the connection setup. If your phone is reported stolen it will often end up on an IMEI blacklist, rendering it useless as a phone. A lot of providers share blacklists.
hobs 13y ago
This problem has been around since iOS4 btw. Working for apple support back in the day, we dreaded this, but instantly replaced it. I thought it was some weird software issue, but it might not be with this guy indicating it could be fixed by heating it? Anyway, call support, ask for T2, and get a free iphone because "I have been an apple advocate for years, but I just cant figure out how this gosh darn update borked my iphone?" Manipulating a T2 agent is really not that hard, and most are ready to hear a sob story and give out something that nets them a good CSAT.
logn 13y ago
> [Apple] saying [they] are not responsible for software ios upgrades Fight them on this. If you read their iOS and iPhone EULA's, they disclaim all sorts of liability but don't disclaim iPhone hardware damage caused by iOS. I argued with them for three days after an iOS update bricked my phone (outside of its warranty period) but only after pointing out this issue in the EULA did they finally replace the phone free of charge (with a refurb that had a scratched camera lens and bad battery). After that I sold all remaining Apple products I owned and am no longer a customer, after having been a user/customer since the Apple II days.
chid 13y ago
To be fair, I had this same issue (on iOS 6, occurred randomly) It seems to be a known issue, replaced without question at Apple.
lambda 13y ago
So, I wonder. Have any of these people actually tried making a support request with Apple? Every time I've had an actual issue where something genuinely didn't work, and it was under warranty, Apple has been willing to repair or replace the hardware. Even if this is just a software problem, presumably migrating your data to a clean device will fix it. There's a reason I always buy an extended AppleCare warranty for all of my laptops; laptops take a lot of abuse, and it's worth it to be able to extend the likely life of my laptop (I've generally been getting about 5 years per laptop, and almost every one has had something replaced under the extended warranty at some point).

60 points by jamesbritt 13y ago

cstrat 13y ago

This sounds strange, I know plenty of people with old iPhones on iOS7 that haven't got issues with wifi.

dman 13y ago
Lets blame the user.
- general_failure 13y ago
  Its clearly pebkac. Case closed.
- cstrat 13y ago
  haha that isn't what I meant, I was pointing to it not being a systemic issue with older iPhones... however if what @hrrsn says is true then it does sound like it is a big issue. I wonder if there are any specifics that lead to the wifi issue, like a certain batch of devices.
acqq 13y ago
I have iPhone 4, iOS 7.0.3 and no problems.
- hrrsn 13y ago
  I work at a third party Apple repairer. We get 1-5 calls a day about the greyed out WiFi issue. 99% of the time, it's a 4S and we have to refer them to Apple for repair. It can usually be fixed by resoldering the WiFi chip but we can't guarantee the repair, so we don't offer it. Not an iOS 7 problem either, but a common thing is for it to happen after an OS update.
  - acqq 13y ago
    That explains the claim from the deleted post: behind "somebody heats the chip to 300 degrees and then it works" is actually hidden "resoldering sometimes helps." Heh.

georgemcbay 13y ago

I haven't previously heard about any wifi problems on iOS 7, but deleting comments of this sort has been Apple's typical MO for a long time. See: yellowing macbooks, cracked Cubes, Antenna-gate, nVidia GPU failures, etc. Pretty much any time a problem like this comes up with their devices they suppress and deny for as long as possible until the complaints reach a crescendo and then finally they might do something about it without really ever addressing the period in which they were trying to delete the problem away. Obviously this behavior hasn't hurt their ability to keep selling systems and devices to many, many people, so I guess they might as well keep going with what works for them.

vor_ 13y ago
I realize the knee-jerk reaction is to assume it's a ploy by Apple to ignore customer complaints as long as possible, but it's more likely that just don't want their message boards to become a caustic cesspool of trollish complaining, like most company forums.
- general_failure 13y ago
  Heh, What an overreaction/over the board inference. Caustic cesspool? Nobody from apple has even bothered replying. Yet they are busy deleting stuff. This has nothing to do with quality of their message boards.
  - waylonrobert 13y ago
    To my knowledge, Apple has never replied officially to any post on their company fora. It appears as though it is intended for Apple customers to communicate with others in the "community" - probably why they use that term in their fora. That aside, I've never understood their post policing strategy. Obviously someone at Apple has moderation duties.
    - ixobelle 13y ago
      Forums

RexRollman 13y ago

Personally, I've never understood why Apple even has message boards. They offer nothing that can't be found elsewhere and if they are not going to respond to users, what's the point?

shadesandcolour 13y ago
They are for users to talk to other users. Not everyone knows about StackExchange. And you can get there from the support site, which is a good place for a user with an issue to be.
- lukifer 13y ago
  Apple could vastly improve their user experience if they embraced StackExchange and linked there directly.
  - Steko 13y ago
    Right where most of the items have 0 responses and it's aimed at power users. Maybe everyone who think they can easily one up Apple's award-winning-by-a-mile-over-the-rest-of-the-industry customer service should start making phones and show us all how it's done.
    - lukifer 13y ago
      When Apple provides customer service directly, it's nearly always stellar, but their user-to-user support forums tend to vary between "deserted wasteland" and "noise factory". Apple's philosophy is deliver a kick-ass experience, or if they can't, then do nothing at all. If they can't deliver as good of an experience as StackExchange at minimum, and ideally employ real staff to answer questions, they should archive the forums and advise users to take advantage of the rest of the internet.
clamprecht 13y ago
Maybe they'd rather control the boards where users discuss Apple products, than let third parties have control. Case in point, this thread.

thetrb 13y ago

Deleting a comment that is threatening with a lawsuit is not a surprise to me. I'd like to know if the same comment without the threats and accusations would also get deleted.

charlesemerson 13y ago

My wifi went gray on my 4S during iOS6. I could fix it temporarily with resets but it'd always go back to being completely greyed out. Applecare replaced it without hesitation. Not sure the issue is necessarily tied to iOS7...

kposehn 13y ago

This comment was likely deleted because it is caustic, unhelpful and generally useless. I think any forum administrator would be perfectly reasonable to delete a comment of this ilk.

reedlaw 13y ago
It seems like a genuine plea for help to me. How should he have worded it better? Edit: I skimmed the last paragraph at first. He should have left that part out.
ekianjo 13y ago
So a customer expressing a valid complaint is unhelpful and useless? You have an interesting idea of costumer support.
- kposehn 13y ago
  He has a valid complaint, for sure - but he chose to be caustic and confrontational in a public forum.
  - dhughes 13y ago
    So are you.
    - kposehn 13y ago
      To be fair, my original comment could be read easily in a way I didn't intend and could come across badly. I'd say I'm not being caustic and instead stating my opinion on the post in a very direct way. That said, it could be put much better than I said originally.
  - ekianjo 13y ago
    OK, but why not take the higher ground and understand why the user is upset in the first place, and answer accordingly ? Deleting a complaint does not make it go away. It just pisses people off even more and create bad mouthing in the end.

shadesandcolour 13y ago

Because this is again an unhelpful comment that goes agains the TOS. He/She also makes some interesting claims that iOS 7 went untested which is just funny.

general_failure 13y ago
It turns out this is how normal human beings interact. They cannot always stick to a specific point. It is a discussion forum and not jira or bugzilla to demand developer like wording and focus.
- Steko 13y ago
  They're not demanding developer like focus, they're asking people not to be huge assholes.
  - general_failure 13y ago
    You dont get people. This is a normal behavior by most people. People get frustrated when things do not work and they feel helpless. Not a happy feeling. And they vent their anger in forums and customer service. This does not make them an ass hole. If anyone is an asshole, its apple. For not replying when previous customers reported nicely.
    - Steko 13y ago
      "You dont get people. This is a normal behavior by most people. People get frustrated when things do not work and they feel helpless. Not a happy feeling. And they vent their anger in forums and customer service. " Or maybe I do. I worked in college for an airline in lost luggage. I know a thing or two about angry customers. "This does not make them an ass hole." Or maybe it does. At the end of the day it doesn't matter what label you want to put on it. "Asshole" is the generic term I happen to use for "legal behavior which will not be tolerated". The guy being asked to leave the party/restaurant? It's because he was acting like an asshole. The guy who's comment got deleted for screaming about FREEDOM like he was an extra in Braveheart on the customer service website? What an asshole. "If anyone is an asshole, its apple. For not replying when previous customers reported nicely." They say up front they aren't going to reply on those forums, who expects them to reply when they haven't replied once there in 10-15 years?

smoyer 13y ago

I'll be really impressed when Apple deletes the posts from his blog ... the Borg were way too powerful to simply delete comments from their own forums.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

37prime 13y ago

FTP: "The issue I have with getting a replacement is that I purchased this iphone 4s from someone who upgraded to iphone5. Which means the serial number is not matching with my apple account.” From my personal experience, I didn’t have any trouble getting an iPhone replaced even though it was not purchased using my account. Apple checked the serial number to verify the Warranty status, and I was given a replacement at the Appel Store Genius Bar. I am not sure if Apple maintained a blacklist of reportedly stolen iPhones. This past Summer 2013, a friend of mine bought a used iPhone from Craislist (red flag #1) and found out that the phone was reported stolen 2 weeks after. The iPhone was somehow blacklisted from connecting to AT&T network.

sitharus 13y ago
All phones have a factory-defined IMEI number that's broadcast as part of the connection setup. If your phone is reported stolen it will often end up on an IMEI blacklist, rendering it useless as a phone. A lot of providers share blacklists.

hobs 13y ago

This problem has been around since iOS4 btw. Working for apple support back in the day, we dreaded this, but instantly replaced it. I thought it was some weird software issue, but it might not be with this guy indicating it could be fixed by heating it? Anyway, call support, ask for T2, and get a free iphone because "I have been an apple advocate for years, but I just cant figure out how this gosh darn update borked my iphone?" Manipulating a T2 agent is really not that hard, and most are ready to hear a sob story and give out something that nets them a good CSAT.

logn 13y ago

> [Apple] saying [they] are not responsible for software ios upgrades Fight them on this. If you read their iOS and iPhone EULA's, they disclaim all sorts of liability but don't disclaim iPhone hardware damage caused by iOS. I argued with them for three days after an iOS update bricked my phone (outside of its warranty period) but only after pointing out this issue in the EULA did they finally replace the phone free of charge (with a refurb that had a scratched camera lens and bad battery). After that I sold all remaining Apple products I owned and am no longer a customer, after having been a user/customer since the Apple II days.

chid 13y ago

To be fair, I had this same issue (on iOS 6, occurred randomly) It seems to be a known issue, replaced without question at Apple.

lambda 13y ago

So, I wonder. Have any of these people actually tried making a support request with Apple? Every time I've had an actual issue where something genuinely didn't work, and it was under warranty, Apple has been willing to repair or replace the hardware. Even if this is just a software problem, presumably migrating your data to a clean device will fix it. There's a reason I always buy an extended AppleCare warranty for all of my laptops; laptops take a lot of abuse, and it's worth it to be able to extend the likely life of my laptop (I've generally been getting about 5 years per laptop, and almost every one has had something replaced under the extended warranty at some point).