Apples bad customer service
I just have to post a complaint about Apple and its alledged 'customer service.'
I purchased a Nano last month, now I see the 'new' nano for the same price plus 2 more gigs. Apple tells me I cannot exchange or return the one I just bought? That is sneaky and bad business. What other company out there has such a limited return/exchange program? None. When I spoke to the 'customer service' representatives, they were rude, harsh, and seemingly unwilling to give a hoot about the customer.
When I called to order a new phone from my cell provider at the same time last month, they informed me that the same phone with a few new features would be out within a week and to hold off and order then. It would be the same price as the previous model but with a little more bang for the buck. EXCELLENT! This is how business should be conducted when a company truly does appreciate it's customers. Apple took me and many other Nano users for a ride which is misleading. Apple mislead it's customers. Offering a product that they knew would be replaced within a month without informing the customer is bad, nasty businesss and shows what kind of company Apple is and what it's employees buy into. I was going to buy the Iphone. Not anymore. I was going to buy a new computer this year and switch to a Mac. Not anymore. I will NEVER purchase another Apple product and plan on telling everyone I know about this. FOR SHAME Apple, FOR SHAME! :shake:
[1493 byte] By [
Loaked] at [2007-11-11 20:17:58]
# 1 Re: Apples bad customer service
Waaa Waaaa Waaaa Waaaa there there widdle baby did ooo get upset?
MadBob at 2007-11-15 14:18:47 >
# 2 Re: Apples bad customer service
...I was going to buy a new computer this year and switch to a Mac. Not anymore. I will NEVER purchase another Apple product and plan on telling everyone I know about this. FOR SHAME Apple, FOR SHAME! :shake:Apple is like a hot woman who believes she can have everybody she wants. Even if she can't literally have everyone, in practice it doesn't matter because her dance card is always full and she sees no reason to change.
The products are nice, but the philosophy is one that holds that the customer is as disposable as toilet paper. However, just like the hot woman who strings along half a dozen guys who are all too happy to shower her in gifts and jewelry even though she gives them less thought than what colour lipstick she'll wear tomorrow, they manage to attract a significant number of drooling sychophants who can't see beyond the illusion.
They've been discontinuing products with little or no notice for as long as they've been selling products. They've obviously not gone under no matter how sleazy the practice is. The thing to remember is that with Apple you get exactly what you pay for, and not a thing beyond. Don't buy an Apple product if it isn't exaclty what you need or want because they're not going to continue to tweak a product that shipped, they'll just sell you a newer one down the road, even if it turns out that the road changes direction 48 hours later.
The thing to do is not to personalise it. If you think about it, you probably wouldn't be quite so angry if your perception of Apple were more like your perception of Microsoft or the local power company. You'd be miffed, but you'd have expected it. Well, open your eyes and treat Apple the same way: if they have the best product, buy from them, if they don't, buy from someone else. They don't care about you, you shouldn't care about them.
# 3 Re: Apples bad customer service
I purchased a Nano last month, now I see the 'new' nano for the same price plus 2 more gigs. Apple tells me I cannot exchange or return the one I just bought? That is sneaky and bad business.Translation: "I'm high as a kite here and just making sh*t up".
Essin at 2007-11-15 14:20:46 >
# 4 Re: Apples bad customer service
I doubt very much that Apple line employees "knew" that a new Nano product would launch within a month of your purchase (because Apple guards this info very closely). And I have to figure that the time period here is a bit more than a month, since Apple does indeed take returns up to 30 days from purchase.
How were you misled? Did you go into a store (or online) and say, "I want the next Nano?" Or did you say, "I'd like a Nano" and the sales rep said, "Sure, here ya go."
The Nano you've got right now -- was it good enough when you wanted it? What has changed that makes it any less good? Toss those sour grapes before they give you a tummy ache...
S2_Mac at 2007-11-15 14:21:51 >
# 5 Re: Apples bad customer service
That is Capitalism baby!
The product is worth what u exactly were willing to pay for at that time.
If I had a pence everytime people say "they don't care about me (us)!"
# 6 Re: Apples bad customer service
If I had a pence everytime people say "they don't care about me (us)!"You'd have what, about a nickel? That's the problem, most people fall for the illusion they actually do care, not that they get all riled up by something Apple does. Apple doesn't care at all, which shouldn't be a surprise, but it still manages to shock even grown adults who still haven't woken up to the reality of just what capitalism is for some reason. However, just because it is what is, doesn't mean Apple is actually right in their practice, or that it's actually what is best for the company, just that it's what has worked.
Apple in this sake really is different. Most companies don't have the wholesale slash and replace product lines of Apple. They introduce a product at a given price and they gradually decrease that price over its lifetime, they often announce new products well before they ship so that people know what's coming, and when product <foo> gets discontinued, it's not this "Crap! I paid full price for this last month and it's replaced?" because it was probably on the shelves at the same time as its replacement for at least a couple of months (with a representational price difference).
What if everybody actually were educated to Apple's practices? Would that be good for Apple? They'd get a slew of sales for the first six months and then barely a thing for the next 6-12 months because nobody would want to pay full price expecting that update any day now. They already experience this to some degree, but they're also cocky in the knowledge that the vast majority of their consumer base aren't internet nerds who can quote chapter and verse of their typical release cycle patterns. So fine, yep, it's capitalism, but it is a variant of capitalism that arguably takes advantage of uneducated consumers to the benefit of no one but Apple and, in a more educated world, would actually backfire against Apple severely as they forced themself into a more and more rapid replacement cycle to keep revenue flowing... or they just could just start being a bit more open with what they were doing. The "surprise" of their business model IS exciting, but it's not truly free to behave this way.
# 7 Re: Apples bad customer service
While everything Code Monkey said is entirely correct, I also need to add that this mentality people have that they're somehow getting screwed over because their old product is suddenly not the hottest new thing is also a ridiculous point of view. In that sense the consumer attitudes themselves are a small part of the problem.
I know a number of people who are still happily carrying 3G and 4G iPods, and I think we even have an Admin still lurking about here somewhere with a 2G model. Some of the older girls at the high school where my wife teaches are still carrying iPod minis, and are more than happy with them.
The point is that these devices were good enough for those people when they bought them, and they're still quite happy with them and could care less about the "latest shiny new thing."
Apple certainly tries to push the next generation of product (which is simply good sales), but there's also no forced upgrade strategy. If you want to keep your second-generation iPod, it will continue to work just as well as it ever did. You don't get new features, but the device doesn't do anything less than it once did, and Apple has maintained this backward compatibility, at least (which is more than can be said for a lot of other technology companies).
Not to make any excuses for Apple, but their style has always been to push the iPod as a consumer appliance, rather than a computer product. Most of their average consumers don't seem to have a problem with this attitude, because it's what they've become accustomed to with just about anything else that they buy (ie, any household appliance from a blender to a television set is normally a question of "you get what you pay for"). As Code Monkey has pointed out, it's important to keep in mind that the majority of Apple's target customer base for the iPod is "Joe Consumer" who is not an "Internet nerd" -- but this isn't just a question of Apple "getting away with" something because of this, but rather a question of what the average consumer's expectations for a product are.
In some cases it can be annoying to see a newly-released product suddenly take the place of the old one, and I agree completely that Apple's handling on this is a very "sudden" type of thing. At the same time, most of the people who aren't paying much attention to pending Apple events (and therefore unsuspecting of new releases) are the same folks who probably don't really care in the grander scheme of things. They bought the product they wanted at the time, and are too busy enjoying the product they have to lose any sleep or get frustrated over what happens a few weeks later.
On the flip side, there's a reason why a lot of computer-savvy people have tended to eschew the iPod -- Apple's marketing strategies, while not at all foreign to the average consumer, are completely inconsistent with what experienced computer geeks have come to expect from a technology company.
# 8 Re: Apples bad customer service
While everything Code Monkey said is entirely correct, I also need to add that this mentality people have that they're somehow getting screwed over because their old product is suddenly not the hottest new thing is also a ridiculous point of view. In that sense the consumer attitudes themselves are a small part of the problem.Absolutely, and I hope I somehow didn't imply they were justified in the "I WAS SCREWED!" attitude, just that Apple's practices do inevitably lead to some number of customers who feel like this. Granted, even if they were more typical, there would still be some who feel like this, but it's, to me, inarguable that there would be a lot fewer.
On the other hand, the one element of their business model that I can't see a defense for is their rock stable pricing scheme. Admittedly, it's been their practice for a long time, certainly predating the iPod, but it's not just atypical, it's downright weird to set prices for product lines rather than products themselves. I won't be holding my breath for them to change, but it's probably the main element behind the "I WAS SCREWED!" outbursts we see each and every product change. No other business I can think of behaves like this, at least at the dollar levels of Apple's products, even in the mainstream. It runs completely counter to what anybody not educated to the way Apple does business would expect.
# 9 Re: Apples bad customer service
What recourse should an automobile manufacturer give you if you buy a new car one month before they come out with a new model? I don't think they will trade you even for the newer model.
The cellular phone industry is tying you up for at least a two year contract for service. They will gladly upgrade, even for free, the phone that they give you when you signed up for their service. Cellular phone companies are in the business of selling you phone service, they just give you a phone to enable you to use the service. Apple sells products just like GM, Ford, Toyota, or Honda.
# 10 Re: Apples bad customer service
What recourse should an automobile manufacturer give you if you buy a new car one month before they come out with a new model? I don't think they will trade you even for the newer model.Without being too rude, this is one of the stupidest comparisons yet.
The recourse is the potentially thousands of dollars you saved over the person who bought the model when it first debuted the previous fall (or the thousands of dollars you'll save versus the guy who will buy virtually the same car next month). Or you can even wait until the next month and save even more money by grabbing one of the last few in stock. Cars do not remain exactly the same price throughout the year AND they come out at pretty much exactly the same time every year. There is almost no guess work, and there is no surprise. If you walk into a dealership in August, you and the dealer both know that model is about to be discontinued and if he can't make the sale, he's going to lose thousands of dollars when the new ones come out and he has to let it go as "last year's model", so you get all manner of deals to convince you to buy now instead of waiting and saving even more money.
# 11 Re: Apples bad customer service
Except for Apple's computers, where new models debut at different times of the year, iPods and other consumer personal electronic devices always debut in September for the holiday season.
# 12 Re: Apples bad customer service
Except for Apple's computers, where new models debut at different times of the year, iPods and other consumer personal electronic devices always debut in September for the holiday season.Really? September? Hmm... let's look in the crystal ball:
First gen hit in October, nope, not September.
Second gen hit in July, not even the holiday season.
Third gen hit in April, not September and even further from the holiday season.
Fourth gen hit in July, see above.
Fourth gen with colour hit in October.
Fifth gen hit in October.
First mini gen hit in January, decidedly neither September nor the holiday season.
Second mini gen hit in February, ditto.
First Shuffle gen hit in January, see above.
None of those came out in September, and only about a quarter debuted for the holiday season.
You are right that the second/third gen shuffles came out in September, nanos always have, and sixth gen iPod and iPod touch debuted in September.The fifth gen got its refresh in September as well *. Of course, three of those six debuts happened at the same event last week.
At any rate, nope, it's not so cut and dried with iPods, out of all their debuts, only about half have happened in September and slightly over that for the holiday.
* Counting refreshes doesn't really help your claim either. The second gen was refreshed in September and January, the first gen nano was refreshed in February.
I'm not claiming there aren't patterns, but it's not accurate to suggest they're reliable patterns. For example, it took them almost two full years to replace the fifth gen iPod.
# 13 Re: Apples bad customer service
Well, to be fair, for the most part the patterns have been fairly reasonable over the past three years in terms of the major refreshes of the product lines... It seems to always land in the fall, in time for the holiday season.
That having been said, however, this is mostly certainly not something that is common knowledge, nor something that should truly be within somebody's expectations. Car models are an annual thing, and have been for decades. The average consumer understands this. On the other hand, only people who hang out on Internet forums really have any clue that there's any concept of a magical release season for iPods.
After all, they're not called "2007 model" iPods like cars are -- there is no direct or assumed correlation that would imply an annual release of new models.
