Poor Apple Support

bazlad

Has anyone any experience with Apple support?
Seem that they do not want people to escalate/complain if getting poor service, and even if you do write a complaint letter in writing, they wont commit to responding.
Seems that they have a rather arrogant approach to customers if they aren't happy with poor service.
Just wondered if this was anyone elses experience?

wingnut

Had to argue with them a bit Irish Law in relation to their unenforceable 12 month limit on warranty but the caved in the end and replaced the unit.

bazlad

Mr.S wrote: »

Any experiences i've had with Apple Customer Care have been perfect tbh, always ran smoothly and had had the customer service agent ring me up afterwards to check if everything was now ok etc.

What went wrong with you?

Apple Customer Care is something they are really good at, very rarely hear anything bad about them! Its a pitty we don't have a store in Ireland as the care in Apple Stores is amazing and you'll usually find yourself walking out with a replacement there and then!

What went wrong? where do i start.
Had wireless problems when i upgraded to Maverick on a 4 month old Macbook Pro. Logged a ticket, Agent said he would call back and then heard nothing back. Logged a 2nd, and 3rd ticket, and same thing.
It seems that when you log a ticket, it goes into the Agents personal mailbox, so if they are out sick, or leave the company, you're screwed.
Anyhow 3 months later, Apple response is rather that acknowledge the failures, it is 'Well if you have a problem, you have the option to write a letter, but we never respond directly to letters of complaint.
Ie Please F&%K off.

im just so suprised by the response from Apple, its not what i would expect all all, and given the price I paid for it, leaves me very very unhappy.

bazlad

Mr.S wrote: »

I've lodged tickets before and have gotten same day responses, strange. And yeah your assigned a personal Agent, its meant to provide you with better support throughout the problem, so you don't keep changing agents if you need more help.

Have you tried ringing them? Or even bringing the Macbook into someone like CompuB?

that would have been what i would have expected, but no that didnt happen.
If the agent gets back to you immeidately, its cool, but if they go on leave, sick etc, then no-one else can access their email, and your communications. So the process starts again.

Yea, ive been onto serveral Customer Relations agents, but they seem to take a very neutral view of the process, and more act like go betweens, to the engineering department.
It was the customer relations department that told me they were shocked about the delays, but there was absolutely nothing they could/would do.
I actually had to buy another laptop as i needed it for work, and couldnt wait any longer.
Ive googled the topic and seems there are a lot of similar reported incidents, nothing on boards.ie, so I wanted to gauge the experiences of apple users in Ireland.

7upfree

bazlad wrote: »

What went wrong? where do i start.
Had wireless problems when i upgraded to Maverick on a 4 month old Macbook Pro. Logged a ticket, Agent said he would call back and then heard nothing back. Logged a 2nd, and 3rd ticket, and same thing.
It seems that when you log a ticket, it goes into the Agents personal mailbox, so if they are out sick, or leave the company, you're screwed.
Anyhow 3 months later, Apple response is rather that acknowledge the failures, it is 'Well if you have a problem, you have the option to write a letter, but we never respond directly to letters of complaint.
Ie Please F&%K off.

im just so suprised by the response from Apple, its not what i would expect all all, and given the price I paid for it, leaves me very very unhappy.

E-mail Tim Cook........

bazlad

7upfree wrote: »

E-mail Tim Cook........

Already did, not that I ever expect a response, but it made me feel a bit better
As well as a macbook, have an iphone, apple TV, use itunes, and a few ipads.
After this experience, apple won't get any more money off me, not that that will have an impact on them.
Maybe they have got too big and have lost touch with what they consider 'value' to customers.

Greentree_uk

have you dropped the machine into a service centre? wireless problems are not always straight forward. if your unit is just out of warranty I'm sure a service centre will be able to assist you.

bazlad

Greentree_uk wrote: »

have you dropped the machine into a service centre? wireless problems are not always straight forward. if your unit is just out of warranty I'm sure a service centre will be able to assist you.

the thing is that Apple told me not to do that, pending results of the Engineer report, and as i say they never came back.
after 2 months i couldn't wait and had to purchase another laptop.
Its somewhat acedemic now, and my question is has anyone else had similar levels of poor customer service from Apple in Ireland.

Northernrobm

Firstly its an absolute joke that the only apple store on this island is in Belfast when there are so many apple users south of the border.
I too have had a terrible experience with Apple Customer Care and have discovered that there is no proper escalation process in place if you wish to make a complaint, having asked over and over for the name of the head of customer care in ireland the agent would not provide me with a name and informed me that this person doesn't talk to customer…let alone an agent actually hung up on me

whiterebel

Northernrobm wrote: »

Firstly its an absolute joke that the only apple store on this island is in Belfast when there are so many apple users south of the border.
I too have had a terrible experience with Apple Customer Care and have discovered that there is no proper escalation process in place if you wish to make a complaint, having asked over and over for the name of the head of customer care in ireland the agent would not provide me with a name and informed me that this person doesn't talk to customer…let alone an agent actually hung up on me

How many is there?

7upfree

whiterebel wrote: »

How many is there?

Quite a few I'd imagine. Think of the huber of iPhones and iPads alone.

wingnut

Northernrobm wrote: »

Firstly its an absolute joke that the only apple store on this island is in Belfast when there are so many apple users south of the border.
I too have had a terrible experience with Apple Customer Care and have discovered that there is no proper escalation process in place if you wish to make a complaint, having asked over and over for the name of the head of customer care in ireland the agent would not provide me with a name and informed me that this person doesn't talk to customer…let alone an agent actually hung up on me

CompuB can repair warranty issues..

Northernrobm

wingnut wrote: »

CompuB can repair warranty issues..

I never said anything about my problem being a warranty issue!

Nemeses

Northernrobm wrote: »

I never said anything about my problem being a warranty issue!

Then what be the issue?

Northernrobm

Nemeses wrote: »

Then what be the issue?

My issue is that after spending a small fortune on apple products when I spoke to Apple their customer care left a lot to be desired. The OP asked has anyone else ever experienced bad customer service from Apple......I have, simple

Nemeses

Northernrobm wrote: »

My issue is that after spending a small fortune on apple products when I spoke to Apple their customer care left a lot to be desired. The OP asked has anyone else ever experienced bad customer service from Apple......I have, simple

Would you mind sharing your experience?

Northernrobm

I have already, see my first post!!!

Nemeses

Northernrobm wrote: »

Firstly its an absolute joke that the only apple store on this island is in Belfast when there are so many apple users south of the border.
I too have had a terrible experience with Apple Customer Care and have discovered that there is no proper escalation process in place if you wish to make a complaint, having asked over and over for the name of the head of customer care in ireland the agent would not provide me with a name and informed me that this person doesn't talk to customer…let alone an agent actually hung up on me

So I See..

This isn't terrible support. There are authorised services / repair centres here in Ireland that do the exact same thing as an Apple Retail store can do in Belfast..


Also, AppleCare itself is technical support. I'm sure there would have been a point of escalation on the phone.

As far as I am aware you can either call in to log a complaint or write a letter to the corporate address.

Northernrobm

Nemeses wrote: »

So I See..

This isn't terrible support. There are authorised services / repair centres here in Ireland that do the exact same thing as an Apple Retail store can do in Belfast..


Also, AppleCare itself is technical support. I'm sure there would have been a point of escalation on the phone.

As far as I am aware you can either call in to log a complaint or write a letter to the corporate address.

I see, so having an agent hanging up the telephone on customers is not terrible support?
Having a representive of Apple not able to name the head of customer operations in Ireland is not terrible support.
When asking what the escalation process is and being told your at the highest point and there is nobody else in the entire company who can deal with you is not terrible support
Having to write a letter and send it by snail mail to an IT company is not terrible support
Clearly we have different opinions on good and bad CUSTOMER SERVICE

Nemeses

Northernrobm wrote: »

I see, so having an agent hanging up the telephone on customers is not terrible support?
Having a representive of Apple not able to name the head of customer operations in Ireland is not terrible support.
When asking what the escalation process is and being told your at the highest point and there is nobody else in the entire company who can deal with you is not terrible support
Having to write a letter and send it by snail mail to an IT company is not terrible support
Clearly we have different opinions on good and bad CUSTOMER SERVICE

I don't disagree with what you said.
Being disconnected from a support service is a bit shte to be honest. However I don't know how your conversation went.

Going by that - maybe you spoke to a manager there at the time?

If you want to know who is the head of customer operations in Ireland - check this out, may help.
http://www.apple.com/ie/contact/

bazlad

Nemeses wrote: »

So I See..

This isn't terrible support. There are authorised services / repair centres here in Ireland that do the exact same thing as an Apple Retail store can do in Belfast..


Also, AppleCare itself is technical support. I'm sure there would have been a point of escalation on the phone.

As far as I am aware you can either call in to log a complaint or write a letter to the corporate address.

Sorry, you are wrong, you cant log a complaint on the phone. They wont take it. You have to find an ould pen and paper, and write it down, to the largest IT company in the world, who are in the business of a paperless office.
Obviosuly hoping most people wont bother doing it.

Nonoperational

I used Stream Solutions in Cork for Mac repairs in or out of warranty. I've found them very good.