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October 1, 2007

troubleshooting

Three weeks of pain will get you an iPod

Posted Oct. 1, ’07, 5:20 AM PT by Derik DeLong
Category | Troubleshooting

Ben Gray Letter Sometimes it actually pays off to email the big guy directly. Ben Gray got a free iPod for a series of problems he’s had with the iMac he’s ordered. Over the course of three weeks, he got two defective units and one with an improper amount of RAM. Naturally, this was a big inconvenience and he emailed Steve Jobs himself (at sjob@apple.com) about his issues. Ben even posted the email.

Within two days, someone out of Steve Jobs office contacted him.

No, I’m not kidding. A personal representative from the office of Steve Jobs called me today on my cell phone (I put my cell phone number as contact information in the email I sent Steve two days ago).

The fellow said that he was going to be my personal contact at Apple until I received an iMac that met my expectations. He told me that he was now actively tracking my iMac (as was I) and extended sincere apologies from Apple, emphasizing that this kind of experience was well below their standard.

The rep then offered up an iPod for his troubles (nano or shuffle) and, get this, gave him a direct phone number to contact him (no extensions or anything). While this isn’t representative of Apple’s customer service in total, it’s a real feel good story. I will note though, that some time ago, I got a free copy of iLife because my order of the Tiger was delayed. I had to call them for it and I didn’t get a direct number, but I still felt I came out ahead.


7 Comments

krye said:

I feel bad for Steve. You just posted his email address. Now every fanboy in town is going to fill his in box with stupid fanboy emails. How's he supposed to get anything done now? Image having to sort through a million "You're the man" emails before you got to your actual work stuff.

October 1, 2007 5:47 AM
Moe Author Profile Page said:

Though a customer should never go through all that trouble to get what he paid for, the response is appreciated. Now, lets begin upping up the QC on these devices we all love.

October 1, 2007 6:04 AM
Tim said:

Last year, when my old core duo iMac was getting replaced the second time (video card failure) in the first 3 month of ownership, They offered me store credit which I used on a nano. In addition the replacement machine was upgraded to the newer core 2 duo model.

I guess you don't need to call Steve's office to get an iPod, and that it takes very little to gain customer loyalty.

October 1, 2007 6:08 AM
wesg Author Profile Page said:

Apple should work harder to make their products like BMW. Make it so good that you can offer free support and maintenance for many years because it is made to such a high standard there shouldn't be any problems.

October 1, 2007 7:17 AM
Anonymous said:

re wesg, remember that BMW actually assembles their vehicles themselves - Apple is basically a software and design company; their hardware is built by subcontractors.

as such there's only so much they can do to manage factory quality..

October 1, 2007 8:49 AM
Equinox said:

Yeah, so far, my experience with Apple, regarding defective products is a big A. The other day, the headphone jack of my iPod wasn't working, so I took it to the Apple Store in 5th Ave. I had to wait in line and some other stuff, for 45 minutes. When it was my turn, and the guy discovered that I had been waiting for that long, he gave me a new iPod for free, even though I had to pay $30 bucks. Yay. But having a person from S. Jobs office giving you their personal # is wonderful. :P

October 1, 2007 3:29 PM
Andrew Burke said:

I had an eMac that was nearing the end of its warranty period when I started having problems with the CRT. It was away with Apple for so long (close to three months) that the warranty period ended and my warranty repair became a massive estimate. I was so steamed at this stage that I wrote an old fashioned letter to the local head of Apple.

He phoned me and apologized for the obvious administrative snafus. As I was going to be waiting for many weeks for a replacement CRT from overseas, he replaced my modest eMac with an iMac, and included an iPod Nano for my trouble, AND he threw in extended AppleCare warranties.

Since then the iMac has been back three times for replacement logic boards, but that's another story. The long and the short is that I went from being totally peeved with Apple (more correctly: their local subsidiary) to being a blubbering fan boy.

October 1, 2007 8:08 PM

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