LJ50
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2009
- Posts
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Wondering if someone on the forum would be good enough to provide me contact details for someone senior within the Apple organisation. Having just spoken to a particularly arrogant and rude individual he refused to provide details of anyone more senior to whom I could express my dissatisfaction and I am extremely keen to do so, given my experience.
Many thanks in advance to anyone able to help.
If you have the patience, then below is my saga/cautionary tale.....!
My step-daughter wanted the new iPod Touch. So, she saved pocket money, birthday money, etc. so that by the time the new one was released she was nearly there. So we ordered her the 32GB variant from Apple's online Store so we could personalise it with the engraving. We then learned an interesting lesson.
If you've bought an item personalised (ie engraved) on the online store and you receive a faulty unit then you naturally take it to the Genius Bar where a "genius" will tell you it needs replacing. The unit had been received in the post literally 3 hours before the "Genius" had it in his hand and said "that is definitely a major fault and won't be repairable, something has gone wrong in manufacturing, I'm really sorry". They then tell you to go home, phone Apple online and tell them it's broken. A few days later you receive a box which you post back to them. A few days after that the "Repair Status" website updates to show that that they have received it. Then you wait another couple of days until the website tells you that a replacement is pending.
So you wait a while and then phone to find out what's happening. They can't tell you anything, but are ultra-polite. When you ask why you couldn't have just given it back to the "genius" and have them arrange the replacement to come straight out you are told that it needed to go back to their experts to confirm the fault. At this point I politely observed that made an irony of the word "genius" but they didn't really understand my point. They either trust the Genius diagnosis and allow them to instantly instruct a replacement or they should stop calling them geniuses (which they should stop doing anway, it's just patronising).
The upshot of all of this this is that 10 days after the "genius" said it needed replaced Apple advised us - and remember I had to phone them again to find this out - that they would be sending a replacement "probably despatching at the end of this week, you should have it on Monday".
Customer experience up until now is disappointing to say the least. Then for us it got even worse this morning. What a disgusting organisation.
We're now a couple of days into the new week, we'd been told a new unit would "probably" be sent at the end of last week. When I phone this morning to ask them to confirm that they've sent the item I'm told that apparently there is a delay on all repairs. "Mine isn't a repair" I say, to which the very polite lady replies that it is being treated as one and so a new one won't be sent out soon and certainly not this week. "What happens if I order a brand new one, when will that despatch?". Her very happy answer is that it takes about 48 hours to engrave so I should have it by Saturday. "So, why can't you do that then?" which I think is a reasonable question. Their answer was:
"We just don't".
I asked to be put through to someone in customer relations. "Ron" is without doubt the most arrogant "customer service" person I've ever spoken to (and I live and work in London....). Apparently he is "the most senior person you can talk to in Apple". He does though have no authority to influence any internal process or do any chasing of my replacement. When I ask him to pass on my comments that the returns process isn't very a) good in respect of communication and that b) the built-in delay by not allowing the Stores to arrange replacements he refuses. I ask him to make a note for someone in a position to influence the processs to contact me he says.
"There is no point me making a note. No-one will contact you.".
I aked him if senior people have iPhones, and if so can he send a note for one of them to call me. He says he's going to end the call if I keep talking down to him (I think he has a chip on his shoulder about seniority). At this point I ask him simply to arrange a refund. He refuses. He does give me the advice though that when I receive the device (My question "When will that be?" gets ignored) I should contact customer services and they might consider a refund. But he says they'll refuse it.
What really galls me is the arrogance. "Ron" says he's senior, but doesn't want to listen to my feedback on their processes and customer service because that's the way they do things. When I asked if he'd have been happy with the customer service he told me to "stop being irrelevant". When I asked why I had to wait for a box he advised "we're different departments. we have nothing to do with each other". I pointed out that that is an organisational thing they can surely change he said "no, we can't. why should we?". I would have though a company like Apple - selling a premium priced product and renowned for being "slick" - would have welcomed customer feedback, rather than be so appallingly dismissive.
This is the first time I've bought anything from Apple in a few years. Needless to say I won't be doing so again. Now have a step-daughter who saved up to buy herself the iPod Touch and a few days short of a month after ordering it she still has no idea when it will be received.
Many thanks in advance to anyone able to help.
If you have the patience, then below is my saga/cautionary tale.....!
My step-daughter wanted the new iPod Touch. So, she saved pocket money, birthday money, etc. so that by the time the new one was released she was nearly there. So we ordered her the 32GB variant from Apple's online Store so we could personalise it with the engraving. We then learned an interesting lesson.
If you've bought an item personalised (ie engraved) on the online store and you receive a faulty unit then you naturally take it to the Genius Bar where a "genius" will tell you it needs replacing. The unit had been received in the post literally 3 hours before the "Genius" had it in his hand and said "that is definitely a major fault and won't be repairable, something has gone wrong in manufacturing, I'm really sorry". They then tell you to go home, phone Apple online and tell them it's broken. A few days later you receive a box which you post back to them. A few days after that the "Repair Status" website updates to show that that they have received it. Then you wait another couple of days until the website tells you that a replacement is pending.
So you wait a while and then phone to find out what's happening. They can't tell you anything, but are ultra-polite. When you ask why you couldn't have just given it back to the "genius" and have them arrange the replacement to come straight out you are told that it needed to go back to their experts to confirm the fault. At this point I politely observed that made an irony of the word "genius" but they didn't really understand my point. They either trust the Genius diagnosis and allow them to instantly instruct a replacement or they should stop calling them geniuses (which they should stop doing anway, it's just patronising).
The upshot of all of this this is that 10 days after the "genius" said it needed replaced Apple advised us - and remember I had to phone them again to find this out - that they would be sending a replacement "probably despatching at the end of this week, you should have it on Monday".
Customer experience up until now is disappointing to say the least. Then for us it got even worse this morning. What a disgusting organisation.
We're now a couple of days into the new week, we'd been told a new unit would "probably" be sent at the end of last week. When I phone this morning to ask them to confirm that they've sent the item I'm told that apparently there is a delay on all repairs. "Mine isn't a repair" I say, to which the very polite lady replies that it is being treated as one and so a new one won't be sent out soon and certainly not this week. "What happens if I order a brand new one, when will that despatch?". Her very happy answer is that it takes about 48 hours to engrave so I should have it by Saturday. "So, why can't you do that then?" which I think is a reasonable question. Their answer was:
"We just don't".
I asked to be put through to someone in customer relations. "Ron" is without doubt the most arrogant "customer service" person I've ever spoken to (and I live and work in London....). Apparently he is "the most senior person you can talk to in Apple". He does though have no authority to influence any internal process or do any chasing of my replacement. When I ask him to pass on my comments that the returns process isn't very a) good in respect of communication and that b) the built-in delay by not allowing the Stores to arrange replacements he refuses. I ask him to make a note for someone in a position to influence the processs to contact me he says.
"There is no point me making a note. No-one will contact you.".
I aked him if senior people have iPhones, and if so can he send a note for one of them to call me. He says he's going to end the call if I keep talking down to him (I think he has a chip on his shoulder about seniority). At this point I ask him simply to arrange a refund. He refuses. He does give me the advice though that when I receive the device (My question "When will that be?" gets ignored) I should contact customer services and they might consider a refund. But he says they'll refuse it.
What really galls me is the arrogance. "Ron" says he's senior, but doesn't want to listen to my feedback on their processes and customer service because that's the way they do things. When I asked if he'd have been happy with the customer service he told me to "stop being irrelevant". When I asked why I had to wait for a box he advised "we're different departments. we have nothing to do with each other". I pointed out that that is an organisational thing they can surely change he said "no, we can't. why should we?". I would have though a company like Apple - selling a premium priced product and renowned for being "slick" - would have welcomed customer feedback, rather than be so appallingly dismissive.
This is the first time I've bought anything from Apple in a few years. Needless to say I won't be doing so again. Now have a step-daughter who saved up to buy herself the iPod Touch and a few days short of a month after ordering it she still has no idea when it will be received.
