Great (and totally horrifying) story of customer service gone awry up at SFist yesterday. The writer in question had a PowerBook completely melt down and went to the San Francisco Apple Store only to be awarded a free MacBook Pro — which was shipped to CompUSA. No, really.
Yet, somehow we knew there would be at least one more hurdle before our computer woes had been resolved. Thank you, Fed Ex, for mistaking the number 760 Market (our s.o.’s office building — stalkers take note) for 750 Market, which happens to be CompUSA. Luckily, we were able to track down the package and obtain it from Scott, the sales manager at CompUSA, who not-so-subtly scolded us for not buying the computer through CompUSA.
Wow. That totally puts my worst Genius Bar story to shame, which was getting a free hard drive replacement in a PowerBook, but then having the video cable get crimped in the process, leading to spontaneous black-outs — and then losing the computer temporarily.
Anyone else had bad experiences with Apple Customer Care to balance all the good ones we’ve all had?
55 responses to “A Tale of Apple Customer Care Horror”
“Horror” is a word one hears bandied around a lot these days… I’m sorry to say I don’t think this qualifies.
“Horror” is a word one hears bandied around a lot these days… I’m sorry to say I don’t think this qualifies.
Last winter i got a second job specifically to save up money to buy a macbook after I saw my friend’s and fell in love. Finally at the end of april this year, I had enough money to buy a black macbook loaded with the biggest harddrive and 2 gigs of ram. two weeks after having it in my possession it constantly locked up forcing me to hard restart it multiple times a day.. i called apple care to send it in, and then sent it back claiming that it was fixed.. a few weeks later, had the same problem, but this time they swapped out the 160 gig hard drive for a 185 and reinstalled the OS.. Well.. one would think that would have solved the problem, but it is continuing to happen, AND as a bonus my superdrive makes an awful jaw clenching noise whenever i burn a CD. Apple refuses to send me a new laptop and wants me to send it in AGAIN for a third time. Unfortunately, I have no happy ending to my AppleCare story.
Oh indeed. A couple months back my MacBook Pro 2.0 had a fan fail, and it checked out at the guru bar. Well, I couldn’t have them send it back as I use it for work and everything, so I bought a new one and transfered all my data over (my hubby gets my apple laptop hand-me downs, so he was cool with this heh). Then I called Apple per the stores instructions to ship it in for repair. The bimbo that took my call not only set up the return for repair and charged me for that, but she ALSO charged me $50 for a tech support call (I didn’t have apple care on that laptop, live and learn) that I didn’t even make, and she screwed up my name and address and what was listed as wrong with my laptop.
After a couple calls, I got a guy with a clue who canceled her orders and shipped me the repair box with the correct name and address and listed problem. Then I get my cc bill and I had still gotten charged the $50 support call that I never made. After several calls and claims that it would be refunded, I STILL haven’t gotten my $50 refund. I had to pay $350 to get the fan fixed that only failed because the laptop had a faulty logic-board (which at least they replaced without charging me for). I’ve been through one billing cycle now since they promised I’d be getting my $50 refund, and still no refund. I guess I’ll have to call them again. :(
I had Apple do a RAM upgrade on a Mac Mini that I had just bought. This cost a fortune using Apple RAM, but I didnt want to mess with opening the box. The Apple techs did the RAM upgrade OK but neglected to reconnect the sensor cable that controlled the CPU fan, with the result that the fan ran constantly and loudly. Now I should have known better, but I did some research on the next, got a couple of putty knives out and opened the box and connected the sensor cable. (in the process severing the IR board that controls the remote!)
So FedEx makes a mistake and that somehow qualifies as “A Tale of Apple Customer Care Horror”?
I can see taking the CompUSA manager to task, but it seems like you’ve been reading too much Dvorak lately…
I have generally good stories, but here is my latest. You can catch them on my blog under “I want my life back” and the continuation under “It’s all about the eye.”
Nutshell version: bought iLife & iWork together. 2 copies of iWork arrive. A Call solves problem, sends new copy of iLife to me and generates shipping label for extra copy of iWork. Still waiting on iLife (due today) and they charged me a second time for this iLife. It shows up as a pending debit and hangs around for about 5 days. I understand the physics involved in this charge. I’m just saying it sucks. Good thing I didn’t really need that money while the bank was holding it for Apple.
My iMac’s CD/DVD SuperDirve died, so I phoned up Mac Support here in New Zealand. They took me through about 40 minutes of tests then told me to take it to the nearest Apple Repair Center, that just happens to be Apple head office in New Zealand, 10 minutes down the road. I phoned first to see what the turn around time would be as it was a work computer – 3-5 working days. Great, I’ll have a week of doing menial tasks on a PC whilst I wait for my MAc to be fixed, oh well, them’s the breaks. Took the Mac in on Friday afternoon so Apple have a good full 5 days with it (if they need the whole 5 days).
Took Monday off to take children on a School trip, back to work on Tuesday, sick as a dog Wednesday through Sunday.
Monday, day 6, get to work and phone up Apple. The lady on the phone looks up my job number. Apparently they know what the problem is, the SuperDrive isn’t working (I wonder how long it took them to figure out that, seeing as that was what was written on the fault form) but they don’t know why, so they are doing more tests (6 days of testing?). Couldn’t they just replace the SuperDrive I asked? Apparently not, because that might not fix the problem. Oh. Well wouldn’t it be a good idea to try? Hold on I’ll go talk to the technician.
The technician apparently wants to run more tests but will give me an ETA by the end of the day.
The end of the day arrives and no phone call so i phone back. A different girl answers the phone, looks up my job number and informs me that it appears that the parts have been orderd (they’re coming from Australia) but should be here overnight.
Tuesday, (working) day 7 I phone up after lunch to see if the parts have arrived. They have, and the technician is installling them. Awesome, can I pick up the iMac in the morning. No, the technicial will want to run a series of tests, we’ll phone when its ready.
Wednesday, day 8. I phone up at lunchtime, hows my Mac doing? Huh? What? The technician is just installing the parts right now and the MAc should be ready some time thisafternoon, but we’re still waiting on the replacement mouse? WTF?
later that day Apple call back. Your iMac is ready to be picked up. What about the mouse? No we’re still witing on that. Can I have my old mouse back in the interim? No, we have to keep that to send back when we get the replacemnet Mosue.
A little discussion ensues about how I’m going to use my iMAc without a mouse. Apple finally agrees that they can trust me to bring in my old Mouse and swap it for my replacement mouse when it arrives.
That was Wednesday last week. Still no replacement mouse. The iMac is working fine, except that the SuperDrive is maing the same noise that it did just before it died, but I’m too busy catching up on my work to take it back in and get it re-tested.
What was wrong with my ‘mighty’ mouse? The scroll button won’t scroll down. This is the second time the scroll ball has failed in this way.
I still love my iMac, but I’m not so much in love with Apple, the comapany.
Anmyone else having scroll issues with their mighty mouse?
My iMac’s CD/DVD SuperDirve died, so I phoned up Mac Support here in New Zealand. They took me through about 40 minutes of tests then told me to take it to the nearest Apple Repair Center, that just happens to be Apple head office in New Zealand, 10 minutes down the road. I phoned first to see what the turn around time would be as it was a work computer – 3-5 working days. Great, I’ll have a week of doing menial tasks on a PC whilst I wait for my MAc to be fixed, oh well, them’s the breaks. Took the Mac in on Friday afternoon so Apple have a good full 5 days with it (if they need the whole 5 days).
Took Monday off to take children on a School trip, back to work on Tuesday, sick as a dog Wednesday through Sunday.
Monday, day 6, get to work and phone up Apple. The lady on the phone looks up my job number. Apparently they know what the problem is, the SuperDrive isn’t working (I wonder how long it took them to figure out that, seeing as that was what was written on the fault form) but they don’t know why, so they are doing more tests (6 days of testing?). Couldn’t they just replace the SuperDrive I asked? Apparently not, because that might not fix the problem. Oh. Well wouldn’t it be a good idea to try? Hold on I’ll go talk to the technician.
The technician apparently wants to run more tests but will give me an ETA by the end of the day.
The end of the day arrives and no phone call so i phone back. A different girl answers the phone, looks up my job number and informs me that it appears that the parts have been orderd (they’re coming from Australia) but should be here overnight.
Tuesday, (working) day 7 I phone up after lunch to see if the parts have arrived. They have, and the technician is installling them. Awesome, can I pick up the iMac in the morning. No, the technicial will want to run a series of tests, we’ll phone when its ready.
Wednesday, day 8. I phone up at lunchtime, hows my Mac doing? Huh? What? The technician is just installing the parts right now and the MAc should be ready some time thisafternoon, but we’re still waiting on the replacement mouse? WTF?
later that day Apple call back. Your iMac is ready to be picked up. What about the mouse? No we’re still witing on that. Can I have my old mouse back in the interim? No, we have to keep that to send back when we get the replacemnet Mosue.
A little discussion ensues about how I’m going to use my iMAc without a mouse. Apple finally agrees that they can trust me to bring in my old Mouse and swap it for my replacement mouse when it arrives.
That was Wednesday last week. Still no replacement mouse. The iMac is working fine, except that the SuperDrive is maing the same noise that it did just before it died, but I’m too busy catching up on my work to take it back in and get it re-tested.
What was wrong with my ‘mighty’ mouse? The scroll button won’t scroll down. This is the second time the scroll ball has failed in this way.
I still love my iMac, but I’m not so much in love with Apple, the comapany.
Anmyone else having scroll issues with their mighty mouse?
I had noisy fans on my original MBP, so I sent them to be replaced (twice, once at the apple store, and once at apple in texas (?)) and the shipping company wrecked it on the way back (ie crushed box etc). Two weeks and numerous phone calls later, I ended up with a newer MBP with an extra gig of RAM. Luckily the computer was new and still way under AppleCare or who knows how I would have ended up.
Straight from my blog:
June 28th – mail brand-new-refurb-but now dead iPod back to Apple.
July 2 – call to confirm they reived the box, box receipt is confirmed, am told support status wepage will update in 2 days time.
July 13 – call to ask why support status webpage never updated. Am told box actually arrived empty and Apple has been trying to conact me. Server logs show no e-mail’s regarding empty box, and cell phone/voicemail logs show no calls. Told I will receive a call in 2 business days. Tell customer service my address has changed, they confirm the change.
July 17 (late afternoon) – call to ask why I haven’t been called. Told I will be called or e-mailed in 2 business days(Friday and Monday didn’t count as 2 business days ). Confirm with customer service that my new address is listed on the support ticket.
July 19 – finanly receive e-mail stating that my “issue” is under “review” and I will be told the “findings” in 5 business days. Wrong address is listed in e-mail, respond to customer support with correct address and receive confirmation that the address has been changed.
July 25 – receive e-mail saying that a new iPod will be shipped to me in 2-3 business days.
July 27 – receive e-mail that iPod has shipped. Go to FedEx tracking – iPod is out for delivery AT THE WRONG ADDRESS! (note – the “wrong address” is a house I no longer own in a different state!) Call Apple Support, completely lose it. Told iPod will be re-directed.
August 29th – receive new iPod at my new house. It’s a free upgrade to the 5th gen. Ok, I’ll forgive Apple Support this time….
I’m sorry, but it sounds like Apple did a decent job. Obviously there were some problems with the computer, but it also appears that the owner was causing a few of them. And after all that, Apple replaced it with a NEW MacBook Pro, not a just refurbished PowerBook.
Yeah, the PB had problems, but the Geniuses did their (limited) best to fix it. But if I had as many problems as often as this person implies I’d have been on the phone to Apple (especially after buying AppleCare) after the third or fourth try.
This is also one of the reasons I buy this stuff with AMEX. It adds another year warranty for free. I got a two year warranty on my PB for nuthin’ extra (needed a hinge replaced), and I’m about to get my second replacement iPod in 4 years (G3 and Photo hard drives died – I’m thinking the G6 will be solid state memory). Every time I’ve gone to the Genius Bar (West Hartford) they’ve been great, and easily diagnosed and solved my problems. When they’re not busy they’ve been more than willing to volunteer general tips (like using MacJanitor, indexing the drive, buying a cheap external drive they didn’t sell!) to make my life easier.
The delivery problem was purely FedEx, so making it look like it was another Apple-related problem is just unfair.
5g 60gb iPod, kept freezing up, even after software update, restore, etc.
I sent it to Apple for repair, in the box they sent. Got notified warranty denied because of abuse of the iPod, did I want to spend $250 to fix it? I said no, please send it back. Got transferred to another person, then to another person, then hung up on.
Two weeks later, still no iPod. Call Apple again. Get a nice person who said it was still waiting for me to authorize paying to fix. I explained no, that I had requested it be shipped back two weeks ago. She was able to get this done, I received the iPod, showed it around the office and no one could find any physical damage to the device.
Right after that Apple released the 1.2 software update which resolved the issue.
Since then, there have been many entries on “The Consumerist” site about Apple techs finding minute reasons to deny warranty repair of hardware due to “abuse”
I took my 12 inch PowerBook in because my hard drive failed (I was completely backed up) and they fixed it cheerfully and without issue, though it was gone for a week. When I went to pick it up the hard drive worked perfectly. After the hour drive home I went to use the optical drive and it didn’t work…at all. I think they forgot to hook it back up or knocked it loose or something, but I was without it for another seven days.
They did give me a 15 inch PowerBook for my trouble since it was finals time…I fell in love.
Jonathan, you know a little Q-tip of rubbing alcohol swabbed over the ball seems to clear the gunk right out (if its gunk that’s the problem), and it rolls fine. My work mouse has done that once a month for the past six months. It’s a temporary solution, but it works… I don’t think Apple can do anything about my newsprint-filled hands touching their mice…
About two years ago I brought my Powerbook in for repair because it was making an odd noise that sounded like a lightsaber being swung around by darth frikin’ vader….
Genius: “It’s got to be your optical drive.””
Me: “Ok, fine, fix it.”
And that was the extent of that exchange….about a week later I have a new optical drive. But the thing still is making the odd humming noise, so I bring it back.
Genius: “It’s got to be the optical drive.”
Me: “But that was just replaced, shouldn’t process of elmination say it is not the optical drive?”
Genius: “Well we will take it back in and see.”
TWO WEEKS later I get it back with a new heat sink, optical drive, and hard drive….and they were also considering replacing the logic board.
I get t back home, try installing 10.4 and the whole thing locks up…of course at this point i should have seen this coming.
I bring it back again and at this point I feel like I live there and the guys know me by name. They replaced the hard drive AGAIN and got me out of there in an hour this time…but that was after the genius manager (who is a large dude with a bad attitude) told me he should make me pay for all the repairs I just had done because the caseing had a *slight* ding on one side…then after giving me a hard time acted like he was doing me a favor letting me “slide on this one”
This was a while ago so I think I am missing a few more negative instances (I am pretty sure my hard drive was actually replaced one other time in there). Keep in mind this was my only machine and I was currently a graphic design student and that computer was my life line. Of course that does not matter to them and this whole ordeal took over 3 weeks.
I love Apple and am very guilty of being a fan boy, but this left a very sour taste. .
ugh, in the middle of some apple customer services horror.
the touch screen on my iphone stopped working after 30 days. call customer service and they said i could mail it in and wait for a replacement or go to the nearest store and they would replace it there. the nearest store is 2 hours away so it’s a bit of a drive but that seemed like the best option… especially because i’d get a replacement in store. right? no.
get to the store and they can’t replace the unit because it was purchased over 14 days ago. um, it would’ve been helpful had they said that on the phone. the store says the only thing they can do is mail it in to be fixed or i can keep my broken phone. not much of an option there so i give them my phone. with travel time and waiting at the store for my appointment i spent six hours of my time on this. annoying, but they’re going to ship my phone out right away and i should have it back asap… genious bar guy says by the end of the week. right? no.
wait, wait, wait… call customer service to check on the phone. it hasn’t gone out! almost a week later. supposedly they’ve put it on fastrack and are mailing out a replacement today. but i’m not holding my breath.
but i guess my issue isn’t that it’s taking forever, but that some tool at customer service didn’t know their facts and i was sent on a wild goose chase. well that and a $600 phone shouldn’t stop working after 30 days…
My worst experience was taking in my MBP and having them say they were going to replace both of the fans (after the CPU fan failed) and getting it back to see that only one had been replaced (the correct one, at least.) Beyond that…not really a big deal.
Brendan, thanks for the tip, I’ll give that a go on old mouse whilst I wait for my replacement :o)
My scroll ball hasn’t scrolled down in about 8 months. I’ve tried everything, water, rubbing alcohol, wet qtips, nothing will work. Eventually, i’m going to try taking it apart and cleaning every bit of it.
The weak part of the Apple mouse is the scroll ball. I’m pretty clean around my computer, and I don’t eat finger-food and touch the mouse, but it still clogs up easily. Apple will soon release another mouse that addresses this problem, and we’ll all run out to buy one.
In the meantime, as Brendan suggested, clean it and it’ll work for a little while. I use lens cleaner instead of alcohol, but whatever gets it tracking is my motto at this point.
Also, try this nifty tutorial on taking apart the mouse manually to clean the little ball: http://web.mac.com/karelgil/iW… It turns out that there’s four little magnetic rollers that get gunked up. I cleaned two of my mice (or mouses?) this way. One was a wireless, by the way. Good luck!
I’m very sorry to hear of the misfortunes of Jonathan. That’s beyond annoying. I hope, however, that he’s an anomaly, as my one warranty issue was resolved painlessly:
On a Sunday night, my 4 month old MacBook Pro Core Duo 2.16 ghz/100gb 5400 rpm (purchased through the online Apple refurb store) sounded like it was popping popcorn where a hard drive normally would be. I attempted reboot, but got nothing. Thankfully, i back up every couple of days.
Monday morning, I made an appointment for the local Genius Bar in lovely downtown SF (one block from the CompUSA named above). I came to my time slot over lunch, but had to wait about 40 minutes (it was the start of Mac World + iPhone announcement…). The Genius booted thru target mode, agreed that the HD was dead, and filled out the paperwork. I received my MBP Thursday (3 business days later) with a new 100gb *7200 RPM* drive, motherboard replacement, and a surface cleaning, all gratis. They failed, however, to paint the aluminum case candy apple red as requested though. What jerks.
Horror Story & v happy End
I bought a black McBook as soon as they appeared about a year and half ago. It arrived within about 10 days and everything seemed fine. After a couple of weeks my bmb started shutting down without a prior warning, also weird coloured lines appeared after the startup gong. I then took it to one of the local repair centres. After a couple of days I got a call asking me to pick up my repaired bmb. I took the notebook home without turning it on in the shop and found the display lid wasn’t flush with the rest when the bmb was closed, the sudden shutdown problem was also still there. I took it back and the pople in the shop said they can’t repair it again because Apple only gives them one shot at repairing it. After getting this statement in writing from them I went to a different repair centre and asked if they could help, they said they would send it to a large repair centre because it had already been repaired and the notebook was in quite a state after the failed first repair. This took another 4 weeks and I finally received my bmb, this time the sudden shutdown problem was fixed but the mouse button wouldn’t react to my clicking. I then called Apple repair and told them in a fairly polite manner that my now 12 to 14 weeks old notebook, which had only seen 2 weeks of duty, was still fragged after 2 repair attempts, the woman on the phone couldn’t believe my story because that was one of the worst cases she had heard of and promised someone from AC would get back to me within 24 hrs.
2 Hours later a rep from Apple Care called back stating that she was extremely sorry for all my troubles and even though this wasn’t Apple’s fault, she asked me to return the notebook to The Applestore and I got a brandnew replacement with a brandnew warranty from Apple. They even doubled the Ram as a means of apology.
This is Apple actually fixing something their partners have messed up.
Ron
My MacBook power adapter cable broke just the way all of them break – next to the plug. The laptop was under warranty, so I tried to get it replaced. But the genius bar was very busy that day so I gave up and purchased a new power adapter and decided to forget about it. A few days later I received an online survey invitation regarding my experience in Apple store. So I said what happened. About a week later Apple Support called me and proposed I return the old, broken power adapter for a full refund. How not to love Apple???? I would be still a loyal Apple customer even if I had to pay for the power supply, but after that I am a devoted Apple fan!
I had a 15″ Powerbook that I was using as a desktop computer for many months, attached to an Apple Cinema Display. I hadn’t opened the computer to use the LCD in all that time, and in the meantime my original warranty ran out and I forgot to grab AppleCare before the end. Two weeks after my warranty ended, I opened the PowerBook to find that the LCD had stopped working. Cost to repair? $800 (MAYBE). I’m almost CERTAIN that the LCD had stopped working long before that, but since I never opened the laptop to use the LCD display in the weeks before my warranty ran out, and I let it lapse before doing so, I was S.O.L. on this one. There was nothing Apple could do. If I’d remembered to pay for the AppleCare, I’d have been fine, but I just lost track and let it lapse. I guess this isn’t a Customer Care horror story, as they were somewhat nice when they told me that since I didn’t report it before the end of my warranty two weeks earlier I couldn’t get any coverage, but it still hurt a lot. — Postive ending? Yes! I sold the LCD-damaged PowerBook on eBay for about $350 less than what I paid for it in the first place!!! Gotta love Apple resale values!
Oh my God…update to my previous post…I called Apple back for the oh I dunno, 6th ro 7th time trying to resolve my refund issue that started back at the beginning of July, for the charge for the tech support call that I never made that I got charged for along with my charge for my laptop repair. Finally got someone that supposedly was for SURE getting it resolved for me. She even gave me the 800# along with the code to bypass the auto system and her ext, along with a case #. This was around 9/4.
Checked my bill today and sure enough, I got my $51.75 refund. Unfortunately, for some unknown reason (I suspect Jobs has been handing out DUMB pills to his employee’s) she charged me for the initial repaid a second time, and now I have to call back to get a $348.43 refund! Anyone know the address to send a letter to Steve Jobs? This is beyond ridiculous!
Well, after another more than an hour holding for various people because the direct 4 digit extention the last girl gave me didn’t work, I got thru to someone that could supposedly help me again. This time I got the correct 5 digit extention, first AND last name and the direct dial number. Supposedly she’s going to fix this charge and she has no idea how a charge that was canceled back the beginning of July got recharged just now at the beginning of Sept at the same time my other refund was processed.
So…a simple call to get a laptop repair resulted in 2 incorrect invoices that were supposedly canceled, 1 correct invoice for the repair, an incorrect charge for an unmade service call, over 2 months of almost weekly calls trying to get THAT refund, which finally resulted in getting that refund AND getting charged a 2nd time for the initial repair that was already paid for 2 months ago!