Customer Services
Full category list for displayed posts: Apple, Customer Services, Humor
10:31 pm, September 28th, 2008, Pete Mortensen
On Sept. 20, Apple opened its North County store in Escondido, a San Diego suburb. Reader Scott Bernard writes in to let us know that the event had a very special guest: a quite convincing “PC” impersonator who posed for pictures with the gathered Mac faithful as he distributed “Mac Unfair to PC” leaflets.
Not everyone got the joke. Notes Scott:
We couldn’t hear much of what he was saying, because there was one of those actual CRAZY Apple people in line behind us, yelling in the direction of PC. Crazy guy had NO IDEA that PC was an actor, and he was apparently completely unfamiliar with the “I’m a Mac” ads. Scraped from my week old memory:
Crazy guy: “W- w- w- Windows SUCKS!”
*everyone in line ignores crazy guy, who we thought was just trying (and failing) to be funny*
Crazy guy: “WINDOWS SUCKS!!!”
*we start wondering if this guy is crazy, because he actually sounds angry now*
Crazy guy: “In 1997, Jeffrey Dell said he would shut down Apple, and, and…”
*now we all KNOW he is crazy, especially since it was MICHAEL Dell who he is apparently trying to refer to*
Crazy guy: “Jeffrey Dell said-!”
PC: *walks over to Crazy guy* “Sir, sir, it’s OKAY. I’m playing a CHARACTER. I’m really a Mac guy. It’s OKAY.”
As Scott notes, he doesn’t have the exchange on video, largely because the iPhone has no video recording capability. You hear that, Apple? Think of what you’re denying your base!
Apple also recently opened a shop in nearby Carlsbad, but PC didn’t make the trip. Apparently, lovers of sensible ties and cheap hucksterism prefer Escondido. Click through for a shot of the North County T-Shirt and another pic of PC on duty.
Read the rest of this post »
Posted by Pete Mortensen in Apple, Customer Services, Humor | 1 Comment »
6:04 am, August 27th, 2008, Lonnie Lazar
Apple wants to know what you’re thinking about your new iPhone 3G and has been sending out email surveys asking questions such as where you’ve gone for iPhone help, whether you’ve returned your handset to your carrier for repair or replacement, whether you primarily use Windows or Mac, whether you primarily use your iPhone for work or play, whether it’s your first Apple product, and general demographic info.
The company promises not to use your responses to sell you products or services.
Via iPhoneBlog
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Customer Services, iPhone 3G | No Comments »
9:37 pm, August 26th, 2008, Pete Mortensen
Though everything Apple gets covered with fanatical precision, life inside One Infinite Loop these days is something of a black box for non-Appleites. Steve Jobs has made secrecy job one. Which just makes Jon Phillips’s article for MacLife about dining in the Apple corporate food court that much more fun. This is a must-read:
“Oh. My. GOD. My first impression was that I had somehow found my way into the Prepared Foods Department of Whole Foods. Station upon station upon station offered a mind-boggling variety of international cuisine. There were kiosks for burritos, pizza, pasta, sushi, hot entrées, burgers, sandwiches, salads, smoothies, frozen yogurt. They even had a gelato bar.
Then there were the kiosks for Spanish tapas and paellas. For British bangers and mushy peas. For Ethiopian wat and injera bread. And for traditional Inuit preparations of caribou, walrus and seal. Amazing.
OK, truth be told, I didn’t see any kiosks for food from Spain, England, Ethiopia or the Canadian Arctic. But because the Caffe Mac food selection was so incredibly plentiful and varied, I couldn’t help but imagine such exotic cuisines. And, in fact, because this new world order of lunch possibilities was so overwhelming, I found myself paralyzed with indecision. Pizza or pasta? A sandwich or sushi? Or maybe a bold trifecta of blended and/or frozen delights?”
Read on, dear Mac lover. Read on.
Posted by Pete Mortensen in Apple, Customer Services | 2 Comments »
1:10 pm, August 26th, 2008, Lonnie Lazar
Some iPhone owners continue to report an alarming bug in the device that causes 3rd party applications to crash or fail to load and makes media stored on the phone inaccessible. Calling it a “tragedy of monumental proportions” given that the phone just launched in 22 additional countries over the weekend, writer Jonny Evans reports in MacWorld UK the “well-known bug means none of my third-party apps work, and I can’t access any media held on my iPhone.”
Others have reported the issue and some have speculated on comments by Steve Jobs promising a fix for iPhone crashes by September. But so far, the true nature of the problem remains uncertain, with possible fixes and workarounds seemingly complex and sometimes ineffective.
“Frequent requests to Apple PR have yielded no response at all - and people inside the company dance around the matter, or so it seems,” according to Evans.
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Customer Services, Software, iPhone | No Comments »
8:54 pm, August 19th, 2008, Lonnie Lazar
First generation iPod nano customers who have experienced their battery overheating should contact AppleCare for a replacement, the company said today, after scattered reports of some devices with battery problems that cause them to give off smoke or sparks.
Apple’s statement put the number of affected units at less than 0.001 percent of the devices, which were first released in September 2005. The problem units have been traced back to a single battery supplier. There have been no reports of serious injuries or property damage, and no reports of incidents for any other iPod nano model.
Via CNet
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Apple, Customer Services, iPod | 2 Comments »
9:29 am, August 19th, 2008, Lonnie Lazar
Apple Magsafe power adapters have apparently failed at high enough rates the company is now offering to replace them free of charge, whether your MacBook (13-inch Late 2006), MacBook (13-inch), MacBook Pro (15-inch Glossy) or MacBook Pro (17-inch) is out-of-warranty or not.
Any Apple-Authorized Service Provider can make the switch for you, or you can take the adapter to the Genius bar at any Apple retail store.
Reservations recommended.
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Apple, Customer Services | 11 Comments »
2:04 am, August 19th, 2008, Lonnie Lazar
Apple, Inc. ranks first in customer satisfaction among its PC industry peers for the fifth year in a row, posting the highest score ever recorded in the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Apple’s 85 score is a full ten points higher than runner-up Dell, which joined Apple as the only computer companies in the University of Michigan survey to record increases over their 2007 scores.
Claes Fornell, a professor at the university and head of the ACSI, said, “we have never seen a gap between the leader and the rest of the pack this big,” but acknowledged Apple’s lead was likely affected by widespread disappointment with Windows Vista among HP-Compaq, Dell and Gateway consumers.
Apple’s score also does not reflect the customer service turmoil the company has tried to weather since launching iPhone 3G and MobileMe in July, problems Fornell expects will cause Apple’s score to level off in next year’s survey.
Via CNet
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Apple, Customer Services, News | 2 Comments »
6:00 pm, August 18th, 2008, Lonnie Lazar
Apple already promised a 30 day extension to .Mac subscribers and those who bought subscriptions to MobileMe prior to July 15. In the wake of continuing difficulty getting its web services product firing on all cylinders, Apple has increased the extension of free service to an additional 60 days for anyone with a MobileMe account activated prior to Midnight Pacific Daylight Time, August 19.
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Apple, Customer Services | No Comments »
11:59 am, August 18th, 2008, Lonnie Lazar
Apple’s Enterprise efforts have been met with harsh criticism lately on the business front, but the company’s inroads to the luxury hospitality sector have been impressive. While complaints about inattention to potential security flaws and problems with Exchange integration have gotten much of the technology press’ attention, Apple’s Enterprise Sales Group has been quietly working to install its computers everywhere in the hospitality industry, according to an AppleInsider report.
Building on the success of its Starbucks integration with the WiFi iTunes Store, Apple developers are now working to build similar location sensing services for ordering drinks, accessing reminders and messages, and other services related to a guest’s stay in hotels and on cruise ships.
According to the AppleInsider report, hotels have actually asked for Apple’s help in bringing iTunes-style simplicity to their luxury accommodations. Many hoteliers are “struggling to reach the digital demographic” and “to differentiate themselves,” explained Bradley Walker of Nanonation in a seminar on Macs in the hospitality industry. “You’ve been to the Apple Store,” Walker said. “If you could recreate that in a hotel, that would be a very attractive place to stay.”
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Apple, Customer Services | 1 Comment »
11:14 am, August 12th, 2008, Lonnie Lazar
Yesterday we were all set to post about the MobileMe mail server crash and ask how it is new boss Eddie Cue hasn’t already fixed Apple’s troubled web services division in the week or so he’s been on the job.
Then the servers came back up.
All MobileMe mail users were only affected for a couple of hours, but it appears there were sporadic outages for some customers throughout the evening and continuing into today. Steve Jobs has promised to have the service ship-shape by the end of the year, but that’s four and a half months of potential bumpiness that can’t be good for Apple’s PR.
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Apple, Customer Services, Software | 3 Comments »
1:08 pm, July 30th, 2008, Lonnie Lazar
After a rocky three weeks since the official launch, Apple’s MobileMe service got an all-green status update Tuesday night. In a message to subscribers the company said it has established a dedicated chat line for anyone with ongoing problems related to MobileMe mail, the final piece in what the company calls “this new ambitious service” to become fully operational.
The status update also described a newly discovered bug which caused some MobileMe users to lose contact and calendar data on their iPhones, though the integrity of the data on their Macs and with the MobileMe “cloud” was unaffected.
Apple posted a resource for getting data restored to affected iPhones as well.
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Apple, Customer Services, Software | 6 Comments »
2:26 am, July 24th, 2008, Lonnie Lazar
Walter Mossberg, the Dean of MSM technology writers, has pronounced MobileMe “way too ragged” to be considered reliable.
His frank and unsentimental review of Apple’s web services product goes beyond the launch difficulties that have kept Apple’s support forums humming with angry subscribers and which prompted the company to extend members’ $100 annual subscriptions by 30 days last week. Citing his experience in extensive testing and interaction with Apple’s support team, Mossberg chronicles a list of half a dozen problems that make the service tedious, sluggish and unpredictable.
Apple engineers blame Microsoft Outlook quirks for issues related to calendar and address book synching and say they are working on fixes for other problems.
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Customer Services, Software | 12 Comments »
2:35 pm, July 22nd, 2008, Lonnie Lazar
Apple’s support forums are hopping today with customers angry about continuing problems with the rollout of MobileMe web services. The MobileMe Mail category has over 13,000 messages that have been viewed more than 50,000 times, with many of the messages expressing anger and frustration over a mail server crash and unexpected fiber-optic line problems that have left some subscribers without email access for as many as five straight days, according to AppleInsider.
Apple’s system status message acknowledges the MobileMe Mail issue but claims only 1% of its subscribers are affected. If that’s the case, the problems would appear to have struck a particularly vocal 1%.
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Apple, Customer Services, Quickies, Rail | 16 Comments »
6:37 am, July 16th, 2008, Lonnie Lazar
Apple is extending the subscriptions of its current MobileMe customers for 30 days at no charge, according to an email sent by the company today.
“The .Mac to MobileMe transition was a lot rockier than we had hoped but everything is now up and running,” Apple spokesman, Bill Evans, told Macworld. “We want to apologize to our loyal customers and express our appreciation for their patience by giving all current subscribers an automatic 30-day extension to their MobileMe subscription free of charge.”
MobileMe customers should see the extension reflected in their accounts “within the next few weeks,” according to Apple’s email.
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Apple, Customer Services | 6 Comments »
8:28 am, July 11th, 2008, Lonnie Lazar
Apple confessed to problems making the transition from .Mac web services to its highly anticipated MobileMe product, according to MacWorld, but the service may be up and running this morning after yesterday’s rocky rollout.
A statement posted earlier today to the Apple website read “”The MobileMe transition is underway but is taking longer than expected. Please refer to the official System Status to the right for current information on the availability of MobileMe services. We apologize for any inconvenience.”
But as you can see from the screenshots below, we finally have a log-in page and access to our me domain. The servers are running very slow at this writing. Stay tuned for updates; your mileage may vary.
Access to the account page behind the following secure screen
Was met with a Loading wheel that I gave up on after 5 minutes
But I was able to get to my Gallery
Though not my mail. I have confidence Apple engineers will work out the kinks.
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Apple, Customer Services, Software | 14 Comments »
11:11 am, July 9th, 2008, Lonnie Lazar
Apple’s web services product, formerly known as .Mac, becomes MobileMe tonight, sometime between 6pm and 12am Pacific Time. A major overhaul to the $100 per year service will let subscribers manage email, calendar and contacts, pushing new data and changes automatically to desktop, laptop and mobile devices. Photo sharing features and disk space on Apple’s webservers let members store and share large files.
Apple produced a handy guided tour video and staff writer David Chartier posted a comprehensive piece on the details for Ars Technica today.
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Apple, Customer Services, Software | 4 Comments »
2:45 pm, June 25th, 2008, Lonnie Lazar
Photo by Andrew Bulhak
Once hailed as a savior of the music industry’s physical distribution model, Starbucks will abandon the sale of CDs and iTunes gift cards in its thousands of outlets by September, according to a report released today by Silicon Valley Insider. The company will continue to offer free Wi-fi access to Apple’s online music store and may continue to try to sell entertainment online, but the dream of record company executives who saw Starbucks at the vanguard of a new class of unconventional sales outlets that could keep the CD alive in an age of digital downloads is now dead.
The company reported its first annual profit decline in eight years and saw half a dozen senior executives depart from its entertainment unit this year, forcing the Seattle-based retailer to look for ways to restart growth in its core business of selling $4 cups of coffee.
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Customer Services, Music, Retail Stores | 4 Comments »
10:29 am, June 23rd, 2008, Lonnie Lazar
Confident now that it’s got a winning product, Apple is set to release the iPhone 3G simultaneously in 22 countries on July 11. And unlike the limited distribution model in the US, where consumers may only purchase phones from the company or from AT&T, overseas customers will be able to find the new phone in plenty of places.
Apple Insider reports that Deutch Telekom, T-Mobile’s German parent signed a first deal which will let Gravis sell iPhones attached to a T-Mobile service plan, allowing customers there to pick up a phone without visiting a T-Mobile retail outlet.
Dutch and Italian consumers will also have a variety of outlets to choose from, according to an item in Macworld. The high-street-availability distribution model appears to derive from the success Apple and UK carrier O2 had in bringing Carphone Warehouse on board to maximize availability of the product.
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Customer Services, Retail Stores, iPhone | 4 Comments »
12:00 am, November 24th, 2007, Pete Mortensen
Being in an extended turkey coma this morning, I didn’t quite get out of bed early enough to hit the brand-new Apple Store in San Francisco’s Marina, but fortunately the amazing SFist (t-shirt picture) and IFO Apple Store (all else) were all over the opening. Based on the reportage, it sounds pretty stunning. And hey, 1000 free t-shirts!
Gary Allen of IFO Apple Store had a lot of nice things to say:
The store is definitely unique, combining individual features from various stores–or no stores at all. The façade lacks the usual stainless steel and uses white masonry like the Lincoln Road store. The ceiling is about 15 feet tall, unlike any other store. There are no window displays, which would obscure the view of the store interior. And the suspended Apple logo duplicates the Fifth Avenue store. It definitely establishes a presence for Apple in another neighborhood of San Francisco.
Nice. You have to love Apple’s commitment to not stand still with their Apple Store recipe. Each store has its own unique qualities. Fabulous.
Posted by Pete Mortensen in Customer Services | 8 Comments »
11:55 pm, November 19th, 2007, Pete Mortensen
Just in case you don’t already have plans to get trampled at Best Buy or Target this Friday, Apple announced that it will open its third San Francisco store at the end of this week. Though it’s highly unlikely that the shop will offer any $25 BluRay players from Taiwan, Apple usually provides goodie bags to the first bunch of customers at its newest stores, even when it doesn’t tie into the scariest shopping day of the year. Anyone going to be in line? Anyone already in line? Get in touch if you want to share the experience. The madness starts at 9 a.m.
Via AppleInsider
Picture from Fireside Camera’s Flickrstream
Posted by Pete Mortensen in Customer Services | No Comments »
