Here's a letter that just goes to show that customer service depends on which employee you get. Reader Cody works at Best Buy (in the Apple department, apparently) and his brother is getting the runaround at the Apple store. Is this the ultimate retail showdown?
I never thought I'd ever have to write this email, but I am.
My brother visited your store on November 17th, and visited a Mac Genius. And I have two issues with this visit.
1. After making a reservation through the online concierge service for 4:45 pm five hours prior to the scheduled time) he was told he didn't have a reservation and would have to wait to receive support with his malfunctioning iPod Nano.
2. The genius repeated steps that my brother told him didn't work, and told him to take it home and try again.
Upon getting home, wha-da-ya-know.. still doesn't work.
I'm not mad, just kind of irritated. I hold you guys to a higher standard, because you're also capable of higher quality.
I've been using macs for over a decade, and to hear from my PC brother that Apple wasted his gas driving 12 miles to get there, waiting through holiday shopping Saturday traffic, and his time to see a genius... that disappoints me.
The irony is we got him the iPod to make his life easier, and it has stressed him out even further.
Here's What The Problem Was:
iPod Nano 2nd Generation that continually reboots, gets stuck, reboots, gets stuck, reboots.... until the battery dies. This was an issue that happened right out of the box, but was solved by a Restore; three months later, it started doing it again. After he returned home, I temporarily fixed it by restoring it with my mac, then restoring it with his PC. I loaded 10 songs to test it, and it worked great. Then I loaded the rest of his library, and boom.. back to square one. There is a corruption in the boot sector of his flash memory causing it to have this issue.
I realize this is a rather complex issue for a Mac Genius, but it doesn't take a Mac Genius Training Course to realize this is something that you don't just "hope for the best".
The fact that it did it immediately after pulling it out of the box puzzles me, especially when we have done the same steps to fix it we did the first time.
The iPod is currently in deep sleep, which I was able to turn on by accessing the iPod service menu
I would love to have more correspondence with you over this issue, and I would prefer you speak to me instead of him.
I have read the limited warranty twice, and I know that his iPod is eligible for replacement for this hardware/software malfunction.
I'll quote it..
"If a hardware defect arises and a valid claim is received by Apple within the Warranty Period, at its option and to the extent permitted by law, Apple will... ...(2) exchange the product with a product that is new..."
I will be making an appointment to see a Mac Genius on Tuesday November 20th, and I hope we can get this issue resolved once and for all, and I can go back to being a happy apple fan-boy.
P.S.
I work at Best Buy in the iPod section, and I've never drawn out a warranty issue with a customer about such an obvious defect with their Apple iPod. In-fact, I've personally made sure that I handled that issue as fast as I could whether it was with a repair that Best Buy did not receive any payment for, or with a full replacement with a new iPod. I'm not paid with commission, I just know that you don't grow a business by shrugging your shoulder and say "try again".
Honestly I'm not angry, just upset.
Because you can do better.
The genius he spoke to was
[redacted]
The iPod was restored with iPod Nano 2nd Gen. software 1.1.3 on both:
a Windows machine running iTunes 7.5.0.20
a MBP 10.4.11 running iTunes 7.5 (r19)
See you tuesday.
Update:
Before hitting the send button in Mail.app I decided to try one last time...
Same problem except now it refuses to enter Service Mode or Disk Mode,
:( This sucks. Cya soon.
A Very Upset, Yet Extremely Loyal Apple User\Customer\Third-Party Salesman,
Cody He seems to have everything well in hand, so we'll just say: Good luck, Cody!
(Photo:
Yep, it's another one of those "email Steve Jobs" posts.
Reader Stephen wrote us a nice lengthy complaint email and cc'd Steve Jobs:
Hi Consumerist!
I purchased a MacBook Pro in November of 2006. Prior to the expiration of my one year warranty, I've had several component failures. Since being without the laptop affects my work productivity, I put the repairs off and figured I'd just bring it in with a laundry list of items just before the warranty expired.
On October 15th, I asked my wife to drop the laptop off at the Apple Store in Raleigh, NC for a display-related buzzing sound, a top case replacement (the coating was peeling off) and a SuperDrive replacement (an Apple firmware upgrade killed it). The Genius at the store said the buzzing noise was a known issue and that it was caused by a capacitor on the logic board. He then said they would not be replacing the logic board. They did agree to replace the top case and SuperDrive.
My wife called me immediately after dropping the laptop off and told me about the refusal. Knowing solid-state electronics should not make mechanical noises, I called Apple and the representative suggested I either mail it off to the Repair Depot or take it to another Apple Store. Not wanting to mail the laptop to some distant repair depot, I asked my wife to run back to the Apple store, retrieve the laptop, and bring it by the other Apple store in Durham, NC.
Upon arrival at the Durham store, my wife was informed the Geniuses were all booked up for the day, and was asked to schedule an appointment or come back another time.
Frustrated, I called Apple back and arranged to have the MacBook Pro returned to their Repair Depot. I sent the laptop off and got it back with a new top case, new logic board and a new SuperDrive a couple of days later. Immediately after powering the laptop up, the buzzing noise returned. I escalated this to Dina in Apple's Executive Customer Care group at which point I was asked to drop the laptop back in the mail or drive down to the Apple store again. Not wanting to go through the hassle of reformatting and re-installing all of my software (I am covered by an NDA), I said I'd think about it and get back to her. At this point, I had decided the extra hassle for the buzzing noise wasn't worth the effort.
A few days later, I noticed the mouse button was sticking and made popping sounds when pressed. I called Dina back and she made me an appointment at the Raleigh store for them to look at this new problem and resolve the buzzing sound while I was there. I arrived on time and had to wait an additional 45 minutes after my appointed time for a Genius to become available. The technician determined the noise was coming from the display inverter (as I had originally suggested) and that the mouse button was defective. The mouse button and trackpad are part of the top case, so Apple would need to replace the top case yet again.
The top case and display inverter were ordered, and I was told I'd receive a telephone call when the parts arrived, at which point I'd need to drop the laptop off again.
For those of us who are counting, I've had to bring the laptop into either an Apple store or a Repair Depot 4 times thus far and have driven over 200 miles to the two Apple stores. All of these repairs and trips are in the past month. What do I have to show for it? My laptop still needs a top case and a display inverter. If Apple gets this next repair right, it will have taken them a total of 5 tries to fix a couple of common problems.
I expressed these concerns to Dina on the phone today and told her I didn't feel it was acceptable to require so many trips, escalations and telephone calls to get some simple warranty repairs accomplished. Given the situation, I asked Dina if she would be willing to arrange for a replacement laptop and she declined.
I made it excruciatingly clear that I will not be purchasing any additional Apple products.
This is my first experience with Apple's warranty program. Needless to say, I am not impressed with their troubleshooting and repair abilities. I am even less impressed with their refusal to address these shortcomings by simply replacing a machine they obviously have no interest in fixing. Please keep my tale of woe in mind if you're contemplating an Apple purchase.
Repair History.. in the p