I hate Apple so much, but they're awesome

[Doboji]

I dropped my Mac Book pro a few months back... It left a really nasty dent in the frame right by the hard drive. Also my smart cover for my iPad 2, you know the 70$ leather one has started to fray and come apart.

So I swung by the apple store for an appointment at the genius bar.... Cost to fix the damaged MBP? $242... The "genius" says, but for you... We will do it for free this one time. Then he looks at my iPad smart cover... Grunts verbally, walks in the back, grabs a brand new smart cover, slaps it on my iPad, and asks if there's anything else he can do for me.

I offered him a hug...

Really hard to hate Apple when they keep being so awesome to me.

 

[Pliablemoose]

The retail stores were a genius move, I thought it was the dumbest thing ever....

 

[vshah]

my main question about this story is how to grunt non-verbally.

jk...always good to hear good customer service stories. Apple can clearly afford it and i'm sure that the goodwill goes a long way.

 

[LumbergTech]

awesome that they fixed it, but somehow i question if they charge that much

 

[akugami]

The retail stores were a genius move, I thought it was the dumbest thing ever....

I thought it was the dumbest thing when they started opening Apple stores way way back as well...shows what we know.

awesome that they fixed it, but somehow i question if they charge that much

I honestly think Apple's repair costs are inflated. Charge $200 for a repair that normally costs $150, grunt and tell the customer that for them, we can reduce the cost to $150. Give a few random customers a free repair. Get lots of positive press. Plenty of stories about broken iPhones, iPads, Macs getting a "free" repair. They've only got $70 billion in liquid assets so it's not like they can't afford it. And in all honesty, the positive press outweighs the cost of the repairs.

But there are also a few ones where consumers complain about an adamant Apple repair guy insisting on super high charges or the consumer who has a small dent on one side of his device/computer and the repair tech insists it's out of warranty because the issue was not due to wear and tear bug neglect so it's not all roses.

 

[alent1234]

up until a year ago apple only opened stores in the most expensive/hippest/snobbiest areas not to compete with their retail partners. now they are starting to go to the cheaper areas. give it 5 years or so and some stores will refuse to carry their products because of competition

 

[Pliablemoose]

up until a year ago apple only opened stores in the most expensive/hippest/snobbiest areas not to compete with their retail partners. now they are starting to go to the cheaper areas. give it 5 years or so and some stores will refuse to carry their products because of competition

Retail (non Apple) makes very little $ on Apple products, they do make a killing on 3rd party accessories. I noticed Office Depot sells no "Apple" stuff, but had nearly a full aisle of accessories.

 

[gsaldivar]

It's amazing how eager people are to overpay for products/services when you create the perception in their mind that they are getting a better deal than the next person standing in line.

 

[purbeast0]

It's amazing how eager people are to overpay for products/services when you create the perception in their mind that they are getting a better deal than the next person standing in line.

it is amazing how bitter people are against apple and that they don't understand some people actually prefer apple products over the competition.

 

[HeXen]

i love Apple for the most part. sure some more options would be nice but hell, the user experience is awesome. For all of MS's power and glory they can't even come close and its a shame really.

 

[purbeast0]

also OP, i don't understand why you hate apple from your OP? you own a MBP and an iPad 2 ... usually people who hate apple don't have two expensive products from that company.

 

[alent1234]

Retail (non Apple) makes very little $ on Apple products, they do make a killing on 3rd party accessories. I noticed Office Depot sells no "Apple" stuff, but had nearly a full aisle of accessories.

apple stores are not different

accessories everywhere, applecare and one to one are pushed, and no more boxed software since it's a low margin product. the margins on most of apple's products aren't that high.

 

[Doboji]

also OP, i don't understand why you hate apple from your OP? you own a MBP and an iPad 2 ... usually people who hate apple don't have two expensive products from that company.

The iPad was the cheapest best option available when I bought it, and my company paid for my fully fully loaded MBP.

I hate the way Apple does business by stifling competition in whatever way they can... I.e. Exclusive licensing agreements for media, no interoperability with competing products, filing a zillion bazillions bullshit generic patents a second, and trying to sue Android out of existence.

Make sense?

 

[alent1234]

you just described oracle, cisco, microsoft and a long list of other companies

as for patents there is a long history of post WW2 innovation by US companies and then asian companies stealing the ideas. sometimes it was the stupidity of US companies.

apple suing HTC doesn't keep me up at night. they are one step above dell in that they do a bit more than slap a few parts together

 

[MrX8503]

The customer service at the genius bar is pretty good. My brother in law dropped his iPhone and shattered the back. They replaced it for him for free.

A dented MBP? dang, I think I would cry if that happened to me.

 

[MotionMan]

Another satisfied Apple customer.

Haters gonna hate, but Apple really seems to know how to make great hardware and software and how to provide outstanding customer service.

MotionMan

 

[purbeast0]

The iPad was the cheapest best option available when I bought it, and my company paid for my fully fully loaded MBP.

I hate the way Apple does business by stifling competition in whatever way they can... I.e. Exclusive licensing agreements for media, no interoperability with competing products, filing a zillion bazillions bullshit generic patents a second, and trying to sue Android out of existence.

Make sense?

ok that makes sense, but it was kinda hard to get that opinion from your OP .

 

[foghorn67]

Yeah, I'm one of those haters. But the Apple Store is awesome.
Wish they carried screen protectors, lol.

I like how you guys pointed out the accessories. I've come to hate this angle to smartphones. Even with the popular iPhones, there is a bunch of crapware in retail stores. The best stuff is online/direct.
I love how accessories can be found at an Apple Store, but it's regulated to the back corner. The actual Apple products are the showcase.

 

[ponyo]

I like Apple but I really dislike their retail stores. Have they fixed the retarded system where they make you wait like 45 minutes in the store to buy in stock item like the iPad?

 

[Pliablemoose]

I like Apple but I really dislike their retail stores. Have they fixed the retarded system where they make you wait like 45 minutes in the store to buy in stock item like the iPad?

Yep, the csr's carry iPads tobswipe your CC and email you the reciept.

It's pretty slick.

 

[Wonderful Pork]

I like Apple but I really dislike their retail stores. Have they fixed the retarded system where they make you wait like 45 minutes in the store to buy in stock item like the iPad?

If I needed to purchase something that was in stock on a non-release day, I've never waited more than 5 minutes to get an employee to help me. Usually 5-10 minutes after that to get it from the back and pay and I'm outta there.

 

[foghorn67]

If I needed to purchase something that was in stock on a non-release day, I've never waited more than 5 minutes to get an employee to help me. Usually 5-10 minutes after that to get it from the back and pay and I'm outta there.

Some of them or friggin busy during the weekend. It's a Tums moment when walking past of those when you are an MS fanboy.

 

[badb0y]

I have always been treated good by Apple Store geniuses. Always got my repairs/replacements for free.

 

[Wonderful Pork]

Some of them or friggin busy during the weekend. It's a Tums moment when walking past of those when you are an MS fanboy.

Thats a true statement. I was going to edit my first post to say that I try not to go during the weekends to buy anything and make a genius appointment online first before taking anything in for service. But still, I haven't had to wait _that_ long ever, certainly not 45 minutes to purchase something. Genius appointments, sure, I've waited 20-30 minutes after my time slot but the geniuses were busy and then more than accommodating toward me.

EDIT: I'm in the Boston area and there are like 5 stores around here, maybe that helps?

 

[TheStu]

I really love having an Apple store 5 minutes from my apartment, and I have never seen it crazy busy either (aside from launch days obviously)