My worse Apple phone/store experience

[manly]

no offense, but is it only Manhattanites that tell a support rep STFU and expect the service to improve? It's funny you actually got satisfactory service at the Genius Bar and still complain about the "lack of geniuses" at Apple Stores. No appointment and a 30 minute wait for an instant RMA, oh the horror...

 

[RampantAndroid]

No, I dont hate apple. I never had to call apple or go to there store, so I am a bit put off with my first experience.

My father had a rule: If it's in the name, it ISN'T in the product. The genius bar is full of ANYTHING but geniuses.

I got a replacement iPad. My old ipad had 5 movie rentals on it (on vaca, long flights...rentals make sense)....they won't refund it, and I cannot redownload them. Yay.

Every time I've been to a genius bar, it has been HELL.

Me: My phone won't connect to the data network. or cell network
Genius: Looks like it is connected now
Me: Well, yeah. Last night, it wasn't. My friends had AT&T coverage, and data. Look, here are all the texts that wouldn't send. I couldn't call 911 if i wanted to, and that's an FCC issue right there.
Genius: Well, nothing looks wrong. Sorry.
Me: Hey, look, A DEAD PIXEL!
Genius: Oh, here's a replacement.

 

[alfa147x]

My father had a rule: If it's in the name, it ISN'T in the product. The genius bar is full of ANYTHING but geniuses.

I got a replacement iPad. My old ipad had 5 movie rentals on it (on vaca, long flights...rentals make sense)....they won't refund it, and I cannot redownload them. Yay.

Every time I've been to a genius bar, it has been HELL.

Me: My phone won't connect to the data network. or cell network
Genius: Looks like it is connected now
Me: Well, yeah. Last night, it wasn't. My friends had AT&T coverage, and data. Look, here are all the texts that wouldn't send. I couldn't call 911 if i wanted to, and that's an FCC issue right there.
Genius: Well, nothing looks wrong. Sorry.
Me: Hey, look, A DEAD PIXEL!
Genius: Oh, here's a replacement.

Lol okay... So they replaced your phone and you still have a problem? Oh you lied to have phone replaced. A+ citizen right here.

 

[Oyeve]

no offense, but is it only Manhattanites that tell a support rep STFU and expect the service to improve? It's funny you actually got satisfactory service at the Genius Bar and still complain about the "lack of geniuses" at Apple Stores. No appointment and a 30 minute wait for an instant RMA, oh the horror...

She was a drone on the phone, seriously, ithought siri was on the line babbling such bullshit. She kept going on and on and i just neede a quick answer.

 

[MrX8503]

I think the thing to take away from the Apple store is that you wouldn't have, or anyone in this this thread for that matter, gotten a replacement the same day you went in. With other manufacturers you have to ship your device back first to some other country.

 

[ponyo]

I'm actually curious too, as "next business day onsite" is not my experience with Dell or HP.

3yrs free on my $300 Dell computer.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Wow, that's pretty cool. Does it come free?

I never call Apple, I just make an appointment online and go to the store. In and out.

Obviously it varies but on my Thinkpad it was only slightly more expensive then the standard warranty.

 

[postaled]

I think the thing to take away from the Apple store is that you wouldn't have, or anyone in this this thread for that matter, gotten a replacement the same day you went in. With other manufacturers you have to ship your device back first to some other country.

I may not get parts same day, but I get replacement machines/parts next day all the time with Dell. Their service is in my opinion, excellent.

 

[alfa147x]

I may not get parts same day, but I get replacement machines/parts next day all the time with Dell. Their service is in my opinion, excellent.

Is this regular dell or dell business?

I've always been given the run around by the regular support by indian people I couldn't understand (I'm brown!). When I ordered my monitors I decided to order as my business. They overnighted me a replacement. That was a much welcomed change

 

[Ns1]

3yrs free on my $300 Dell computer.

A tech comes to your house to fix your shit? Next business day? 3 years free on a $300 Dell computer?


Once again, not my experience

 

[Oyeve]

A tech comes to your house to fix your shit? Next business day? 3 years free on a $300 Dell computer?


Once again, not my experience

I think this depends on location and availability. My Niece live in FL with my mother and her HD crashed twice in the last 2 years and a tech has come over to replace the HD and install a base win7. Was not next business day but it was within 2 days.

 

[Ns1]

I think this depends on location and availability. My Niece live in FL with my mother and her HD crashed twice in the last 2 years and a tech has come over to replace the HD and install a base win7. Was not next business day but it was within 2 days.

Interesting, guess they changed it up.

When I actually had to use tech support:
my experience with Dell/HP has always been call tech support, get bumped around for a few hours, have them send me a prepaid box to send whatever product back, wait a few days/weeks, get said product back.


Finally, 3 years most certainly was not free. Most recently, bought a laptop, came with 1 year "performance next business day" included

Quote for a 3 year renewal was ~100/yr

Item Number Quantity Item Description
994-5535 1 Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Plus In-Home Service After Remote Diagnosis (Service Tag 4s*) (Expiration: 03/23/2014) $304.47

 

[lokiju]

Few points here. 1: you can easily make a Genius appointment online for your local store and save yourself this long wait.

2: You could of accomplished all this via chat or email with them as well without all the hassle.

What do you want from lowly paid "kids" doing "support" for a massive retail giant?

 

[ponyo]

A tech comes to your house to fix your shit? Next business day? 3 years free on a $300 Dell computer?


Once again, not my experience

Never had to use it. Looking at my invoice, the computer was $348. Dell Optiplex 380 minitower and came with Win 7 Pro 64 bit and 3 yr next business day onsite parts and labor.


1 907-2092 Basic Support: Next Business Day Parts and Labor Onsite Response 2 Year Extended
1 908-2830 Basic Support: Next Business Day Parts and Labor Onsite Response Initial Year
1 907-3868 Dell Hardware Limited Warranty Plus Onsite Service Extended Year(s)
1 907-4007 Dell Hardware Limited Warranty Plus Onsite Service Initial Year

 

[manly]

She was a drone on the phone, seriously, ithought siri was on the line babbling such bullshit. She kept going on and on and i just neede a quick answer.

Nothing personal, but I could almost say the same about your rant...

I don't think the techs are aptly named either; but in this case, you had no appointment and then got a replacement within reasonable time. For you to still complain about the Genius Bar service is ridiculous, no matter how frustrated you already were with phone support.

I've spoken to many Manhattanites over the phone before, most were nice folks but as a whole nothing like polite Midwesterners. You get the sense a lot of them display a "I live in the World's greatest city" and "The Customer is Always Right" attitude. No service rep should amp up their game if he's being told STFU or any variant thereof.

I think Apple retail has staffed up their Genius Bars quite a bit to handle business growth. It used to require at least a day's ahead appointment, and weekends were booked. Nowadays in my experience, same day is generally available and even walk-ins get service within a standard waiting time.

ponyo, you know full well most consumers don't buy Optiplex PCs. It's also clear you got an exceptional deal since a 2 year onsite extension easily itemizes out at $100 or more.

 

[postaled]

Is this regular dell or dell business?

I've always been given the run around by the regular support by indian people I couldn't understand (I'm brown!). When I ordered my monitors I decided to order as my business. They overnighted me a replacement. That was a much welcomed change

I've had both but I have only used the regular Dell support once.

I used it on my personal Latitude(cost like $2500) and when it died 2.5 years in they had me a replacement next day.

I mainly deal with Dell business though(Optiplex/Latitude machines) and they are always awesome.

 

[RampantAndroid]

Lol okay... So they replaced your phone and you still have a problem? Oh you lied to have phone replaced. A+ citizen right here.

No, I didn't lie. I showed him dead pixels (I actually had 11 I think...all green.) the person looked at the pixels and replaced it. My problem is that my saying that I had no coverage over a few occasions got no concern from the rep. They ran their useless diagnostics and found nothing. The numerous texts that would not send were worth nothing. But hell, dead pixels gets more concern. It's a major FCC issue if your phone cannot dial 911 due to a modem failure. From my work on cell phones I know that much.

Similarly, showing a rep that your battery is degrading over time and has in 6 months fallen to a sub 24 hour idle time gets nothing. They refuse to replace devices for battery issues. But if you open the device to replace the battery yourself, poof goes your warranty.

Apple support is a total joke.

 

[manly]

No, I didn't lie. I showed him dead pixels (I actually had 11 I think...all green.) the person looked at the pixels and replaced it. My problem is that my saying that I had no coverage over a few occasions got no concern from the rep. They ran their useless diagnostics and found nothing. The numerous texts that would not send were worth nothing. But hell, dead pixels gets more concern. It's a major FCC issue if your phone cannot dial 911 due to a modem failure. From my work on cell phones I know that much.

Similarly, showing a rep that your battery is degrading over time and has in 6 months fallen to a sub 24 hour idle time gets nothing. They refuse to replace devices for battery issues. But if you open the device to replace the battery yourself, poof goes your warranty.

Apple support is a total joke.

J.D. Powers (and I believe Consumer Reports also) feels otherwise, but hey your single anecdote trumps all other evidence.

They do have an official policy on batteries, based on your usage and whether the battery is operating within expected boundaries.

As far as cellular reception issues, I'd blame AT&T before I blame Apple. Apple checked out your device; just because you disagree with the quick diagnosis doesn't mean the cellular radio was defective. Funny your iPhone miraculously went from 1 dead pixel to 11 in the span of two posts, at least give them some credit for owning up to a legitimate hardware problem.

Note I'm not saying you lied but if an AT&T tower is temporarily down, a new iPhone is not the fix. Your blanket statements (just like the OP) reduce your credibility since people have had bad batteries replaced under warranty policy and Apple support is highly rated in the industry. Hey nobody's perfect, Apple certainly isn't.

 

[Oyeve]

Nothing personal, but I could almost say the same about your rant...

I don't think the techs are aptly named either; but in this case, you had no appointment and then got a replacement within reasonable time. For you to still complain about the Genius Bar service is ridiculous, no matter how frustrated you already were with phone support.

I've spoken to many Manhattanites over the phone before, most were nice folks but as a whole nothing like polite Midwesterners. You get the sense a lot of them display a "I live in the World's greatest city" and "The Customer is Always Right" attitude. No service rep should amp up their game if he's being told STFU or any variant thereof.

I think Apple retail has staffed up their Genius Bars quite a bit to handle business growth. It used to require at least a day's ahead appointment, and weekends were booked. Nowadays in my experience, same day is generally available and even walk-ins get service within a standard waiting time.

ponyo, you know full well most consumers don't buy Optiplex PCs. It's also clear you got an exceptional deal since a 2 year onsite extension easily itemizes out at $100 or more.

Nothing personal taken. You and others have no idea what transpired on the phone. I was not a NY douche who thinks I am owed a damn thing, she was just a blatant fucking idiot who would literally not shut the fuck up, I just wanted to ask if my charger is covered under apple care, but this blathering idiot was asking me a dozen questions and literally going on and on and on without taking a breath mind you, and I could not get a word in edgewise so my only recourse was to yell "WOULD YOU PLEASE SHUT THE FUCK UP???" To which she did. I did apoligize to her a bit but damn, she must have been on genius juice because she would just not STFU. The dog shitting in the store is inexcusable tho.


Ok, I just thought of who she reminded me of. Do you remember the scene in Coming to America? Eddie murphy is in a bar and hes interviewing potential mates and this skinny black chick is going on and on and on about herself sounding all white prep and shit? Wellm thats who was on the phone.

 

[manly]

appreciate you not taking my bait. Honestly not impressed with Siri so if that's your honest comparison, you were on the phone for a long ass time, and you are a NYer then I can understand. Wasn't sure how serious you were about the dog story, but sounds like the mayor needs to clean that mess up!

As an aside we're not all Apple apologists either, we've all had "that rep" on the phone with some company before. I've always said Apple is fortunate to have built a business model where they can spend some money on support. Pretty much all other PC vendors have played a race to the bottom, squeezing every penny out of costs.

 

[mugs]

I think the reason you had difficulty was your lack of maturity and interpersonal skills. When you learn to deal with people things will happen more easily for you. Seriously.

 

[RampantAndroid]

J.D. Powers (and I believe Consumer Reports also) feels otherwise, but hey your single anecdote trumps all other evidence.

They do have an official policy on batteries, based on your usage and whether the battery is operating within expected boundaries.

As far as cellular reception issues, I'd blame AT&T before I blame Apple. Apple checked out your device; just because you disagree with the quick diagnosis doesn't mean the cellular radio was defective. Funny your iPhone miraculously went from 1 dead pixel to 11 in the span of two posts, at least give them some credit for owning up to a legitimate hardware problem.

Note I'm not saying you lied but if an AT&T tower is temporarily down, a new iPhone is not the fix. Your blanket statements (just like the OP) reduce your credibility since people have had bad batteries replaced under warranty policy and Apple support is highly rated in the industry. Hey nobody's perfect, Apple certainly isn't.

If you had read my original post youd know I said that there were other people next to me with AT&T smart phones that had perfect reception. rebooting the phone did nothing.

Also, are you going to tell me next that because IGN said MW2 was an amazing game that you agree? I don't trust consumer reports, JD power or anyone else. I trust the BBB and overall accounts found on forums. I've had to visit the genius bar at least 7 times and of those 7, over half have been painful.

 

[manly]

If you had read my original post youd know I said that there were other people next to me with AT&T smart phones that had perfect reception. rebooting the phone did nothing.

Also, are you going to tell me next that because IGN said MW2 was an amazing game that you agree? I don't trust consumer reports, JD power or anyone else. I trust the BBB and overall accounts found on forums. I've had to visit the genius bar at least 7 times and of those 7, over half have been painful.

Funny how your story changes each iteration. Originally it was reception problems the previous night that was not observable at the Genius Bar. Now, you're bring other people into a new real-time story. I'm sensing a credibility gap.

The BBB is actually a joke because they have no authority to do anything. At least Consumer Reports' integrity is generally not questioned. J.D. Powers surveys thousands of consumers, so unless there's massive corruption or malfeasance, you get a decent picture from their aggregate data. It's cool you can't trust "anyone else" except the BBB and raging forum posters.

Personally I think the sample size with JDP trumps your handful, but feel free to disagree. Or contact the FCC commissioner because Apple is endangering public safety. Or enhance your version of events one more time to set the record straight.

 

[Pliablemoose]

LOL, I find in general if I tell the CSR to STFU, my interaction is pretty well doomed.

Seriously, WTF were you thinking OP?

 

[Oyeve]

I think the reason you had difficulty was your lack of maturity and interpersonal skills. When you learn to deal with people things will happen more easily for you. Seriously.

Wow, you are always so quick to judge with your apple-esque smugness when you have no idea what transpired on the phone or how this idiotic genius was. Even if I recorded it in dolby 7.1 surround sound you would still have no clue mugs because you are the sheep that make apple the douche company it has become. Who are you to judge my maturity level and/or my skills. It's a might long fall when you topple off you high-chair.