Apple Customer Service has Jumped the Shark
I recently just went through a series of poor experiences with Apple while attempting to have my iPhone 7 fixed. In the past, a problem like this might have been met with a brand new phone given to me in the Apple Store. Not this time. What happened was a series of increasingly frustrating interactions with a number of different customer service and technical support people at Apple. Here’s the order of events:
1 My iPhone 7 with 128GB storage stops connecting to the cellular network.
2I setup an appointment at the Apple Store in Lenox Mall in Atlanta, GA.
3I attend appointment where the technician says that this is a “known problem” and they will most likely fix it for free even though I am no longer covered by Apple Care. He says something about “a logic board going bad.”
4The tech at the Apple Store gives me a iPhone 6 with 16GB storage as a “loaner phone” and sends my iPhone 7 to Apple to be fixed. Not surprisingly this loaner phone was an awful substitute. Attempting to restore a backup from a 128GB phone into a 16GB phone is not fun. My choice was to either not restore and at that point have divergent sets of messages and other data. Or try to smush 128GB into a 16GB space. :) The tech obviously knew that this was going to be an issue but gave me the phone anyway. I honestly didn’t really think about it until I got home and setup the loaner phone. Why is this the policy for loaner phones? Giving small storage loaner phones will always cause this problem. This was the first of a series customer service failures by Apple.
5 I receive an email saying they can not fix my iPhone 7 for free. They supplied 4 blurry images with little other explanation. I have no idea why they sent 3 of the 4 images. They are low quality and I have no idea what information they are supposed to give me. The 4th image that I am assuming was Apple’s justification for not repairing the iPhone 7 was the one with the words “accidental damage.” It showed a blurry picture where the lens of the camera has a crack in it. I have no idea why that would effect the cellular signal and was never given any explanation. I am quite certain that has nothing to do with the problems I was having connecting to the cellular network.
6 I call Apple Support to try to get clarity as to why they will not fix the cellular connection problem. The phone call to Apple Support had extremely poor audio quality. The Apple Support representative that I talked to was unable to give me any insight into why the repair was refused. I eventually gave up as it didn’t seem there was any option to get a second opinion or discuss further. This person had no knowledge or information to do anything other than either accept money from me to execute the repair or to send the phone back.
7 I attempt to setup return to be mailed to my home so I do not have to drive the 30 minutes to Lenox Mall. The person on the phone representing Apple got my address and setup the delivery. It turns out that it was actually just mailed to the Apple Store, not my home. I understand this as I needed to return the loaner phone but they could have sent me packaging to return the loaner phone if they sent it to my house. When I have had phones repaired under warranty through Verizon, they send the new phone first and you send back the broken phone. The worst part is telling the customer that it will be sent to their home but actually having it sent somewhere else. More bad customer service.
8 I buy an iPhone XS.
9 I receive an email that I need to pick up my broken iPhone 7 by February 15th and bring back the loaner phone.
10 On February 14th I goto the Apple Store to pick up my phone but I forgot to bring the loaner phone. I was going to be back in the area on February 16th, so I requested that they give me a one day extension and I would come back with the loaner on the 16th. The manager refused, she claimed that it was “systematic.” I have no idea what she meant by that other than she was not going to give me even one more day to pick up my phone. I was told that if I did not pick it up by the 15th MY iPhone 7 would be labeled “abandoned” and Apple would not release it to me. This is ridiculous policy. Apple is going to essentially steal my iPhone 7 because I didn’t retrieve it in a two week window even with my presence in the store requesting for a one day extension. What was even more annoying was how horrible the people were to deal with in the Apple Store. I have had more pleasant experiences at the Dekalb County DMV than at the Lenox Mall Apple Store. The email says “If you can’t make it by then, please contact us at 404–926–3085 to set up an alternate pickup plan.” Either this email is in error or the manager and employees I spoke to at the Apple Store were lying or ignorant to Apple’s policies. Anyway you look at it, this is just terrible customer service.
Conclusion
My recent set of experiences attempting to have an iPhone repaired was awful. I believe that the days of great customer service from Apple are now a thing of the past. There could be a lot of explanations or theories as to why but I believe it’s probably just the natural progression for a large corporation. There is a period of innovation, a period of huge profits and the eventual commoditization of their products. At the commoditization stage a company needs to focus on cutting costs. Tightening up the Apple Repair policies is one way to reduce costs. I believe the customer service decline could be a result of too many stores, too many employees and lower quality control with training and hiring. I just bought the iPhone XS and I am fully immersed in Apple’s ecosystem with an iPad, Apple TV and a MacBook Pro. I would like to unwind myself from Apple but at least with phones in the United States it seems my only alternate choice is an Android phone. What should I do?
