My experience with Apple customer service

2 points by nerbert ↗ HN
I recently had two experiences with Apple customer service and they both had the same unpleasant vibe. A way to put it: I had the impression that I was dealing with an entitled snob.

The first experience, I had an issue with my Airpods Pro (common issue apparently). I was unlucky and it was the second time it happened to me : they gave me replacements 2 months ago, and the replacements started malfunctioning again. During my latest visit, the Genius-staff went out of their way to make sure I understood they were making me a favor replacing them again. They were expressing this in different ways such as coming back to me several times saying "the system shows that your airpods have already been replaced, I'm not sure I can replace them, however normally it shouldn't be an issue because it's a common problem", or "here, it'll cost 179$, but I'll go check with my manager to see if I can waive the fee"... The whole thing took 2 hours.

The second one was when the screen of my macbook air started showing dead pixels. I went to a store to have it replaced. The first thing the staff did was to examine the laptop and tell me that "there are some marks on the cover, like if I had dropped something on it (seriously?!), but they don't seem to be related to my issue". Again, they print the bill (400$+) and "waive" the fee.

Both experience gave me a very negative feeling of a company trying to find every way to shift the responsibility to me, and making sure that I understood (by showing the bill) that they were making me a favor (honoring a warranty is in no way a favor, if anything it's an inconvenience for the customer). I never had to use any warranty in my life (the way it should be), except for these two occurences with Apple... I am appalled by the misalignment between the premium experience of the products and the miserable experience of the after sales service.

1 comment

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It would be helpful to know if your Airpods and MacBook Air were still under warranty when you reported these problems. I believe the warranty period is one year from the date of purchase.