Apple tech support, I love you.
by moose
Yes, I love you, and here’s why. What follow is a compilation of experiences I had with the Apple support teams in France, on a period of, say, about 3 months. And it sorts of complements a post on our French edition’s blog.
So about 3 months ago, I tried purchasing an iPhoto book… all went fine until I hit the dreaded “submit” button, which started uploading my 24MB file to the Apple/iPhoto servers somewhere in… ah well somewhere. Dreaded, because I live in a place that broadband has forgotten to bless, and which gets whatever internet access it can through satellite (i.e. slow uploads and expensive as hell). So the upload goes on and a couple of times I get an error message saying the connection was lost and would I like to retry? But of course I do. And so the upload RESTARTS from where it stopped, which is a nice addition.
And after the upload is complete, about 5 hours later, I get a confirmation email from do_not_reply@apple.com (some people really have silly names). Yeahhhh!
Well, almost, because the NEXT morning I get an email from xxxxxxx@euro.apple.com (no I’m not gonna tell you) explaining me that my uploaded file was corrupted and that I should retry… damn! So retry I do, go through the same 4-5hrs interrupted process and sure enough I get my confirmation email and, the next morning, another email from xxxxxxx@euro.apple.com telling me my file is corrupted. Except that this time the email has been written by a human being (unless Apple has some amazing AI living on an array of 45789 G7 Xserve somewhere) and explaining me what is wrong and how I could try to make it work, and would I like to try another time? So a third time I try and it fails the same. But you see, the nice thing is that someone WROTE an email and took time to read my reply. Now that is amazing (not for you since you are reading my post…).
So I gave up the iPhoto book for a while, waiting for some major upload problems I could write 50 pages on to besolved (like being unable to upload a file bigger than 32KB for TWO MONTHS).
And on March 28 I tried again, got6 the same disconnetions but this time no error email and the online tracking on the Applestore said “printing your book”. YAY! On April 4 it was reading “Book sent”, and that I should receive it within 6-9 days (shipped to France). On April 15, still no book so I go around and search for a while on the Apple iPhoto support pages in order to find the customer feedback form (not easy), and send a message asking where my book was. The very same day I get a human-written message saying that I had shipped and I should wait until April 19 to see if I would receive it. OK, I waited and nothing, so I replied to the previous email (yes, it is no do_not_reply@apple.com but the same xxxxxxx@euro.apple.com) and got again the same day a message saying they had reordered my book and would send a new copy (yes, they do keep a copy of your files, which is nice when you have a bad connection… only I wonder how long they keep them). Which they did, asking if I would, please, tell them if I received the first copy, so that they could try and find out what the problem was in the first place.
And, no surprise, yesterday I received a notification from the Apple online store that my new copy had shipped and the same day I received the first copy.
So, that a good iPhoto experience.
Next, my good old iBook… well actually my wife’s iBook now. I have a 600MHz white iBook I bought on April 4, 2002, and which has served me well. When I bought my new 15″ Alubook, I passed the iBook to my wife. Yesterday she was using it and suddenly the screen went all bizarre, extremely white with horizontal dotted lines, then the machine froze. Rebooted. Same, even the gray Apple logo on the boot screen was garbled. Damn! A quick look on the Apple kbase and in my memory brought up a bad taste of logic board replacement programme. Ugh. A quick check ont he Apple dedicated page told me my iBook was in the right (wrong?) serial number range and that the extension of garantee would apply if I had bought my iBook less than 3 years ago OR until March 23 2005. Bugger! the second deadline is missed by a month and the first one by… 2 weeks!
I decide to call the tech support anyway. Nice guy on the phone, asks for the serial number, gets my details from the registration database, checks the deadline brought by the serial number and tells me yes I’m past. But he’s going to talk with his supervisor… 2′ of Madonna later… and they agree to extend the coverage of the programme for my iBook, which means I have until May 21 2005 to bring it back to an authorized Apple dealer to get the logic board exchanged. Great. That’s what I call good customer support.
Only thing I didn’t like? Well, I didn’t even get to shout and get angry… now where’s the world going if you can’t anymore get mad at the incompetent tech support drones? The end is nigh, mark my words.
* post-scriptum: actually booting in open-firmware and typing reset-nvram [RETURN] then reset-all [RETURN] fixed the problem, but now in case it comes back I have a month to bring my iBook for repair (and the closest Apple Authorized Dealer is 8000km away…)
May 2nd, 2005 at 05:28 CEST
i have this strange squeaky sound coming out of my speaker…
how can i contact apple via email to ask them a question?
i have the protection plan…im surprised you think they’re so great they gave me a load of crap about some hardware issue even though i botu a 350 dollar protection plan…
anyway
if you can help me get a tech support email id appreciate it…
thanks a lot!
jeremy
May 3rd, 2005 at 08:52 CEST
Ah yes it is HARD to find Apple’s tech support email… there isn’t a single one but one per product or product line and they usually are well hidden within the tech support pages.
My experiences are with Apple’s european tech support, so it can be different in other countries. I noted that their phone support is also quite helpful, try calling them.
May 5th, 2005 at 18:06 CEST
there’s a tech support email address?
moose, can you please provide it? i’ve been looking for it and can’t find it.
May 6th, 2005 at 05:30 CEST
Hmmm there isn’t a SINGLE one… rather there are mail FORMS scattered on the various support pages. In any case, I’ve found some mostly for the problems related to online services, like iTunes Music Store or iPhoto Prints.
I don’t think there is a general email address for thech support, since you need to CALL them.
December 31st, 2005 at 02:54 CET
i don’t understand how you like apple’s tech support. i think that their products are great, and when a customer stumbles a problem, they give you a solution that says “this will work for most cases”. well, not everybody has only one of these cases. my ipod has frozen and it’s doing something that isn’t explained anywhere on the apple site. they always tell me to do the same thing, no matter where i go for help. WHY ISN’T THERE AN EMAIL ADDRESS! this makes me so angry with apple that they make it so there is the slightest chance that you MIGHT be able to speak to a human being. the only solution i can come up with now is to go out of my way and drive to the nearest apple store, which is, not surprisingly, very very far away. please, somebody help before i throw my ipod off a cliff!
September 14th, 2006 at 22:58 CEST
Apple can suck a big one. I recently had the auto update on and my system tried the update on the os and all hell broke loose. My computer couldn’t reboot and I got the dreaded blue screen of death. I contact tech support and while my mac (dual pro. G5 - powerPC) was less than a year old they told me that I had to pay for support. What a load of shit since this was an apple update to begin with. My computer was working fine for the last 11 months and now with this OS update my computer just went bonker, then Apple has the nerve to tell me to pay up to get some help on it. I call it “BLACKMAIL”. These guys suck and then they had the nerve to tell me in so many words with out saying that it was my fault and that I still need to pay up. What are these guys, the Gestapo. Well I’ve decide that since they think I need to pay up I’ll be happy to call and call and call and call their support lines tying up their phones. I’ll put them on the same kind of shit hold music they’ve kept me going on. Around and around in circles is all I ever seem to get from these guys. One guy even had the nerve to say, “well you made the update”. Well I ask apple this, “Why put out the auto updates”. Well this is a stupid question in and of itself because its a double edge sword. Apple know everyone wants the updates so everyone obeys like obedient dogs because we all think Apple is doing a good thing for us. Well it turns out they just want your money. They don’t seem to be care much about customer satisfaction. I got the chance to speak with Anton, Shannon and Dave from Apple and they all wanted to place the fault of this on me and tell me I must assume the cost of support before I could get my computer up and running again. Well I say to thee and Apple “FUCK YOU”. I have spent my 30 year life living for Apple - I’ve got an 7 year old G4 (never had an issue), a new dual pro. G5 (powerPC) and 2 Ipods (1 nano, 1 original). I have always been a big fan, even when the chips were down, but if this is Apple’s policy to not support OS updates that take out someones computer than I will have to depart ways here and move on to the dreaded Microsoft Platform. At least there Iknow I’m getting a pile of shit up front and can expect it. I do not expect this behavior from Apple. From 1 completely dis-satisfied customer after 15 years I can only hope that Apple pulls its head out of its ass on this policy and begins supporting customers that have issues with APPLE UPDATES.
March 2nd, 2007 at 21:49 CET
I couldn’t find their e mail support address, BUT I did find them for every
other country on earth!! Someone is either brain dead or has a vested interest in the
company that profits by furnishing the telephone (support line) service???
May 10th, 2007 at 17:01 CEST
Ok first of all in Canada and the United States their is only email support for some services such as iPhoto purchases, iTunes music Store and .Mac. Secondly the over the phone tech support at Apple is remarkable, and what would make anyone think email support would be any better. As for the statement “they always tell me to do the same thing, no matter where i go for help”, that is called troubleshooting often the same steps are taken on a variety of issues. I also have some advise for macrunning BUY APPLECARE, the Apple updates are all tested before being released but obviously they can’t test on every configuration with every piece of software that could be installed on a customers computer which could cause the issues that you are describing. If you do not know how to fix these simple issues yourself you would be better served by paying the money for AppleCare than to waste your time by being immature and continuing to call in over and over again. AppleCare has been number 1 in consumer reports for Tech support for 7 years for a reason.
June 7th, 2007 at 15:46 CEST
This is so unbelievable.
I have some problems with iTunes Store, so i went to the German (i am German) support page. There’s an Email form. So i wrote name and Apple ID and stuff in there and of course my problem. When i clicked on Send-Email, nothing happened (i use opera). then with ie, i clicked it and the reply “error on page”. WHHHHOOOOTTTT
i cant write to them because their damn bitch link is wrong and they wont provide me with their adress.
Der_Spotter
June 18th, 2007 at 06:34 CEST
APPLE SUCKS!!
I am using mac os X 10.4.9. My addressbook often get deleted!!!
STUPID APPLE THING!
July 9th, 2007 at 18:48 CEST
Apple tech support has to be one of the biggest jokes out there. The mere concept that you must bring your computer in to an Apple Store to see a “Genius” to get a repair going is ridiculous. Seems like a scheme to get you to buy something at the store.
September 4th, 2007 at 17:31 CEST
Apple stores populated with ‘apple genius’ you say? :) I dropped my 3 week old Mini system off as the digital sound had stopped working. The guy says ‘we’re not busy, it should be ready in a day or two’. A week later I’m driving by and decide to stop in. It turns out that the ‘apple genius’ doesn’t have the capabilities to test digital sound outputs (no digital capable speaker system) so they decided to wait til I called to ask if I could bring in some speakers for them. In the end they said ‘we used the ossiciscope and cleaned up some dirty patches’, but the sound hasn’t worked since I got it back home and now it is used to prop up a Windows Media Centre PC that, oddly, has worked fine, sound and all… It is so sad, I actually *want* to believe that Apple can provide a viable alternative, but maybe I should just admit defeat and stick to wintel hardware and open source software…
June 19th, 2008 at 03:12 CEST
yeah, talk about lousy x.5. feels like stone age, with a pair of glossy shades. it’s faster but has more f******* bad features that you could wish for. just wait until you find out about the 2giga file limit coming back, bye bye video codecs, welcome supermarket, forget reliable previews and get ready to hear the fan always working (when in previous x.5.2 it was so pretty quiet)