Apple Support
November 15, 2007 5 Comments
Did you know that if you walk into an Apple store with a broken iPhone, in this case a roughly one inch horizontal band on the touch screen that doesn’t register anything, they actually tell you to make an appointment and come back another time? I don’t mean walk around the mall and grab something to eat another time, I mean a different day. When I asked the rep if he thought this was good customer service, he just shrugged and said that’s the way it is. As regular readers know, I already wasn’t that happy of an iPhone owner. This just puts me over the top. I’m now counting the days until I can order the OpenMoko Neo1973 GTA02. I was seriously considering getting a new MacBook Pro over the next couple weeks. No way that will happen now. Are my expectations too high?
–jeremy
Jeremy's Blog 
I’m not exactly sure what you were expecting in the way of service, but I would love to hear exactly how you expect hardware support service on the OpenMoko device to be better than what you can get at the Apple store.
Apple offers in-store tech support for free, and all they ask in return is that you make a reservation so that everyone who needs service can get it in an orderly fashion. Sometimes that means making an appointment for the next day or the day after, depending on the store’s service bar traffic. You can even schedule online, just go to http://www.apple.com/retail, select your nearest store, and click the “make a genius bar appointment” link.
The iPhone can’t be swapped for a new in-box unit, because the SIM has already been activated on the defective phone, and that requires a service appointment and some paperwork to be done. That, or you can call Apple and have them ship you a box and be without the phone for a week or so. Your call. Either way, if you have any other SIM-based phone, just pop the SIM from your iPhone in that to tide you over until you can get your iPhone replaced.
It may be frustrating to be in that position for the first time without knowing how their system works, but if you look at the big picture, it’s actually a pretty good setup they have. Even my worst Apple Store genius bar experience was far better than the best experience I’ve had at any other electronics reseller.
Hopefully you’ll be able to get your issue resolved soon. And don’t write off that MacBook Pro just yet…they’re very nice machines!
(I would’ve emailed this to you privately, but I didn’t see an email link anywhere.)
Thanks for the feedback. I guess part of the issue is my overall frustration with the phone. As for what I was expecting – I was expecting it to be similar to the exact same situation with anything other cell phone. If I had brought a different phone with a similar issue into an AT&T store, they would have replaced it on the spot. I’ve had similar experiences with Sprint and Verizon as well. The iPhone changed the mobile industry, which I am grateful for… but I’ll be sticking with my ThinkPad for now. I guess anything is possible down the road.
–jeremy
I’m sure they’ll be happy to replace your phone, but unlike the AT&T store around the corner, they’re also dealing with iPod customers and computer customers as well, so I can see your frustration if you come in expecting the same experience as in another wireless phone store — that comparison hadn’t occurred to me, since I come from a pre-iPhone Apple store customer point of view, and I tend to compare their service model to big box competitors like Best Buy or CompUSA. As I’m sure you saw, the Apple stores tend to be quite a bit busier than the average wireless store, so the appointment system seems to work best for them.
Anyhow, best of luck getting your replacement iPhone in short order!
I agree, Apple Support is crap. It’s one of the major reasons I won’t purchase any of their products. I’m sitting here right now laughing inside at the second reinstall my coworker has had to do on his Crap Book Pro. This one was caused when he upgraded to Leopard. Wonderful. This is also the second update I’ve seen from CrApple which has completely hosed a user’s machine. Not only is the advertising about never crashing completely false, their support blows, and they don’t offer accidental damage protection, which other companies do offer
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