Apple Technology |
The Devil And Apple Service
(Part 2)
In my previous post, The Devil and Apple Service Part (Part 1), I talked about some of the issues that face Apple’s service to customers as the company sneaks into a higher marketshare. Here are some suggestions to Apple on how they can improve their service:
Lose ProCare
When a customer ponies up anywhere from $170-250 for additional service, they shouldn’t have to pay an additional $100 for the privilege of making appointments at and Apple Store location. When you buy an extended service contract such as AppleCare, it should be extended service, not limited service dependent on the hundreds of people ahead of you online at the Apple Store.
Allow Genius Bar Reservations to Everyone
Knowing that there are going to be hundreds of people ahead of you in line at an Apple Store to get service, most people will be happy to make a reservation. If you could make a reservation for up to a week in advance, you wouldn’t have so many disgruntled customers standing in line at the stores. This is a system that has worked with doctors offices, barbers, and movie tickets and it seems to work out pretty well for all of them. Additionally, when you are angry about your broken machine, nothing is more irritating that being told that someone who has more money that you (and purchased ProCare) gets better service. Vive le proletariat!
Screen Apple Service Providers Better
Given the number of machines that have been borked by a third-party service provider, Apple needs to take a look at it’s vendors. When you send your machine off to be fixed (because you couldn’t get an appointment at the Apple Store), you shouldn’t get a dirty, broken machine returned to you. It doesn’t matter how nice the Apple Serivce people are on the phone; when your machine is returned and it is reassembled improperly, damaged or worse, unfixed, you get mad. Mad customers=less sales. As I have mentioned before, it appears that Apple Service is better on the west coast. Perhaps Apple just needs to work on their east coast operation.
Open More Apple Stores
C’mon Apple, we’ve been waiting forever for that new mid-town store. Whats the hold up? If you aren’t going to improve your wait times at the Genius bar, or your appointment method, or your ProCare, or your mail service, then you need to get crackin’ on that new store. Maybe two. There are a lot of pissed off New York Mac owners who will happily hook their iPods up to a PC. Get movin’.
Give Me a Free Dual G5 Tower
This would make Apple the best service provider anywhere.
pkahn
ProCare is a bust. I have been a user since Jan and while its hard to believe, you get can better service coming in as a free user than trying to make ProCare work. The reservation system almost never has any timeslots available other than funky morning times on weekdays. (10:00 AM is a popular time for the store to allocate to ProCare and claim they are doing their part). If you show your ProCare card to a Genius, they freak and want to get rid of you as soon as they can. Guess they feel that the ProCare user is going to be more demanding (probably true) and is therefore a liability. If you think there’s any relief from lines as a ProCare person, the opposite is true,,,the Apple Store doesn’t even offer a queue you can join.