Apple support - What utter ****

I've personally never had to use Apple Support so don't have an opinion on them. My other half's brief experience is it so far.

In our scenario the earliest Genius appointment she can get in for Sunday which isn't great but will just have to wait. I was away with friends this weekend and one of them had a similar story about a broken button on an iPhone which was just out of warranty. He managed to get them to replace it but did take a couple of attempts for this to happen.
 
When my old Retina MBP developed severe screen retention on the LG display I called, made an appointment. Dropped it in the next morning, and the day after I got a call saying it was all sorted.

I got a Samsung PLS display, and only cost me the money for travelling to the store and back. I was very happy.
 
I've always raved about Apple support but recent visits have made me question it a little bit.

In the past, I have been extremely lucky that the staff have completed work on my Macs and replaced iPhones outside of the warranty period. I've always been extremely grateful and more than happy to pay, but they assure me it's fine.

So when I took my iPhone 5 a few weeks ago that has a broken rear camera and flash, broken ear speaker and a dangerously hot battery when charging, I was hoping that they'd be able to do the same. Given it's been looked after relatively well, I was disappointed that it had failed so miserably so I was hoping they would share my concerns.

Anyway, it was a simple case of "Sorry, we don't really care what's up with it, you're out of warranty" - annoying. I should point out, I'm not against the warranty thing and I wasn't annoyed they wouldn't replace it for free, I was annoyed because it's been done before numerous times so I know they have the authority to do it. Naturally, as a customer this inconsistency is highly frustrating - they either have a policy, or they don't.
 
I am very disappointed with recent support. When my daughters iPad charging cable broke for the second time in about 6 months they refused to replace it, stating they only replace it once and we mucpst be mistreating it. It was my wife who went to see them and unfortunately I wasn't there to argue before she bought another.

The net is littered with reports of broken cables and poor design. I won't be buying official apple cables in future and that small event has put me quite off Apple products.
 
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I see lots of people complain about their cables. I'm either extremely careful with mine, or I've always been lucky because I've never had a cable failure on any iPhone.

Though that said, as I travel a lot I'm often leaving them in hotel rooms so it may be that I've never had one for long enough. :p
 
@Timber - Just book a Genius Bar appointment, and see what they can do. I would be very surprised if they don't replace/repair for free as a gesture of good will. Perhaps plead ignorance on the warranty front too...

I've had out of warranty stuff replaced no problem, you just have to be polite with the Genius Bar staff.
 
Hades said:
I am very disappointed with recent support. When my daughters iPad charging cable broke for the second time in about 6 months they refused to replace it, stating they only replace it once and we mucpst be mistreating it. It was my wife who went to see them and unfortunately I wasn't there to argue before she bought another.

The net is littered with reports of broken cables and poor design. I won't be buying official apple cables in future and that small event has put me quite off Apple products.
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Rebook and ask someone else, I know it's not good but it will probably get you a new cable.
 
Turbo-G said:
@Timber - Just book a Genius Bar appointment, and see what they can do. I would be very surprised if they don't replace/repair for free as a gesture of good will. Perhaps plead ignorance on the warranty front too...

I've had out of warranty stuff replaced no problem, you just have to be polite with the Genius Bar staff.
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She just got back today - with a replacement iPad, so all is good after the genius appointment (thanks all for the advice). He checked their systems and could see that she's bought quite a bit from Apple over the last 3/4 years and was critical of the initial response given last week. He also mentioned the fact that this sort of issue is covered by EU 2-year warranty.

She did forget to ask what's the refurb/replacement unit covered by warranty wise (i.e. 90-days) - does anyone know?
 
Only time I've had a problem with an Apple product was back when my iPhone 3G randomly stopped charging. I gave the nearest Apple Store a phone call, told them about the problem and asked if I could just turn up, or whether I needed an appointment, chap on the phone told me I'd need to go onto their website and book a slot which I did.

Turned up, some guy at the "Genius" Bar had a quick look, could see that it wasn't charging and disappeared into a back room. He came back a few minutes later and said he'd managed to get it working but didn't know what the actual problem was as all he'd done was taken the casing apart and put it back together. I appreciated the honesty and was just pleased that they'd managed to sort my phone without me having to have a replacement and re-sync everything etc.

It helps that Apple Stores actually exist, if I had a problem with my mobile for example (ordered online from the Google Play Store) I'd have to send it back to the manufacturer, wait while they fix the fault, if they can't fix it I'd have to wait longer for a replacement on top of that. I think somebody on page one of this thread hit the nail on the head when they said you don't often hear positive feedback, people are much more vocal when things go wrong.
 
They're under no obligation to touch products outside of their 1-Year warranty that were purchased elsewhere. Apple often do things beyond what they have to legally, but it's important to know where their responsibilities end.

I'd be amazed if an AASP would service an Apple product that was out of warranty, they would never be able to get the job paid for.
 
Just to share my experience...

I had a dead pixel on my late 2013 rMBP.

Took it in, they agreed to repair it but didn't have any screens in stock so they ordered one for me.

I dropped my rMBP in the following week and had a call a couple of hours later to say it had been repaired.

Pretty damn good experience for me!
 
Timber said:
She just got back today - with a replacement iPad, so all is good after the genius appointment (thanks all for the advice). He checked their systems and could see that she's bought quite a bit from Apple over the last 3/4 years and was critical of the initial response given last week. He also mentioned the fact that this sort of issue is covered by EU 2-year warranty.

She did forget to ask what's the refurb/replacement unit covered by warranty wise (i.e. 90-days) - does anyone know?
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Excellent, glad to hear it. I'm fairly certain all refurb items are covered by a standard 90 day warranty period.
 
Caged said:
They're under no obligation to touch products outside of their 1-Year warranty that were purchased elsewhere. Apple often do things beyond what they have to legally, but it's important to know where their responsibilities end.

I'd be amazed if an AASP would service an Apple product that was out of warranty, they would never be able to get the job paid for.
Click to expand...

They're under no obligation but it is 100% their policy - they will do it.

I run an AASP and process EU law claims daily. Again - it's policy and AASPs are expected to process them. We're reimbursed as normal.

We don't cover the iPhone battery REP or the home button REP but those are the exceptions and it's due to the huge number of claims. Apple don't even handle them themselves in store from what I hear but farm them out to another company. That's second hand information from me though - all I know is that we don't process them and we're to tell people to book in at an ARS.
 
I went into the Apple Store in Covent Garden with my 11 month old iPhone 5 because it was draining battery pretty quick/getting warm as a result and there was some slight discolouration around the edges of the screen, they booked an appointment for me to come back in 30 mins. Went back and they took a look at the phone, said for the battery I should do a restore but because of the screen they'll swap it. Walked out with a replacement with 90 days warranty in 20 mins. That is a stark contrast to when my Galaxy S3 died with a well known fault and it went back to Samsung and the repair was rejected, and this was a 4 month old phone. So this is why I will buy iPhones from now on.
 
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