This always begs the question, why do manufacturers not copy Apple's business model?
IMO it's not so much the business model as the customer relationship that's taken decades to develop. There's many companies that follow the general idea of marketing premium products at a premium price, and attention to detail coupled with customer service. Not unheard of at all.
I've never come across any company that's done this anywhere near the way Apple has in the last 50 years. Best quality, best products and beating the copy cats selling cheaper crap such as Google and Samsung. I'd agree with mrochester's premise that Apple is unique in business history. Think of Sony with their high quality Beta video systems getting decimated by cheap and poor quality VHS, the exact model Google and Samsung tried and have seemingly failed to emulate with Android.
This always begs the question, why do manufacturers not copy Apple's business model?
IMO it's not so much the business model as the customer relationship that's taken decades to develop. There's many companies that follow the general idea of marketing premium products at a premium price, and attention to detail coupled with customer service. Not unheard of at all.
I've never come across any company that's done this anywhere near the way Apple has in the last 50 years. Best quality, best products and beating the copy cats selling cheaper crap such as Google and Samsung. I'd agree with mrochester's premise that Apple is unique in business history. Think of Sony with their high quality Beta video systems getting decimated by cheap and poor quality VHS, the exact model Google and Samsung tried and have seemingly failed to emulate with Android.
Oh if you're only referring to Fortune 500 consumer-facing computing and related electronics companies I'd be in general agreement with you. I didn't know you were limiting it to that.
I remember vividly a wonderfully relaxing week's stay at the Tu Tu'Tun Lodge in Oregon a few years ago. Their attention to detail, the way I was made to almost feel like a longtime friend, the efforts they put in to to seeing everything I wanted was made available to the best of their ability, simply amazing "customer service" like seeing that a warm breakfast, a fresh sandwich, and a thermos of coffee was at my door at 5:00 in the morning before going out on a fishing trip, even making a trip into town the evening before on my behalf to pick up a license I neglected to get myself, all those little things that make for a very memorable "premium experience"....
Ruth's Chris Steakhouse is another who went out of their way to deliver a "premium experience" with an extreme focus on high-end product, presentation, and customer service the times we dined with them. Wait staff who was generally out of sight but still always attentive, food prepared exactly as requested and courses ready when they should be. Don't know if they still do the same, almost seems general customer service standards are not as high now anywhere, but companies like that are what I'm referring to.
I myself price my product at a relative premium among my competitors, but offer the personal service and high standards that make the prices more palatable. I've gone so far as to take a loss on a particular sale in order to resolve a complaint even where it was my customer at fault 100%. I've trash-canned many jobs because of the tiniest of flaws the end customer would be unlikely to see even if he/she were looking for it. The fact I know it's there is enough for a do-over. I take immense pride in what I sell, far more than plotting how rich I can become from it. Believe it or not designing and building the best mousetrap in the world and striving for perfect and responsive support and customer service is no guarantee of incredible financial success. Huh, who knew?
Just because no one else has become as rich as Apple doing so does not mean no other company cares, taking pride in their both their product and product support in order to deliver a premium experience that would be expected for a premium price. It also does not mean all others failed either if they didn't reach Apple's tower. For many that's never the goal to begin with. Craftsmanship, pride in the product, and customer focus exists all over the world in millions of small, medium and large companies. Going up into the megacorp stratosphere you could toss Amazon very high on the list of companies highly regarded by consumers, delivering great service and support, trustworthy and reliable, and unlike Apple not trying to do so at a premium price, yet it still works. Apple is just the richest of them all.
The problem Apple has in the phone market is that unit shipments are probably about as high as they will ever be and the days of huge growth in units are mostly over. Given that, the only way Apple can continue growing profit in phones is to increase the selling price or squeeze costs. As Apple uses many of the very same components (or similar ones) and already assembles in China, the push for higher selling price is the low hanging fruit. But you can only jack up the price so much without destroying demand.
The LTE iPad Pro I am typing this on was just a little under $1,100 and O cannot see spending that much on a phone. I would much rather the combination of LTE iPad and LTE Apple Watch and no iPhone. At some point, the general public may well realize the iPhone is soon to be redundant. Not yet, but soon.
Soon implies the next 2-3 years. So you believe that in 2-3 years, most people will be done purchasing smartphones and moving on to "something else" which has made that category of device redundant? Please enlighten.
Perhaps a few things to keep in mind: - The "modern" smartphone was introduced 11 years ago. We still have 100's of millions of PCs & Macs purchased every year, with installed base of those products estimated at about a billion. Apple sells more Macs now than when the iPhone was launched. The PC/Mac did not become "redundant". - When thinking about how functions might move "beyond the smartphone", what comes to mind? A wearable like a smartwatch? Getting some personal audio like the completely wireless headphone buds? Perhaps something like AR with some smart glasses. Hmmmm. - Some people are absolutely enamoured with the "smart speaker". These people think that "voice first, or even voice only" are the future. I asked Alexa to show me the latest Game of Thrones season, but for some reason she was not able to give me the visuals. She tried to describe each scene, but it was painful.
This always begs the question, why do manufacturers not copy Apple's business model?
IMO it's not so much the business model as the customer relationship that's taken decades to develop. There's many companies that follow the general idea of marketing premium products at a premium price, and attention to detail coupled with customer service. Not unheard of at all.
I've never come across any company that's done this anywhere near the way Apple has in the last 50 years. Best quality, best products and beating the copy cats selling cheaper crap such as Google and Samsung. I'd agree with mrochester's premise that Apple is unique in business history. Think of Sony with their high quality Beta video systems getting decimated by cheap and poor quality VHS, the exact model Google and Samsung tried and have seemingly failed to emulate with Android.
Oh if you're only referring to Fortune 500 consumer-facing computing and related electronics companies I'd be in general agreement with you. I didn't know you were limiting it to that.
I remember vividly a wonderfully relaxing week's stay at the Tu Tu'Tun Lodge in Oregon a few years ago. Their attention to detail, the way I was made to almost feel like a longtime friend, the efforts they put in to to seeing everything I wanted was made available to the best of their ability, simply amazing "customer service" like seeing that a warm breakfast, a fresh sandwich, and a thermos of coffee was at my door at 5:00 in the morning before going out on a fishing trip, even making a trip into town the evening before on my behalf to pick up a license I neglected to get myself, all those little things that make for a very memorable "premium experience"....
Ruth's Chris Steakhouse is another who went out of their way to deliver a "premium experience" with an extreme focus on high-end product, presentation, and customer service the times we dined with them. Wait staff who was generally out of sight but still always attentive, food prepared exactly as requested and courses ready when they should be. Don't know if they still do the same, almost seems general customer service standards are not as high now anywhere, but companies like that are what I'm referring to.
I myself price my product at a relative premium among my competitors, but offer the personal service and high standards that make the prices more palatable. I've gone so far as to take a loss on a particular sale in order to resolve a complaint even where it was my customer at fault 100%. I've trash-canned many jobs because of the tiniest of flaws the end customer would be unlikely to see even if he/she were looking for it. The fact I know it's there is enough for a do-over. I take immense pride in what I sell, far more than plotting how rich I can become from it. Believe it or not designing and building the best mousetrap in the world and striving for perfect and responsive support and customer service is no guarantee of incredible financial success. Huh, who knew?
Just because no one else has become as rich as Apple doing so does not mean no other company cares, taking pride in their both their product and product support in order to deliver a premium experience that would be expected for a premium price. It also does not mean all others failed either if they didn't reach Apple's tower. For many that's never the goal to begin with. Craftsmanship, pride in the product, and customer focus exists all over the world in millions of small, medium and large companies. Going up into the megacorp stratosphere you could toss Amazon very high on the list of companies highly regarded by consumers, delivering great service and support, trustworthy and reliable, and unlike Apple not trying to do so at a premium price, yet it still works. Apple is just the richest of them all.
Yeah fairly certain his context is consumer electronics here, not the cafe down the street with great service.
As for Amazon -- I would not put them anywhere near this. First because their website is a mess. Second, because their support is quite awful. With Apple I can call a number and talk to Americans who understand me and can solve my problem readily and with enthusiasm. With Amazon I get canned emails from people with a language barrier who struggle to understand what is being conveyed resulting in round robbins of wasted time. Sorry, but using cheap off-shore support is harder ever (never) compatible with great service. It's forcing your customers to be patient translators. Should not be my job.
The last two times I have had to contact Apple Support, I was asked to enter my serial number then told in no uncertain terms that the only way to continue was paying a fee of nearly 30€.
Amazon support has been absolutely top notch. Never any mix-ups and they have resolved everything I have thrown at them. Even live chat in the early hours of the morning. Yes, it is clear that most of the people that deal with my issues are not Spanish and sometimes they go overboard with the pleasantries but they top Apple Spain in my experience.
This always begs the question, why do manufacturers not copy Apple's business model?
IMO it's not so much the business model as the customer relationship that's taken decades to develop. There's many companies that follow the general idea of marketing premium products at a premium price, and attention to detail coupled with customer service. Not unheard of at all.
I've never come across any company that's done this anywhere near the way Apple has in the last 50 years. Best quality, best products and beating the copy cats selling cheaper crap such as Google and Samsung. I'd agree with mrochester's premise that Apple is unique in business history. Think of Sony with their high quality Beta video systems getting decimated by cheap and poor quality VHS, the exact model Google and Samsung tried and have seemingly failed to emulate with Android.
Oh if you're only referring to Fortune 500 consumer-facing computing and related electronics companies I'd be in general agreement with you. I didn't know you were limiting it to that.
I remember vividly a wonderfully relaxing week's stay at the Tu Tu'Tun Lodge in Oregon a few years ago. Their attention to detail, the way I was made to almost feel like a longtime friend, the efforts they put in to to seeing everything I wanted was made available to the best of their ability, simply amazing "customer service" like seeing that a warm breakfast, a fresh sandwich, and a thermos of coffee was at my door at 5:00 in the morning before going out on a fishing trip, even making a trip into town the evening before on my behalf to pick up a license I neglected to get myself, all those little things that make for a very memorable "premium experience"....
Ruth's Chris Steakhouse is another who went out of their way to deliver a "premium experience" with an extreme focus on high-end product, presentation, and customer service the times we dined with them. Wait staff who was generally out of sight but still always attentive, food prepared exactly as requested and courses ready when they should be. Don't know if they still do the same, almost seems general customer service standards are not as high now anywhere, but companies like that are what I'm referring to.
I myself price my product at a relative premium among my competitors, but offer the personal service and high standards that make the prices more palatable. I've gone so far as to take a loss on a particular sale in order to resolve a complaint even where it was my customer at fault 100%. I've trash-canned many jobs because of the tiniest of flaws the end customer would be unlikely to see even if he/she were looking for it. The fact I know it's there is enough for a do-over. I take immense pride in what I sell, far more than plotting how rich I can become from it. Believe it or not designing and building the best mousetrap in the world and striving for perfect and responsive support and customer service is no guarantee of incredible financial success. Huh, who knew?
Just because no one else has become as rich as Apple doing so does not mean no other company cares, taking pride in their both their product and product support in order to deliver a premium experience that would be expected for a premium price. It also does not mean all others failed either if they didn't reach Apple's tower. For many that's never the goal to begin with. Craftsmanship, pride in the product, and customer focus exists all over the world in millions of small, medium and large companies. Going up into the megacorp stratosphere you could toss Amazon very high on the list of companies highly regarded by consumers, delivering great service and support, trustworthy and reliable, and unlike Apple not trying to do so at a premium price, yet it still works. Apple is just the richest of them all.
This always begs the question, why do manufacturers not copy Apple's business model?
IMO it's not so much the business model as the customer relationship that's taken decades to develop. There's many companies that follow the general idea of marketing premium products at a premium price, and attention to detail coupled with customer service. Not unheard of at all.
I've never come across any company that's done this anywhere near the way Apple has in the last 50 years. Best quality, best products and beating the copy cats selling cheaper crap such as Google and Samsung. I'd agree with mrochester's premise that Apple is unique in business history. Think of Sony with their high quality Beta video systems getting decimated by cheap and poor quality VHS, the exact model Google and Samsung tried and have seemingly failed to emulate with Android.
Oh if you're only referring to Fortune 500 consumer-facing computing and related electronics companies I'd be in general agreement with you. I didn't know you were limiting it to that.
I remember vividly a wonderfully relaxing week's stay at the Tu Tu'Tun Lodge in Oregon a few years ago. Their attention to detail, the way I was made to almost feel like a longtime friend, the efforts they put in to to seeing everything I wanted was made available to the best of their ability, simply amazing "customer service" like seeing that a warm breakfast, a fresh sandwich, and a thermos of coffee was at my door at 5:00 in the morning before going out on a fishing trip, even making a trip into town the evening before on my behalf to pick up a license I neglected to get myself, all those little things that make for a very memorable "premium experience"....
Ruth's Chris Steakhouse is another who went out of their way to deliver a "premium experience" with an extreme focus on high-end product, presentation, and customer service the times we dined with them. Wait staff who was generally out of sight but still always attentive, food prepared exactly as requested and courses ready when they should be. Don't know if they still do the same, almost seems general customer service standards are not as high now anywhere, but companies like that are what I'm referring to.
I myself price my product at a relative premium among my competitors, but offer the personal service and high standards that make the prices more palatable. I've gone so far as to take a loss on a particular sale in order to resolve a complaint even where it was my customer at fault 100%. I've trash-canned many jobs because of the tiniest of flaws the end customer would be unlikely to see even if he/she were looking for it. The fact I know it's there is enough for a do-over. I take immense pride in what I sell, far more than plotting how rich I can become from it. Believe it or not designing and building the best mousetrap in the world and striving for perfect and responsive support and customer service is no guarantee of incredible financial success. Huh, who knew?
Just because no one else has become as rich as Apple doing so does not mean no other company cares, taking pride in their both their product and product support in order to deliver a premium experience that would be expected for a premium price. It also does not mean all others failed either if they didn't reach Apple's tower. For many that's never the goal to begin with. Craftsmanship, pride in the product, and customer focus exists all over the world in millions of small, medium and large companies. Going up into the megacorp stratosphere you could toss Amazon very high on the list of companies highly regarded by consumers, delivering great service and support, trustworthy and reliable, and unlike Apple not trying to do so at a premium price, yet it still works. Apple is just the richest of them all.
Google support working over time for you?
I've never had to call them so I've no idea if they're good or bad at it.
This always begs the question, why do manufacturers not copy Apple's business model?
IMO it's not so much the business model as the customer relationship that's taken decades to develop. There's many companies that follow the general idea of marketing premium products at a premium price, and attention to detail coupled with customer service. Not unheard of at all.
I've never come across any company that's done this anywhere near the way Apple has in the last 50 years. Best quality, best products and beating the copy cats selling cheaper crap such as Google and Samsung. I'd agree with mrochester's premise that Apple is unique in business history. Think of Sony with their high quality Beta video systems getting decimated by cheap and poor quality VHS, the exact model Google and Samsung tried and have seemingly failed to emulate with Android.
Oh if you're only referring to Fortune 500 consumer-facing computing and related electronics companies I'd be in general agreement with you. I didn't know you were limiting it to that.
I remember vividly a wonderfully relaxing week's stay at the Tu Tu'Tun Lodge in Oregon a few years ago. Their attention to detail, the way I was made to almost feel like a longtime friend, the efforts they put in to to seeing everything I wanted was made available to the best of their ability, simply amazing "customer service" like seeing that a warm breakfast, a fresh sandwich, and a thermos of coffee was at my door at 5:00 in the morning before going out on a fishing trip, even making a trip into town the evening before on my behalf to pick up a license I neglected to get myself, all those little things that make for a very memorable "premium experience"....
Ruth's Chris Steakhouse is another who went out of their way to deliver a "premium experience" with an extreme focus on high-end product, presentation, and customer service the times we dined with them. Wait staff who was generally out of sight but still always attentive, food prepared exactly as requested and courses ready when they should be. Don't know if they still do the same, almost seems general customer service standards are not as high now anywhere, but companies like that are what I'm referring to.
I myself price my product at a relative premium among my competitors, but offer the personal service and high standards that make the prices more palatable. I've gone so far as to take a loss on a particular sale in order to resolve a complaint even where it was my customer at fault 100%. I've trash-canned many jobs because of the tiniest of flaws the end customer would be unlikely to see even if he/she were looking for it. The fact I know it's there is enough for a do-over. I take immense pride in what I sell, far more than plotting how rich I can become from it. Believe it or not designing and building the best mousetrap in the world and striving for perfect and responsive support and customer service is no guarantee of incredible financial success. Huh, who knew?
Just because no one else has become as rich as Apple doing so does not mean no other company cares, taking pride in their both their product and product support in order to deliver a premium experience that would be expected for a premium price. It also does not mean all others failed either if they didn't reach Apple's tower. For many that's never the goal to begin with. Craftsmanship, pride in the product, and customer focus exists all over the world in millions of small, medium and large companies. Going up into the megacorp stratosphere you could toss Amazon very high on the list of companies highly regarded by consumers, delivering great service and support, trustworthy and reliable, and unlike Apple not trying to do so at a premium price, yet it still works. Apple is just the richest of them all.
Google support working over time for you?
I've never had to call them so I've no idea if they're good or bad at it.
The last two times I have had to contact Apple Support, I was asked to enter my serial number then told in no uncertain terms that the only way to continue was paying a fee of nearly 30€
Your tale lacks detail. Was your product (which I’m sure is one of a whole raft of Apple products you own because you’ve been a huge Apple fan since before the company started up etc etc) still under warranty?
Last time I contacted Apple support was due to a problem with my PowerBeats. Service was top notch. Replaced without a hitch, and had a nice chat about online book stores. Some customer support bods are so smart I wonder why they’d want to work in customer support.
You’ll probably find that your dealings with Apple customer support are soured by your dislike of Apple before you start. You want bad service to prove that Apple is as bad as you need them to be, so your view of what actually happens is slightly discoloured.
I have no doubt that people have been experienced poor service from Apple, but given your posting history, I take your experience with a grain of salt.
This always begs the question, why do manufacturers not copy Apple's business model?
IMO it's not so much the business model as the customer relationship that's taken decades to develop. There's many companies that follow the general idea of marketing premium products at a premium price, and attention to detail coupled with customer service. Not unheard of at all.
I've never come across any company that's done this anywhere near the way Apple has in the last 50 years. Best quality, best products and beating the copy cats selling cheaper crap such as Google and Samsung. I'd agree with mrochester's premise that Apple is unique in business history. Think of Sony with their high quality Beta video systems getting decimated by cheap and poor quality VHS, the exact model Google and Samsung tried and have seemingly failed to emulate with Android.
Oh if you're only referring to Fortune 500 consumer-facing computing and related electronics companies I'd be in general agreement with you. I didn't know you were limiting it to that.
I remember vividly a wonderfully relaxing week's stay at the Tu Tu'Tun Lodge in Oregon a few years ago. Their attention to detail, the way I was made to almost feel like a longtime friend, the efforts they put in to to seeing everything I wanted was made available to the best of their ability, simply amazing "customer service" like seeing that a warm breakfast, a fresh sandwich, and a thermos of coffee was at my door at 5:00 in the morning before going out on a fishing trip, even making a trip into town the evening before on my behalf to pick up a license I neglected to get myself, all those little things that make for a very memorable "premium experience"....
Ruth's Chris Steakhouse is another who went out of their way to deliver a "premium experience" with an extreme focus on high-end product, presentation, and customer service the times we dined with them. Wait staff who was generally out of sight but still always attentive, food prepared exactly as requested and courses ready when they should be. Don't know if they still do the same, almost seems general customer service standards are not as high now anywhere, but companies like that are what I'm referring to.
I myself price my product at a relative premium among my competitors, but offer the personal service and high standards that make the prices more palatable. I've gone so far as to take a loss on a particular sale in order to resolve a complaint even where it was my customer at fault 100%. I've trash-canned many jobs because of the tiniest of flaws the end customer would be unlikely to see even if he/she were looking for it. The fact I know it's there is enough for a do-over. I take immense pride in what I sell, far more than plotting how rich I can become from it. Believe it or not designing and building the best mousetrap in the world and striving for perfect and responsive support and customer service is no guarantee of incredible financial success. Huh, who knew?
Just because no one else has become as rich as Apple doing so does not mean no other company cares, taking pride in their both their product and product support in order to deliver a premium experience that would be expected for a premium price. It also does not mean all others failed either if they didn't reach Apple's tower. For many that's never the goal to begin with. Craftsmanship, pride in the product, and customer focus exists all over the world in millions of small, medium and large companies. Going up into the megacorp stratosphere you could toss Amazon very high on the list of companies highly regarded by consumers, delivering great service and support, trustworthy and reliable, and unlike Apple not trying to do so at a premium price, yet it still works. Apple is just the richest of them all.
Google support working over time for you?
I've never had to call them so I've no idea if they're good or bad at it.
The last two times I have had to contact Apple Support, I was asked to enter my serial number then told in no uncertain terms that the only way to continue was paying a fee of nearly 30€
Your tale lacks detail. Was your product (which I’m sure is one of a whole raft of Apple products you own because you’ve been a huge Apple fan since before the company started up etc etc) still under warranty?
Last time I contacted Apple support was due to a problem with my PowerBeats. Service was top notch. Replaced without a hitch, and had a nice chat about online book stores. Some customer support bods are so smart I wonder why they’d want to work in customer support.
You’ll probably find that your dealings with Apple customer support are soured by your dislike of Apple before you start. You want bad service to prove that Apple is as bad as you need them to be, so your view of what actually happens is slightly discoloured.
I have no doubt that people have been experienced poor service from Apple, but given your posting history, I take your experience with a grain of salt.
Both out of warranty but that shouldn't change anything. No other company I deal with charges to ask a question. Btw, I only had to ask because I couldn't find the information in the (increasingly bad) support pages.
In fact, Siri should be a support line too. Everything that is support information related to the the device should be able to go through that and you should never be charged just to formulate a question.
This always begs the question, why do manufacturers not copy Apple's business model?
IMO it's not so much the business model as the customer relationship that's taken decades to develop. There's many companies that follow the general idea of marketing premium products at a premium price, and attention to detail coupled with customer service. Not unheard of at all.
I've never come across any company that's done this anywhere near the way Apple has in the last 50 years. Best quality, best products and beating the copy cats selling cheaper crap such as Google and Samsung. I'd agree with mrochester's premise that Apple is unique in business history. Think of Sony with their high quality Beta video systems getting decimated by cheap and poor quality VHS, the exact model Google and Samsung tried and have seemingly failed to emulate with Android.
Oh if you're only referring to Fortune 500 consumer-facing computing and related electronics companies I'd be in general agreement with you. I didn't know you were limiting it to that.
I remember vividly a wonderfully relaxing week's stay at the Tu Tu'Tun Lodge in Oregon a few years ago. Their attention to detail, the way I was made to almost feel like a longtime friend, the efforts they put in to to seeing everything I wanted was made available to the best of their ability, simply amazing "customer service" like seeing that a warm breakfast, a fresh sandwich, and a thermos of coffee was at my door at 5:00 in the morning before going out on a fishing trip, even making a trip into town the evening before on my behalf to pick up a license I neglected to get myself, all those little things that make for a very memorable "premium experience"....
Ruth's Chris Steakhouse is another who went out of their way to deliver a "premium experience" with an extreme focus on high-end product, presentation, and customer service the times we dined with them. Wait staff who was generally out of sight but still always attentive, food prepared exactly as requested and courses ready when they should be. Don't know if they still do the same, almost seems general customer service standards are not as high now anywhere, but companies like that are what I'm referring to.
I myself price my product at a relative premium among my competitors, but offer the personal service and high standards that make the prices more palatable. I've gone so far as to take a loss on a particular sale in order to resolve a complaint even where it was my customer at fault 100%. I've trash-canned many jobs because of the tiniest of flaws the end customer would be unlikely to see even if he/she were looking for it. The fact I know it's there is enough for a do-over. I take immense pride in what I sell, far more than plotting how rich I can become from it. Believe it or not designing and building the best mousetrap in the world and striving for perfect and responsive support and customer service is no guarantee of incredible financial success. Huh, who knew?
Just because no one else has become as rich as Apple doing so does not mean no other company cares, taking pride in their both their product and product support in order to deliver a premium experience that would be expected for a premium price. It also does not mean all others failed either if they didn't reach Apple's tower. For many that's never the goal to begin with. Craftsmanship, pride in the product, and customer focus exists all over the world in millions of small, medium and large companies. Going up into the megacorp stratosphere you could toss Amazon very high on the list of companies highly regarded by consumers, delivering great service and support, trustworthy and reliable, and unlike Apple not trying to do so at a premium price, yet it still works. Apple is just the richest of them all.
Google support working over time for you?
I've never had to call them so I've no idea if they're good or bad at it.
The last two times I have had to contact Apple Support, I was asked to enter my serial number then told in no uncertain terms that the only way to continue was paying a fee of nearly 30€.
Amazon support has been absolutely top notch. Never any mix-ups and they have resolved everything I have thrown at them. Even live chat in the early hours of the morning. Yes, it is clear that most of the people that deal with my issues are not Spanish and sometimes they go overboard with the pleasantries but they top Apple Spain in my experience.
So your complaint is your tech support term had ended, and you couldn’t get free tech support anyway? That’s hardly comparable to conducting customer service (requests for returns etc) with a retailer which have no such terms.
The last two times I have had to contact Apple Support, I was asked to enter my serial number then told in no uncertain terms that the only way to continue was paying a fee of nearly 30€
Your tale lacks detail. Was your product (which I’m sure is one of a whole raft of Apple products you own because you’ve been a huge Apple fan since before the company started up etc etc) still under warranty?
Last time I contacted Apple support was due to a problem with my PowerBeats. Service was top notch. Replaced without a hitch, and had a nice chat about online book stores. Some customer support bods are so smart I wonder why they’d want to work in customer support.
You’ll probably find that your dealings with Apple customer support are soured by your dislike of Apple before you start. You want bad service to prove that Apple is as bad as you need them to be, so your view of what actually happens is slightly discoloured.
I have no doubt that people have been experienced poor service from Apple, but given your posting history, I take your experience with a grain of salt.
Both out of warranty but that shouldn't change anything. No other company I deal with charges to ask a question. Btw, I only had to ask because I couldn't find the information in the (increasingly bad) support pages.
In fact, Siri should be a support line too. Everything that is support information related to the the device should be able to go through that and you should never be charged just to formulate a question.
Er, you do realize asking questions and getting answers to them is the definition of what tech support service is? So yes, of course it should change things when your product is out of warranty and your support term has ended. That’s why they sell Apple Care with its extended term. If they gave you free tech support then it devalues what other customers are paying extra for.
Like other comments, I’ve had nothing but great experiences with Apple support. They’ve overnighted me a replacement AirPod for free when I phoned about it dropping connection, which blew my mind. But they were within the warranty and support terms, as is the common practice here.
What has your your experience been like dealing with Huawei with out of warranty tech support?
The last two times I have had to contact Apple Support, I was asked to enter my serial number then told in no uncertain terms that the only way to continue was paying a fee of nearly 30€
Your tale lacks detail. Was your product (which I’m sure is one of a whole raft of Apple products you own because you’ve been a huge Apple fan since before the company started up etc etc) still under warranty?
Last time I contacted Apple support was due to a problem with my PowerBeats. Service was top notch. Replaced without a hitch, and had a nice chat about online book stores. Some customer support bods are so smart I wonder why they’d want to work in customer support.
You’ll probably find that your dealings with Apple customer support are soured by your dislike of Apple before you start. You want bad service to prove that Apple is as bad as you need them to be, so your view of what actually happens is slightly discoloured.
I have no doubt that people have been experienced poor service from Apple, but given your posting history, I take your experience with a grain of salt.
Both out of warranty but that shouldn't change anything. No other company I deal with charges to ask a question. Btw, I only had to ask because I couldn't find the information in the (increasingly bad) support pages.
In fact, Siri should be a support line too. Everything that is support information related to the the device should be able to go through that and you should never be charged just to formulate a question.
Er, you do realize asking questions and getting answers to them is the definition of what tech support service is? So yes, of course it should change things when your product is out of warranty and your support term has ended. That’s why they sell Apple Care with its extended term. If they gave you free tech support then it devalues what other customers are paying extra for.
Like other comments, I’ve had nothing but great experiences with Apple support. They’ve overnighted me a replacement AirPod for free when I phoned about it dropping connection, which blew my mind. But they were within the warranty and support terms, as is the common practice here.
What has your your experience been like dealing with Huawei with out of warranty tech support?
Never needed Huawei tech support to date.
Can you imagine walking into an Apple Store to ask a question and being asked to pay before getting an answer?
Remind me how much cash Apple has in the bank. It is not beyond their means and, with or without the word 'computer' in the name, 99% of their business involves software. That, inevitably leads to questions.
If Apple advises me to install new software on an out of warranty device and it screws up, should I not have the right to get free software support?
Here's a little anecdote involving Western Digital and an out of warranty external hard disk.
It turns out that there was a potentially serious flaw in the firmware and they issued a universal firmware update application to apply the fixes to the affected drives.
So I downloaded it and ran it. Before I could actually use the thing I was given the usual warnings about not turning the drive off during the process etc along with another about if the process should fail it could lead to a bricked drive. You had to 'ok' acceptance of that risk to proceed.
Well, I ran the updater and midway through the process it returned an error. It bricked my drive. I contacted WD - at no charge - but they told me there was nothing they could do as the drive was out of warranty. When I persisted, they asked me to take the drive out of it's case and re-try the the updater with the drive in a PC. When I asked for instructions on the best way to take the drive out, they couldn't help and told me to go find a video on YouTube. The drive is still bricked to this day.
Access to support information should not be paywalled. It should be available and findable. Companies should have bots checking for and correcting dead links and if a necessary future update causes problems on out of warranty equipment, the warranty should be reactivated to cover it.
Spanish ISPs got into the habit of using higher tariff lines for customers to contact support. That particular activity has now been outlawed by government.
This is slightly different but Apple should not be channelling contact efforts to paywalls to get information when that information is not easily found on their web.
Comments
I remember vividly a wonderfully relaxing week's stay at the Tu Tu'Tun Lodge in Oregon a few years ago. Their attention to detail, the way I was made to almost feel like a longtime friend, the efforts they put in to to seeing everything I wanted was made available to the best of their ability, simply amazing "customer service" like seeing that a warm breakfast, a fresh sandwich, and a thermos of coffee was at my door at 5:00 in the morning before going out on a fishing trip, even making a trip into town the evening before on my behalf to pick up a license I neglected to get myself, all those little things that make for a very memorable "premium experience"....
Ruth's Chris Steakhouse is another who went out of their way to deliver a "premium experience" with an extreme focus on high-end product, presentation, and customer service the times we dined with them. Wait staff who was generally out of sight but still always attentive, food prepared exactly as requested and courses ready when they should be. Don't know if they still do the same, almost seems general customer service standards are not as high now anywhere, but companies like that are what I'm referring to.
I myself price my product at a relative premium among my competitors, but offer the personal service and high standards that make the prices more palatable. I've gone so far as to take a loss on a particular sale in order to resolve a complaint even where it was my customer at fault 100%. I've trash-canned many jobs because of the tiniest of flaws the end customer would be unlikely to see even if he/she were looking for it. The fact I know it's there is enough for a do-over. I take immense pride in what I sell, far more than plotting how rich I can become from it. Believe it or not designing and building the best mousetrap in the world and striving for perfect and responsive support and customer service is no guarantee of incredible financial success. Huh, who knew?
Just because no one else has become as rich as Apple doing so does not mean no other company cares, taking pride in their both their product and product support in order to deliver a premium experience that would be expected for a premium price. It also does not mean all others failed either if they didn't reach Apple's tower. For many that's never the goal to begin with. Craftsmanship, pride in the product, and customer focus exists all over the world in millions of small, medium and large companies. Going up into the megacorp stratosphere you could toss Amazon very high on the list of companies highly regarded by consumers, delivering great service and support, trustworthy and reliable, and unlike Apple not trying to do so at a premium price, yet it still works. Apple is just the richest of them all.
Perhaps a few things to keep in mind:
- The "modern" smartphone was introduced 11 years ago. We still have 100's of millions of PCs & Macs purchased every year, with installed base of those products estimated at about a billion. Apple sells more Macs now than when the iPhone was launched. The PC/Mac did not become "redundant".
- When thinking about how functions might move "beyond the smartphone", what comes to mind? A wearable like a smartwatch? Getting some personal audio like the completely wireless headphone buds? Perhaps something like AR with some smart glasses. Hmmmm.
- Some people are absolutely enamoured with the "smart speaker". These people think that "voice first, or even voice only" are the future. I asked Alexa to show me the latest Game of Thrones season, but for some reason she was not able to give me the visuals. She tried to describe each scene, but it was painful.
As for Amazon -- I would not put them anywhere near this. First because their website is a mess. Second, because their support is quite awful. With Apple I can call a number and talk to Americans who understand me and can solve my problem readily and with enthusiasm. With Amazon I get canned emails from people with a language barrier who struggle to understand what is being conveyed resulting in round robbins of wasted time. Sorry, but using cheap off-shore support is harder ever (never) compatible with great service. It's forcing your customers to be patient translators. Should not be my job.
Amazon support has been absolutely top notch. Never any mix-ups and they have resolved everything I have thrown at them. Even live chat in the early hours of the morning. Yes, it is clear that most of the people that deal with my issues are not Spanish and sometimes they go overboard with the pleasantries but they top Apple Spain in my experience.
Your tale lacks detail. Was your product (which I’m sure is one of a whole raft of Apple products you own because you’ve been a huge Apple fan since before the company started up etc etc) still under warranty?
Last time I contacted Apple support was due to a problem with my PowerBeats. Service was top notch. Replaced without a hitch, and had a nice chat about online book stores. Some customer support bods are so smart I wonder why they’d want to work in customer support.
You’ll probably find that your dealings with Apple customer support are soured by your dislike of Apple before you start. You want bad service to prove that Apple is as bad as you need them to be, so your view of what actually happens is slightly discoloured.
I have no doubt that people have been experienced poor service from Apple, but given your posting history, I take your experience with a grain of salt.
This couple did. They didn’t have much luck.
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/fine-google-competition-eu-shivaun-adam-raff
So they took it a little bit further…
In fact, Siri should be a support line too. Everything that is support information related to the the device should be able to go through that and you should never be charged just to formulate a question.
Er, you do realize asking questions and getting answers to them is the definition of what tech support service is? So yes, of course it should change things when your product is out of warranty and your support term has ended. That’s why they sell Apple Care with its extended term. If they gave you free tech support then it devalues what other customers are paying extra for.
Like other comments, I’ve had nothing but great experiences with Apple support. They’ve overnighted me a replacement AirPod for free when I phoned about it dropping connection, which blew my mind. But they were within the warranty and support terms, as is the common practice here.
What has your your experience been like dealing with Huawei with out of warranty tech support?
Can you imagine walking into an Apple Store to ask a question and being asked to pay before getting an answer?
Remind me how much cash Apple has in the bank. It is not beyond their means and, with or without the word 'computer' in the name, 99% of their business involves software. That, inevitably leads to questions.
If Apple advises me to install new software on an out of warranty device and it screws up, should I not have the right to get free software support?
Here's a little anecdote involving Western Digital and an out of warranty external hard disk.
It turns out that there was a potentially serious flaw in the firmware and they issued a universal firmware update application to apply the fixes to the affected drives.
So I downloaded it and ran it. Before I could actually use the thing I was given the usual warnings about not turning the drive off during the process etc along with another about if the process should fail it could lead to a bricked drive. You had to 'ok' acceptance of that risk to proceed.
Well, I ran the updater and midway through the process it returned an error. It bricked my drive. I contacted WD - at no charge - but they told me there was nothing they could do as the drive was out of warranty. When I persisted, they asked me to take the drive out of it's case and re-try the the updater with the drive in a PC. When I asked for instructions on the best way to take the drive out, they couldn't help and told me to go find a video on YouTube. The drive is still bricked to this day.
Access to support information should not be paywalled. It should be available and findable. Companies should have bots checking for and correcting dead links and if a necessary future update causes problems on out of warranty equipment, the warranty should be reactivated to cover it.
Spanish ISPs got into the habit of using higher tariff lines for customers to contact support. That particular activity has now been outlawed by government.
This is slightly different but Apple should not be channelling contact efforts to paywalls to get information when that information is not easily found on their web.