4th iPhone, 3rd replacement. Worst experience with Apple customer support
Sorry to write such a long post, but I feel compelled to tell someone about what has happened to me over the past few weeks of dealing with Apple.
I bought an iPhone 3G on the day of release last year. Since then I have had nothing but problems with the hardware. I have had the device replaced three times. I am on my fourth phone. The first two replacements were made by driving four hours round trip to the nearest Apple retail store. Not wanting to repeat the trip for a third time, I decided to buy an AppleCare Protection Plan and use the Advanced Replacement Service that is covered under the protection plan.
I called Apple support and got a representative that told me that I could sign up for the warranty and then he would have a new phone shipped right out at no charge. Sounded great to me. We go through the whole process when he then tells me that the system can't authorize the advanced replacement without charging the fee. But, he said he would get a "Service Specialist" on the case to reverse the charges. I said that was fine. He then asked if there was anything eles he could do for me. At that point I decided to check my bank account online to verify what had been charged. I nearly fell out of my seat when I saw what had been charged.
Somehow he charged my account for the AppleCare plan and the full price of three replacement 16GB iPhones. A total of over $1,600! Needless to say I was quickly transferred to a sepcialist who gave me all of her contact information so that I had a way to directly contact the person working on my case.
This all happend on Friday. I was called on Saturday and told that I would receive a call on Monday to let me know the time frame in which everything would take place. The call never came. I did notice that most of the funds had been returned by 5:00 that evening, but I still had charges that needed to be reversed. Over the next few weeks I called and sent emails using the contact information I had been given with no response. I called during the stated working hours and only ever got voicemail. Finally I called tech support again and asked for a supervisor to complete my case. As of today, over two weeks after the first mistakes, my case is still "pending."
After exausting all of my other options, two days ago I sent an email explaining everything to [email protected]. I was hoping something would come of it, but still, nothing. I hope that simply they have not yet been able to send out a response, but with all of the incompetence I have seen within Apple over the past few weeks, I think that thought is a bit naive. I sincerely hope that Apple will rectify the situation that they have caused with, what I would like to thinkof myself as, a valued customer.
On a more positive note, I finally have an iPhone that works as it should!
I bought an iPhone 3G on the day of release last year. Since then I have had nothing but problems with the hardware. I have had the device replaced three times. I am on my fourth phone. The first two replacements were made by driving four hours round trip to the nearest Apple retail store. Not wanting to repeat the trip for a third time, I decided to buy an AppleCare Protection Plan and use the Advanced Replacement Service that is covered under the protection plan.
I called Apple support and got a representative that told me that I could sign up for the warranty and then he would have a new phone shipped right out at no charge. Sounded great to me. We go through the whole process when he then tells me that the system can't authorize the advanced replacement without charging the fee. But, he said he would get a "Service Specialist" on the case to reverse the charges. I said that was fine. He then asked if there was anything eles he could do for me. At that point I decided to check my bank account online to verify what had been charged. I nearly fell out of my seat when I saw what had been charged.
Somehow he charged my account for the AppleCare plan and the full price of three replacement 16GB iPhones. A total of over $1,600! Needless to say I was quickly transferred to a sepcialist who gave me all of her contact information so that I had a way to directly contact the person working on my case.
This all happend on Friday. I was called on Saturday and told that I would receive a call on Monday to let me know the time frame in which everything would take place. The call never came. I did notice that most of the funds had been returned by 5:00 that evening, but I still had charges that needed to be reversed. Over the next few weeks I called and sent emails using the contact information I had been given with no response. I called during the stated working hours and only ever got voicemail. Finally I called tech support again and asked for a supervisor to complete my case. As of today, over two weeks after the first mistakes, my case is still "pending."
After exausting all of my other options, two days ago I sent an email explaining everything to [email protected]. I was hoping something would come of it, but still, nothing. I hope that simply they have not yet been able to send out a response, but with all of the incompetence I have seen within Apple over the past few weeks, I think that thought is a bit naive. I sincerely hope that Apple will rectify the situation that they have caused with, what I would like to thinkof myself as, a valued customer.
On a more positive note, I finally have an iPhone that works as it should!
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Of course, on a side note, I've owned three Apple notebooks over the past four years and every one of them has had to go in for service. In fact, every piece of Apple hardware I've ever owned, aside from my 2G nano, has gone in for warranty repair for manufacturing error, and I'm not overly picky...