Re: a personal rant on Apple and their customer nasty behavior

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Gary Johnston [johnston () nku edu]
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2008 9:40 AM
To: David Farber
Cc: ip
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:   a personal rant on Apple and their customer nasty behavior

I had a similar experience with the AT&T store being too busy to even
answer the phone. But my experience with the Kenwood Apple store in
Cincinnati was just the opposite. In line, several reps kept coming
back and asking who wanted what kind of iPhone and marked places in
line where each type would run out. (I had called the store before
arriving and when I first arrived in line to verify  stock, both calls
answered by a friendly human after the usual voice mail stuff.) They
also individually made sure everybody in line was pre-qualified so
nobody waded through the line only to be dissapointed. We all became
friends in line, holding places for each other for runs to the food
court, etc. When I finally got in (2 hours) the Apple rep came and got
me. I was treated like I was the only person in the store. And when I
had brought my laptop to restore my data on the spot, they said that
was fine. And during the restore, any of the reps who happend to be
passing by made it a point to check on me and ask if everything was
going all right and could they help.

Overall, it was definitely a "Cinderella effect" process. The store
was absolutely packed, but I felt like the entire staff was
concentrating just on me.

Maybe they were just trying to live up to the customer service
expectations we have living in a town like Cincinnati. :-)

By the way, and a funny aside, there is a Verizion sales kiosk outside
the Apple store. I took a picture of all the cellphone buyers in line
for the iPhone with the Verizion rep playing solitaire on the company
computer.

Sent from Gary's 3G iPhone.

On Jul 31, 2008, at 1:38 AM, David Farber <dave () farber net> wrote:

> ________________________________________
> From: mark seiden-via mac [mis () seiden com]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 4:10 PM
> To: David Farber
> Subject: Re: [IP] a personal rant on Apple and their customer nasty
> behavior
>
> yes, the whole thing is annoyingly dysfunctional, particularly given
> that i'm a current
> cingular customer with a windows mobile phone i'm ready to throw at
> the wall.
>
> last night i had a similar experience at the burlingame, ca apple
> store.
>
> a woman walking out said she only waited half an hour ("not bad").
> there wasn't a long line.  but i hungrily decided to go to dinner
> first.
>
> wrong.
>
> when i got back, there was no line, and nobody was making eye contact.
>
> when i finally got someone's attention, they said they were sold out
> for the day.
> there wasn't a sign or anything.   "if there isn't a line that means
> we don't have any".
>
> of course, there's no way to pay for one and come back the next day
> and activate and
> pick it up.  you need to make n trips, for an unknown and possibly
> large value of n.
>
> at apple.com, they have a way to check ("after 9pm") if your store
> will have stock the
> next day, but it's useless.
>
> so i decided to try the att store instead.   the web site says "phone
> first" to make sure about availability.
> but when you call everyone is busy serving customers, so there's no
> way to talk with anybody
> at the store.   unless maybe they are sold out.
>
> On Jul 16, 2008, at 9:57 AM, David Farber wrote:
>
> > I went to my local apple store to see about getting a new iPhone
> > (and giving my old one to my son). Last week was a zoo and so today
> > the line was short-- maybe 15 people. So I asked about coming back
> > latter. They said that even now the line would talke 2 hrs !!! and
> > that even if I was on the line they could not assure me that there
> > would be a unit available at the end of 2 hours.
> >
> > Maybe that leads to good PR with newspapers and photos but I am
> > pissed . They make computers and online systems  don't they. Even
> > the museums  know how to handle  crowd -- assigned times and
> > "inventory control or just handing out tickets for "seats".
> >
> > Why oh why do I deal with these people. As soon as there is real
> > competition I don't intend to .
> >
> > By the way, the people in the store are GREAT and friendly, they are
> > doing what they were told to do not what they would do if left alone.
> >
> > Dave
> >
> >
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