I love Apple, but there are a number of areas in which they fail, some of them miserably. In the case of who I will call Edward, Apple has apparently dropped the ball completely. Edward bought an Apple MacBook 2.16GHz model, in white, in the last week of January, 2006. All Apple computers come with a one year warranty to cover any failures or manufacturing defects. Apple’s process is to vet the issue over the phone and, if the support need is deemed valid, they send you a box to ship them your system. Apple has denied Edward service for his issue.
Edward’s issue appeared one week after his one year anniversary. The internal Ethernet jack stopped working. He rebooted the system. He applied all patches via Apple Software Update. He flashed the PRAM. He reset the power manager. He repaired all permissions. He even used a recent copy of Disk Warrior to make sure that there were no errors on the disk, all to no avail. The Ethernet port would simply not work, no matter how many cables or switches he connected to.
Edward contacted Apple support to see if they could work something out, despite being one week past his one year warranty coverage period. Apple turned him down. He writes about his communication with Apple:
Here is the Apple situation. They give you a two day grace period for warranty coverage. The letter [Apple] sent me to upgrade my warranty did not apply, even though they sent it three weeks ago. [Apple] stated that they didn’t care what I have purchased in the past nor that I have done business with Apple in the past. They would not, under any circumstances, allow me to purchase an extended warranty. They also told me that they would not escalate the call.
Edward goes on to say that he was treated worse than the treatment he has received from Microsoft and that he would seriously reconsider ever purchasing from Apple again.
What I find amazing in this is that, despite the fact that he had purchased an extended warranty at a personal cost of US$250, Apple would not apply that warranty coverage to his machine. Edward walked into an Apple Store in his local area, explained the problem to an Apple employee, and was told to communicate with Apple Support the next day to have them escalate the call. The employee did not tell Edward that purchasing the AppleCare extended warranty would not help and he was advised by Apple Support that he should, “return the box for a refund.”
In The Dojo’s estimation, this is the worst kind of customer service. If there was already such a restrictive ruling in place, all Apple employees who deal directly with the associated elements should have been fully versed in their implementation. In the case of Edward, Apple is not only denying him service, but also the ability to upgrade his warranty, at cost to himself, in a form which works for him.
Edward is a senior systems engineer for a consultancy which generates nearly $2 million in revenues annually. Approximately 40% of their client’s systems are Apple Macintosh. If what Apple does in these situations sends a negative message to the engineers, what does Apple think they will pass on to their clients?
I am passing a link to this story to a representative at Apple at the same time I am publishing this for public reaction. We may or may not hear back from Apple on this issue. If I do, I’ll post the updates.
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written by Tyler Regas
Posts
February 18th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Well, if everyone waited until after they had a problem to buy the Apple care, then nobody would buy it. The fact that it is $250 and not more is because most people who buy it will never need to use it, so it pays off when you DO have a problem, like in this case. The customer acknowledges that he got a letter from apple before the warranty expired. He should have gotten the warranty then, or at the time of purchase. I feel no pity
February 18th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
The amazing thing is that so many people have heard stories of X product from Company X being out of warranty only X days ago and not getting warranty service. So many people know the warranty of their machine but just don’t care. Then they go looking for a handout, throwing around their sob story when it was all within their control to begin with. People need to set their expectations better. This customer failed himself and I know for fact, given the situation, Apple would refund the cost for the APP. Funny thing is, he is just as likely to pay that amount for the repair.
February 18th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
my macbook cracked after only three months and it was probably my fault for dropping it repeatedly but the guys at the apple store in edina had it back to me fully repaired in less than an hour. yes, it was still under warranty but it was my fault and they took care of it anyway. i think these guys are great and will continue to support them. buy the extended warranty before yours expires or pay for repairs. my opinion.
February 18th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Apple did nothing wrong; his warranty had expired. And trying to buy an extended warranty to cover a pre-existing, out-of-warranty problem is like trying to buy fire insurance for a house that’s already on fire.
February 18th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
I agree with first 4 posts.
Also, and not that you are necessarily implying so but just for the record: the fact that he works for a consultancy which generates nearly $2 million in revenues annually doesn’t (or at least shouldn’t) make any difference to the service Apple does or does not deliver in this situation. If there was a policy that would state that in equal cases a certain service should only be offered to corporate customers with higher annual sales than x… THAT would be very bad service and a PR nightmare once it comes out…
February 18th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Hmm, as a senior systems engineer consulting for clients who use Macs, shouldn’t Edward have known the terms of AppleCare? I’m sorry, but I’m not sympathetic to his trouble.
Apple gives you a whole year to buy AppleCare if you don’t buy it with the computer. That’s enough of a grace period.
February 18th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Apple customer service didn’t fail. The customer did!
He gambled and lost. As a senior engineer in a successful consultancy, I’m sure he can afford to pay for his own repair. What a crybaby! I’d have more sympathy for a starving student.
While it would be nice if Apple bent the rules for him, he has no right to be angry if they don’t. What a sense of entitlement! Complaining now just makes him look like the fool he is.
Maybe next time, the skinflint will purchase the extended warrantee within the allotted year.
February 19th, 2008 at 12:53 am
I purchased the Apple extended waranty with the guranteed money back if the warrantee was not used. After the three year period, I applied for a credit to the amount of the warrantee as per the sales pitch.
I got a reply back, saying that because I had warranty work done, the rebate would not be forth coming.
In other words, because work had been done during the factory warranty,the famous power supply failure, they wouuld not live up to the money back guarantee on the extended warranty.