Awesome post Derek – taking care of your people is job #1.

Posted by Ryan on 11 June 2008 @ 4pm

While I don’t have my iPhone (yet), all my Apple customer service experiences have been amazing. I have to drive 30 minutes to the closest Apple Store, but I actually look forward to it instead of dreading it…even with $4/gal gas.

There’s a line in a movie where someone says something like, “People who live in Manhattan believe that everyone else is just kidding themselves…” (Yeah…I butchered it.) This is what Apple customers think about everyone else. They’re just kidding themselves.

Posted by Shane on 11 June 2008 @ 4pm

This has happened to me twice since I originally purchased an iPhone. Its pretty amazing really and I love how they act like its normal. The latest was because I had dropped the phone. The corner had dented causing the vibrate/ring switch to malfunction.

I finally went in to ask them what I could do about it. After explaining the problem and that it was because I had dropped it, she promptly went into the back and got me a new one. No questions asked.

Its unbelievably amazing.

Posted by Josh Bryant on 11 June 2008 @ 5pm

Just out of curiosity, was this within the warranty period? What is the warranty on the iPhone?

Posted by Richard on 11 June 2008 @ 7pm

I had the same experience as Josh Bryant above: dead vibrate, analysis with a smile and a shrug, and bing! new iPhone, on the spot. The Apple employee didn’t even think twice about replacing it.

More recently, my replacement phone was having battery issues: I was dropping from 20% to dead in an idle hour. Made my appointment, went into the Apple Store (the crazy tourist mecca on 59th and 5th in Manhattan, no less) and was taken within minutes. I was expecting another new phone, but instead, the tech performed a fast diagnostic test, decided a system restore would fix the battery recognition, performed the restore while I waited, and sent me home to see how it went. It’s been working perfectly since, which means I got a repair *and* an education on time and at no charge.

Richard: Apple’s return policy is only good for 14 days, but I suspect they’re replacing phones up to 1 year from the purchase date. (Which means Derek and I have a couple of weeks left to find problems with our phones.)

Posted by David Wertheimer on 11 June 2008 @ 8pm

What’s most interesting to me is that the same people who used to snicker years ago when they found out you were a mac user, are now making the switch. For some reason, they are always amazed at how everything works as its supposed to.

Posted by J on 12 June 2008 @ 12am

Brilliant.

I’m only a new Mac convert, but it’s reasons like this that moved me from Windows. My wife, who works on Oxford St in London, is rather anti-Apple, and oftens jokes about ‘all the little people lined up outside the Apple store every morning waiting for someone to fix their computers’. I have to explain to her that the reason they go there is because they know they will have someone who actually gives a toss looking after their problem, rather some call centre Dell employee who couldn’t give two shakes.

Posted by Mark on 12 June 2008 @ 1am

I’m still somewhat cynical as to whether this kind of service would happen in the UK. More to the point, good service aside, this to me is really another story of Apple hardware failing again. I really enjoy my iPods and Macs, but experience has taught to me to remain in constant fear of them breaking at any point.

Posted by Richard Rutter on 12 June 2008 @ 4am

I had almost the same experience about a month after I got my iPhone; a whole row of sensors went out; took it to the Genius bar and they handed me a new one, just like that.

Now if only they could do the same for my several-month-old Macbook Pro that’s never behaved properly, despite now 5 trips to the Genius bar, a faulty RAM Chip replacement, and many phone talks with the Mac folks… *sigh*

Posted by Dawn on 12 June 2008 @ 10am

This happened to me this week. I woke up in the morning and the bottom third of the touch screen was rendered useless. I was unable to “slide to unlock” so my phone was out of comission. I made an appointment with the apple geniuses (a bit over the top, but they do their job!) for that afternoon, went to the mall, and they said “hmmm, I’ll replace your phone for you.” I had a new, fully functional iPhone in minutes!! It was great!

Posted by Adam on 12 June 2008 @ 11am

My experience doesn’t involve Apple product, just product purchased at an Apple Store. I have a hard drive I was using as an AirDisk and, this week, it started to not want to work via USB, just FireWire.

I need a receipt to RMA it with the manufacturer, but I can’t find it in the house. A trip to the store later, and a Genius gives me not one but two high bond, stapled receipts after I was able to give him the credit card and an approximate date of purchase. It took five minutes and happened with a smile.

As we were leaving, my wife observed that even at slightly more than going to someplace else, service like that is well worth paying for.

Posted by Nathan L. Walls on 12 June 2008 @ 3pm

Another satisfied customer here. I had a problem with my MacBook that required sending it off to a repair facility. Understandably, I was not terribly enthusiastic about the prospect of 1) being without my ‘puter for the time it took to fix it and 2) about losing any data (I did back up but, still, what a headache and stressful situation it would be).

My fears proved unfounded as I got my computer back in all of one day and everything was still on it.

The whole experience was as pain-free as it possibly could have been.

Posted by Daniel Markham on 13 June 2008 @ 1pm

We had a similar experience recently with a MacBook whose iSight went out – 5 days before the warranty was up. They fixed it no questions asked and had it shipped back to the office in like 3 days.

Posted by Aimee Greeblemonkey on 13 June 2008 @ 3pm

I had the same experience with my iPhone just this week. The touch screen at the bottom was unresponsive, and would activate itself randomly. Of course it worked perfectly when I took it to Apple, but they were more than happy to take my word for it and gave me a brand new iPhone. The backup feature in iTunes is priceless.

Thanks for Fray.

Posted by Michael on 20 June 2008 @ 8am

Thanks for the post, Derek, it prompted me to book and appointment on-line and visit the San Francisco Genius Bar with my MacBook yesterday. The MacBook was suffering from a dead iSight camera and a battery that wasn’t holding charge. We are on holiday in San Francisco this week and once they realised the 5-7 day fix time could be a problem for me they fixed the iSight on the spot! The battery was replaced without a murmur. Excellent service from Michael. Fantastic.

Posted by Peter Asquith on 23 June 2008 @ 9am