MacDailyNews reader “Lynnw” sent us an email this morning that’s too good not to share:
I have had a hardware issue recently with my original iPad 3G. I called Apple recently and they tried to assist me with the problem. I telephoned them again this afternoon because I discovered my warranty was going to run out on Monday. The problem I had was with the input area, it was slow.
Anyway, I spoke with a senior technical advisor and he didn’t want me to go to the trouble of going to an Apple Store or having to wait for another device because I am visually impaired… big time. He said hang on and you should receive a call from Apple.
Within an hour they were calling to inform me that they were shipping me a brand new iPad 2 3G and to simply sign the agreement so they could send me a box for the one I presently have. They’re shipping the new one first so I am not without one in the meantime. and email my John Hancock and they would ship out the device to me tomorrow. They asked if I wanted white or black, I said white and sure enough the guy confirmed that they would be sending me a white one.
I am sitting shell shocked from the kindness this agent and Apple in general has shown me, never mind grateful. What a company and I am so impressed. My husband nearly fell off his chair! I kid you not!
Amazing!
MacDailyNews Take: Apple Inc. The greatest company in the world.
That is awesome! Apple has always treated me right!
And they are especially nice if you are signed up for AppleCare. The only Mac I’ve had with AppleCare was a Power Mac G5 a few years ago. The front FireWire port stopped working just before the three-year mark. They said “Thanks for having AppleCare” to me multiple times, first when I called tech support to trouble-shoot, and then when I took it to the local Apple Store for repair. I felt like they were taking responsibility for the problem, and they sincerely felt bad about causing inconvenience (which is actually true because that thing is HEAVY). And the FireWire port repair was done VERY fast; I think I went to pick it up the next day.
Yep, they’ll do that kinda thing. My dad accidentally dropped his 3GS in the toilet and when he went in to get a replacement, they gave him one free of charge. Best part was that this was right around Christmas too!
This doesn’t surprise me. My friend bought an iPad 2 a few months ago for a 3-month motorcycle trip across the country. Three weeks in he dropped and shattered his brand new iPad! It was entry his fault, but he took it to an Apple Store and they replaced it for free! He was most impressed. What other company would have done that? None! I doubt even starbucks would replace your coffee if you spilled it!
Hot damn, I want a new iPad, too. Now, where’s that 20 oz framing hammer?
Your comment made me lol 🙂
A friend of mine purchase a MacBookPro and had issues with the screen …. He went to a local Apple Store (purchased originally online from Apple) and they checked out the machine and then said wait a minute, came out from the storeroom with a new Mac and transferred everything for him, wiped old machine, and he left with a new computer …..
Kicker was it was an upgraded model with a better screen and maxed out on ram – what a deal ….. The Apple girl told him only one they had in stock, so he got lucky ….. And the icing was he got the box, the whole darn thing, like he just purchased ….
It was his first Apple product, and he was impressed!
I to had an awesome visit to the apple store, my iPad 2 had been dropped and damaged the volume button, I went in to find out how much the cost for repair was, walked out with a new iPad 2 and the genius gave me a new smart cover cause mine was dirty!! He said he wanted me walking out looking new!! Best company in the world indeed!
Nice.
I have numerous similar stories about Apple, they just seem to want to treat their customers the right way.
Took my MacBook Pro in cause the bluetooth stopped working, walked out with a brand new MacBook, again a better upgraded model.
I’m an Apple guy for life cause I know they do their best for their customers.
Can’t top that but my last visit to the store in Norwich, UK with my daughter’s almost 5 yr old!! white MacBook ended up with a new keyboard, new top surround, new hd, new screen and a battery thrown in for 20 quid – all done inside 24 hrs.
Greatest company in the world? you bet.
Update a few minutes ago. The senior advisor I spoke with yesterday telephoned and mentioned that he would like to offer me a smart case since my original Apple case won’t fit and asked what color I would like. I mentioned an Apple Red and again he’s sensing this out free of charge. Grateful.
Apple in the past has been so good to me dating back to my PowerBook G4 aluminum laptop and also my 2 year old MacBook Pro that had issues. A guy named WoodyL at the time overnighted the laptop and sent me the full edition of IWork along with it.
Anyone in the world who doesn’t consider purchasing an Apple Brand product is crazy and I question their common sense. You get what you pay for and priceless customer service support. Thanks Apple
You rock!
Curiously, why do you suppose the competing copycats (from CEO presentations, to products, to marketing, to online and physical retail stores, to advertising, to packaging, to casual wear zen and countless other whatnot) are painstakingly slow to copy this altruistic side of Apple Inc.?
Lynn, I’m very happy for you and your husband. Thank you for sharing your story. I was a nice Sunday read.
i received better treatment buying my first $2000 iMac vs 911. Sold all other investments and bought all Apple stock last year……Screw u Samsung!
About 2 years ago, I woke one morning to discover that the green light on my magsafe connector was not green. I didn’t know if it was the power supply or the battery. I took the whole thing into the genius bar. I explained and they went away to test my kit. My genius returned saying that the fault was the power supply. I replied; “Great! That answers my question. I’ll get a replacement, please.” While he went away to find a new power supply, I took out my credit card to pay. You see the machine was 3 years old and way out of warrantee. The genius returned and told me to put my card away. Apple was going to give me the new power supply! I couldn’t have been more surprised. And happy! Great customer service!
Same issue. Didn’t get mine for free though, but didn’t pay full price either.
No wonder Apple has >90% customer loyalty.
You don’t get to be the biggest consumer brand in the world by treating your customers like crap. It’s this type of pattern of behavior that built the Apple brand into what it is today…the co-may that everyone is trying to mimic.
I actually am a tier 2 advisor and sit net to the person that took that call! Thanks so much for posting the nice things, we dont get to hear them often and this made his day when I showed him! Thanks again MacDailynews!!!
I use my MBPro a lot, but protect it well. Still, after 1.5 years one rubber foot came off and the charger’s pivoting cable ear broke off. I do have AppleCare, as I’ve learned that ocassional things fail particularly when used constantly.
I expected a new rubber foot to stick on and that they would not replace the charger, though it showed no abuse.
Apple, instead, simply put on a whole new bottom plate and gave me a new charger.
Any place else would have simply given me the cheap solution of a stick-on rubber foot and told me I must have broken the ear by dropping it (which I didn’t).
Apple does it right.
A good friend of mine, whose husband has always been a die-hard PC user, had a fantastic experience with Apple. She bought herself an iPod touch and couldn’t get it to sync properly with the family PC. Apple took the time to actually troubleshoot the PC for them–even for a couple of issues that had nothing to do with the sync problem. They were so impressed with the service of a company that would even take the time to help them fix longstanding PC issues that they are a solid Mac family now. An iMac that even the husband has come to like, and two iPads that they offered each other for Christmas.
What did you expect? PCs…giving trouble since Windows Vista. XP was the only solid product Microsoft released. I can’t even begin to relate the hair tearing experience I faced when confronted with the Ribbon in Office 2003. Absolute nightmare. And they’re thinking of extending the Ribbin metaphor to cover Windows Explorer in W8. Imagine the stampede to the Mac side of things when W8 is released in 2012. Not surprising that Apple is expected to shift 4.6 million Macs this quarter.
PCs…giving trouble since MS-DOG.
There, fixed it for you.
Actually I beg to differ BLN, XP was just a slower bloated version of W2K. Windows 2000 was likely the best OS MS ever produced (if you were coming from the consumer side then, yes XP was better (more stable ect, because of the NT kernel) than the consumer win98 or 98se or god forbid winME. But XP was a definite step down for professional users (who were “upgrading” from windows 2000)
I’ll second the point on win2k… The most stable version of win I’ve ever used, especially with latest service pack and patches, and with a very lean, clean install… At the time it was more stable than Mac system 9 by a country mile. It was my last win system (used until 2008.) I’ll not use windows again, period. No reason to at all.
This is one of the reasons I love Apple. Just last year my logic board went out on my ’08 MBP (way out of warranty) and when I took it in to have it fixed, they fixed it. For free. Who else would do the things they do? Nobody.
Not to burst your bubble but that may have been the extended nVidia warranty so technically they had to.
I guess I am just unlucky.
I’ve never had an Apple hardware problem since I bought my first Apple product, a Mac Plus, in late 1984.
I did have to fight with Mac OS 8.0, but that was software not hardware.
The Mac Plus wasn’t introduced until January 1986… I bought mine – which I still have and which still works! – in October 1987 🙂 $2,600 and worth every penny.
A friend of mine from England called me on FaceTime to say his HD crashed. He looked at his customer service agreement and realized it was expired by three months. So thinking he was out of luck, he called local computer repair shops and all of them were quoting above 200 pounds (that’s about $350). He called apple just to see what they had to say. To his amazement, apple didn’t say “sorry, it’s out of warrantee go away” as he was expecting. Instead they recovered his complete data over the phone.
My experiences over the last 15 years with Apple support have always been stellar. They spend the time to help fix the problems I’ve had – even the ones I caused.
I ordered a MacBook Pro, birthday present for my wife, with a RAM upgrade. I failed to see that the shipping date would be later due to the upgrade. When it didn’t arrive prior to her birthday I called and the service rep politely explained what the deal was. She couldn’t get the computer to me in time for the Bday but she did overnight a free carrying case for the soon to be shipped computer.
A small gesture like that is the reason I am a Mac fan. And the fact that I have to use Windows on a MacBook for a specific app and Windows is so unfriendly.
I’m surprised you didn’t curse Windows and all its ilk more forcefully. No matter. Here let me do it for you. Windows is freaking malware that has to be tolerated, like clearing leaves from your storm gutter in the fall. You know you have to do it but it’s a pain in the butt.
I am on my 3rd iPhone 4 , all free after the original
I too had a free replacement courtesy of Apple, this being my iPhone 4 as the one I bought outright started to fail.
Apple after all ‘make insanely great products’ and are backed up with ‘insanely great service’.
When I got my first iPhone, my daughter spilt coffee on it. The middle third of the screen stopped responding to touch. I called Apple. They shipped me a box. I sent it in. They shipped me a new iPhone.
Then I got the iPhone 3G. I dropped it from 12 feet up onto concrete. The glass did not crack, but the LCD underneath did. It still worked. I took it to an Apple store. Walked out with a new iPhone 3G free of charge.
Then I got iPhone 3GS. It was 3 months out if warranty when one day while traveling in a different city, it refused to charge at all. I walked into an Apple Store. The Genius tried everything, but couldn’t get it to charge, and said that he was sorry but I was way out of warranty to do anything. I told him that I have used a Mac since 1984, so please do something. He said wait a minute. He went back, got a new iPhone. He charged me 80 bucks for a battery and I walked out with a new iPhone 3GS.
I am now on my iPhone 4….
Let’s not forget that other companies also show respect, kindness, and graciousness to their patrons. My father’s Kensington trackball failed years after the warranty expired. Kensington sent him a new trackball free of charge.
My daughters refurbished MacBook from March 2006 had a kernel panic. Apple Genius folks reinstalled the OS and everything is fine. Thank you Apple!