A Positive Tale of Apple Customer Service

Customer service is the bane of technology. If your hardware works, you don’t worry about it, but when something goes wrong, you want a good, efficient safety net to handle repairs. I’ve had my share of good and bad customer service experiences, but I thought that, this time, I’d share a positive story, and show how Apple has greatly improved its customer service here in Europe.
It all began when my iBook started losing its backlight when I’d tilt the screen. It was an intermittent problem, at first, so I didn’t worry too much about it. The iBook is under an AppleCare contract, and, while it is over two years old, it still has a few months before the contract runs out. (I’ve long purchased AppleCare extended warranties for my Macs. Partly because it’s good insurance, and partly because, living in the country, it would take me a few hours to drive to the nearest authorized repair center. AppleCare offers on-site repairs for desktop Macs, and shipped repairs for laptops. While I’ve always purchased AppleCare contracts directly from Apple, you can sometimes find them cheaper from vendors such as Amazon.com.)

Now, this iBook had already been sent for repairs–in fact, the logic board had been changed because of another video problem, so this didn’t bode well: two repairs for the same computer for related problems is not a good sign. In addition, the previous repair was a nightmare: Apple, at the time, had a repair center in the Netherlands, and their incompetency was astounding. I had to send the iBook a total of three times for repairs, and when it finally got fixed, it was filthy, with finger marks on the screen.

But this time all was different. Apple has closed the Dutch repair center, and now fixes laptops in the UK. I called the AppleCare technician, went through the usual motions, checking this and that, restarting from an installation disc, etc. When he agreed that the problem was indeed a hardware problem, he set up the repair and the pickup. This took about a half-hour–not bad, but not a free phone call–and the technician was competent and friendly.

The next day, the box came to ship the iBook to the UK. On the same day, I stated getting e-mails from Apple: one confirming the repair, another confirming the shipment of the box. (The previous time, communication was very limited.) I packed the iBook, sent it off, then waited. Over the next few days, I got lots of e-mails from Apple: one confirming that the iBook had been received, another confirming that it was being fixed, then a final e-mail saying it had been shipped. I was given several numbers to track the repair and the shipment, and a few days later, it was back, as good as new (well, almost).

While I’ve had many contacts with Apple over the years, it is clear that they’ve done a lot of work to make their customer service more efficient, and, especially, more communicative. The last time I sent the iBook for repairs, I got no e-mails, no contacts, nothing. I couldn’t track the repair on Apple’s web site, and I just had to wait for the computer to come back. So I have to say that I’m very pleased in this experience: Apple handled the problem efficiently, fixed it quickly, and shipped it fast. (In fact, it got from the UK to my Alpine batcave overnight.)

There’s no moral to this story, other than the usefulness of having AppleCare or a similar support contract for computers. As we all know, they either break down in the first month, or after a few years. Looking at the cost of what they replaced (oh, they replaced the keyboard too, since a couple of the letters had worn off), it more than made up for the cost of the AppleCare contract. I’m a satisfied customer, this time, especially compared to my previous experience. Kudos to Apple for getting their act together here in Europe.

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