Why I buy Apple: My Personal Experience
In this day and age, customer service seems like a rarity, but I had an experience this past week with the Apple Store that really made me a loyal customer for life. I was filled with excitement 2 weekends ago, because I was in a position where it was time to upgrade to the newest 15″ Macbook Pro. The accelerated graphics and the raw power of the machine would allow me to do some things with 3D that my older Intel Macbook just wouldn’t do. My Macbook was an awesome machine, and I definitely got my money’s worth out it, doing countless freelance jobs, in web and print design. I went into the Apple Store and purchased a brand new Macbook Pro 2.66 Ghz Core 2 duo, and took it home, imported all of my settings and info via a Time Machine backup, and I was up and running within an hour. I was elated with my new machine and how fast it was, and I carried on, business as usual. I have been rather busy lately, so I haven’t had my ear to the ground as much as I usually do, so I literally almost had a heart attack this past Sunday night, when I was up late, catching up on emails, and noticed a new product announcement from Apple. They had completely redone all of the Macbook Pros, and they had been released on Thursday, February 24th.
My heart sank, as I’d just spent over $2,000 on a brand new laptop, which after 5 days, was now half as fast as the new model. They had literally doubled the processor from 2 to 4 cores, the same tier model also went from a 500GB hard drive to a 750GB hard drive, and the graphics card was upgraded, and the RAM on that went from 512MB to 1 Gig. The new models also upgraded to the new Thunderbolt technology, which is supposed to be extremely fast, especially for data transfer, being up to 10x faster than Firewire 800. It was now 10 days after my purchase, and I was left thinking “If I had known, I would have waited 5 days to buy a new one.”
The next day, I called the local Apple Store and spoke to a nice young woman and explained my situation. Thinking that I was stuck with my model, I asked “Is there anything that I can do?”
To my ultimate surprise, she simply said, “Yeah, sure! Bring it in and we will swap it out.”
“What? Are you serious? Okay, well, I wanted to get the same tier model, which is the same price. Will I have to pay a restocking fee?”
She replied “No. Just bring it in. Since it is within 14 days of your purchase, you can return it, and we will swap it out for the new model.”
I was in the parking lot at work, talking on my cell phone, and immediately jumped up and screamed “Yes!!!! That is totally awesome!” I was so excited and happy, that I told everyone I know about my great experience. Monday after work, I went into the Apple Store with my new computer packed back up in its original packaging, their employee scanned it in, asked me what model I wanted, and we swapped it out for the new 15″ 2.2Ghz Quad core Macbook Pro. I didn’t even have to wipe the hard drive of the computer that I brought back. They do that in the store.
I am so overjoyed, and I had to share this story with you. So often now, customer service is overlooked. We are seen as dollar signs instead of people, and that is why so many companies have trouble gaining brand loyalty. If you take care of your customers, and give them a truly wonderful experience, a great product and excellent service, then you will have a dedicated and loyal customer for life. I have never been disappointed or let down by Apple or its products, and I am always happy with their service. It is because of all of these qualities, that I will never own anything but an Apple. I am just glad to know that customer service isn’t dead.
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11 Responses to “Why I buy Apple: My Personal Experience”
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Steve says: James, I had a similar experience with my iMac this past Thanksgiving – and it truly was a thanksgiving. (I purchased the iCare 3-yr policy at the original purchase) My hard drive would not boot up – the weekend my service contract expired! They cleaned the drive, installed a new OS and it appeared to work (while I waited @45 min). Two days later – same thing. Took it back to the Apple store, they had to order a new drive – twice the size of the original and in just three days – back to business as usual. Service was outstanding!!!!
Steve says: Oh, did I say I LOVE MY MAC! 22+ year relationship.
crlipkin says: This is an amazing story. I’m tweeting this to my followers–it needs to be told to a larger audience.
Spambot says: Hi James, I suffered the iBook logic board failure of the circa 2006 iBooks. Apple were at fault and there was a product recall. I seemed to be suffering the same symptoms as other people getting a replacement so I called Apple.
They took my serial number and said sorry no. I tried again and only to be told “we can’t talk to you about technical issues you need to buy Mac Care for £40″. A third customer service assistant told me my serial number’s date was 2 weeks outside the recall cut off point though it “sounds like you are suffering the logic board failure”.
And that’s why I’ll never buy an Apple computer again. /anecdotes.
Spambot says: I will add that a logic board repair was quoted at around £600, with my student discount I could buy an entirely new modern spec laptop.
Whatever, you were within the 14 days… if the 15th day would have come along, when they would have denied your request to swap it out for the new mac, your letter of praise would have never been written, in it’s place I’m sure would have been an angry ‘customer service’ is dead, ‘non-apple’ guy for life response.
-Winning.
-
jgeorge says:
Hey whatever, I am glad you voiced your opinion. I hear your side of the story, but in all reality, I used to work at my local Apple store a few years back, and your are actually wrong. I saw multiple instances where people were outside of their 14 day window, and the store managers still honored their return anyway. I can’t speak for Apple, because I am in no way affiliated with them, except for that I love and use their products, but they do make customer service judgement calls. They are a company that I truly stand behind.
Haha, yeah I agree with “whatever” above. You were still within the 14 day window, so they were simply obligating that. This isn’t an example of outstanding customer service, they were just honoring policy – doing their job. You lucked out. BUT it is a great story! I’m glad it all worked out for you, and it makes me smile. 
(Just to note, I’ve been a Mac user for nearly ten years, and I’ve had both good and bad experiences with Apple.)
Don says: A recent upgrade to iTunes came along and I attempted to install it. Got an error message saying the certificate was invalid. Called Apple and got a representative immediately. Explained my problem and got the advice to disable antivirus and firewall and try again. Same problem. Finally figured out the Apple upgrader can’t tell the difference between a 32 and 64 bit operating system (Windows 7). Uninstalled everything Apple, downloaded a new iTunes and got it to work. These people are nice but not geniuses. Give me a quality Windows machine built by a local computer shop every time.
Arun Suvarna says: You one lucky dude! My story is not, with such a happy ending. I got my 3rd Mac book back in 2008. It was the start of my ordeal with Apple. My machine has spend more days NOT WORKING then doing something and now after N number of repairs, I use it very carefully. I plan to take legal action soon against Apple.
What a great story! Wish I read more like this…
James, I had a similar experience with my iMac this past Thanksgiving – and it truly was a thanksgiving. (I purchased the iCare 3-yr policy at the original purchase) My hard drive would not boot up – the weekend my service contract expired! They cleaned the drive, installed a new OS and it appeared to work (while I waited @45 min). Two days later – same thing. Took it back to the Apple store, they had to order a new drive – twice the size of the original and in just three days – back to business as usual. Service was outstanding!!!!
Oh, did I say I LOVE MY MAC! 22+ year relationship.
This is an amazing story. I’m tweeting this to my followers–it needs to be told to a larger audience.
Hi James, I suffered the iBook logic board failure of the circa 2006 iBooks. Apple were at fault and there was a product recall. I seemed to be suffering the same symptoms as other people getting a replacement so I called Apple.
They took my serial number and said sorry no. I tried again and only to be told “we can’t talk to you about technical issues you need to buy Mac Care for £40″. A third customer service assistant told me my serial number’s date was 2 weeks outside the recall cut off point though it “sounds like you are suffering the logic board failure”.
And that’s why I’ll never buy an Apple computer again. /anecdotes.
I will add that a logic board repair was quoted at around £600, with my student discount I could buy an entirely new modern spec laptop.
Whatever, you were within the 14 days… if the 15th day would have come along, when they would have denied your request to swap it out for the new mac, your letter of praise would have never been written, in it’s place I’m sure would have been an angry ‘customer service’ is dead, ‘non-apple’ guy for life response.
-Winning.
Hey whatever, I am glad you voiced your opinion. I hear your side of the story, but in all reality, I used to work at my local Apple store a few years back, and your are actually wrong. I saw multiple instances where people were outside of their 14 day window, and the store managers still honored their return anyway. I can’t speak for Apple, because I am in no way affiliated with them, except for that I love and use their products, but they do make customer service judgement calls. They are a company that I truly stand behind.
Haha, yeah I agree with “whatever” above. You were still within the 14 day window, so they were simply obligating that. This isn’t an example of outstanding customer service, they were just honoring policy – doing their job. You lucked out. BUT it is a great story! I’m glad it all worked out for you, and it makes me smile.
(Just to note, I’ve been a Mac user for nearly ten years, and I’ve had both good and bad experiences with Apple.)
A recent upgrade to iTunes came along and I attempted to install it. Got an error message saying the certificate was invalid. Called Apple and got a representative immediately. Explained my problem and got the advice to disable antivirus and firewall and try again. Same problem. Finally figured out the Apple upgrader can’t tell the difference between a 32 and 64 bit operating system (Windows 7). Uninstalled everything Apple, downloaded a new iTunes and got it to work. These people are nice but not geniuses. Give me a quality Windows machine built by a local computer shop every time.
You one lucky dude! My story is not, with such a happy ending. I got my 3rd Mac book back in 2008. It was the start of my ordeal with Apple. My machine has spend more days NOT WORKING then doing something and now after N number of repairs, I use it very carefully. I plan to take legal action soon against Apple.