Posted: 11/8/2011 5:12:31 AM EDT
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I have grown to despise this company. I am convinced that every product they make is made with the goal to get more money out of the buyer. I bought an imac years ago and loved it. No crashes, quick boot time, no viruses, loved it so much I sold it to buy the newer generation. Bought it and was working fine but I got an ipod for Christmas, hooked it up and it wouldn't work. Called apple and they said I had to buy a newer version OS to make my new ipod work. Wanted $100 for the upgrade. So I asked do I have to give you more money to make an apple product work with an apple product? The answer was yes. I plugged it in my PC and it worked fine. I won't get into the problem I had with ipods and itunes, suffice it to say I now use a zune. I had an iphone 3GS and the battery went out after 18 months but had been relatively happy with it. I replace the battery myself and give it to my daughter and buy a 4S. Well it shows up defective. So I call apple yesterday to file a warranty, they tried everything to avoid it but finally after about 1.5 hours attempts, she agrees to send me a new one. The rep tells me I have three options. 1. Send the phone back to apple (3 days), give them 2 days to process it and I should have the new 3 days after that, total = 8 days without phone. I say no. She goes to option 2. Give them $69.99 to enroll in apple plus and they would send me a new one now and I could send them the defective one when the new ones arrives. I say I do not want to spend money to use my warranty as I have already paid for warranty covereage once in the price of a new phone. Option 3 is to give them $99.99 to get apple plus and 2 year warranty, they send the phone now and I return mine when it arrives. Again, I said I am not paying any more money other than shipping to apple. I go on to tell her in my role as a first responder/hazmat, we are activated via text so I really don;t want to go a week without a phone. She goes to check with supervisor, comes back and says they can go ahead and send me a new one and place a hold on my credit card until they get the broken one. I said cool, thank you. Then came the punch line, we will just have to charge you a $30 service fee. So I told her that every product they make is built with the purpose of extorting more money out of the customer and their warranty was chicken shit. I didn't pay anything and it's no big deal to be without a phone for 8 days but I just hate companies like this.
I got away from ipods and imacs for a reason. Bad thing is my girlfriend just bought me an ipad2 a few weeks ago, which I have no use for. I looked at phones before I got this one and wish someone would produce something that competes well with the iphone. Guess I am getting old, these things don't bother my kids but drive me insane. Sorry for the rant. Still pissed about it. |
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Most places, inlcuding the Apple store have a return policy within 15 days. So you could have bought your device locally and had the option to return it had it not worked out of the box. I bought my 4S (had a 4 and upgraded) and they allow you to set everything up right there to make sure you can make a call, surf the web and get your email before you leave.
My wife had an issue with her button starting to stick on the front of the phone. Called Apple, and they gave her the same options you had. But the $60 option was worth it as they paid for shipping both ways, and extended the warranty another year. We didn't have to beg for a warranty exchange, they wanted to swap it out right away. Their only question is "is there any chance of water damage?" as that voids the warranty. There are two spots to check for water damage, and once you say NO, they send the replacement phone right away overnight. My wife has had three different iPhones since the first one came out a long time ago, plus three different iPods over the years. We each have iPads (one gen 1 and one gen 2) and my wife has a Macbook Pro. The warranty support has been stellar, and the free Genius bar support in the mall is awesome. I am still a big PC guy myself, but I have nothing by respect for Apple and their support staff. They have always been great to deal with. By the way, the Apple Plus support option also covers accidental damage to your phone up to two times. Great option if you travel a lot or work in a hazardous setting. Sorry for your troubles, but Apple usually is on point. |
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Most places, inlcuding the Apple store have a return policy within 15 days. So you could have bought your device locally and had the option to return it had it not worked out of the box. I bought my 4S (had a 4 and upgraded) and they allow you to set everything up right there to make sure you can make a call, surf the web and get your email before you leave. My wife had an issue with her button starting to stick on the front of the phone. Called Apple, and they gave her the same options you had. But the $60 option was worth it as they paid for shipping both ways, and extended the warranty another year. We didn't have to beg for a warranty exchange, they wanted to swap it out right away. Their only question is "is there any chance of water damage?" as that voids the warranty. There are two spots to check for water damage, and once you say NO, they send the replacement phone right away overnight. My wife has had three different iPhones since the first one came out a long time ago, plus three different iPods over the years. We each have iPads (one gen 1 and one gen 2) and my wife has a Macbook Pro. The warranty support has been stellar, and the free Genius bar support in the mall is awesome. I am still a big PC guy myself, but I have nothing by respect for Apple and their support staff. They have always been great to deal with. By the way, the Apple Plus support option also covers accidental damage to your phone up to two times. Great option if you travel a lot or work in a hazardous setting. Sorry for your troubles, but Apple usually is on point. The bottom line is that any place that makes you pay an additional $69.99 just to get decent warranty service is garbage. I couldn't buy one in the store and have it set up because they were and still are out of stock everywhere around me which is another irritating point that they are not even meeting demand. I had to order it through att backorder and wait on it to arrive. I was happy with my first imac but has been nothing but crap since. Everything is cool until you have a problem, then they just want more money. |
| I don't know of any company that has a standard warranty that will send you a new item first before gettings your back. Even with guns. LWRC, Colt, etc all make you ship your gun in UPS ground and then look at it. Same with phones. I understand your frustration, but t isn't just Apple. |
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I don't know of any company that has a standard warranty that will send you a new item first before gettings your back. Even with guns. LWRC, Colt, etc all make you ship your gun in UPS ground and then look at it. Same with phones. I understand your frustration, but t isn't just Apple. Apple will send you the iphone first, they wll just CHARGE you money to do it. They wanted to put a hold on my credit card for $650 and send me a new phone and if I failed to send them back the old one, then they charge me the $650. Fair enough.....but in order to do that, they want to sell you an upgraded warranty for $70 or $100. So if they can do that, why can't they just put the hold on my credit card and send me the phone without making me upgrade their crap warranty? Because they want to take advantage of the situation and try to make a few more bucks, instead of just honoring their warranty. I have more than one colt and could go without one for a bit but I have only phone and one phone number, as most people. No backups. Actually I wouldn;t mind having more warranty but if they do this bad on their basic warranty, no telling how much grief you would catch on an extended one. I'm sure it's full of loopholes and upcharges |
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If you are near an apple store and if you can stand waiting in such a loud and obnoxious place, taking your defective product to the apple store is the best option. Good idea, I thought of that, so I called applecare, they reserved me an appointment in the evening at the closest apple store. The apple store is 40 miles away but it beats going over a week without a phone. I called the store to see if they had them in stock and if they could hold one for me since the repair center had approved the swap. The guy could not tell me how many they had in stock! I explained I didn't want to drive 40 miles and them not have any. He said again he could not tell me. I said, just tell me if you're out or not. He said he couldn;t tell me. I asked if he knew how to count or if he was illiterate or something and for a place that operates a "genius bar" they're a little lacking on geniuses. All I wanted him to do is look and see if they had any at that time. I realized it was a losing battle and gave up after I realized he was too lazy to look and see if any were in stock. |
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It's all Chinese made. Look at the box. Designed in California. The portable devices are made by Foxconn in China. It comes as no surprise to me that they are having QC problems. They have a brilliant marketing campaign though. Sorry to hear your troubles. Have you considered a not iphone? I switched from at&t and an iphone 3g to Verizon and a droid X around June and have been pretty happy with it. It's an honest improvement IMO. |
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It's all Chinese made. Look at the box. Designed in California. The portable devices are made by Foxconn in China. It comes as no surprise to me that they are having QC problems. They have a brilliant marketing campaign though. Sorry to hear your troubles. Have you considered a not iphone? I switched from at&t and an iphone 3g to Verizon and a droid X around June and have been pretty happy with it. It's an honest improvement IMO. I completely agree. Apple has the image of quality product (and I think that their interface is numero uno <even 3 or 4 year old autistic kids have no problems using their products) but the quality of the hardware is not as great as "people" say. Do you remember the laptop battery fires? No one seems to remember those and like incidents. |
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It's all Chinese made. Look at the box. Designed in California. The portable devices are made by Foxconn in China. It comes as no surprise to me that they are having QC problems. They have a brilliant marketing campaign though. Sorry to hear your troubles. Have you considered a not iphone? I switched from at&t and an iphone 3g to Verizon and a droid X around June and have been pretty happy with it. It's an honest improvement IMO. I agree 100%, I had a droid on verizon when they first came out and loved it. I have to use ATT though, I have no choice. If there was something for ATT that worked as well, I would get it. I couldn't find anything else I was comfortable with. |
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I don't know of any company that has a standard warranty that will send you a new item first before gettings your back. Even with guns. LWRC, Colt, etc all make you ship your gun in UPS ground and then look at it. Same with phones. I understand your frustration, but t isn't just Apple. I had a Droid Incredible through Verizon that went bad, and they sent me the replacement and had me send my broken one back in the same box. The idea was that if they don't get the old one back in a reasonable amount of time, they charge your account for the replacement phone. This was a year ago. No idea if they do things differently now. |
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I understand your frustration, but t isn't just Apple. DING DING DING..... Tell the man what he's won. belbo- seriously dude, have bought ANY electronics in the last 10 years? They're all like that. It's the nature of the beast. Sometimes you get good service, sometimes not so much. I personally have only great things to say about Apple and their products. I'm a PC guy still but have been through countless Ipods. A few broke, but I usually upgrade and sell off the older ones. The two that I have had that "went bad" I used the shit out of them. I got my money and thensome out of them. I can personally say that ever since I bought my first one in the fall of 2004 [An Ipod Photo] and have been hooked ever since. Nothing is perfect, but Apple revolutionized how people listened to music overnight. We wouldn't have the smartphones, tablets, and online music options that we do today if not for them. And all interaction I've had with apple employees has been exemplary. You got a bad product and that sucks. We lost two space shuttles. If man can make it then man can break it. Shit happens. Get a helmet. |
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I understand your frustration, but t isn't just Apple. DING DING DING..... Tell the man what he's won. belbo- seriously dude, have bought ANY electronics in the last 10 years? They're all like that. It's the nature of the beast. Sometimes you get good service, sometimes not so much. I personally have only great things to say about Apple and their products. I'm a PC guy still but have been through countless Ipods. A few broke, but I usually upgrade and sell off the older ones. The two that I have had that "went bad" I used the shit out of them. I got my money and thensome out of them. I can personally say that ever since I bought my first one in the fall of 2004 [An Ipod Photo] and have been hooked ever since. Nothing is perfect, but Apple revolutionized how people listened to music overnight. We wouldn't have the smartphones, tablets, and online music options that we do today if not for them. And all interaction I've had with apple employees has been exemplary. You got a bad product and that sucks. We lost two space shuttles. If man can make it then man can break it. Shit happens. Get a helmet. You miss the point. I'm not so worried about things tearing up but more in how the company handles them. My apple products have lasted as well as anything else, if not better and they have had superior re-sale value. None of that is the issue. The issue I have is that every single product or service they sell is designed first and foremost to wrestle more money from the consumer, not as an upgrade, but simply to keep the products usable and/or compatible with other ishit. I'm not opposed to a company making profits, but do it in a legit, above board method. Apple doesn't do that and they can kiss my ass. The bad product isn't the issue, the bad customer service is. Plus, the way they talked to me on the phone was a display of pure arrogance. |
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I feel your pain. Take your original post, scratch out every time you used the word "Apple" and replace it with the word "Dell" and you'll come halfway to how I feel about that particular manufacturer. I've got a Droid X through Verizon which I'm perfectly happy with. My wife had a Droid X and had nothing but trouble with it, so Verizon shipped her a new one and had her send the bad one back in that shipping box. She still wasn't happy with it, so she traded it in for a new......... Iphone4. Which she loves. Go figure. Hope you get your problem resolved soon. |
| Ok, apple sent me a second phone and it doesn;t work right. These things are pieces of shit. Just got off the phone with them for about the 25th time and all they did was blame other things which couldn;t be the case. What a bunch of incompetent dumbasses. Don't ever buy one of these pieces of shit. |
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The bottom line is that cell phones and other devices break and have a finite lifespan. Generally, we had $100-$200 phones that could be fixed and if not replacing it was not the end of the world. Now the phones have a real price of $400 to $600, which was bought down by your carrier, and folks can't afford to replace them when they break or have an accident. Servicing them is nearly a break even cost as its tricky and labor intense.
I went with the insurance on my company iphone. It's $10 a month or so, but then its not a big deal if I drop it in the pool or something. |
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Ok, apple sent me a second phone and it doesn;t work right. These things are pieces of shit. Just got off the phone with them for about the 25th time and all they did was blame other things which couldn;t be the case. What a bunch of incompetent dumbasses. Don't ever buy one of these pieces of shit. no thanks. I love our iPad2 enough that I will be buying an iPhone when my contract is up. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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I don't know of any company that has a standard warranty that will send you a new item first before gettings your back. Even with guns. LWRC, Colt, etc all make you ship your gun in UPS ground and then look at it. Same with phones. I understand your frustration, but t isn't just Apple. Amazon will, at least for the Kindle. I haven't had an issue with any of their other products. One of my Kindles developed a crack in the case about 9 months into the warranty. They overnighted me a replacement and I had 30 days to put mine into the box and return it to them or they would charge my credit card on file. My other Kindle experience with them involved a several years out of warranty Kindle that my friend's kid sat on and broke. They gave me $75 toward the purchase of a new Kindle. I've also had them take a $200.00 eBook back after their return period had passed and gave me a full refund. |
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I don't know of any company that has a standard warranty that will send you a new item first before gettings your back. Even with guns. LWRC, Colt, etc all make you ship your gun in UPS ground and then look at it. Same with phones. I understand your frustration, but t isn't just Apple. Amazon will, at least for the Kindle. I haven't had an issue with any of their other products. One of my Kindles developed a crack in the case about 9 months into the warranty. They overnighted me a replacement and I had 30 days to put mine into the box and return it to them or they would charge my credit card on file. My other Kindle experience with them involved a several years out of warranty Kindle that my friend's kid sat on and broke. They gave me $75 toward the purchase of a new Kindle. I've also had them take a $200.00 eBook back after their return period had passed and gave me a full refund. I agree, Amazon customer service is impressive. I bought an IR illuminator and it was missing the end cap. The next day aired me the replacement...print out return UPS label...done. |
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The bottom line is that cell phones and other devices break and have a finite lifespan. Generally, we had $100-$200 phones that could be fixed and if not replacing it was not the end of the world. Now the phones have a real price of $400 to $600, which was bought down by your carrier, and folks can't afford to replace them when they break or have an accident. Servicing them is nearly a break even cost as its tricky and labor intense. I went with the insurance on my company iphone. It's $10 a month or so, but then its not a big deal if I drop it in the pool or something. Yeah but I expected the "finite lifespan" to go into the years or at least months, not minutes, like these TWO iphones have done. Then to get followed up by some of the worst CS in the world. Insurance is the least of my worries, they both showed up defective. Oh well, back to ATT, they give you 30 days to change your mind and I'm definately doing that. Cheap chinese made garbage |
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never had a problem with my old 3g, since having the 3gs I've had 2 broken screens in like 5 months with the case on.....makes sense right My 3GS was fine. The battery went dead recently, I called apple and they qouted me $200 to replace it!!!! I got a new battery and replacement tools of ebay for $4.00 SHIPPED and did it myself. Another way they rip people off. |
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Bad thing is my girlfriend just bought me an ipad2 a few weeks ago, which I have no use for. I'll take it off your hands for cheap. We need a second one so the kids stop fighting over our current one. Things sell for quite a bit used. I will keep it because it's a present from the GF. The only redeming factor about apple is their resale value |