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Apple Education Store live chat service discovered

live personThe Apple Education Store has a new, but hidden live chat service for helping its customers. A reader sent in a link which opened a text chat with an Apple representative in LivePerson chat.

According to the rep, the service is less than a month old. There is no direct Web link to initiate a chat, at least for now. You may be invited to chat if you meet an internal rule while ordering through the Apple Education Store, like entering the wrong credit card number or staying on certain pages too long. The rep said the service is only available to education customers (including college, but not high school students) at this time, but promised that "we will expand as we get to know our customers and their specific needs."

This apparently is not a service for answering tech support questions. The rep said, "We try and steer those to the tech support experts as this avoids any possible incorrect information. . . [the live chat service] is for help with computer questions and order issues, credit card, best choices, education discount, etc."

I think this is a terrific idea. The Apple rep was courteous and gave me immediate, helpful replies. I found it more efficient than wading through phone menus. I also like the idea of having answers in writing. Apple--if you're listening, here's my vote for expanding this service to the entire Apple Store, using it to offer tech support, and making it more accessible. Has anyone else run into this service?

[Thanks Shrimp]

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The Apple Education Store has a new, but hidden live chat service for helping its customers. A reader sent in a link which opened a text...
 

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Jagadeesh

Hi, onUnload event is not firing in Safari browser. I tried with different ways to capture that event but i failed to capture that event. So please help me on this, give suggestions to capture that event. Or any other event is firing when window is closing. Actually, i need to execute when window is closing. But in Safari the window is closing without firing of any events.

May 16 2006 at 6:21 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jagadeesh

Hi, how to capture the unload event in safari browser.
I need to execute some function before closing the window. I tried with different ways, but i failed to capture that event. So please help me on this. Or any other event is there, that fires when window si closing.

May 16 2006 at 6:06 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Daniel Pritchard

to Rob Emslie above:

Have you ever tried Meebo.com? Your .mac member name is just an AIM screen name, so you can just use it there as such. Meebo is an awesome, ajax-based IM client for all the major services.

March 29 2006 at 2:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
kkms

I liked the chat so well I bought the softwarecompany, LPSN

March 27 2006 at 3:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
dtm

i recently spoke to service rep Ted and he gave me buyers advice on a powerbook a friend is selling and got alot of information for me i could have never found
great feature i wish would be openly accessible for everyone on the apple homepage
dtm

March 21 2006 at 9:03 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
shrimp

I thought this was cool so I sent it in, it's cool that it was posted!

I got a reply before the java client even intialized! But I didn't know what to say, so I closed it.

I think sales chats are a great idea, unlike phones, they can talk to several people at the same time, and quickly, too.

March 21 2006 at 4:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rob Emslie

This shows that Apple could easily add online iChat as a feature of Dot.Mac. I've been hoping for such a feature so I could use my Dot.Mac address when away from my work/home computers. It would be a cheap value-add for Dot.Mac members.

March 21 2006 at 3:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Julien

Great service. I just tried it, and service rep Greg also appeared after just a few seconds. He was courteous and helpful... Just what I would expect from a good customer service representative !

Kudos to Apple for the initiative. And thanks TUAW for reporting this !

March 21 2006 at 3:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
vidboy

And after all the discussion about Apple outsourcing more support to India - you know the best thing of all...they can run this live chat from India and no-one in the US will be any the wiser :-)

March 21 2006 at 3:00 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Nik Fletcher

I've not discovered this particular service before, however I have had the pleasure of a LiveChat for iPodShuffle support through the Apple website - helped a friend discover they had a faulty iPod. Apparently it's a service offered for iMacs and Shuffles.

March 21 2006 at 2:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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