Filed under: Retail, Surveys and Polls, Apple
Apple turns the most customer service frowns upside down
I couldn't resist the headline, but can you blame me? This tech stuff can be a doozie on consumers, but it seems that Apple just received the highest rankings in a customer support satisfaction survey released by the ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index). This 2006 second quarter report found Apple's industry-leading satisfaction rating on the rise to 83%, up 2.5% from last year (funny: in my student adventures, an 83% leading the class is typically considered a bad thing). The industry overall saw a slow increase in satisfaction, with Dell leaping over 5% to their 78% mark, and even HP and (surprisingly) Gateway seeing mild improvements.Check out the full list of results - which includes plenty of other industries like automotive and even search engines - for more details of which companies are putting smiles on their customer's faces.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DG said 8:22AM on 8-17-2006
Not mine - 2 months to repair my one month old iMac! Worse than useless in my opinion, they don't bother testing their products before release and couldn't care less about fixing faulty machines. They've got your money - now F-off. How can it take 2 months to get a replacement part when new iMacs are still on sale with 24 hr lead time? Total B.S. Glad I paid a premium for Applecare. Not.
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Scott F said 10:02AM on 8-17-2006
I see HP is low, so it's a sane and normal world.
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MattM said 10:14AM on 8-17-2006
I've just had a very bad customer service experience with Apple. MacBook failed to start four days after I bought it. Service was appalling. AppleCare is a total rip off. £200 for a phone line you still have to pay for that closes at 7.45pm. Ridiculous.
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jaco said 12:01PM on 8-17-2006
In the 7 years I've been a hardcore Apple fan and among the 20+ switchers I've influenced, there is only one person I know that has had a truly satisfactory Apple customer service experience. I hasn't been me.
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Kieser Sorbet said 12:38PM on 8-17-2006
My experiences with Apple customer service has been excellent. However, I'm not foolish enough to buy 1st generation hardware for anyone and expect all the bugs to be worked out.
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WarnerO said 1:37PM on 8-17-2006
While I have had excellent service through Apple directly I will never again go to their stores for any kind of service, the service I received there was horrendous, and I'm not the only one. A friend of mine took his brand new MacBook in there 3 weeks ago and hasn't heard one word from the store as to what the hell is going on, and Apple support hasn't got a clue what's going on at their stores (which is where you get redirected to when you call the store and push the selection for repairs).
I love Apple, but they seriously need to reconsider their Genius Bar/support scheme, it sucks.
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John A. Lynn said 5:50PM on 8-20-2006
I switched from a PC to a PowerBook G4 after 20 years of PClife. I am appalled at the service levels I have experienced with AppleCare and the "Genius Bar".
On the last two occasions with phone support from AppleCare, after waiting more than 15 minutes to speak with anyone, I had extended conversations with the service person and then, in each case, he had to be offline "to check something out" and after waiting another 10 or so minutes for him to come back, the line went dead! Since they confirm your phone number when you call, I can assume these fellows just hung up as they could called me to finish the call. If they don't know what to do, I believe they should own up to it and explain what they plan to do to help. Blowing off a problem they can't solve immediately is poor management. I had better experiences with Dell by far.
The "Genius" bar experience: my PowerBook was slow. Quick answer: install a gig of memory. After consulting with another genius later the same morning, we discoverd that one of the two 256mB memory chips was not operating. No need to buy a $300 chip; AppleCare should repair for no cost. How do they qualify their "genius" staff?
Apple service, from my experience, has been dramatically overrated.
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HW said 7:15AM on 10-05-2006
I purchased 4 machines on 1Sep (2 duo core intel minis, 20" imac, macbook). At this stage only 1mini is working properly. Macbook has been classified DOA as it never worked, imac has to be taken back to the store to be fixed ! mini not even dealt with (as I dont have time).
I have made countless calls to applecare/customer relations and have all names/dates/times/ or the drones I have spoken to with various BS.
The best has to be, that you have to take your machine back to the store u purchased for replacement, and all our customers do this. Hmmmm, I purchased a macbook cos its portable ?
Oh well...
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