Getting a human representative at 1-800-MY-APPLE

Hmmm. My experiences calling Apple over the past year have all been great. In addition to being one of the only companies I call that seems willing to hire knowledgeable professionals for their call center, the Apple IVR has always been quick and painless for me. Generally speaking an IVR is actually trying to direct your call to the right group somewhere around the world best equipped to help you. As annoying as 'playing along' with that may be, I've come to feel that answering the questions usually produces better results than fighting with the things. I'd rather say "Mac" a couple times and be transferred to the right person than be clever and say "Sad Panda" so that I could wait on hold and be transferred around some more.

I called recently and was pleasantly surprised. The robot was the most user-friendly, pleasant (if such things can be), and efficient one I've encountered in quite awhile. After telling him/it what I wanted I was connected promptly to a very helpful human--again, one of the most friendly, pleasant and efficient ones I've encountered of late. I wish all customer support calls I've made had gone like this one.

Apple actually uses Interactions, a company based in Indianapolis, to handle customer service calls. And they are LIVE humans behind each prompt, abd they select a response upon hearing your requests.(they cannot speak to you however) So whatever random things you might say is actually heard by the human.

#tuawfail

Every time I've called Apple I've been connected with a live person. Being put on hold rarely causes me to wait for than a couple of minutes, and I've never had to deal with a robo-voice.

Seriously? All this discussion/griping/mulling, even this articles very existence, and no one tried pressing "0".

Press "0" once, and robot will ask where you want to be directed. If you still don't feel like talking, press "0" again, and you get sent right to an agent.

Pretty much every automated systems can be bypassed by pressing "0". It's set up that way for accessibility concerns. Most make you double "0", but it's still not *that* hard.

Make sure that your topic cannot be understand

Seriously? you guys need better writers. and topics.

I've never had a problem calling Apple. The automated system works great for me and I love the Beatles music they play while I'm on hold. When I talk to tech support they've always been nothing but nice and helpful. Is it abnormal to have Apple programmed into my phone? National line is the cell phone under the contact and my local store is set to the home number.

The. Worst. Phone. System. In. The. World. is ATT.
If you have combined billing (which I *had*) you get to talk to a horrible bot who can't understand when I say "pay my bill". I want to strangle that b-tard every time I call.

OTOH, the female bot on the wireless ATT side is actually sensible. She asks you to punch in a number - that way she knows what you want without pretending that she can understand plain english.

1800MYAPPLE? I've never had a problem there.
(Or a problem with MacMall, either)

I've also had no problems getting a live service rep. In fact, due to vacillating on my order yesterday, I needed two reps and spent an extended time with the first sorting out credit issues with their financing offers. Not only did I get the rep quickly (on a morning when a major product announcement was made), but he probably spent 45 minutes to an hour straightening things out, and gave me his name and direct line before the first time he had to transfer me.

Stellar service all around. Other companies may try to drive you away, but Apple's is genuinely just seeing if you can indeed do things yourself to save everyone time. The reps answer quickly and certainly don't make any attempt to keep their call time down artificially.

People should also be reminded that Apple was all set to open a call center in India a few years back. Steve looked at it and the quality on the eve of opening and canceled it. Apple takes its customer care very seriously.

http://news.cnet.com/Apple-hangs-up-on-India-call-center/2100-1047_3-6079967.html

All I do is hit zero. 'Mr. Roboto' gets mad and lets you talk to a person.