# How've your Apple quality/customer service experiences been? And related generalities... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 8, 2009, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howve-your-apple-quality-customer-service-experiences-been-and-related-generalities/513027 "2009-10-08T05:46:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howve-your-apple-quality-customer-service-experiences-been-and-related-generalities/513027/21 "2009-10-09T01:27:22Z")
Overall very good, when I needed it, which has only been four times. When my PowerBook G3 would no longer charge from the plug, the Airborne Express dropped off a box, picked it up, and returned in in about 5 days. When my PowerBook G4 (refurb) arrived DOA, the Apple Store at Sommerset (only one I had back then), I took it in without an appointment, and they had it back in about 4 days. When my US-purchased iMac started suffering SMART errors while I was long-term in Canada, I was a little worried. They happily directed me to an authorized service center, and they replaced the hard drive then and there. The last one is a little shaky, though. The service people were excellent, but the timing was horrible! My big iMac had a faulty video card. I took it to the Partridge Creek Apple Store (just up the road!), and for some reason it took a f’ing _month_ for them to realize that they couldn’t fix it and get me a replacement machine (under Applecare, and the replacement machine was a significant upgrade!). It went like this: remove the video card, send it to Apple, wait for a new one to arrive, realize it wasn’t the only faulty thing, remove the motherboard, send it, wait for a replacement, call me to pick it up, thing is in worse shape, repeat the whole process, and then send in the bad Mac and wait for a new one. Yeah, it pissed me off having to be stuck with the 17" Mac the entire time. I think I’ll never, ever go to the Apple Store again for a repair. The fact that they don’t keep parts in stock sucks bad enough; the fact that the depot has to wait for the “bad” part to arrive before sending a good part back to the store is simply insupportable. NEVER AGAIN. ---
**Author:** ![miatachris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@miatachris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miatachris)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howve-your-apple-quality-customer-service-experiences-been-and-related-generalities/513027/22 "2009-10-09T04:51:48Z")
My new Iphone developed a bad case of “can’t hear the towers” when my wife’s identical unit was working perfectly. AT&T made me an appointment at the Apple store, they took one look at it, and handed me a new Iphone. Impressive. ---
**Author:** ![Caractacus\_Pott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@Caractacus\_Pott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caractacus_Pott)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howve-your-apple-quality-customer-service-experiences-been-and-related-generalities/513027/23 "2009-10-09T05:38:40Z")
> [@tumbleddown](#): > > When one Googles the phrase “genius bar appointment” the first hit is, crazy enough, [Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple](http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/) where, lo and behold, one can make an appointment right there online. [QUOTE=chimera] Any agent can make you an appointment at a store. Unless of course, some dumbass at Apple takes the system down for maintenance in the middle of the day, which happens way too often. [/QUOTE] Oh, so that’s why I couldn’t use the online appointment system. It was likely down for maintenance. Over the course of at least 30 calls where they referred me to the store, I would hope at least one agent would have warned me to keep trying to make the appointment online. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howve-your-apple-quality-customer-service-experiences-been-and-related-generalities/513027/24 "2009-10-09T13:46:54Z")
Didn’t mean to stop the thread dead or derail it, sorry. Continue with the Experience Stories. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howve-your-apple-quality-customer-service-experiences-been-and-related-generalities/513027/25 "2009-10-09T14:10:47Z")
I don’t think you did, **Chimera** , and it’s helpful to be reminded that, as frustrated as a person may be, the poor schmuck behind the counter isn’t at fault. That’s a lesson many people never learn. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howve-your-apple-quality-customer-service-experiences-been-and-related-generalities/513027.md?page=1)