Wife Said No, Apple Said Yes
macrumors.com
macrumors.com
Shit.
So I called up Apple asking if I could return the magic mouse that I ordered online for the trackpad in a store because there wouldn't be enough time with Christmas fast approaching. The customer support guy put me on hold for a minute and then told me that in light of the Holiday Spirit they would send out a trackpad with express shipping free of charge. I could return the magic mouse if I wanted or keep both.
Fed Ex ended up dropping the ball on the express shipping, but still Apple stepped up and made my day! I ended up giving him the magic mouse for Christmas and then the trackpad a month later for his birthday.
A couple of years ago my MacBook Pro was conking out - graphics tearing probably caused by bad VRAM.
I called them up, and having had a DVD drive and a latch fixed in the past, they informed me (voluntarily! without me asking for it!) that given the number of repairs done on this machine they'll just send me a new one instead of going through another round of repairs. This is also with ~2 minutes on hold, and talking directly to a human instead of navigating the touch-tone gauntlet.
They sent me a return shipment label to start the process - I told them that I really can't be without a machine for a whole week while they sent out the replacement. They didn't argue or be difficult, they just decided right then to ship me my new machine and I can ship back my old one at my leisure.
Did I mention I got a unibody MacBook Pro out of the deal despite being 2-3 generations out of date at that point? They replaced the MBP with the latest and greatest instead of sticking me with an old-gen refurb as is standard for hardware replacements.
That singular experience has made me an Apple laptop customer ever since.
The best part? My roommate at the time was dealing with a conked out Dell laptop, so were on the phone with our respective support lines simultaneously. Between dialing the number and finalizing the shipment details of the new laptop I took about 25 minutes end to end. He spent the next 7 hours arguing with Dell. On the other hand, after those 7 hours of pure customer service pain, they sent someone out that fixed the machine same-day... so his resolution was faster, but considerably more painful.
My bluetooth adapter doesn't work, and I can't send in my laptop till this summer since I do iPhone development for my school. By then though, I'll be pushing it really close to the end of my 1 year warranty.
The non-unibody MBPs had a lot of functionality tied to the ridiculously complex lid latch. If the latch broke the laptop was SOL.
They sent out 12 on site repair visits replacing the touchpad (including 2 trips with the wrong part and 2 to replace bits of the case the previous guy broke) before deciding it was the motherboard that was faulty.
The onsite repair is done by a 3rd party who bill Dell 250 UKP for each visit. They spent almost 4x the cost of the machine repairing it - but Dell company policy is not to replace machines more than 30days old.
Funnily enough that was the last Dell laptop I bought and last place I ordered Dell servers for.
I did find out in the process that FedEx is as incompetent piece of shit as it was in the UK. The delivery guy left the package in the hallway to my apartment building and obviously forged the signature required as it was an international expedited and insured delivery.
I called up Amazon support and explained the situation to them, being completely honest about how rough I was with it. I was pretty confident they'd just say it was my fault and make me pay for repairs but instead they simply got my Amazon account details off me and sent a new one right away. I mailed the broken one off a few days later and didn't have to wait too long for the replacement despite being in Australia.
Great customer service.
At the 3 year mark I decided to replace the optical drive on my macbook with a big hard drive and use an SSD to boot. Three weeks later the computer is dead. I reverse the process. Still dead. Both hard drives worked, but I couldn't test the other parts.
I took it to the Apple store and the genius said they couldn't look at it since it had been modified. I was bummed but knew it was a long shot. The store sends a follow up email survey and I say I had at least hoped I could find out if the machine was salvageable - I'd get a new logic board if that would fix it - or consider a new laptop.
The store manager calls the next day and has me explain exactly when I did and what happened in the store and says they can send it to an Apple warehouse and for ~$200 they'll fix anything that is broken and return it in a week. I took him up on that.
The next day I get a call that my computer is ready. No warehouse. No charge. They fixed it in the store, replacing the internals. I admitted I was probably the reason the machine died. All I wanted was to see if they could just test the logic board so I knew how bad the problem was. And Apple repaired it, well out of warranty, for free.
I probably would have bought a new computer from them had they said it was toast. I didn't hesitate to buy another mac a year later.
To be clear: that money is going to support.
If it would not be a hug expense for them (not to mention wrong market), having Apple take over TMo, build out a world class 3G infrastructure coupled with world class support, I'd be seriously happy.
Note: This is based on the assumption (perhaps false) the ipad was not a financially irresponsible decision. If it not ok to spend the money on frivolities like an ipad, clothes and fancy dinners are right out too.
What next? Food? :)
However, most clothes purchases are on the same level of necessity as an iPad - such as: "my current stuff is old" or "out of style" or "I just want something new and shiny".
The man in this article has already castrated himself for his wife; this +15 comment suggests that unquestioningly bending to the indomitable will of his wife was not enough?
What's next? Recommending cuckoldry as a solution to satisfying his wife's sexual needs?
I've been with a lovely woman, who enjoys being treated like a human being instead of a deity, for over four years.
You're jumping at ghosts - and IMO there's something concerning about reading that far into so little information. The fact that he had a disagreement with his wife and returned the iPad doesn't imply being castrated, obedient, dominated, or otherwise enslaved. The fact that you would jump on this possibility as a default is a bit concerning.
Wow.
Um.
Daaaaamn.
Unresolved issues much?
Without knowing the couple in question, I could see any number of potential explanations that indicate a co-equal relationship. Let's enumerate some:
- Trying to cut back on expenses and reduce debt, need to watch out for each other's impulsive spending
- Saving for big vacation, remember?
- Return it you oaf! (Your birthday is in a month and I already ordered you the best one)
- Hey, uh, just lost my job. Sure we want to keep it? That $600 is a lot of bills
When you're sharing your life with someone else, finance is a team sport.
(also I feel I should point out that jokes about race tend not to be equivalent in offensiveness to jokes about sex, so this whole premise is largely irrelevant)
While these comments are sexist, that doesn't necessarily make them incorrect.
I've been biting my (virtual) tongue, holding back the same observation that you made.
and S/N for jokes is frequently low
and jokes are frequently divisive
and lots of people will give a quick upvote to something that gives them a reward for reading (i.e. makes them laugh)
and evaporative cooling
and yadda yadda yadda
Edit: The first one was actually a compliment to the wife. The second one was meant as a joke, just as all women joke about men not being too smart.
Either: a) You're just making this up. Humans are just not that invariable. I've had hundreds of casual night-out buddies of both sexes... and I would be lying if I could state any thread that ran through all of one gender, anatomical traits aside.
Hell, I'd be hard pressed to find a thread that ran through even half of them, with the possible exceptions of 'likes to imbibe some form of inebriating substance' and 'speaks English'
b) You state 'joking', so perhaps all general criticisms of men were considered serious statements?
c) You state you don't remember, so perhaps you get so blind drunk you can't remember any conversation?
"all women, always" is not that much worse than "no women, never"
Of course "no women, never" argument is just as stupid as, "all women, always" argument. If I made the argument. You took my rather short counterpoint/anecdote and ran away with it. Far, far away.
How do you go from a few hundred casual drinking buddies over the years to blind-drunk nightly excursions That was one of three options in my "Either" list, jokingly picking up on your "I don't remember" comment.
When you're complaining of other people taking you out of context, it behooves you to take them in context.
The "no woman, never" thing was referring to you saying that in your vast experience of socialising with women, you do not recall a single incidence of -foo-. In casual talk, that's making the point "no, never".
/takes off his snobbish cape
It's a lesson in how to treat customers in a way that rewards their humanity. The end result is that this guy and his wife will likely be Apple customers for life. That's likely upwards of 30 years of loyalty for the cost of a single iPad.
I'm sorry I didn't add this comment the moment I submitted the story, but I figured most people would take away what they came with. Good question! And feel free to stay skeptical and have high standards. Let your snob flag fly!
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2351266
It seems to me that both jokes are in the same vein: referencing a satirical husband-wife power stereotype. But no one is complaining about the male stereotype.
That's what I'd do if I were king :)
Please stop telling me I like furniture! The closest I've ever gotten to purchasing furniture is picking some off the curb for free in response to a Craiglist ad.
s/new kitchen, a new bathroom, new wardrobe and\/or appliances/New truck, new Stereo and\/or 17" MacBook Pro/g
Or maybe: s/wife/husband/g
My little joke was meant to be a play on the old adage: "Beware of Geeks baring gifts"
I was going to write "Greeks", but that would be racist. Ok, I'll stop now before Godwin's law gets invoked.
Think about it: if Apple put out a press release saying "we're awesome because we sent this guy a free iPad 2", everyone would (rightly) think it was crass.
What (allegedly) happened here is far classier.
disclaimer: I wrote the article, and I believe it likely to be true, but can't verify it for certain, unless the Apple VPs or guy who-got-iPad steps forward.
"You can get good PR by giving your customers free products." This is worth reading?
(They always keep saying "Whoa, Nellie! We upgraded you to express shipping free!" on my orders -- it was a delightful surprise the first time, but now I suspect it's standard..)
Either way, great PR move Apple.
There are lots of stories of people going into an Apple store with a product broken after it's warranty and still walking out the door with a brand new replacement.
You just don't get that kind of service from any other company (especially in the computer hardware business).
...because most hardware companies are trying to compete for "price conscious customers" as commodity products, and therefore don't have any margin to spend on support.
I am pondering getting one and couldn't find one anywhere. To the people returning for refund of same amount - come over on eBay ;)
I can return this model up til this coming Saturday and get a free refund.
iPads have had huge problems with mass organized scalping, particularly here in New York. For many, it's their job to camp out all night and buy 2 iPads, fronted by a guy carrying a wad of $50k+ cash for a bunch of people in the line.
The scalpers want AT&T models first and foremost (the GSM 3G is internationally usable) and then Wifi-only. They aren't interested in Verizon, which I guess explains whY I found out.
I've considered eBaying it but I don't think Verizon models are as in high demand as the other two. Probably more hassle than it's worth.
First, the lower amount of memory is very important for testing how your views load and unload.
Second I've noticed pretty big differences in how the screen looks on my MBP as opposed to on the actual device.
Of course you can do development in the simulator or on an older model for a couple of weeks. Developing on the old model is probably a must-do for at least another year or two. Furthermore, while you do need to test on a device later in the dev cycle, I (and most other devs I know) actually don't deploy to hardware for days at a time early in the cycle.
Early in the iphone dev cycle there were enormous disparities between bugs on hardware and the simulator. Some symbols didn't even link consistently between the two and re targeting would cause compilation errors. This is no longer the case and the two targets are very, very close.
In fact, if someone told me they wanted to get into ipad development, I would tell them to write their app first, and then buy an iPad to test it on.
Curious if you just bought the Verizon model because that was the only one you got in the stores or if you felt it was no good without LTE (compared to ATT) and so are returning it?
Speaking of Verizon LTE - I had no idea my area was already LTE enabled until I went looking in the context of 4G upgrade for my Xoom. For the iPad2 it doesn't matter as it's going to be used outside of the US so only AT&T model will do - wish the scalpers slowed down a bit!
Even if that was OK, Verizon annoy me by charging $35 activation. I loathe that kind of charge. I'll pay for service. Don't make pay for the "privilege" of paying for service. Particularly when you basically have to do nothing.
LTE isn't even a consideration for me until LTE rollouts are widespread.
Getting an iPad that works in the US (especially when there's a high density of Apple users, aka AT&T can't cope) is way more valuable to me - I'm only considering the Verizon version.
I had a package containing a replacement Kindle left in my apartment hallway by a moronic FedEx employee, who I'm only guessing forged the 'signature required' box so he didn't have to drop it off at the post office.
Although Amazon was great with the replacement, it took 2 minutes to get the guy to send out a replacement for a battery defect at 2:30am. Having dealt with them before back in the UK my wife simply didn't believe it that they actually had competent people working past 6pm let alone midnight (customer service here in Canada is on par to what black men got at KKK rallys).
At start-ups, it doesn't (or at least shouldn't) take much for the decision makers to hear from customers and respond in a way that "wow"s them, but I'd be curious to know what processes or mechanisms specifically a large company like Apple has in place to catch these kinds of opportunities.
"It was escalated as something funny, and two of the VPs got wind of it."
Granted, joining a discussion list is easier than monitoring product returns, but there is probably an analog for the retail channel (i.e., there is probably an upwards-facing report on iPad 2 sales and returns, and this note was probably included as an item of interest). I'm just guessing though.
Odds are that anybody who really knows isn't going to tell you.
Isn't PR "hacking" public perception?
Spending $1M on banner ads is not hacking.
That sounds like hacking to me. But hey, I am no hacker, so....
How can you possibly make a statement about the quality of Hacker News articles in a comment without proper punctuation, capitalization, sentence structure, or even content? I think that if any argument is made about the trending quality of Hacker News, the evidence presented should be your comment and not this article.
"If your account is less than a year old, please don't submit comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. (It's a common semi-noob illusion.)"
If you don't think the article is noteworthy, flag it. It's really as simple as that.
This is a story of a tech company gaining a huge PR win for an incredibly low price by performing a feat of over-the-top customer service. Apple is going to get a lot of mileage out of this, and it will make up the $500 it cost them dozens if not hundreds of times over by the time the dust settles. If you run a software business, you should be paying attention to things like this and trying to figure out ways of emulating this behavior to your favor.
That's the reason we're here. The place used to be called "startup news" because most of us are entrepreneurs who just happen to be computer programmers. If you're here and you're just a programmer, you need to understand this, and not get offended when you see an article discussing things other than the inner workings of haskell.