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Comment by fsociety999 | Hacker News Reader

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fsociety999

I have received Apple satisfaction surveys before and the options are basically this:

How satisfied are you with your new iPhone?

* Insanely satisfied

* Extremely satisfied

* Very very satisfied

* Quite satisfied

* Satisfied

* Mostly satisfied

* Somewhat satisfied

* Neither satisfied or dissatisfied

* Neutral

* No opinion

* Dissatisfied

I’m exaggerating a little to make my point, but I suspect that’s more or less how they get these insanely high scores. Also I’m not sure they send the satisfaction surveys to everyone. Probably you have to have a history of purchasing Apple products.

I don’t think they are manipulating the data itself as this article seems to suggest though. I think the survey methodology itself is skewed.

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Hey - I'm the post author.

Thank you for reading! I don't think they are manipulating the data, rather that they are surveying an unrepresentative population of tech enthusiasts, and presenting it as if representative of the entire customer base.

They don’t present it as if it’s representative of the entire base, nor do they ever compare it to anyone else’s metrics, and your claim is based on information openly disclosed about how they create their metric.

The piece is just clickbait.

Your final paragraph is this decontextualized “Quote”:

> “We’re not calling on the SEC to investigate these customer satisfaction claims, since they have more important cases to go after,” Golden said. “But extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and we believe Apple should review the survey results they trumpet on every earnings call. If they truly think they are valid, they should publish their methodology, and if not, they should issue retractions.”

Which is inherently disingenuous in the way it is written. (We’re not threatening you..) but worse, it’s a quote from your own CEO.

The piece is in far worse faith than anything Apple is doing. Please take it down.

It's one of multiple quotes from the same CEO, who is also posting in this comment section saying "I'm quoted in the post" as though having a blog post on your own company's website where someone you pay does what you told them gives you more credibility

Agreed. It looks like they are trying to manufacture a controversy in the hopes of raising their own profile. Dark.

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