Apple Inc.
After 4 months of fighting with my nice shiny new iPhone 5 I finally gave in speaking to my telecoms provider with the offer of a repair (which to be fair I understand is process and why this has to be the case) but being stuck with a phone that needs charging CONSTANTLY throughout every day did my head in!
It wasn’t only the battery, I mean, the charger coming away from the cable, camera closing down when trying to take a photo, dropped calls, new SIM’s, exchanges and the constant freezing was enough to give me a nervous breakdown! The sheer disappointment in my new phone was too much to take! Lol! After being a massive fan of the iPhone 3GS and my iPad I was so excited to be one of the first people to receive their phone that I thought I could overlook its flaws……I’m afraid not….
So in my last ditch attempt to get this fixed for once and for all and to STOP having to use the nightmare phone that is the Samsung Galaxy S3 I decided to contact Apple direct!
Slight miffed with the options on their ‘contact us’ section with having to select various difference countries, reasons I wish to contact them, possible solutions and topics etc I ended up switching to good old trusty Google to get a contact number so I could just call them! This didn’t work……….
I ended up filling in a call back request form online which to be fair, was relatively easy to do, selecting the call back time and number I wanted to be contacted on was a great bonus. I was a little disappointed in having to justify why I deserved to speak to an Apple agent free of charge but I suppose there must be another reason for this out there other than they could swallow the world with their brand power if they wanted to……maybe…..
I made my telephone appointment for 11.30am the very next day as I knew I would be too busy between now and then to go through the faults on my phone. I had already made a script with bullets of the issues I wanted to raise and how I am a loyal Apple customer and express my sheer disappointment to them! Ok some of it was a bit dramatic but I fancied myself a bit of an iTunes voucher as compensation for being messed around……..even though it wasn’t Apple’s fault……bad Butler!
Anyway, this brings me onto the next morning! I am very excited about possibly speaking to some American in that big ole country AMERICA! You know I love America and Americans and anything American at all other that Americano Coffee (for obvious reasons)
11.25am…….5 minutes to go
11.27am…….is it time yet
11.29am……I wonder if they will call me on time
11.32am…..well it did say ‘approximate’
11.35am…….taking the pee now think I need a bigger iTunes voucher as compensation
11.37am……….Nicki Minaj breaks into ‘Starships, are meant to flllyyyy, hands up and touch the skkkyyyy’
Hello Natalie speaking………….
Apple: Hello Miss Butler?
Me: Speaking.
Apple: Hello Miss Butler this is ******* from Apple customer care how are you today?
Me: Oh, very well thank you
Apple: That’s great to hear! So I can see from your call form you have been having problems with your iPhone 5’s battery, I’m really sorry to hear that, let’s see how we can fix that for you
Me: oh….brilliant, ok
*some diagnostics are completed within 2 minutes and the faults are found*
Apple: Ok so Miss Butler we can see there is a fault with your battery and also the diagnostics have shown some other errors too, we need to get this sorted for you
*offers various options to suit ME and gives me time to decide what I want to do, I chose to go into a store and make an appointment, this takes around 3 minutes of which the agent kept chatting to me and remained upbeat and cheerful throughout, confirming my appointment time and place a few times too*
Apple: When you go into the Apple store for your appointment and advisor will approach you, they will have your details on the appointment card on their iPads and will have your details and be able to either repair the phone there and then or replace it for you, is there anything else I can help you with today Miss Butler?
Me: No that’s absolutely brilliant, thank you so much for your time.
And so it begins! Backed my phone up, popped everything in the box and looked forward to my Apple store visit on Monday!
Off I went with my phone in tow! I thought maybe if I got there early I ‘might’ be able to squeeze an early appointment. I walked into the store with as many staff as they had customers and was blown away by the atmosphere! Everyone was so happy, excitable, open and willing to help! It oozed from every section!
I walked towards the brightly lit desk where again, I’m surrounded by people in blue t-shirts with iPads and barcodes around their neck! I’m approached by a nice young guy with his handy iPad in tow! ‘Hi welcome to Apple can I help you’. I explain about my appointment and faulty phone to which he reply’s ‘I’m sure we can get you in now, if you want to go with ******* and he will take good care of you’.
*******approaches me and asks me how he can help! I’m overwhelmed with all the help these people want to give me! I’m tempted to ask for a £1000 loan they’re all so helpful! I put this to the back of my mind and concentrate on my poorly iPhone 5! ***** leads me to a PC…..MAC of course……and asks me to click on a few options in my phone. He remotely connects to my phone with his iPad and BOOM! List of faults displayed on his iPad from my phone……wow……loving the technology here! Feel like I’m in an episode of Futerama without the lobster!
‘ok so we can see the faulty battery here, when I can do is check if we have any batteries in stock now and get it fixed for you, if we haven’t then I’ll get you a new device, is everything backed up or do you need help doing that through iCloud, we can connect you to our Wi-Fi in store?’ I confirm I have already backed everything up a million times to be safe as I am useless with losing data. Off ******* trots to go into the back, in the meantime welcoming me to browse the store and have a play with all the gadgets!
A burglar alarm controlled by your iPhone…….a TV controlled by your iPhone…………a motion sensor controlled by your iPhone…………..a lamp controlled by……….yep you guessed it………..your iPhone!
I’ve been browsing now for about 5 minutes and decide I was to start looking for a robot housemaid that I can control with my iPhone when ****** returns from the back of the store with not only a nice shiny BRAND new iPhone 5 for me………but my SIM card installed, fully charged and ready to go! He stands with me and helps me set it up….choosing my language, time, date and all that jazz. Stands with me to make sure all of my data is back on the phone and gets me to sign his iPad to say I accept the zillion terms and conditions (obviously I have thoroughly read them before :s) to say this would normally cost £147.50 out of warranty but today it will be free. I thank ****** very much for all his help and kindly ask him where abouts the new charging cables are seeing as I managed to destroy mine in less than 60 days! He directs me over to a young lady stood 5 meters away who will be able to help me. I thank him and get on my merry way!
Approaching the girl stood near the chargers she was happily chatting to her pink haired colleague but with an ‘excuse me’ turned all smiley and offered to help me! I asked for the charging cable to which she did a 180 degree spin and presented me with a nice new cable for my iPhone and the tune of £15. Bargain, that’ll do! Getting my purse out she didn’t need to move an inch to charge me! She had a nifty little device sat there waiting with my payment details and ready for me to charge my bank card………..less than 10 seconds later I’m all paid up! ‘Would you like your receipt emailing to you?’ Wow! Now that’s technology! ‘erm, yes please’ before I have chance to tell her my email she asks is Natalie_jane_2000@yahoo.com the one you would like me to use?’……..’erm, yes please’ ok…..slightly stalkerish but impressive all the same. ‘That will be with you within the hour and your 12 month warranty on the cable starts today, have a great day’ and off I trot!
After reading this mammoth entry I hope you too are juggling with the amazing, futuristic services I received as well as the stalkerish big brother style information the already had on me. It’s amazing nowadays what your name can tell you about yourself! If I Google myself I am greeted with a vast amount of data about myself and other Natalie Jane Butler’s across the globe! I’m sure on some level this SHOULD concern me…………….but in this day and age it doesn’t. Were all so open to technology and trusting into things that are ultimately controlled by wires, signals, electricity and geeks in labs!
Anyway……..I digress………..Apple! You are a giant, multinational, billion dollar company who have so much control over the telecommunication and business industries………….and you know what! I don’t mind! You can take over the world for all I care because your service is second to none and I have never in my life felt so much like an individual and valued customer!
You get a SOLID thumbs up and 9/10 Butler points! I’m afraid you lose a point for not lending me £1000 or having an iPhone controlled housemaid for me! But ultimately you are number 1 in customer service for me and without a doubt you will be hard to beat!
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