A Tale of Two Apple Experiences
I’ve been a sucker for the Apple IOS system of products and honestly it’s both a blessing and a curse. Ever since my dad got me a Macbook Air in 2013, life hasn’t been the same. And I’ve been plugged into the system ever since. This tells the tale of a great and a not so great experience with Apple Care/Support.
My Airpods are the first generation and they’re old so I decide to buy a new pair to the second generation (i always buy the oldest possible product line). So two weeks after buying it, I went to yoga for the first time in forever and realise I had lost them. I panicked after yoga and went back to the office in the dark and couldn’t find them. And apparently because they’re second gen, they can’t be tracked on “Find My… App”
Luckily, i chatted with the most amazing Apple Support who walked me through how I could refund my Apple Care+ given I had just bought these and I went to buy a new pair right away for pick up on Friday evening.
Come Friday morning, after the beautiful chat with Support and acceptance, I check my Slack and see that my colleagues had kept it for me cause they saw I left it at my desk. Shout out to JY and Perlin for doing this and I am forever grateful. I figure, well I already bought a new pair, I guess Taylor’s getting new Airpods!
When I arrive at Apple Marina Bay Sands, the super lovely staff asked if I was excited about my new Airpods and I told them the story! They said I could just return the new airpods since I found my old ones and get a refund no questions asked! Smooth, amazing, wow! I couldn’t stop raving and thanked everyone.
Flash forward to my Apple watch dying on me while on holiday in Bali and I can’t get a call cause my roaming package only has Data charges. And so I schedule a call for when I land and this is the worst call. I know they’re only going through the motions but I’ve already done all the steps pre the call. They try making me an appointment at the Genius Bar but can only find one on Friday afternoon so I relent and take it.
I figure though, I might as well take a chance and drop by the Apple Store in Jewel since I’m already literally there. The folks at the door sneak me in for 2.5 hours from the time I walked in but that’s ok. I’d rather to do this now than later. And luckily, 15 minutes later they actually call to say I can drop by. Win right?
Not quite. The Genius person told me that I qualified for an Express replacement, and they were surprised the initial apple support call didn’t inform me about this. They said that if I go through the physical store, I could get my replacement in 1 week as opposed to 48 hours if I went via the Express Replacement Service. So there I am on another support call while physically in an apple store.
And the call felt incredibly pandering and i get they’re following protocol but they couldn’t even explain simple things like why I was being charged 98 SGD for the replacement — FYI there is a replacement charge and they could have just showed the website where it states this rather than tell me it was GST. GST is 8% sir. IT was just very frustrating cause there i was on a call when I could be speaking to someone in real life.
Anyway, long story short, I got charged the 98 bucks plus a cool 300 hold in case I don’t return my old watch. I scheduled the pick up for a Friday afternoon and I happened to be outdoors, so I camped at a Harry’s and met the DHL guy there. I got the new watch in less than 48 hours indeed but it wasn’t clear to me that I wouldn’t have to wait for my old watch to be repaired and instead it was a replacement full stop.
End of the day, I’m still an Apple ho, but sad that I had to have such a frustrating experience.
