Let's bag Apple - iPad thread

[Pat]

Well done mech. Pat I've had similar stories with Apple's customer service. I've never experienced anything like it.

Yeah, you hear of very few companies doing stuff like that even when their own design is at fault. Let alone when its a user's fault via accident. What happened in your case?

[K.T.Shoe[BMs]]

Hmmmm... looks like I will wait for iPad3 or may be even iPad4

[Peppermint Lounge]

Pat, never smashed my iphone but I have taken a couple back and had them replaced. Poor battery life back in the early 3g days and dodgy wifi (3g) the other time. Book appointment online, arrive, you're seated and the consultant goes out of their way to get a good result for you.

Also when I changed over to iPhone 4 I did a dumb thing. Arrived at Apple and they didn't have my phone. I planned to switch networks so thought it would be efficient to drop in at Telstra while I'm at the shopping centre to buy a plan and cancel Optus, then when I come back to Apple I'm already connected to Telstra and away we go. No, I don't know what I was thinking. So yeah notwithstanding my new Telstra mini SIM didn't fit iPhone 4's micro SIM slot and all manner of overlapping administrative shit Apple were amazing in taking ownership of my fuck up and working through it with Telstra until the very end so I could walk out of there with my new phone.

iPhone 4's been tip top after a couple of heavy drops and ridiculous use.

[Pat]

Hmm, that would certainly make for a good experience then. I guess that explains what I have previously termed zealot behaviour. Customer loyalty has clearly been earnt in some cases.

Would it be a really bad thing if one were to take a current virgin mobile plan phone into a telstra shop and port the number to an iphone, or is that just going to result in the same problem you had?

[Peppermint Lounge]

No that would be fine.

To explain further I'd made an appointment with Apple to get mine through them. I was near by on business so dropped in early but no go. I then swapped networks at Telstra with my old iPhone with the intention of picking up my new contracted iPhone 4 from Apple as per my appointment and didn't think it would be a prob for them to factor the iPhone 4 into the contract I'd obtained from Telstra. Wrong.

If you walk into Telstra and do it all there ie: get handset + contract then no problemo. Plus you still have direct Apple support available to you.

[Pat]

Ahh gotcha. Thanks for the clarification.

Leaning heavily towards getting one right now after pinching some hands on time with one at work. Tried worms on it (really didnt control well on first go but may improve with time) but it does seem to have quite a bit going for it. The UI is pretty damn good I must say.

Still, no hurry just yet seeing as I am still in contract and will only jump early if work says Im going somewhere remote sooner rather than later.

I assume there is no iphone 5 out this year?

[selfish]

I would wait till at least june or July, they tend to release SOMETHING shiny around then. http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#iPhone" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Pariah]

i own a 64GB gen 1 ipad...great product fucking love it but i really hope the gen 3 ipad has:

9.7" display with a native res of 2560x1600 [would be around 311ppi] this "retina" IPS movement [TN panel used in the itouch can go get fucked though] by apple has been the best thing to happen to displays in a long long time..while the monitor market has been fucking shat on with the diarrhea of UNGODLY TN panels that look so ugly and reproduce some of the worst colours ive seen its good to see at least some fucking companies that are sticking with the much much superior IPS tech and also striving to fucking finally push for displays with amazingly high pixel density

id kill for a 30" IPS Monitor that has 8K resolution [7,680 × 4,320] but the market has been in terrible shape as far as pushing tech...i guess the only real hope is apple step up and contract a LCD manufacturer to create such a display [or even imac with such a res] step your fucking game up monitor manufacturers

[GeneraL CyberFunK]

So, when Apple replaced a faulty iPhone for me out of warranty, a lot of people on this board were pretty disbelieving of it...

They outdid themselves tonight. I smashed my iPhone 4 on Monday - completely my fault, I dropped it with some velocity, and smashed the screen up good. Booked first available appointment with Apple Store, which was tonight. Straight off the bat, no mucking around, they tell me they'll replace it as it's the first time it's happened to me. Normally it's $250 odd to get this sorted. What legends! Funnily enough it was the same girl who replaced my iPhone 3GS for me.

The guys next to me were really pissed off about this, as their mate had done the same thing but trying to save money he went to a 3rd party joint.

Apple

That kind of customer service is what forges customer loyalty.

Interesting... My experience with apple has been absolutely abysmal.

I went in to the apple store to get help with the iPad... Lined up to take the appointment on the screen that was showing and the rude little bitch at the counter said that I just can't line up to take an appointment even though I was told by AppleCare that I could. I explained that I had lined up for over 30min and the big screen said it was available so why wouldn't I assume I could just line up. She then retorted that I shouldn't take that for granted. Weak sauce.

She then had me speak to the floor leader of sorts and I explained why I was not happy in a professional and concise manner and he was so condescending... You could see he was shitty at me but the standard scripting he was spouting was just so insulting. In the end he let me see someone at the genius bar but it was just the way he went about it... You only work in a shop, dude.. Drop the fucking attitude.

As it turned out, the problem could not be solved... Mainly because the iPad could not do what I needed it to do... Which shat me off because another apple guy not 3m from me had told me prior to buying the iPad that it would do what I needed.

Combined with poor customer service on the phone and no technical support on apple apps... I mean really.. No one at apple knows how to use Numbers and there is no iPad version manual or support (this direct from the AppleCare rep)... Seems like apple have a hard time knowing when to provide the excellent customer service. From talking to a few people at the genius bar.. Customers... They were just as disgusted as I was.

[Vzzzbx]

Just saw on Whirlpool that Telstra already supports iphone 4 personal hotspot (appaz it's the same provision as tethering). I have 3 Gb per month (costs ~$15/mth) until July 2012 and never use it all. Bang, 32 Gb wi-fi ipad sorted. I am doing a really bad job at this thread btw.

Oh and I don't care about lack of GPS so.

[lestat]

Just remember to pay your carbon tax on every charge cycle kids.

[mech]

If you did wander in off the street hoping to get an appointment I can see why you'd be annoyed. I can't even remember how I first sussed out how the store worked, but every time I've gone I've booked an appointment ahead of time and it's been great. Email support has been terrific too.

They are leaps and bounds ahead of other companies for their customer service from what I've seen in the last 2-3 years.

But then again I had really good experiences with Dell as well but a lot of people hate them... it may be use cases, or different expectations, not sure. Maybe years of buying computer gear from dodgy cheapo places has conditioned me to expect the worst

But srsly, two free iphones, and 2-3 iphones replaced because I didn't like the dust under the screen. Champs.

[Cardsy]

Refurb gen 1 ipads on the online Apple Store starting from $389 for the 16gb wifi!! Only $40 more than a 3DS!

http://store.apple.com/au/browse/home/s" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... OTY2ODY4Nw

Decent value!

[unfnknblvbl]

wait, you have to make an appointment to get customer service? Jesus...

[Pat]

I walked past the mac shop today on my way home from work. No wonder you need to make an appointment, its full of fucking school kids and hipsters.

[Shaneus]

If you did wander in off the street hoping to get an appointment I can see why you'd be annoyed. I can't even remember how I first sussed out how the store worked, but every time I've gone I've booked an appointment ahead of time and it's been great. Email support has been terrific too.

They are leaps and bounds ahead of other companies for their customer service from what I've seen in the last 2-3 years.

But then again I had really good experiences with Dell as well but a lot of people hate them... it may be use cases, or different expectations, not sure. Maybe years of buying computer gear from dodgy cheapo places has conditioned me to expect the worst

But srsly, two free iphones, and 2-3 iphones replaced because I didn't like the dust under the screen. Champs.

You got several iPhone replacements because of dust? Fuuuck... maybe I should track one down in the city to get mine cleaned up/replaced. There's a bright pixel and some dust giving me the absolute shits. Don't really want to lose my old bootrom (for j/b purposes) but given how much longer I'll have the 3GS (either due to a different phone or an upgrade to a 5) it sounds worth it.

[mech]

wait, you have to make an appointment to get customer service? Jesus...

.....

unfunk, why would you post such rubbish?

[lestat]

http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/04/cona" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... nal-video/

[Vzzzbx]

Dreadfully unfunny and clearly a paid piece so double fail.

[guttermouth]

Ipad 2 is yet another reason to bag Apple. Typical basic features missing again. Instead of innovation, next year one of the basic features missing on the Ipad 2 will be added to the Ipad 3. Yearly trickle out the missing basic features such as camera this time, or usb next time and thats how Apple sells to the sheep. Sales through lack of features has been Apples success, shame on purchases for encouraging that corporate behavior.

What's going to happen if Apple ever release a gaming console. The first would be a very basic system. 1 controller port, composite out, no online play, mono sound. Each year they would release another model to be unvailed at a massive press conference outling the 2 new basic features.

[Talez]

What's going to happen if Apple ever release a gaming console. The first would be a very basic system. 1 controller port, composite out, no online play, mono sound. Each year they would release another model to be unvailed at a massive press conference outling the 2 new basic features.

On the contrary, by the standard of Apple's design it'd be a cube 2 inches along each edge with no controller ports, maybe an ethernet port, no analog outputs with up to 4 beautifully designed touch sensitive Bluetooth controllers that can emulate any controller layout, a store that has all of the games available on the platform, 16/32/64 gigs of flash, 802.11b/g/n, built in HD video conferencing with HDMI and Thunderbolt/MDP output only.

And everyone would still bitch that Apple would demand a cut from the publishers, demand to vet the games and that it wouldn't have a Blu-Ray or DVD player.

[guttermouth]

What's going to happen if Apple ever release a gaming console. The first would be a very basic system. 1 controller port, composite out, no online play, mono sound. Each year they would release another model to be unvailed at a massive press conference outling the 2 new basic features.

On the contrary, by the standard of Apple's design it'd be a cube 2 inches along each edge with no controller ports, maybe an ethernet port, no analog outputs with up to 4 beautifully designed touch sensitive Bluetooth controllers that can emulate any controller layout, a store that has all of the games available on the platform, 16/32/64 gigs of flash, 802.11b/g/n, built in HD video conferencing with HDMI and Thunderbolt/MDP output only.

And everyone would still bitch that Apple would demand a cut from the publishers, demand to vet the games and that it wouldn't have a Blu-Ray or DVD player.

Like that description. Of course it would'nt have DVD or BR players, they would come 3-4 years later and billed as the new latest features. As for the built in HD video conferencing that would be text based to start off maybe V2 when it comes with a camera the video will be enabled

[unfnknblvbl]

wait, you have to make an appointment to get customer service? Jesus...

.....

unfunk, why would you post such rubbish?

Why don't you start by telling me why that's rubbish?

[General Chaos]

All this hate for ipad 2 yet i don't see a better alternative. Droids are only just hitting now for obscene prices and the specs have pretty much just been matched by apple for a hell of a lot cheaper.

Then you look at what versions of droid are shipping with these upcoming tablets and they are all over the shop (Honeycomb still off in the distance).

I've got to say the competition are making themselves as compelling as the alternatives back in the ipod domination days. See Creative Zen's etc (non compelling and more expensive).

On the phone front the competition is faring slightly better but I feel the door is about to get firmly slammed in their face when the iphone 5 comes out with comparable specs (can't see it not being dual core) at better prices sliding the iphone 4 (with superior display) into the lower tier.

[mech]

wait, you have to make an appointment to get customer service? Jesus...

.....

unfunk, why would you post such rubbish?

Why don't you start by telling me why that's rubbish?

Well what other phone manufacturers or PC manufacturers let you get in-person customer service without an appointment?

They do take walk-ins, but very few because they're so busy. It makes sense to me.