Tell the truth

In direct contrast to my recent experience with Royal Mail, I’ve also had some issues with my iPhone and had to deal with the Geniuses at the Apple store in Glasgow.

Genius might be over-egging it a bit but suffice to say the experience was far far more positive and is an excellent example in how to get customer service right.

So, my old iPhone (just over a year old) had, over time, developed a crack on the back of the case, running a 1cm up the phone from where the cable dock is located. Not something I noticed as I have a case which covers that area.

A quick Google suggested that I should take it back to the store as they would likely just replace it. I was sceptical as it was past the year warranty but thought that if they wouldn’t replace it they might be able to suggest a way to fix it, or at least stop the crack getting any worse.

So I made an appointment at the Genius Bar and after managing to get there without purchasing any new shiny Apple products (I deliberately left my credit card at home, yes I am THAT weak willed), I handed over my iPhone. A quick inspection confirmed that it was something that wasn’t fixable, they’d have to replace the handset.

A quick check of my details confirmed that, yes, I’d had the handset for 13 months, one month past the warranty but hey, they’d still replace it (granted this is the older model of iPhone, so they are probably happy to get the stock moving out of storage!). A quick signature and the new handset was mine. In and out in 10 minutes, and a nice smile on my face.

Alas that is not the end of this story. Yes, there is more. Sorry about that, but thanks for reading this far, seriously, I do appreciate it, I know I can waffle on a bit at times so I do appreciate you wasti spending your precious time reading this. I do. Thank you.

Where was I?

The next day, out and about with my new handset in my pocket it started to vibrate like I had an incoming call. I pulled the phone out of my pocket and… nothing. No call, no message, nothing. Odd. Put the phone back in my pocket and.. *buzzzz* and yet, still nothing.

And so it continued to the point where I could leave the handset on the table, and watch it randomly mute and unmute itself, triggering the vibration each time.

Back to the Genius Bar this morning where, after showing what the handset was doing it was, once again, replaced. In and out in 10 minutes, with an apology for the “Genius” and with a big smile on my face.

Lesson to learn? I know that not everything works all the time, things break, or aren’t properly made, such is life. It’s how you, as an organisation, deal with me at that point that makes or breaks my relationship with you.

So yes, having to get a replacement handset replaced isn’t ideal, but a quick acknowledgement, an apology, and some sort of corrective action is all it took to keep me happy. Case in point, if they’d said my original phone, with the crack in the case, couldn’t have been replaced but had suggested a way to fix it, that would’ve been ok as well.

So, well done to the Genius Bar in the Apple store in Glasgow, you’ve restored some of my faith that some organisations do know how to treat customers properly. Thanks (and ta for the shiny new handset!).

Comments

  1. That is impressive, knowing the way certain other companies will go with “one second past the 12 months and yer stuffed”.

    I do have one question though – what happened to all the data you had on the phones? I mean I assume it’d got various music files, messages, connections, contacts, diary etc. – did you purge all that out before taking the phone to the store, or do they do it there in front of you?

  2. Factory reset, wipes the phone and I had to press the CONFIRM button and watched it happen. I asked the same thing!

    I guess I couldve done that myself first but wasn’t sure if they’d replace it or not.

  3. Not that impressive really – all electrical goods have to have 2 year warranty now, under EU law. So, any company who claims you only have one year are taking the piss and shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it.

    T£$co got taken to task about just this very thing recently.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/may/23/tesco-consumer-guarantee

    How I laughed.

    I don’t understand why our spineless governmint aren’t enforcing *this* EU law – they certainly bow and scrape to the EU on everything else.

  4. OK, good info to know.

    My points still stand, I didn’t have to ‘resort’ to pointing that out, it was a hassle free interaction with a company who acknowledged their faults.

    Sounds good in my book, guess I have lower standards of what is ‘good service’.

Comments are closed.