Apple Tech Support Reviews

We argued there for an hour. Finally, he pushed us to the 1800 customer service #. We called the next day. We were told again, "It is Apple defect - the store should replace it," or we can pay for the shipping to ship to Apple to get a new one. We were so shocked at the customer service with the Brea Mall store, and the way they push their business sales volume. When we tried to talk to Apple management about this issue by phone, our call got a snowball game, finally to the head of the manager's voice mail. We are really upset about Apple's after sale customer service.

Original Review: Sept. 18, 2012

The Apple AirPort Express fails to create an ad-hoc network with non-Apple routers. Setting up the AirPort Express was pretty simple using the built-in airport utility; however, I noticed many of my devices were having difficulty connecting to the network after one week. Turning off the router appears to fix these issues. As I purchased this new router to act as a music media connection, I do not want to use it as my main routing device, as it would need to be moved to my network closet. It appears I'll be forced to buy an Apple router if I want anything close to a functioning home network.

Be advised that I have written to your so-called Customer Care before on several occasions, but my emails have been totally ignored as if you are just waiting for the service contract to expire, which will not relieve you of what seems to be Breach of Contract by you. Some of your Senior Technical Support seem to know their stuff, but the possibility of getting that type of Technical support on the phone is next to nil due to your method of random distribution of calls.

Further, some of the instructions I have received from your Technical Support have caused the problems to worsen and/or multiply in my Mac Pro computer. The computer cost me about $4,000, and the on-site Service Contract cost me about an additional $400. The computer is totally unstable, or the settings are unstable. The Mail program has proven many times to be useless and un-usable through its many issues and instability problems.

I will be 80 years old coming up, and I am on 14 medications for pain, kidney, and the heart; yet your Technical Support personnel (Jeremy) asked me to drag that heavy Mac Pro up and down two flights of stairs in my home then carry it from my car to your store and back, whereas I am paying for on-site service. That seems most unfair, if not indeed abuse of your customer. I am waiting for a knee replacement and shoulder surgery, and I have problems negotiating any stairs or long walks.

It is far from my intent to be aggressive like this or to be difficult or uncooperative, but after literally years of dealing with these same issues, which your personnel are unable or unwilling to resolve, my patience has expired. I must find an alternative solution to these problems. In case you feel that the problem is with the operator, you are wrong. I have been using Mac computers from the first day they came on the market in 1984, and I have had practically every Mac model and as far back as the Apple II Plus. I still own an old Mac Plus. I am totally familiar with purging, replacing hard disks, power supplies, memory replacement, battery replacements, formatting hard disks, reformatting, trashing caches, and the usual fix procedures.

I do not mean to be offensive, but I know more than most of your so-called experts in your Technical Support. I have in fact taught them a few computer tricks. One of the problems with your Technical Support staff is that they have to sit there on the phone and study manuals. It is sad that they don't enjoy their work enough to learn more even on their own time. Why not?

I have spent as much as 8 hours on the phone in one day with your Technical Support experts, only to be left with the same unsolved issues or worsened issues. The number of incapable Technical Support people seems to grow constantly, whereas the number of those who know their stuff seem to be diminishing rapidly. It is to the point where the best an Apple customer can hope for is that they end up with a person who can read and understand the manual which they do in long phone calls.

I urge you in the strongest terms possible to just listen to the recorded phone conversations. You will learn a lot about your own staff, who are almost all without exception very courteous and mannerly but often most incapable of doing their work. Most of the following problems appear to me to be permanent issues that can easily be fixed by someone who understands basic issues (which most do not) that none of your your Senior Technical Support Advisors can fix permanently.

1) The color of photos, videos, etc. are all washed out and impossible to see enjoying viewing. Your Senior Technical Support Advisors cannot fix that. 2) My scheduled close down times will not work, because the screen error explains that the Mail program refused to close thus leaving my computer open during the heavy duty thunder and lightening storms we experience in this area. Your Senior Technical Support Advisors cannot fix that. 3) The Mail program is painfully slow even to send simple text emails with no attachments. Sometimes the colored wheel just keeps on moving forever. Your Senior Technical Support Advisors cannot fix that.

4) The highlight color of Folder labels are gold, which makes the labels white font indecipherable. Your Senior Technical Support Advisors cannot fix that and cannot show me how to change that color or the color of the font. 5) Frequently, the mouse cursor disappears altogether. After a lot of wiggling and waiting, it always returns; but your Senior Technical Support Advisors cannot fix that. 6) Now, I have to sign in twice when I open my computer. I have never had to sign in with my password more than once only. Your Senior Technical Support Advisors cannot fix that.

7) I was always able to double click the top bar above the URL address, which cause the window to disappear but not close. Now, I have lost that feature. Your Senior Technical Support Advisors cannot fix that. 8) Because of having lost so much of my data from the forever faulty email program, I try to save the data to the desktop folders. I cannot do that, because the mail program will allow me to drag only one email at a time. I use my computer only for enjoyment, and even I do not have enough time on my hands to do that. Your service Technical Support do not know how to solve that.

I am not an unreasonable person, but there is a limit to how much anyone can cope with, considering these issues with this lemon computer crossed that limit long ago. All I want is to be able to use my waking hours to doing productive projects on my computer and not spend most of my time trying to keep the frigging lemon alive and well with very little help from Apple Computer.

Is my wish too unreasonable? Do I have a lemon Mac Pro? If not, then why do I have so many unresolved issues, which your own Senior Technical Support Advisors cannot fix? I have been known to get hundreds of people to switch from PC to Mac, and now, do I have to send a copy of this letter to the hundreds of contacts to seek their advice? Why can I not have use of my Mac to do the many things I do to help others without pay. I never charge for paralegal work, because it cost me nothing but time to learn legal work. I never charge for the many community projects I take on, not the least of which is the local community Sing-Along GIG CENTRE, which my wife and I run at our own expense and for which we charge no admission.

Just give me an answer whether or not Apple intends to help me solve these issues or not. The last Senior Technical Support Advisor I spoke with, Jeremy (yesterday, June 23, 2012) ), is the busiest and most double-talking babbler of all, as he babbled for 45 minutes and resolved not one issue. He had great difficulty understanding the problems, which I kept repeating. And he did not seem to know how to do basic testing procedure. Further, I asked for an on-site service call, and he said I would have to take the unit to an Apple Store as such was not up to him but was up to the local Service Provider whether they would want to do that. I wanted to ask if the Service Provider would also decide how much I should have paid for my service contract. He said he could ask but the decision was up to the Service Provider.

What kind of double-talk crap is that to tell a long-term customer who knows different? Is he trained to say that or is he just being impossible to deal with? I do not wish to be offensive or argumentative, but this person appears to know absolutely nothing about fixing Mac computer issues. After 45 minutes of total frustration, he disconnected me and never called back. He never gave me a case number. He never had the courtesy to say he was terminating the phone call. That is not what I expect from Apple, with whom I have been a faithful and promoting-type customer for 28 years.

Once again, I am therefore requesting Apple Computer to get these issues resolved once and for all in a peaceful and amicable but timely manner by someone who is knowledgeable and willing. Steve Jobs would turn over in his grave if he were to overhear some of my discussions with your Technical Support staff.

I went online and ordered a different replacement cord that is much sturdier for $39 instead of the ridiculous $80 at Apple for another crap cord. I will buy another Dell next time I need a computer. At least they take complaints seriously and stand behind the product. I will never do business with or recommend Apple again.

Then another manager asked me to send a picture, which I did. Then she told me she can’t see anything and send another picture, which I did. Then she told me go to Orland Park. So I told her that it will cost me all day to go to the Orland store. So I told her that will cost me all day where the Orland store will not say the scratch existed and from there what next step. So both managers stick to this abuse and refuse to fix, replace or refund me.

It keeps telling me the batteries are low. When I replace them with brand new batteries, all I get is 20% strength. I called your tech support line and got some guy in India who can't speak English. Couldn't you hire someone in the U.S.? I think people in this country could use the jobs. Anyway, this computer has been an enormous headache from day one and still is. If you're trying to bankrupt me, you're doing a swell job. Your employees, who do speak English, were very helpful and efficient but the problems continue. Now what?

I will never buy an Apple Care Protection Plan again, and would strongly advise against it. By the time your Mac has problems, the Apple Care plan will have expired. And, the company has no common sense when it comes to taking care of good customers; they fail to give computer advice the minute the plan expires, even if the plan was never used! This is poor business ethics, desperate, actually. Common sense is to provide customers with fair customer service, regardless of anything else.

So, yesterday I took the iPad2 back to the Verizon store, where I bought it, and they couldn’t reboot or reset it either they said only an Apple store could. So I went to the Apple store tonight, and after waiting in line for about 15 minutes just to get into the store. I asked the gatekeeper if I had to stand in line for service/repairs. She said the Genius bar was not available for any more customers this evening and was also fully booked for the next two days. I could make an appointment for Saturday. What?! So, I have a two-week old iPad2 that won’t start, won’t restore, and I won’t be able to get help or service for days and days.

Yesterday, my MacBook managed to break. This was when I had enough. None of your service departments seem to help people who are outside of warranty, unless selling them a new product or charging them an arm and a leg. I am now doing a semester abroad in Costa Rica, spending my time not in school but volunteering at a local orphanage and now, I can not keep in touch with my family. I hate to complain but now I am left with no communication, no way to admit my work via internet and now lost all my school work. Now, I am not only out of phone, iPod and computer, but have no money to fix it because I am in school and broke. The remaining money I had from loans were put towards the orphanage.

All I'm asking for is some help with my products. I don't have money to offer. All I'm asking for is to get what my money paid for and not have a product that just gives out on me after a certain amount of years, that's why I bought the newest and best product release. Please, help me. If you need any serial numbers or proof that I am putting the little money I have towards helping others and can not afford to buy the newest and best Apple product, let me know. I just want to be able to have my computer, iPod and phone work and would love to remain with Apple if your company can offer that. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to make that happen!

Abby **

Next day, I have the same problem. After several data capture emails from Apple Care, they determined that the problem is my hard drive. An Apple tech came to my home and replaced the hard drive and guess what happened two days later? Same problem. Since the computer is less than a year old, I have asked Apple to replace it several times and I keep getting told "no" because I have to give them reasonable time to fix the problem. On 9-20-2011, I again spoke to Apple Care and was told that after the last data capture, they think part of my memory is bad because it was installed after the purchase. I pointed out to them that the memory was purchased the same day I bought the computer and that it was purchased and installed by the Apple store. After countless hours on the phone and four hundred miles driven back and forth to the Apple store, I still do not have a fully working iMac and they still refuse to replace it.

I would like to voice my frustration with AppleCare. I purchased an early 2011 Macbook Pro. When I connect my Macbook Pro to my 24-inch Apple Cinema Display, the display momentarily goes black every so often. The "black screen" happens at random. I have been struggling with this issue ever since I purchased the Macbook Pro. I have contacted AppleCare numerous times. At first, it seemed that the AppleCare people were not aware of this issue. I went to my local Apple Store twice (Bridgeport Village, Tigard, OR). The first time, one of the Apple "geniuses" gave me a look like I am from another planet. I was talked down to and the person, whose job is to help customers, told me that he'd never heard about this being an issue.

Please take a look at the Apple User discussion forums. Many other people seem to have similar issues. At my second visit at the Apple Store, I had the ACD and the MBP checked out. We were not able to recreate this issue. I was told that Apple is working on a fix. This all happened a few months ago. As of today, the problem has not been solved. As a matter of fact, I spoke with Neil **, Senior Advisor from AppleCare on Saturday, 28 Aug 11. He emailed me a file to run a complete system scan. He told me that he would pass the scan results on to the Apple engineers and get back to me within 4-5 business days.

Today, I was contacted by AppleCare. I was told that nothing is wrong with my computer or the ACD. However, Apple recognizes that there is a problem and is working on a software fix. I asked the person when one could expect the fix. The AppleCare specialist told me that he didn't know. My case number on AppleCare is **.

Please understand that I am in the opinion that this is not acceptable. I want this problem fixed now. I don't care how you do it, but I want it to be fixed. I suggest that you replace my 24-inch ACD with one of the new 27-inch ACDs (thunderbolt equipped). I am sincerely disappointed in how Apple has handled my problem. It almost seems like Apple does not care about their customers anymore. I have spent a fortune on Apple products over the years.

One very angry and disappointed Apple customer.

In the meantime, I was contacted by Stuart **. He is with Apple Executive Relations. He gave me the typical corporate "blah blah speech" on how much Apple values their customer and so on. He offered some sort of "beta" software fix for the issues that I am experiencing. However, there was some sort of "gag order" tied to this. I would have had to sign some sort of contract, which would have required me to not talk to anyone about how Apple handled my case and about the existence of this "beta" software/firmware update. I declined.

I bought an Apple laptop and was expecting good service from the Apple people so I bought another one for somebody else. Turns out, in only 6 months the motherboard crashes and, since it is in another country, they make you run in a loop.

When I asked them to send me a shipping box, they claim it is outside the U.S. (originally bought) so they can't help. I asked them to replace it with a new one since it is a motherboard issue and has been 1 month already sitting idle in the shop, all they say is yeah, yeah… Every time they ask me to contact a new customer/sales representative, I have to explain the whole story. Seems they do not write down every detail about a case and the person on the phone doesn't even care to read.

They keep saying contact this number or this and send me in a never ending loop. I expected Apple to be at least decent enough to have a good customer care even if it failed in terms or technical issue, but seems that expectation was too much. They only know how to come up with new iPhone and Pros and fool customers to make money and just claim to be one of the very good companies, but all that is a lie.

Thinking about this, I would never buy another Apple product from now on.

Then the AppleCare guy on the phone said that Apple would send a tech to repair it at my home! I said what? Why didn't Apple tell me this before instead of wasting my time! Well the Apple guy hemmed and hawed and said they would get a tech to my home to repair my iMac. I got a call the next day from a tech that does iMac repairs for my area and he came out that very day and fixed my computer within 1 1/2 hours. I am very angry at Apple for wasting my time, and I am even angrier at them for not having told me outright that my service contract says I could get service at my home. After all, I paid money for that right and I live a long ways away from any big city. It seems to me that Apple lied outright by forcing me to travel a long distance to get my computer repaired when I had the service right in my contract. I am still burning mad!

I remember when I purchased my first Mac. The old school, as of today, dark blue clamshell iBook, I loved it. Years later, when it was time to upgrade, I bought my PowerBook G4. Following the Apple "cult" logic, I went on to purchase iPods, and eventually the original iPhone a few years ago. This is when my love affair with Apple began to wane, and eventually collapse for me. It ended with Apple's CEO Steve Jobs, or an Apple employee impersonating Mr. Jobs, emailing me, and telling me "Hey Lance, quit being a **." Yes, you heard me right.

I have had as of date, four iPhones. The first original iPhone was leaking glue onto my face and burning my face. Apple replaced it. After fighting tooth and nail and after having an obviously defective product, I was given the "gift" of an upgrade to the iPhone 3GS. Yet again, bubbles developed in the iPhone 3GS's screen. At that point, I was outraged. I wanted compensation for having (3) defective iPhones, and being out of a phone for days while each was diagnosed, replaced, and shipped back to me. My request for compensation may had been lofty, as I admit. I wanted a computer for free. Apple's firm answer was "No." Alright, I may be a persistent man, but I am not unreasonable. I was more than willing to let it go, and forget about my request. On August 25, 2010, I get an email from Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, or an Apple employee impersonating Mr. Jobs, telling me to "quit being a **." After being more than willing to accept that answer, an Apple employee decided to spout such disgusting hate speech towards me.

Now, I am sure you're asking yourself, "Lance, prove it." I can. I have enclosed the emails I received, including my reply email to this Apple employee. I have the proof that not only was I called a "**", but that this Apple employee knew what had happened with my original iPhone. They knew "warm, hot glue emitted" from my original iPhone. They knew my name, my email address, and in the subject line from this email knew I had "an issue", and knew I had requested a computer for free as compensation. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out someone from Apple Inc. was responsible for this. As a note, I told no one in my life about the issues with my 3 iPhones, and my request for compensation. No one other than Apple Inc. employees knew of this.

At this point, I did indeed request a free computer, and deserve it. As of today's date, Apple will not be compensating me for what has happened to me in any way. They may or may not have launched an investigation, and if they had, I "am the public!". I was referred to as this by Daniel of Executive Relations, and I will never be informed if anyone has been held accountable. I'm no longer the victim of harassment, and intentional hate speech. Now, I am the public. Wow. That is all I can say. What worries me especially, is that an Apple employee used and/or stole my private information (Name, email address, and my conversation with Apple employee(s)), without my permission, contrary to what is stated in your own Privacy Policy at Apple's website.

It seems to me that these guidelines and communication of your privacy and security policies to employees failed. Those failed drastically. I am sharing my story with you because I am outraged. I am sickened, saddened, and have lost hope for personal accountability. By me contacting you, I am in no way trying to demean you, or Apple. I actually take pride in owning Apple products. I am so confused, and unable to wrap my brain around what has happened to me. I cannot understand after such an unusual, and bad experience I have had, that Apple is unwilling to compensate me for this.

I again, am asking for a computer as compensation for this ordeal. I hope that you can find it in your heart to at the very least, consider compensation. I do not feel I am asking for too much. I respected Apple. I grew up with Apple. I had a nightmare of an experience, and I hope the company I once trusted, will do the right thing.

Just about a year after purchasing the laptop, my son's screen got a small crack. He's not sure how it happened but brought it to the store and was told it would cost $467 plus tax to fix it and our Apple Care warranty wouldn't cover any part of it, not even a deductible. The Apple Care coverage clearly states that it includes telephone technical support, global repair coverage and on site repair. Since the computer cost $1,800 and my son needed it for school, we had no choice but to fix it but I decided to cancel the Apple Care, both for the laptop and my desktop in July, 2010 and was told I would receive a refund for the balance of both warranties. This was in July. It's now October, and after about a dozen calls, I still don't have one of the refunds.

Ive made numerous calls to Apple and was first told my refunds went to the Apple store in Braintree, where I purchased the computer and not to me? They noted the mistake and said another check would be expedited on August 17th. In September, after another few calls, I was told to expect my check any day now; it's in the mail. Finally at the end of September, I received one of the warranties. Upon calling Apple to find out about the second one, I was told it went to the wrong address and needs to be sent out again. What?

First of all, I shouldn't have had to pay close to $500 when I have a warranty. Secondly, I should have had my refunds by now and this sending of my checks to the wrong address rings ridiculous! I'm stunned that Apple would treat a customer who bought two computers from them in 2009 so horribly. Why should I wait three months for a refund and have to pay for repairs when I have a warranty? People need to know about this scam!

At a gig this weekend, someone spilled a drink on the keyboard. After a visit to the Apple store, I was told that any liquid damage voids the Apple Care and regular 1-year warranty. Now not only must I dish out the money to fix my trackpad and keyboard, the Apple Care is voided and will not cover any other problem that might occur even if it is a manufacturing defect. After reading the fine print, I now understand that Apple Care does not cover accidental damage, but was never aware that any warranty would be voided if the computer incurred water damage.

I wish Apple would have been clearer when selling me the computer and had made me aware of this loophole in their service, as I would have chosen a different company to purchase a computer from. I also want people to be educated about this and realize that Apple is giving them a false sense of security when purchasing Apple Care.

The next day, my son opens it and starts screaming that his screen was cracked. The machine was 3 weeks old. And he paid for it with his own money. I called my daughter who owns a Mac, and she asked if it was an internal or external? Apparently, this is common place, as her friend had the identical situation happen to her and mind you, Apple repaired it for free, after they tried their its physical damage routine and it will cost you $800. Her friend cried, and the Apple store felt bad and wrote down a different reason!

It is seems widely apparent that there is some defect in the sensitivity of the screens on the Mac portables; if when you close them (with care, without a pencil/pen in between), and you reopen them, hundreds of people throughout the US and around the world are finding a 'Cracked internal screen. "Apples universal answer is "We are not liable, the warranty doesn't cover, the customer did "physical damage", you must have dropped it, closed it with a pencil/pen in it, did something wrong.

It is an abomination that Apple apparently trains its staff at AppleCare and at stores to do this, to imply that people are lying, and to not stand by your product. I understand that someone may have dropped theirs and did cause the damage, but this is certainly not the case here, nor when reading a blog on this, I can't believe people are lying about their experiences either.

I thought you'd be interested in the following comments (starting on page 2) that are publicized on a blog about Macs-Internal cracks - from all over the US and the world. They are all comments from various people who opened their Macs to find internal cracks, and who were all told by stores, and technicians, that it was physical damage. We lost $1299. 999 for the portable, 200 or 249 for the Apple Care plus tax to = the 1312. We did get back $100 rebate on purchase. So we are out 1199.

In my experiences dealing with the new telephone tech support reps I have found their role to be little more than time wasters. They are obviously just folks who are set in front of a terminal reading text off of a knowledgebase. I detect no familiarity with either Apple hardware or the Mac OS when I speak with them, and inevitably my tech support issues get bumped up to someone more senior. Before first level support was transferred to India I was often able to get my issues resolved with the first person I spoke with. Now I never do.

Apple's customers have tended to be quite loyal and this significant degradation of support services is quite a blow.

Damage Resulting: LOTS of wasted time having to describe software and hardware problems to people who are not competent to respond constructively.

If you have a .Mac account, you can Check it out at .Mac Support>.Mac Discussions>.MacTechnical Support >iDisk Discussions> Index won't update I reponded to this by pointing it out and referring people to your website, but they deleted my response. I re-entered the response but I doubt it wiil stay up more than a minute--Apple now has someone constantly monitoring that board.

And on top of this I bought thru Mac Goldbook, Live Channel broadcast software for $1000.00 and I was to get a $200 refund. After many e-mails saying I had the refund comming... Nothing... Never again will I deal with Apple OR and Apple softwware products OR CompUSA. Back To WINXP and never ever buy ON-LINE Software for a discount.