Jananas

This is an exerpt from an e-mail I sent to a bunch of Vice President’s at the company I used to work for. One of my biggest pet peeves is the short term, bottom line focused approach that many corporations take. I believe that by accepting lower profits in the short term to build a customer focused experience, you will create an environment for long term profitability and customer satisfaction. I can control this by working for companies that have strategies that are in line with this (and who put their money where their mouth is!!) and by giving my business to companies who live this.

To the VP’s, I thought that you might be interested in my experience thus far.

On Friday March 7th my MasterCard was compromised. It was eventually blocked sometime in the middle of the night between Saturday the 8th and Sunday the 9th. I was not aware of this until I attempted to make a purchase late afternoon on Sunday the 9th and had my card declined. I immediately called in and was told that my card had been blocked. I had to inquire further to determine that there had been fraudulent activity. I was surprised that the fraud went on for over a day and that I hadn’t been called when my card was blocked (admittedly this was done in the middle of the night, however I didn’t call in until 6pm on Sunday. There was opportunity for a call to be placed.). Also it isn’t reassuring to know that fraudulent transactions were allowed to continue for more than 24 hours before anything was noticed.

I received my replacement card yesterday and activated it last night (Monday March 17th). I went to log into the website this evening, as I’m an e-Statement customer and wanted to check my balance so that I can make my payment on time. I received an error message and was told to call into the call centre. I called back in. The call centre rep began the process to update my information with the website service provider – a process that I was told would take two days to complete. I can understand being unable to login when my card is blocked and my new one has yet to be assigned/activated, but as a customer who has experienced fraud I would like to be able to check my statement myself to be able to see what the fraud transactions are.

Question – given that the website login was recently changed to use a personalized login (i.e. not the card number), why is this information not updated automatically? Especially given that a personalized login breaks the direct tie between login/password and account information. This connection could be made on the backend as soon as my new account/card number has been assigned. It also would have saved a call into the call centre!

While on the phone I also asked when I could be receiving an affidavit from the fraud department so that I can begin the process of having these charges removed. I was told that I should receive my letter by Friday March 28th, which is three weeks after the fraud originally started and 13 business days after my account was blocked. When I questioned this time frame, the CSR told me that it should take 7-10 days.

As a customer, I feel let down by the entire experience. There were so many missed opportunities to make things better!

Sincerely,

Jana

Fuck Apple. iPods suck. I know that this is a sacrilegious thing for me to say, but seriously Fuck Apple.

Last July my iPod died after 1.5 years. I was throwing my birthday party that night and didn’t have time to research new players/transfer my entire library over to a new format, etc. So I went and bought another iPod. It started being really flakey in the late fall – freezing repeatedly, not loading new music, able to hear the hard drive whirring away, etc. Mid December it finally died (death one). I took it into the Genius Bar at my local Apple store and they gave me a replacement one because I was still under warrantee (although this one would have been refurbished). Mid January this one starts experiencing the same problems (death two). Get another replacement. Early February this one starts experiencing similar problems (death three). I finally made it into the store yesterday and got my fourth iPod. Count right now: three deaths in eight months.

At this point I’m annoyed because I’ve been without music for more than a month in total and have spent a bunch of time waiting around in stores, reloading music, etc. I’m frustrated because I spent good money on something that (from my point of view) has shit harddrives. Admittedly, I may just be extremely unlucky but this doesn’t give me any reason to believe in the quality of any of their other products. We live in a society where technology changes rapidly. There’s no incentive for companies build durable products because then they can’t sell new ones in two years time. I know this and as a customer have seen quality decrease. It really is very likely that you, Apple, are beginning to put out shitty products.

I get home last night and decide to call Apple’s Customer Service line to see if I can get anymore help. The first person I talk to is extremely polite and passes me right through to a supervisor. At this point I’m impressed. Then I have to wait 20 minutes to talk to a supervisor. I explain the situation again. She asks me what I’d like and I tell her – a 32g touch. Before you think I’m being super greedy, let me explain. 1) I don’t want another harddrive product. With three deaths in eight months I don’t trust their quality and don’t want to have to go through this again. 2) I bought an 80gig iPod because I have 50gigs of music. None of the current generation of solid state drive products that Apple has come close to meeting this need (my need). The 32gig is the closest and therefore passable. 3) I don’t care about the rest of the features on the Touch. They aren’t important to me.

Apple’s response is that they can do one of two things for me. The first is to exchange my current “working iPod” for a brand new, iPod classic. Problems I have with this: a) I don’t see myself as having a “working iPod”. I have the third replacement that you’ve given me in four months. I also have no expectation that this is going to survive any reasonable length of time. b) I don’t want a harddrive product! I’ve made this really clear. So you offering to replace my harddrive with a harddrive doesn’t really satisfy me now does it.

The second option she gave me was to upgrade to the 32gig Touch, but I would have to pay the difference between the current 80gig iPod classic and the Touch. I’m now even less impressed: a) the price of the iPod classic has dropped in the eight months since I bought the original one. Why should I have to pay this difference during the upgrade? If my original one had worked, I wouldn’t be here! If they had been willing to have the difference be between what I’d paid originally and the price of the Touch I might have considered it. b) I’m not going to pay extra money for a product that doesn’t satisfy all my needs (i.e. size of memory). If I don’t care about the extra features then they don’t have any extra value to me.

Overall – both of these solutions relied on me mailing the current “working iPod” back to Apple. Then they would mail me back a new one. So their offers to me involved me having to spend the time and money to mail them back an iPod and then spending several (more like 4-6) weeks without music. How is this customer service? Had you told me that I could go into a store and do this directly, I may have considered it. But I’m tired of having to jump through hoops to get a decent product and reasonable service from a company.

The supervisors also made a big deal out of the fact that they were going out of their way to help me; that Apple doesn’t normally exchange one model for another. Here’s my take on this. When you can afford to hand a refurbished model out as a replacement without thinking about the cost, then you are overcharging for your product. When you can do it three times, then you can afford to exchange the product for a different model. This also tells me that these supervisors aren’t truly empowered (despite what they might have claimed) otherwise they should have been able to help me and not just responded with “but we can’t do that”.

I’m now even angrier, so I asked to speak to another supervisor. The next person I spoke to was confrontational from the start. After a few minutes she eventually told me that either I took what they were offering or left them alone.

Anyone out there who’s reading – this is not how you run customer service. I have owned iPods for six years. I bought into the Apple brand because I believed that it meant something about product quality and service. I have experienced three product malfunctions in eight months. I had customer service agents who don’t understand the concept that customers must value what you are offering them!

Apple, you have lost me as a customer. Everyone I know will hear this story. I will tell people to not buy your products because the quality is no longer there and because you’re service is horrendous. I have one more question – is the cost of my lost future revenues and the lost future customers who listen to what I have to say, really worth it? Are you earning so much money now that you can afford to be so callous?

What is the most frustating of all is that I don’t want Apple to get away with their crappy customer service and products. I want to write letters and make phone calls and follow up with people. But all of that requires time and energy, both of which are already in short supply. Its unfortunate that corporate culture has devolved to the point where they know that they can provide poor goods and services because most customers won’t fight back.

Update: I don’t feel quite so bad given this news story that came out today – Possible iPod Battery Defect Investigated in Japan

Yup, you heard me – the Pillow Fight League is holding their next event on Thursday March 13th at the Gladstone. I fought as an amateur at their last event and was asked to join the league. I’ve been working out and training with the girls and my first live, official fight will be at PFL #15. I’ll be fighting the other pledge to earn my “certificate of courage” during the first half and assuming that all goes well – will become a Rookie! I may even have my naming ceremony and first real fight in the second half.

So I think that all of you cool cats should come out and support me (and the PFL). Why? Because my goal is to pactice the art of ass-kick-ocity! p.s. I know that you are all dieing to find out what my fighter name is gonna be…

#1 Contender finals LIVE at the Gladstone Hotel! Two one-on-one matches between four PFL Veterans – the winners fight in the main event! Whoever wins GETS A TITLE SHOT AGAINST BOOZY SUZY, PFL WORLD CHAMPION!

plus: The return of tag teams! And two new pledge fighters try to earn the PFL Certificate Of Courage, and move into Rookie status!

AND MORE!

Thursday March 13, 2008
Gladstone Ballroom
1214 Queen St. West

Tickets $15 in advance at Rotate This (620 Queen West) or online at www.gopfl.com – tickets also $15 at the door!

There are fans flying in from DENMARK to see this show – make sure you’re there to see who the next PFL #1 Contender is!!!!!!