Has anyone experienced this?
This seems decidedly bad customer service and unusual for Apple. And particularly insulting to those who have paid money for AppleCare.
Whatās the practical effect of this? Are people waiting hours? Days? Weeks?
Iāve not had any problems at all.
I requested a call back on Thursday, and got an appointment the next day, today I received my replacement 2x AirPods Pro which were crackling.
All done and dusted within four days.
Thereās a global pandemic. Itās wise to limit in-person contact. Apple is prudent and careful of its employees and customers.
Problem?
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Not a problem if thatās clearly understood when I buy Applecare on a new product
Is it fair to keep charging the same for Applecare on new products but offer a lesser level of service?
Is there widespread evidence that Apple customers are not being served; their problems not being solved?
Otherwise seems like a non-issue.
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Fair? Maybe not - but it seems that the service degradation is in timeframe, not in scope. Has AppleCare ever guaranteed an actual resolution timeframe for AppleCare?
The challenge is that COVID is forever-evolving, so itās impossible to predict whatās going to happen in the future.
The people on that thread who talk about purchasing AppleCare āduring COVIDā may be forgetting that 9 months ago, social distancing, masks, etc. were going to be for āa few weeks to flatten the curveā.
6 months ago, there was widespread optimism that we might be reopening in the fall.
Now weāre looking at shutdowns into the summer, from what I can tell.
With any luck, the ālesser level of serviceā will be for a relatively short additional period of time compared to the 2- or 3- year length of the AppleCare service plan.
Personally, my other half and I bought her a new iPhone around Christmas. We needed help sorting out a very ridiculous AppleCare subscription issue (not caused by Apple - caused by Best Buy), went online one afternoon, and had a person on the phone to help us within about 10 minutes. So I canāt speak to resolution timeframes being problematic at all.
Iād want to hear data points before passing a judgement.
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What exactly is the service reduction? Sorry, itās not clear to me.
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Seems the support options are limited to online / call options since all Apple stores are closed?
Some would call that an improvement by the way, seeing how difficult it is to get a Genius appointment in an Apple storeā¦
I think itās limited in ānumber of optionsā only, not quality of service or timelines.
I have been an Apple customer for years and can never remember not being able to get a same-day Genius Bar appointment if I scheduled it in the morning.
Right now my closest Apple store has no Genius Bar appointments at all, the next closest has 630PM tomorrow as the first available appointment, and the next closest after that has appointments 2 days from now.
So that means that for equipment I use regularly for work, typically I could get a problem resolved same-day. Now I would lose 2 and maybe 3 daysā use of the equipment if it broke.
I donāt have any Mac computers in my business that I can do without for 3 days. Frankly I would have to temporarily buy a new one and then sell it later if I had to go 3+ days without use of the a main production-oriented computer.
There may not be any in-person appointments, Apple canāt really be faulted for that.
That may make it harder to get a phone appointment. Apple canāt really help that.
This seems like an entitlement issue and an opportunity to complain about Apple. You post something from an entire sub-reddit dedicated to āapplesucksā I donāt really feel a lot of sympathy towards your perceived issue when youāre coming from a place devoted to finding problems.
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Value - not entitlement. I am questioning whether those who pay for Applecare get appropriate service for that fee.
I have no interest in ācomplainingā about Apple - I have 3 Macs which I use personally, my whole family has Macs, my whole family has an iphone and/or iPad, and I have bought Macs for several employees in my business. All with Applecare. And I own Apple stock.
Iām a fan, not a complainer. I do expect (and in the past have always gotten) service for what I pay - thatās not āentitlement.ā Yes, we are in a pandemic. The question is - if service is down due to the pandemic, should the fees stay the same?
Do you have a business rep for the company purchases? You might have a back channel to support available to you.
Yes I do - that may indeed work.
Not sure that really makes it fair to others though. We all pay basically the same for the computers and for Applecare.
I understandājust trying to think through the limitations.
I agree there is some amount of the AppleCare fee that should be thought of as paying for a certain speed of response. Iām less sure it needs to be in-person.
Agree - except I think it should be curbside/ācontactlessā - not by mail.
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Service options, parts availability and response times may vary.
and
(b) Apple is not responsible for any failures or delays in performing under the Plan that are due to events outside of Appleās reasonable control.
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I didnāt say Iām going to sue them over it. Just wondering how their customers feel about it.
Iāve seen multiple articles about ācurbsideā Genius Bar appointments, and Genius Bar appointments still seem to be available at your stores - is your issue that itās taking longer to get one?
Given your previous experience, was that ever outlined in an SLA of some sort?
I feel like a lot of the delays are likely due to Apple having to do a bunch more things for safety during COVID and/or employees being out sick. In-person, in-store support is hard to scale dynamically as āgetting more helpā requires hiring and training employees, which has a significant ramp-up time if youāre expecting quality, reliable service.
That much is on Apple - if they canāt provide timely support due to their stores being overwhelmed, thatās something they should be (and probably are) looking into.
But if the issue is that you used to get same-day service and now itās going to take two, I feel like theyāre not in a position where they need to slash the price of AppleCare to compensate for that.
This is similar to my asking if I should have to pay as much for AppleCare as someone who lives in close proximity to an Apple Store. The closest one to me is over 500 miles away, so any time I have to send something in, the time without is measured in weeks instead of hours.
Since Apple cannot provide me with the same level of service, should I be charged less for it? I would like to answer yes, but since time to resolution isnāt a part of the service level agreement that AppleCare provides, I donāt think that I have much of an argument.
(Not being snarky here, just offering a different situation in which differing levels of service are priced the same.)
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