But I think any one in any business for any length of time knows that if you have to take out the contract when dealing with your customer, then you have lost the game.
Apple historically prides itself on “delighting” its customers and providing superior customer service. I have long sung their praises. I doubt I am the only one who has noticed tha their timeliness in providing service has gone down notably.
Can/will I sue them over it? No. Can/will I return my computer over it? No. But maybe I won’t buy Applecare next time. Maybe I won’t be quite as enthusiastic to recommend a Mac to my relative who needs total tech handholding. And on it goes.
If it’s COVID-caused, then Apple should be business as usual within the next year (hopefully! Also not trying to start a fight.) So your purchases should assume that whatever level of convenience of response you were used to will return.
I’m a customer and I feel great about it. It’s pleasing that Apple puts its people ahead of its customers when it comes to their health and well-being.
Yes, but I was extending your argument that a lower level of service should cost less. I don’t actually think so, but the logic is similar, unless you’re asserting that because of a change in circumstances that have degraded Apple’s ability to provide a previous level of service, that they should be giving partial refunds for AppleCare already purchased.
As you’re someone who’s depending on your Mac(s) for your business needs, this may not be a bad option. If Apple cannot provide an SLA that meets your downtime tolerances then a better strategy may be to invest the resources allocated to AppleCare in mitigations that do. When I was still working in networking, this was something that I did. Instead of purchasing expensive replacement support for every switch, we kept enough spares onsite to deal with any failures. It saved us money and allowed us a much shorter recovery time (hours instead of days).
Prince George, British Columbia, Canada, of course!
I don’t know about those who already purchaesd AppleCare - I’d probably cut them a bit of slack there for a reasonable effort. But surely going forward there should be some adjustment. Sure I admire them for putting their employees first - but that does not mean it should be at customers’ expense. Look how many businesses had to cut back service during the pandemic to their own economic detriment.
That may not be such a bad idea. It wouldn’t take too long for Applecare to add up to an entry level M1 Mac Air and/or an entry level M1 Mini as a spare Mac for any that fail. Even better a couple of used Macs as backups.
This is why my 2012 Mini is still doing “server” sorts of things instead of having been sold back to Apple or a third party. It’s an OS version behind, but if my current Mac crapped out on me, I could just switch over to the 2012 and (after maybe an hour or so of getting some apps and data in place) keep working.
In the US this means that stores are closed or have very limited access because of the way we’ve (mis)handled the pandemic. If you pay for Apple Care so you can go to a store, then I guess you may feel “insulted” — but I fail to see how you should feel “insulted” by Apple for protecting the life of their workers.
In 2018 and 2019, it was impossible to get a same-day appointment at any of my 3 closest stores. Often it was difficult to get an appointment the next day — and sometimes there were no appointments in their entire scheduling window.
My experience (as a tech support person working with Apple products) has been that their mail-in and drop-off (where open) hardware repairs have been improved substantially over the course of 2020. For example, I just had a client mail in his 4-year old laptop and he got it back within 4 days. I’ve never had a turnaround that quick, and I hope it is a sign of continuing improvements.
Some busineses have added a “Covid Fee” to cover personal protective equipment e.g. dentist offices, so they can continue to provide previously offered services.
I cannot think of a single example of any post-Covid business which raised prices in the face of reduced service. Can you?
I can’t quote the before / after, but it feels like a couple of our local delivery places have upped their delivery charge slightly. Delivery times are significantly longer than normal - to the point where if we want pizza from our usual place, we need to plan hours ahead of time.
What I have noticed is that none of them seem to be apologizing or making any excuses for the delivery times. What used to be 30 minutes is now almost two hours, and it’s just taken as a given.
That feels to me similar to what you’re seeing from Apple. It’s not “hey, sorry, it’s going to be two hours for what used to take 30 minutes - let us give you a free soda or something to try to keep you as a customer”. It’s more of a realization that nobody is going to get you a pizza much faster, so they take it as a given and do the best they can. I’m sure they’d happily do it in 30 minutes if they could - but there are logistical barriers that make it difficult or impossible, and scaling up isn’t feasible without knowing what the future holds.
That sounds like a good plan, actually. And with their return policy, you could (in theory) try it out while yours was in the shop, and return it if it was sub-par.
And if it meets your needs, hey - you have a backup computer for next time.
Got a few flags out of this. I think we generally agree that the world is a mess and Apple, along with its customers, just want the best solutions, even if it means a wait.
And with their return policy, you could (in theory) try it out while yours was in the shop, and return it if it was sub-par.