Recently retired. New M1 MBP, new M1 iMac. Experienced Apple user x 35 years. Has any one else noticed Apple support deterioration? Used to be happy to pay Apple premium for supposed better support and solid build of products. In last 10 years have had recall on hard drive, SSD, numerous software bugs, damage from repair at local Apple store etc etc. Now when I call support even “senior” advisors know less than than I do and if I even mention 3rd party software or hardware they claim they have never heard of it. They are always asking for call back number in case we get disconnected and they never call back when the disconnection happens!! So just curious is it me or is it time to pay less and ditch Apple?
Your thoughts?
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its the same everywhere… its a generational thing. 
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i have to deal with HP and Fujitsu at work. Believe me, the situation there is not better.
I still consider myself a switcher although that happened 15 years ago (crazy). My first Mac was a lemon: the first Intel Macbook. I have had so many issues (replacements of fans, casing, logic board and finally the battery). Basically 4 (!) repairs within 16 months. When the last one was done, the technician was very apologetic and wondered, if I ever would buy a Mac again in the future.
It may sound a little weird, but MacOS blew me away. The Mac was just fun to use and to work with. And Apple did everything to resolve those issues. Yes, that particular computer had been a nightmare in retrospect. But the way how Apple dealt with those issues and with me had been fantastic.
After that adventure with this MacBook, I never had issues with my Macs. So I do not feel comfortable to really judge Apple support as of today regarding my Macs. But I had multiple issues with my AirPods during recent years and Apple did not let me down once: any issue led to a replacement. No questions asked.
Maybe, the fact that Apple is getting bigger and bigger might be an issue. I don’t know.
But I do not think that you will be pleased with a “cheap” PC. The experience potentially is not better and nice PCs are not that cheap, either.
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After taking in one of my daughter’s phone for repair yesterday (XR) I was surprised that even with Apple Care I had to pay $99 for a new phone because the back glass couldn’t be fixed, only replaced. Was expecting $49 or something in that ballpark for replaced glass. Start adding up the costs, and unless she breaks it again in the next month before it expires, it was barely worth the Apple Care price.
I wouldn’t personally consider leaving the ecosystem, but I will seriously think twice before buying into Apple Care in the future.
How much was out-of-warranty back glass replacement? I’ve seen numbers as high as $599 - which would be much more “worth it” for AppleCare.
And of course the screen glass is much cheaper to fix - $29. One cracked screen and AppleCare is more than worth it, as out-of-warranty screen repair is over $200 (and sometimes over $300, depending on phone model)
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Yes, isn’t the front display bonded to the glass, so if you crack the glass you need a whole assembly.
Something like that, yup. The tech commentators were talking a number of years back about how the screen felt more like you were touching something directly, rather than touching a piece of glass - and the reason it felt that way was that Apple had removed some sort of gap between the glass and the screen.
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Yes, breaking the back glass is much worse than breaking the front. And rumor has it the iPad Pros will be getting glass backs. So get out your check books.
As far as I’m concerned the cost of an Apple appliance is list price plus Apple Care.
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Yup. Either that or an Otterbox. I’ve never had a device in an Otterbox have any problems. The down side, of course, is the Otterbox is super-clunky. 
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I have tech insurance through my bank account which costs about £140 a year, covers all of my devices and any accidents cost £75 to get repaired.
Touch wood I’ve only had to invoke it once for my iPad Pro 9.7” With all of the monthly fees I’ve paid, I could have bought a couple of extra devices 
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I’d need to run the numbers, but your tech insurance sounds like a good deal. I only have an iPhone 11 and an iPad Pro so AC+ isn’t too bad. And I prefer cross platform services so I currently only pay $3/month for iCloud and $9.95 for Apple Music. So my month bill from Apple seems reasonable.
I will subscribe to Apple TV+ and binge Ted Lasso and Mythic Quest when a new season drops but I haven’t found any streaming service worth subscribing to full time. Except for YouTube premium - I hate commercials.
As we have 4 iPhones, 3 iPads and a couple of MacBooks in the house, it’s fantastic value if anything breaks
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Sounds interesting, which bank and account do you get this with, please?
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I don’t have AppleCare for my phone, but I’ve purchased it with all my Mac’s since my 27" had a fault every single year for the three years I had it. After it failed the third time, I sold it, and the person who purchased it said it broke a year after (but Apple honoured a repair). Each time it was the spinning hard drive that failed.
After that, I vowed to never buy a Mac that I couldn’t easily carry in to an Apple Store to get it fixed!
Maybe that’s why Apple never sold a TV. Who wants to wait for a Genius while holding a 75" set?
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IMHO it is not only the competence of the support personnel that has gone downhill, but the product quality as well. They don’t “just work” any more.
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Thank you. I started this thread just to see if I was alone in my disappointment. You have convinced me I’m not. Don’t know how this thread got so many responses about Apple Care!
Latest boondoggle with Apple. With my latest iMac purchase I used their trade-in service. Even though I had my old iMac at the Apple store with me and the store had the iMac configuration I wanted I could not do the trade in at the store because I wanted to use a Veteran’s discount that Apple offers. I had to step outside the store (Covid-protocol), order on-line via the veteran’s discount site. I then had to bring my old iMac home that I was trading in and Apple had to send me the box to ship it back to them even though I was in the Apple store with the iMac. It gets better. A few days later I shipped the computer back. Tracking shows it was received June 2. Today is June 8 and still no refund. Web site says still under review. Called Apple June 7. Took 3 calls. Disconnected once with no call back. Resolution was they would get back to me. Have they got back to me? No! I get to call them again tonight. Best part even though I gave the correct serial number for the computer they think its a 21.5 iMac when in fact it is a 27 inch iMac!!
It just goes on and on and on and nobody at Apple cares.
Guess how I felt having bought a new M1 MacMini when they first appeared only to later find out you could no longer use CarbonCopy/SuperDuper to create a bootable external hard drive. My love/hate relationship with Apple dropped the first word. What fricken genius approved that move. They finally changed their minds with the last Mac release, but word on the street is….tic….tic…tic, times running out.
I’ve noticed it too. I’m accustomed to them being exceptionally fine employees.
One thing that drives me to distraction is when they employ people with rather limited English proficiency. And because of my teaching, I’m used to dealing with individuals still learning the basics in English. So I just naturally make accommodations.
But if I cannot understand the heavily accented English, it is counterproductive in the long haul. Plus they are having trouble understanding me and confirming the same information three or four times. It’s exasperating!
I’ve been encountering that a lot at Apple. They may be good employees, don’t get me wrong. However, there are other types of jobs they could do effectively in the interim.
Talking on the phone is just about THE most difficult job you can assign someone while they are picking up a second language.
From now on, I’ll just call the Spanish line instead. At least that’s an accent I can readily follow.
The value of Apple support and AppleCare (to me) is tightly wrapped up with the existence of the Apple Store. Because of this I have never (that I recall) even attempted to contact them via phone. From your description it sounds like I only missed out on frustration.
Using the Genius Bar in-store has been nothing but joy. I have had a few unexpected replacements (no cost) and a lot of support people going out of their way to make sure I was satisfied. My most major part failure (MacBook Air logic board) happened on a device where I had forgotten to purchase AppleCare. It was still covered under the $250 mail-in support. When it returned, it had been reassembled with some keys that didn’t fit through the holes correctly. They couldn’t repair it in-house and had to ship it back to mail-in support. An Apple employee decided to waive the mail-in fee. I ended up w/ a MacBook Air in which everything but the body and screen was replaced, for $0. And since the logic board was new, I was able to purchase AppleCare! I then sold it on eBay for maximum resale value.
Since we were living in Mexico then, and there were NO official Apple stores in-country, we opted out of Apple for awhile. But after a brief period of Linux and android hardware/software, we are back in the fold.
You think Apple support has issues? Ha! Try getting Android support from basically anyone…
Moral of the story: no matter how long the drive may be, just use the nearest Apple Store.