Steve Jobs Personally Resolves Customer Complaint 341
An anonymous reader writes "The Consumerist recently published a story about an Apple customer who went through support hell with a broken Macbook. After escalating the issue up the support chain, and a month wait for his Macbook, the guy gave up and simply wrote Steve Jobs a blistering flame-mail. So, was he surprised when Jobs' executive assistant responded back the next day! He got both a brand new Macbook, as well as his old one to copy the hard drive. The guy also responded in a comment, and he turns out to be a slashdotter! He even wrote a journal entry here about the story."
Did I miss something? (Score:5, Insightful)
Flame Mail? (Score:5, Insightful)
Nice, but (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Personally? (Score:2, Insightful)
PR (Score:2, Insightful)
And miss out on all that (insanely) great free PR?
I wonder if Jobs ever sees these emails (Score:5, Insightful)
Got to give it to Maynard! (Score:2, Insightful)
the mail I'd have sent would sound 10X more nastier
than what he had sent.
And maybe that's what mattered in the end. The cool
and collected way Mr. Maynard wrote the disgruntled-
customer email must've done the job(no pun intended).
This real issue here is... (Score:4, Insightful)
According to "Consumer Reports", Apple has the best customer service of ALL the PC and laptop makers and their quality also beats everyone. If you look at their charts, Apple takes the lead by a wide margin, none of this jazz of they're 8.2 while the closest competitor is 8.1. (Unfortunately, I don't have the issue in front of me to give you guys the real number numbers to show how well Apple rates.)
Now, here's the best, and they're pulling this horseshit!?
Stopping now because I need more coffee.
MIT (Score:5, Insightful)
Steve keeps it real; mum's the word (Score:5, Insightful)
But the more publicity he gets for doing it, and the more people actually try to email him, the less likely he'll be to read and respond, and the less personal it's actually going to get. It's obvious from the numbers. Part of me hates myself for saying this, and I acknowledge that it's elitist as all hell, but I sort of wish these guys (the ones "in the know" about Steve's responsiveness over email) would keep it to themselves. Because if Steve stops answering his email, that's another piece gone of the old Apple spirit.
Of course, I suppose we must all eventually succumb to inevitability—but there's no harm delaying that end, while possible. So please. Enough. Let me suggest we simply appreciate Steve for keeping it real, and not trumpet it all over the blog-o-spierre.
Re:Does not sound so cool to me. (Score:3, Insightful)
-Act nicely and the world will treat you like a crap.
-Act like a crap and the world will treat you nice.
Maybe Buda got that whole karma thing the wrong way...
This might be a special case (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:MIT (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Shocking News Story! (Score:2, Insightful)
The point is Apple, and apparently Steve Jobs as well, still understands that they are there to serve people and not people serving them. As long as Apple rememembers this, they will continue to take the high end and most profitable customers.
Oh, and I would believe the "Apple has an insignficant market share" argument... Apple is taking the most profitable customers from the rest of the tech industry. Those are the most painful for Microsoft/Dell/HP to loose...
Re:Letters to the top always produce some effect (Score:5, Insightful)
Thats Richard Branson. He does that kind of thing because it gets in the news and it is much cheaper than paying for advertising. He is a similar kind of charismatic leader, though.
Re:Does not sound so cool to me. (Score:4, Insightful)
Stop the fanboyism (Score:2, Insightful)
"Today the great chairman Mao visited a poor child in the village Mangtung. He gave the child healthy food and read a story. This how out great chairman Mao cares cares for all the people."
Re:Does not sound so cool to me. (Score:3, Insightful)
Dunno about that. I lead a small team of engineers who do internal toolchain support for several of our sites. Most of my job involves allocating tasks and taking care of planing, etc. But every now and again I take a job off the queue and do it myself because (1) it keeps the guy who would otherwise have done it on their toes, to have me messing with "their" stuff and (2) I get a better picture of what is really happening out in the real world.
So I wouldn't be surprised if Steve Jobs occasionally takes charge of a fault call. Probably a healthy thing to do.
Skipping up the chain of command. (Score:3, Insightful)
Around aught-zero my DSL provider was forced out of business by some rather dramatic changes in the DSL market. They had a length of time to shut down and began immediately cutting employees. At the time this was a very fast DSL connection and my bill was on the order of $200 a month. After canceling my service they continued to charge me. I called, of course it would be fixed! It wasn't for month two... then three... then four, every month them charging me only to refund money after many calls on my part and being told the problem was fixed for good.
Month five. They did it again. So I did what any pissed off customer would do, I flew down to their office and bea... er. Found their about page and looked for personal information for company employees listed at the VP level and above. Guess others had done the same, because it was all impossible to find. Then I noticed their board list, sure enough, many of the board members had information available online. So I wrote one, more out of frustration than anything explaining what had happened for the previous five months. Twenty minutes later the CEO of the company called me and assured me the problem would be resolved and then proceeded to offer me an additional refund for my "time spent on their failure".
The point of all this? Even the boss has a boss or someone he is "scared of" or "respects". When you come to the end of a normal process without success, it is okay to escalate to them.
Re:Did I miss something? (Score:2, Insightful)
This is the creep who gave the go-ahead on an initial iPod design that did not give a hoot that the lithium ion batteries hermetically sealed within were going to wear out. A CEO who invests everything in lifestyle revolution hype rather than quality. Friends, get the message: Steve Jobs has never been, is not, and will never be your friend. He's also not your or anyone else's religious leader. He's screwing you and enjoying it. It's payback time.
Re:Personally? (Score:5, Insightful)
Hmmm...I can't seem to find the page on Apple's website that explains how to escalate your problem past the Customer Service monkeys when you can't get it resolved. How is that superior customer service? I think the problem is that we're so used to crappy service that when we get *any* service at all it's considered "superior". I, for one, am not about to applaud Apple for "going above and beyond" when the thing that necessitated it was a complete failure of the system in question.
Re:I completely agree (Score:4, Insightful)
So keep right on flooding Steve with emails. He'll get the ones that he should, and his staff will take care of the rest. Also, I know its unlikely, but have you all considered the possibility that its not really Steve answering those emails? In my experience, the emails that come directly from him are very short and to the point (a few words at most). He probably also has people he trusts to reply on his behalf.
Corporate Executive Relations (Score:3, Insightful)
Please, everyone, don't abuse it. I've had a couple of issues that the regular AppleCare folks weren't taking care of properly, and those issues were promptly resolved by the friendly people in Corporate Executive Relations. I'd hate to see them lose their effectiveness because they're being bombarded with things that ought to be going to regular AppleCare.
Re:Does not sound so cool to me. (Score:4, Insightful)
Personally, I find that line of thinking very elitist and in the end self-destructive. Managers who look upon their employees as "mere employees" will not be able to get the most out of those employees. I believe that true management is serving those under you to enable them to do their best.
Regardless, there is a certain point to that statement. The key here is not what Steve Jobs did but what changes will occur in the company to see that he doesn't have to do this again. It is all well and good that he is able to provide good support, but if all of the other support employees fail, it could eventually sink the company.
Re:Did I miss something? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Does not sound so cool to me. (Score:3, Insightful)
If you are a great leader, you do what you need to do to get the job done, and once in awhile that's a matter of low-level work rather than high-level thinking.
-Jeff
The original blog is pathetic, really (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Did I miss something? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:It is called largesse (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm sure having the address slashdotted will mean it is less useful; they'll probably stop paying attention to it for a while. Hopefully after this story blows over and volumes recede, it will continue to be a useful resource.
Re:Does not sound so cool to me. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I completely agree (Score:1, Insightful)
Bah. Steve Jobs called the CEO of HP when he was a teenager to ask for free circuitboards for some random project he was doing, just because he didn't feel like paying for them. He's not in a position to complain.
Besides, who is really gullible enough to believe he does this out of goodwill rather than a shrewd business sense? Alright, so it's probably a combination, but please, for the love of God, don't pretend that getting huge amounts of press for an "aww, so he's just a regular guy, like the rest of us!"-story of this kind is something Steve will be unhappy about.
Maynard, I'm glad you got your computer fixed, but I guess I'm just too cynical to just view it as a random act of altruism.