The Apple I Knew…
A rant about customer service, support, and experience
I distinctly recall walking into an Apple Store several years back with some broken headphones. This was the age before AirPods, even before EarPods; I had bought those fancy (well, relatively expensive) Apple In-Ear Headphones. And one side of them had stopped working, so I popped into an Apple Store. Within minutes, I walked out of the store with a brand new pair. It’s as close to a “no questions asked” situation as I’ve ever had.¹ And it was delightful. So delightful, in fact, that I still remember that one trip to this day.
And I’m specifically thinking back to it on this day because of the opposite situation I’ve had with my Apple Watch.
Now, before I begin, I should note that I didn’t pull any strings to get my Watch repaired. Given my old line of work, writing about Apple, occasionally, the company has expedited some fixes for me in the past. That’s not the case here, I just followed the diagnoses and repair protocols as anyone else might. Also, while I may still have somewhat of a voice in the general space, I’m wary of being “that guy” who uses it to get my Apple Watch fixed. But given the feedback on Twitter, it would seem that many people have had similar issues recently.² So allow me to be that guy who can hopefully use my powers of immense complaint to perhaps surface what I think is a larger issue to Apple.
At a higher level, the issue is that Apple has gotten demonstrably worse at customer service, support, and experience as they’ve grown in popularity.
This should not be a shocking statement. It’s hard to scale anything, and I imagine it’s especially hard to scale customer service at the level at which Apple operates. They’re north of a billion active iOS devices alone. And think of everything else they do. This is not easy.
That said, this is Apple. This is a company worth a trillion dollars. This is a company that makes more profit than any company in the history of companies. And, I’d argue, they’re a company who has gotten to where they are thanks in large part to this focus on the customer. And more specifically, on customer experience. On getting the little things right. On delight.
When you walk into an Apple Store these days and it’s crowded (as they usually are), the scene at the “Genius Bar” is often a shitshow. I feel comfortable making such a blanket statement because I’ve visited a lot of Apple Stores all around the world. Whenever I’m in a new city, I make my wife stop in them with me (her usual reaction: 🙄).
Because Apple Stores, in general, are great. Perhaps the pinnacle of retail — certainly in the consumer tech space. But again, it’s the Genius Bar (or Grove, or whatever), where the actual customer service happens that seems to be a nightmare. The folks working there, the Geniuses, are always nice enough and seem largely capable (certainly more so than your typical electronic store employee), but their hands seem tied by crushing demand.
The past few times I’ve gone to an Apple Store for a service request, I’ve been greeted by long lines and a long wait. The people in these lines generally don’t seem happy. In fact, they seem surprised they’re waiting at all.
Again, I get it. This is a problem of scale. But it seems to me that expectations were set once upon a time that are failing to be met these days. Certainly, if you were to just pop into an Apple Store today, as I did all those years ago, it’s not realistic to get a problem solved immediately. But when you set an appointment for a certain time — as I always do now — it seems entirely reasonable to think you’ll be seen at that time. This is how it used to be. These days, you’re lucky if you don’t have to wait 10–15 minutes before you’re “checked in” and then another 10–15 minutes before you’re actually seen.
Once you do sit down with a specialist, they always seem to perform as best they can to help you and get you on your way. And this was the case with my Apple Watch. My Genius inspected the device, took my notes about the problem — uh, the screen popped off — and filled out the needed paperwork to send it to the shop to be fixed.
All fine up until this point. The wait is mildly annoying when you’ve scheduled a time, but I get it. I still think Apple should do better here, but I get it. The real issue in this case came in the form of an email.
After my Watch was “in the shop” for a few days, Apple sent me a note stating that I needed to contact them to agree to pay a fee to fix the Watch. In this case, $289. Given that the cost of the watch was $329, obviously, this was a surprise. To be honest, any fee was a surprise. The Watch was a Series 3, the newest one, less than a year old.³
The email laid out the forensic evidence that I had broken my watch with an impact. This included pictures with overlaid text and arrows.⁴ This isn’t a great feeling as a customer — that they’re not only not taking my word that I didn’t do anything to it, but that they’re analyzing my Watch as if it were the Zapruder film.
But, okay, they’re just doing their jobs by investigating this, I suppose. The only issue is that I did not drop or hit or otherwise damage my Watch. At least not that I’m aware of. And given the way the screen broke and popped off, you’d think I’d notice such a hit.
I should note here that I’m insanely careful with my devices. In fact, I’ve actually never once broken or even cracked an iPhone screen, despite having owned basically every single model since day one of the iPhone in 2007.⁵ I’ve also owned every model of the Watch, thus far. No breaks to date, until this one. I was simply walking around my house when the screen popped out. I noticed it when I raised my wrist and it looked like Apple had enabled a new 3D mode — which was actually just the screen bouncing in front of my face.
Obviously, I’m pushing back against this fee. But it’s honestly a little surprising to get such a fee is my point. On one hand, it’s reasonable — if I broke the Watch, I should pay to fix it. On the other hand, it’s entirely unreasonable — I didn’t break the Watch, so I shouldn’t pay to fix it. But it’s the gray middle here that is most surprising: Apple used to be so good at the little things in customer experience that they simply don’t do anymore.
I’m not saying I need a brand new Watch when I walk out of the store the day I go in with the problem. But it doesn’t seem unreasonable that they’ll fix it for free if I tell them I didn’t break it. Yes, people lie. And Apple has no reason to trust me, Mr. Random Consumer. But it feels like the old Apple would have trusted me. Because is it worth it to investigate a claim from a customer who bought your brand new, state-of-the-art product less than a year ago?
Maybe from a bottom-line perspective it is! But I’m suggesting that there are other things that are perhaps more important than the bottom-line. Some of these things are tangible (customer experience!) some are intangible (customer delight!) — but they all not only add up, but compound to create another insanely happy customer who will never leave your ecosystem. That’s the kind of thing money can’t buy, so I’d imagine it’s certainly worth waiving a $290 repair fee for a device you’re about to deprecate.
Anyway, again, I know I sound a little silly complaining about this. But I also know this is not an isolated incident. And so I’d just implore Apple not to lose sight of their roots here. To sweat the small stuff. To remember that a trillion dollar market cap didn’t just come from people buying $1,000+ phones for the hell of it. They bought them and continue to buy them for a reason. And a big reason is increasingly being overlooked…
¹ They literally just handed me a new pair right off the shelf. They didn’t ring them up or anything. I just gave them my old ones and they gave me a brand new pair still in the box. I was so surprised that I said something like, “really, that’s it?” and they just said, “yep, sorry about that.” And I walked out.
² I mean, the thing is held together with glue. WITH GLUE.
³ We’ll set aside the fact that we’re likely just a couple months away from a new, improved Apple Watch at this point. Even though that will undoubtedly drive down the price of my version significantly, if it’s still offered at all. So yeah, zero percent chance I’m paying $290 to fix this thing.
⁴ Said pictures with said text and said arrows:
⁵ People are often surprised by this, but it’s true. And I’m case-less about 90% of the time.
