Over the weekend a colleague finally caved in to iPhone mania and replaced his Blackberry with a 3G model for the lovely little sum of $49.00. Within a few hours, he dropped it to the ground, shattering the screen.
My colleague, who shall remain anonymous, returned to the AT&T store who sold him the device. A salesperson tried to help. A manager joined the conversation. A third person, a supervisor weighed in. The verdict: for a cool $450, they would replace the device.
I repeat: $450 to replace a device that they sold to him earlier for $50.
Faster than shots of tequila are downed during happy hour on today, Cinco de Mayo, my colleague skedaddled. Next stop, the Apple store. A young genius heard the sorry tale, considered the evidence, examined the broken phone, and provided a free replacement.
So there you have it: a head-spinning contrast of customer service philosophies, one famously engendering the loyalty of raving fans, the other just as infamously feeding into the usual story of frustration and complexity by phone / utility companies.
Do you have any amazing or horrible customer service stories you’d like to share? And how do you think clients feel about the service you provide them?
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Or, you could move on up to the grown-ups table and get an Android device.
Cool. Does the Android device have a finger-painting app?
Different experience for me, although this is the ONLY time I’ve been disappointed with Apple’s service. I went to buy my wife an iPhone 4 for Christmas to replace her 3g. Apple would not (claimed could not) sell me the phone unless they activated it immediately. Absolutely no. I explained, obviously, this is a Christmas gift, don’t want to turn off her phone, etc., etc. No go.
Went to the AT&T store. No problem. Here you go. Here’s what to do on Christmas to activate the new phone by telephone and deactivate the old one. In and out, with no argument.