Bad Apple - continued...

More shenanigans with Apple today - their supervisor did the best he good given the poor systems they seem to have in place, and with them being Irish and it being Paddy's day, I wasn't really disposed to be too nasty. They have promised me some recompense, and I have in turn given them until Tuesday to deliver the imac before cancelling. I've also sent an email of complaint, which I've pasted below (removing names - God knows whether this is legal).

As I am now well and truly on a soapbox, I would be very interested hear about any other experiences, good or bad, people have had with the apple store, deliveries and customer servive. Please Email me - badapple@nicktryg.co.uk (update - now active). I will post them to this site, and will do my best to make Apple aware - Europe and US if possible. Hell, maybe I'll even bend Steve Jobs's ear...

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Dear xxxxxx,

xxxxxx xxxxxx gave me your email address to allow me to register a complaint in writing regarding order ref W76599474.

At the moment I am on the verge of cancelling a £1200 order for an G5 imac and a USB midi keyboard.

After ordering the items over the phone on the 8th, I received the attached email last Thursday 10th, confirming shipment and estimating delivery in 3-4 days. I took 2 days leave to receive the order. As I was not going to be available after this time at the delivery address, I phoned yesterday to check the status, and to advise of a change of address so as not to waste the courier’s time coming to an empty flat.

Instead of any resolution, I was faced with no guarantees of delivery date (the online tracking had no useful information) and there being no proper mechanism to change the delivery address. Furthermore, on phoning TNT with the tracking number supplied during the first phone call, they had no record of the delivery whatsoever.

After asking to speak to a supervisor, xxxxxx phoned me back. He was:

- Still unable to guarantee a delivery date, due to a backlog in the Holland depot.
- Unable to guarantee 100% that the change of address would carry through.
- Just about able to restore enough confidence for me not to cancel the order, via the promise of recompense in some shape or form – although I have to wait until after delivery for this to come through, which does hold me over a barrel somewhat.

From the information xxxxxx gave me, it seems that my mistake was ordering both items together. The ‘merging’ process means the Mac goes from Cork to Luxembourg with one courier (KUEHNE & NAGEL) to merge with the keyboard, then waits for the 3-day despatch backlog to be cleared at your warehouse before it can be re-shipped to me by another courier (TNT). In this process you are not able to change the shipping address. This seems strange when you consider that Amazon manage to merge items from warehouses all over the UK – and if they can’t, they just ship them separately. This is frustrating as it would have made no difference to me to order the items separately, as both items were free delivery!

For the record, in one of the phone calls – I was incorrectly and rather tersely told that I hadn’t accounted for the weekend in my delivery date – which I had. Generally, not enough responsibility was taken by Apple – I had to chase this order, I had to call the courier myself, and if I do want a refund I have to wait a number of days for the item to be logged back in (this last issue is completely unacceptable – you should be able to refund me immediately and deal with your own stock yourselves).

As an individual I know I don’t command the same spending power as a business, but nonetheless I feel I am a pretty good Apple customer:

- Having used macs of various shapes and sizes since 1994, I have recommended macs to all the PC-based companies for whom I have worked, resulting in sales of 9600s / G3s / all generations of imac, including a G5 in February for my current company.

- I have bought two macs for myself – a blue and white G3 in 1999 and an ibook G3 in 2003. For the record, this ibook itself has caused problems, as I’ve had to send it back twice under the Logic Board Repair Extension Programme (the second time it came back with a non-functioning airport – apparently a common design flaw with the ariel in the screen hinge).

- I bought a 2nd Gen ipod for myself in 2003, and an ipod mini for my partner this Christmas. I was considering adding a 1GB ipod shuffle to this current order – I’m glad I didn’t.

Furthermore, I have evangelised about Macs, OSX and ipods to all my friends and colleagues, resulting in at least 4 sales of ipods, an isight, two G4 ibooks and had recently convinced my most ardent windows-loving techie friend to buy a mac mini to write music on – after this week he is having second thoughts.

Basically – I really like Apple, and I am saddened that I’ve been let down by poor communication and a delivery mechanism which doesn’t function adequately for a product manufacturer such as yourselves. If Apple want to increase their market share, and compete with the HPs and Dells of this world (who will build and deliver a PC within 48 hours), and to improve the reputation of customer service, I would hope these issues of delivery, tracking and communication will be addressed.

I don’t want to cancel the order, as I’d much rather the money went directly to Apple rather than through a third party dealer – as I’m sure you would. However, my good will is rapidly running out, and as I’ve told xxxxxx, if the imac doesn’t arrive on Tuesday 22nd at the new shipment address (xxxxxxxxxxxx), I will be cancelling the order, and will not be buying from or recommending the Apple Store again.

I look forward to your swift response on this matter.