Alright.
Today, I had quite the experience with the famed Apple customer service, actually, a 2 and a half hour experience to be exact.
This is how it went down.
So last Wednesday, my brother and I ordered an iPhone (the JesusPhone), a 16GB iPod Touch, and Applecare protection services for each. Obviously, my broseph and I were completely bouncing off the walls with excitement that we were purchasing what we thought we the two most amazing Apple products currently being sold...
Two days later. I get an email that says:
To Our Valued Apple Customer:
Thank you for your interest in Apple's iPhone.
You have exceeded our iPhone purchase maximum for online sales, and we are unable to process your order.
Thank you again for your interest in Apple.
Sincerely,
Apple Online Store Customer Support
Oh, trust me, this did not go over well with me. I am an obsessive compulsive waiter, (not the restaurant type), and this just semi-ruined my evening, yet, at least my iPod TOUCH wasn't cancelled, right? WRONG! I checked the order status and the ENTIRE ORDER was cancelled.
Grrrrr.
I rang up Apple Customer Service immedietely, but... it being 8:30 PM, they were closed. Damn.
I waited the next day and called them as soon as I got home from school.
I suddenly had a premonition. WHY SHOULD I GET AN iPOD WHEN I COULD GET AN iPHONE FOR THE SAME PRICE?!
Sorry for the caps, but why carry a cell phone, a camera, and a ipod around when they all could be combined in one.
I was fairly optimistic since I have heard great things about Apple Customer Service, and I have also received quality, helpful service from them.
I navigated to their support page, found their number, and called. I was on hold for 15 minutes listening to crackly god-knows-what cheesy music that I couldn't tell if it was Stevie Wonder or Sarah McLachlan. Finally, a man with a very strong Indian accent answered, and I thought to myself, "Damn, I'm not going to understand most of what he says." This prediction was correct, and all I heard was that the store was out of stock and that it would be in stock for the holiday season.
Great. I have to wait for that long? Hell no.
I went to the AT&T's website and went to order iPhones, but it said you can only buy one per customer, and it was asking for all of this information that the Apple website wasn't, so I thought, "Screw AT&T, I want to give Apple my money anyways."
I called Apple again, just double checking to see if me thinking they didn't have any iPhones was just me misunderstanding the previous nice, but totally not understandable Apple representative. I got a nice woman, Jennifer, and she was very enthusiastic and helpful, and said that iPhone's WERE in stock, contrary to what Ahiib said, and walked me through the order process, and halfway through the process, I was disconnected. I was flabbergasted, because I had not pressed any buttons. Damn.
I called back, and got a whole different person, David, who had the lowest voice I had ever heard from a human being. Obviously, I was on hold for 20 minutes. Finally he answered, and I had to explain EVERYTHING to him that I explained to the woman that disconnected me before, and he finished the process... ALMOST, and I got disconnected AGAIN. I was SO angry!
I navigated to the Apple Website, and found the shopping cart that we had been adding to over the phone saved, so I added the remaining items, (cases) and checked out.
Alright. Good to go. HOORAY!....................... No.
The day after I got another email from Apple:
Dear Apple Customer
Thank you for your recent order.
We were unable to verify the billing address on your order. Please contact your card-issuing bank to update your billing address on your credit card amount or change the billing address on your order at
by selecting Edit Billing Address.
Please call blah blah blah unneccesary amounts of phone numbers blah blah blah.
Sincerely,
Apple Payment Processing Support
Double Grrrrr.
ONCE AGAIN Apple is annoying, and this is very uncommon, since I'm a huge fan of Apple.
Alright, so I call, and they say that my Mom's, who lives in NY and does not live with me since my parents are divorced, address that I wrote for her billing address is incorrect. Apparently, I wrote 4 R instead of 4R, her appartment room number. So I fix that, but the order does not work.
I call back that night, going on hold for god knows how long until a really frustrated sounding woman answers, and says that the actual card holder needs to speak, which is my Mom. Well, my Mom speaks horrible English, and I was kinda translating for her on my cell phone instead of my house phone which was being used to talk to them. They say they will connect me to a Korean speaking consultant who will ask my mom questions verifying that she actually is my real mother so that they can prove that I'm not stealing some random person's credit card and then stole a small Asian woman off the street to voice my mother. Pffft. Silly. Then, of course, they disconnect me while I'm on hold. JESUS!
I am so angry by this point, because my mother is yelling at me, asking me why there is so much trouble and I'm listening on the other ear to the house phone to only hear nothing.
I call again Apple again, waited on hold for 24 minutes, and talked to Steven, who seemed like a nice guy. I explained everything to him, and as if it were the easiest thing in the world, he placed the order for me, without any need to talk to my distressed mother, and I got an email congratulating me for buying an iPhone.
*Half-Hearted Hooray!
And there is my iPhone story.
2-3 day shipping on that bad boy :D
-Peter
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