Another real-life example of Apple Customer Service at the Tyson’s Corner Store in Virginia.
A friend of mine bought an 80GB iPod at the the Apple Store, but on the 14th day discovered something rather interesting about it. On the back was engraved “who loves you?”, there was debris inside under the screen, the screen was rainbowed when observed at an angle, and it was bowed a bit, not fastened to the back plate.
For those unaware, you cannot buy engraved iPods at the Apple Store, only online, nor can you return an engraved iPod to the Apple Store. If you do opt for engraving, you’ll have a receipt with your engraved message on it.
So, he called in advance and the sales person said he needed to come in and speak with a manager. Like most Apple store treks, I went along for the ride.
We got there and a skeptical sales person listened to the tale of woe, but upon seeing the Apple Store receipt and matching serial number on the device, he quickly got us in touch with the manager. She was wonderful and instantly figured out what had happened by just looking at the sticker.
She noted that the model number started with P, indicating this was a personalized iPod. And, since the store does not have the capacity to engrave or sell engraved iPods, this means someone returned it. Employees at the Apple Store are not supposed to accept them, and because the serial number was on the device, she could tell who’s iPod it was originally was, as well as which store employee accepted it as a return, putting it back in the “new” pile.
From the damage to the iPod, it appeared as if someone tried to pry off the cover near the on/off switch, this accounted for the bowing, the small pieces of dust and debris inside, and the rainbow effect from micro stress fractures in the plastic cover after being pried.
Additionally, she knew from our sales receipt who sold us the iPod and that person didn’t check the model number as well. She stated this was clearly Apple’s fault and that it should have been caught both at the point of return and the point of sale.
Happily, she handed over a brand new iPod (with a model number that started with M). While we didn’t want anyone to get in trouble, she did indicate she was going to re-emphasize that part of the training to the sales staff, and that again, it wasn’t our fault. She also indicated that had the problem even been caught even after the 14-day period, Apple fixes its mistakes.
Now, here comes the extra-cool part. Knowing that the sales person made a mistake, she hand inspected his entire purchase history from the start of time. “Did the sale person treat you rudely at all?” We both affirmed we were treated wonderfully.
There was only one problem though. His home-school machine came with a “free” printer via a $99 rebate, and when he submitted the rebate it was rejected as being purchased with an educational discount.
Meanwhile, my brother-in-law, who also purchased a Mac for his home school also got a “free” printer via a $99 rebate. I had the email with me on my Sidekick that the rebate had already gone through and that by the time he was reading confirmation they had gotten the rebate, he already had the rebate check in his hands — impressive.
The manager, again, said she knew what happened. She popped open the purchase of his machine and confirmed it.
Apparently there’s a difference if you are an educational institution, such as a public college that’s buying equipment, versus if you are a student or home school principal doing things on a home budget. The former does not qualify, the latter does. And, yes, the machine and the printer are sold in store at an educational discount by anyone there (unlike software which requires you to go online or a passing manager invoke their whim).
That sales person entered the code for institution opposed to student. Again, another training issue.
“Do you have the receipt for that on you?”
We didn’t. “No problem; bring it with you next time, and we’ll give you $100.” She pulled out her business card, wrote on the back “Entry code mistake; qualifies for educational discount on printer – refund $100.”
She was sweet and extremely apologetic, apparently people have been getting a little lax with the codes, and the wrong code can have interesting downstream consequences. We thanked her and expressed our gratitude, the apologies just weren’t necessary.
Thrilled at the superior customer treatment, we headed immediately over to the games section and started thumbing through titles.
