

Is Apple's developer support a joke? - k7d
http://kaspa.rs/2011/07/is-apple-developer-support-a-joke/

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mrcharles
Counterexperience:

I ordered the Apple Developer Program in January. I had some issues with my
bank, but eventually got payment to go through. I waited a few hours, no
activation email from Apple. So I hit their site, sent an email to developer
support, and waited. The next day, still nothing.

So then I hit up Apple's site, found a number for developer support, and
called it. A human picked up, asked me my issue. I told him the issue, he said
"check your email and try again." I did so, and it worked, and the developer
program was enabled for me.

That is literally the best customer service experience I have ever had over
the phone.

Sounds like this guy should have just dug up a contact number and called.

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bretthopper
Can we have a rule against posting personal anecdotes about a support
experience?

Every post about a company's support just devolves into people trotting out a
single experience as evidence in favour of or against the company. It doesn't
matter how good or bad a company's customer support is, there's still going to
be people with good and bad opinions of it.

All customer support requests are different and saying you had no problem
returning a laptop doesn't mean someone else won't.

~~~
cheald
With all due respect, how should individual consumers express pleasure or
displeasure with a customer service experience without resorting to personal
anecdotes?

~~~
bretthopper
I'm not discouraging people from blogging about experiences like these, it was
mostly a complaint about the comments in reply to it. Replying with a story
about how well your customer support request went doesn't really help (or add
anything) in this case.

If you wanted to start a discussion about a company's level of support, you
could create a poll or ask people to post their stories and then
analyze/aggregate the responses.

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danieldk
I recently purchased a Mac Developer Program subscription. I do not intend to
submit something to the App Store short term, but I support some of my
(academic) software on OS X, and it is good to see what is coming up.

Anyway, I also bumped into problems using the activation code. I got a
(security) message, because my account name was not matching up with my credit
card name (one lists my names abbreviated, the other written full).

I e-mailed support, but after a few days nothing happened. Then I called
developer support by phone, and everything was arranged in just ten minutes.
Developer support by phone was helpful and friendly, and although they are in
Ireland for support in Europe, they provide a local number in The Netherlands
(and many other European countries).

Conclusion: call them, and you are probably helped quickly. Apple should
modify their webpage to recommend people to call support, rather than using
e-mail.

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AndyJPartridge
Good customer support experience:

My laptop went wonky, and it appeared to me to be the HDD.

Took it into Apple store, they agreed and quoted me £156 for replacement HDD.
I happily agreed.

Next morning, they called to say it was ready. When I went to collect I was
handed another bill for £40 for the HDD cable. Again, I was happy about that
£196 to fix a ~£2000 laptop.

They then told me, no sir, it's just the £40. The HDD turned out to be fine.

They COULD have merrily charged me the £196 and I'd have been quite happy.
Very honest of them.

~~~
bruceboughton
To charge you £196 would surely have been fraud.

~~~
bonzoesc
That's standard operating procedure at most computer repair chains.

Edit: if they don't also end up replacing the main logic board due to failure
to troubleshoot.

~~~
protomyth
Every time I hear "replaced main logic board", I just assume they didn't
actually know what the problem was. Had an iMac at an Apple authorized
independent service center (not owned by Apple) and they replaced the main
logic board, then assorted other parts. Finally changed the graphic board and
all was well with the world. Lucky, it was under warranty.

~~~
bonzoesc
I had the last model of iBook with notoriously bad memory controller, and a
MacBook that had sleep problems, and the MLB was the smallest replaceable
part.

Still smaller than the part replaced when the display on my iPad developed a
discoloration; walked out of there with a whole new unit.

~~~
protomyth
Oh I'm not saying it isn't needed sometimes, it just seems like the code word
for "no clue" or "nuke it from orbit, only way to be sure". It has just
happened to me way too often to not be a little suspicious.

I would love to get the figures on the "whole unit iPad repair / sell old one
has refurbished".

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rabc
Everyone say "just call them!", but you all forget: he's an international
customer (from blog's about page, he's from Latvia).

If he call them, he will have to spend more money in international phone call
just because Apple make this a big bureaucracy.

I'm outside U.S. too, and had to call once. Yes, the person solved my problem
really quickly, but everything could be made in a single email.

~~~
k7d
You are right. I just spent 25 min on a phone with them and I'm pretty much
were I was. Hoping it will get escalated now...

ps. I could use Skype for cheaper calls but they are not very reliable. I have
been using Skype for conf calls for ages so I should know

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gte910h
They're verifying you're a real company is why they don't do it all via
webform.

Call them. While they can be strident on policies, they're otherwise extremely
nice and helpful. Seems to be very highly paid compared to other CSR jobs.

------
bnycum
Dev support from Apple has always been horrible for me, been a paid member
since 2007 and free member since at least 2005. Last time I called I was
screamed at and I assumed cursed at in whatever language the rep spoke. Then
he spat off some phone number and told me to get a refund and not to use their
service. Never really got help in previous calls either.

Hardware/Software support has always been great and friendly. I can easily
tell them what all I have done to diagnosis a hardware issue and they won't
make me go through all the hoops. Repairs always take less than a week for the
most part to ship off and back, since the nearest Apple store is ~200 miles
away.

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ageektrapped
My iOS developer account activation took quite a while due to company
permissions and stuff. I was hating on Apple too, just waiting for them.
Finally, I picked up the phone and called them.

And it was a great experience. Talking to them solved the problem in minutes.

AND I had to break out the phonetic alphabet (the connection was bad, I was on
an iPhone :)), and the support person knew it. Impressive.

------
MrGando
I've had a great experience with Apple Support so far, when I renewed my
contract I had some random issue with my credit card expiring (it was an old
CC), because of this issue the iAds in my Apps where failing to Appear (for
about a week).

The guy from Apple support called me like 3 times (international call to
Chile), gave me a free month and fixed the issue.

It has been a good experience so far.

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jarek-foksa
The first time I contacted Apple developer support was because I wanted to
change one letter in my first name (the system has messed it up so that random
numbers were displayed instead of 'ł' letter).

It took 3 months until I finally leared that this could not be done and that I
should create new account. My emails were usually responded after one week and
not read at all, instead I was given the same automated responses which had
nothing to do with my problem.

The second time I wanted to ask whether it is allowed to recreate the look and
feel of Aqua widgets in my app, so I have emailed the legal team. I recieved
an automated response which was suggesting that _my question might not be
answered at all_ because of the high volume of questions that legal team is
currently dealing with. I haven't heard from them since then.

Ohh... and yes, I also had to fax my credit card details in order to sign up
for developer program, I can't think of any other online service that would
have such requirement.

------
Quarrelsome
In Apples defence every single time I try to renew my MSDN subscription with
Microsoft and gain access to my online tools I lose my mind because it never
works almost no-one has any idea how and why it should work ("just give it
another three days?").

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swombat
Sorry, but if you don't take the time to even ask anyone how to best access
Apple's Dev support, and instead persist with a channel that's clearly not
working, that's your failing. I've had no problem whatsoever with their phone
support.

~~~
k7d
Ok I'm feeling slightly stupid now but I couldn't locate dev support phone #
anywhere <http://developer.apple.com/support/>

Also, I don't think it's very clever to make cheaper support channels (email)
so bad that the only option is the phone support (which is much more resource
intensive and costly). Even when you can afford it...

~~~
k7d
Ok turns out the support phone numbers were well hidden
<http://developer.apple.com/contact/phone.html>

~~~
danieldk
It's linked right from the e-mail form that you probably used to contact them:

<http://developer.apple.com/contact/>

Also, Googling "apple developer call" gives proper entry points as the first
and second results.

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waivej
I made the same mistake. I started out very excited about the developer
program. I bought a Mac, read a couple of books on iPhone development, but my
enrollment got stalled for weeks (months). Partners were asking about the
delay and eventually the project lost momentum.

I should have called support sooner because they approved my application
within minutes (after verifying my phone number). Though by then I was
discouraged and figured I would get the same experience if I submitted an app.

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napierzaza
Seems like an argument that is more emotional than rational. I never had
trouble getting signed up though there were steps in the process that delay
things. Why does the author say that it's pointless to wait for the financial
information to clear? It's not his place and it's obvious why Apple would do
that anyhow.

~~~
k7d
What do you mean by "author say t it's pointless to wait for the financial
information to clear"?

I'm not sure I said anything like that.

ps. yes of course it's slightly emotional, we are just humans

