Comments on: Apple- Are You Kidding (Mobile)Me?????

By: Dan Cohen

Dan Cohen — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 00:53:49 +0000

doogald-

You might be right. Maybe I was a bit on the rude side since he certainly isn’t the direct source of my on-going hit-or-miss email access. (And as today showed I certainly was wrong about gmail’s invulnerability.)

BUT- as you point out- “…sometimes there is no way to know why a problem occurred if you cannot replicate it later.”

That is all good and well. Then SAY that. Don’t make a guess that it was “network traffic” that can “happen to anyone” when we all know there have been issues (ongoing)that are the far more likely culprit.

Had he said, “I checked the network and it isn’t showing anything right now.” I’m sure I would not have been happy about the wait (not his fault) but that would have been it for the call.

By: doogald

doogald — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:55:22 +0000

I once called Microsoft and the phone tech support was answered by a man with a terrible stammer. I felt sorry for the guy – but, honestly, wouldn’t he be better placed in online support?

And, honestly, I think that the Apple support guy handled you pretty well. What were you expecting him to say when you brought up gmail? And, given the acknowledged problems with Mobile Me, I. having a hard time understanding why you think waiting 64 minutes for support is the same as non-responsive? They do not have enough people handling calls in a crisis, but who the heck does? Do you think that these guys are sitting around doing nothing and answering calls when they feel like it?

Honestly, you were a bit on the rude side. As somebody who is pretty techy, I would think that you would know that sometimes there is no way to know why a problem occurred if you cannot replicate it later.

By: Christopher Gavula

Christopher Gavula — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 01:10:04 +0000

It’s good that you never had these kinds of problems before, but I have to tell you this kind of experience is hardly unique to Apple. I’ve had heavy issues in the past with Yahoo! Mail (paid) and AOL Mail before that.

That doesn’t make Apple’s response right.

Apple, at least, has acknowledged a major problem with the service and has now put someone new in charge. That doesn’t address the generically poor customer service you got but this response is better than what Yahoo or AOL didn’t do for their customers. Even Google had a sequence of problems earlier this year (which you apparently didn’t experience). Pity none of them ever seem to learn from the mistakes of the others.

By: Dan Cohen

Dan Cohen — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 22:27:00 +0000

Because even though he only used his first name, having had my name used improperly in various settings where either I hadn’t been asked, I was misquoted or I thought I was off the record, I personally would always like to err on the side of being overly (perhaps far too) cautious- especially when the commentary is negative.

By: markntravis

markntravis — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 22:21:07 +0000

Why exactly did you leave the name of the CS rep out?

By: Wayne Schulz

Wayne Schulz — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:11:51 +0000

These customer service representatives all go to the same (outdated) school that gives them 80 hours of “Patronizing the caller 101″.

Too bad there isn’t a “Dial one to skip the fake friendly BS and get support from someone who will tell it like it is”

By: Doug Goldring

Doug Goldring — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:06:28 +0000

Haha.

Hello, my name is ___________. I understand you are having a problem with your Mobile Me email.

Don’t worry, Dan. We at Apple have an easy fix.

If you are having problems with your email service, I am going to need you to open your Firefox web browser.

Now, please type the following URL: http://www.gmail.com

Did you get that? Great! Now, just follow the instructions on the screen and you should have no problems.

Doug