August 21, 2013 Dear Mr. Cook, I wanted to send you an email to follow up with the letter I sent earlier today. I have received a call this afternoon from Jessica Alves Buratti in your Corporate Executive Relations Office today. You had asked her to contact me on behalf of you to resolve my concerns. Unfortunately, it is my opinion that she did not represent you, or Apple, in a positive or helpful manner. Instead, she showed a complete lack of customer service skills, and has subsequently lost Apple 4 users out of my family, as well as many more whom I will share my story with. Quite simply, I was concerned that I was charged to replace a battery in my son’s iPhone 5, after it started not holding charges after only 7.5 months of use. I didn’t argue with the Genius Bar employee when he instructed me about the charge, as I felt it more appropriate to raise my concern to someone who could understand my trepidations and do something about them. I was mistaken. Instead, I was told that my son is a heavy user, and it was quite acceptable by Apple that a battery should be “consumed” with heavier usage in such a short time. I was asked a series of ridiculous questions, such as “Does he text? Does he watch TV? Does he listen to music or watch videos?” and told that all of these would lead to early consumption of the battery. When I repeatedly pointed out that the product was designed for these uses and that even at a heavy usage, the battery should not give out after 7.5 months, I was told that at a regular usage it would have lasted longer. Unfortunately, Jessica could not provide me with what she considered regular use. I still believe that I would consider a normal teenager using an iPhone for its designed functionality regularly during the day to be considered “regular use”, and not “heavy use”. Apparently Apple does not see it this way. I was then told that she was providing me with options. When asked what options she was giving me, I was told the option Apple provided was to have the battery replaced at their store at my cost. I pointed out that this is not an option, but a paid service, which I had already completed. I was unable to have her understand that Customer Service options are not paid-for services that you need to frequent the next city for. She had not provided any other option for me, other than that she would document my concern. What I was looking for was to have Apple refund my replacement cost, as 7.5 months of “heavy” usage (what Apple deems normal teenage usage is) should not have had rendered the battery inoperable so quickly. She was quite clear that this was not an option, and that I could not escalate the matter higher because she was the “highest escalation” point in the company - because after all, as I was told in a condescending manner, I had “contacted the executive offices”. On top of that, I am now going to be charged 33 minutes of international long distance, because she did not offer to call me back when I returned her call, or a toll free number to reach her at in the first place. So basically I have walked away from this interaction knowing that in order to use the iPhone regularly, you should expect to have to pay $90 every 7-8 months to replace the battery, and Apple thinks that is acceptable. The conclusion which a customer can then come to is that the iPhone and its supporting battery are meant strictly for light use. The only option someone who wants to use it for all its functionality is to use the phone less. I have also learned that the Executive office does not care if they lose customers over small, but fundamental customer service principals. I love Apple’s products, but financially, it doesn’t make sense to continue to use a product that will cost you hundreds of dollars additionally over a 3 year term, just to use it consistently for its intended purposes. I was truly hoping that Apple would tell me that this is not the case, and that it would view this as a defect. I was disappointingly wrong. This letter is my last ditch effort to gain an appropriate customer service level from Apple. I understand that while Jessica views herself as the “highest level” of escalation, I would trust that the president of a company would want to involve himself when he has been severely and poorly misrepresented by an employee he trusted to resolve a situation amicably. My request is simple. I am requesting a refund of the $90 replacement fee for what I still believe is a defective battery, and a refund for the charges I will incur by having to call your executive customer service back at my own cost. Doing so will go a long way in mitigating the damage done from today’s follow up call. Please have yourself, or someone other than Jessica, contact me as soon as possible, if you can provide resolution to this matter. Sometimes it’s not the cost ($90 won’t break me), but the principle of the matter that needs to be amicably fixed. Thank you in advance for your assistance. I am looking forward to a more positive experience with your executive office in the near future. Sincerely, Glenn Murdock
Posted on: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 00:36:32 +0000
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