Slashdot Mirror
Steve Jobs Personally Resolves Customer Complaint
An anonymous reader writes "The Consumerist recently published a story about an Apple customer who went through support hell with a broken Macbook. After escalating the issue up the support chain, and a month wait for his Macbook, the guy gave up and simply wrote Steve Jobs a blistering flame-mail. So, was he surprised when Jobs' executive assistant responded back the next day! He got both a brand new Macbook, as well as his old one to copy the hard drive. The guy also responded in a comment, and he turns out to be a slashdotter! He even wrote a journal entry here about the story."
Sounds more like Job's admin staff dealt with it than Jobs himself.
Is one thousand frustrated geeks trying to find a Japanese translator...
How cool would it have been if Steve came to that guys house and rang the doorbell and said "I didn't appreciate the tone of your letter, it was very hurtful." and then just left.
In a world of acronyms, the words are the real victims.
I don't believe what he sent would qualify as a flame-mail. It seems to be a well-reasoned and cool-headed response to a support nightmare. Kudos to Steve Jobs for fixing it for him.
Head of Company X gets involved in customer complaint Y in order to prevent image of Company X from being tarnished.
The film we show you at 11 will be shocking, shocking I tell you!
Give me a freaking break. So are all the Mac fanboys trying to get this customer's autograph since he's been anointed by Steve now?
this "solution" obviously won't scale very well, unless you really do think Steve Jobs is a deity.
Wish I had that.
Yeah, his direct assistant... who reads and answers sjobs@apple.com. This of course, in contrast to all the replies you get from bgates@microsoft.com (or whatever the hell his email is) Sure, this seems now like a silent marketing ploy by apple, but the fact is... a desperate email sent on a hail mary to the top of the apple food chain was answered, and not for publicity (by apple at least). Go send one to bgates@microsoft.com about not being able to refuse your Vista EULA on your new dell box, wait 24 hours, then submit an article to slashdot about how they refunded your product.
~/.sig: No such file or directory
So if ballmer was really only tossin' chairs cause he's frustrated with winders crashing, and he emails bill re same, does he get a new chair?
How is this "a blistering flame-mail"?
thomasdamgaard.dk.
summarized email complaint:
... Maynard", "ripped music', and "TOOL"
"My name is
...and now has an asshole that's about 3 bore sizes larger than it was last week. Yikes.
How cool would it have been if Steve came to that guys house and rang the doorbell and said "I didn't appreciate the tone of your letter, it was very hurtful." and then just left.
And miss out on all that (insanely) great free PR?
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
Yep, I personally responded to a few emails this morning as well. Never mind the fact that they were forwarded to the proper departments, who actually answered the people who emailed in. I personally handled the situation, you insensitive clods!
I'm sure he has a staff of secretaries that screen everything and is well versed by now how to take care of these relatively unimportant problems (unimportant to Jobs - I imagine that guy is busy with other, more pressing matters). Though it might be a good idea to have the CEO of any corporation see the failures of his organization every so often.
I've looked up the details of whoever's in charge and contacted them directly before. Or, more accurately, got the name of the managing director, called head office, asked to be put through to "their office" and spoken to their PA.
On the plus side, it's fantastically effective. A call from anyone at that level - or even their PA - will often go to the head of customer services very quickly, and get the issue resolved in far less time than trying to work your way up through a call centre staffed with people who quite frankly don't much care about any individual customer's complaint.
On the minus side, it's not something you'd want to do terribly often - particularly not with one company - as it would rapidly lose effectiveness. And if you find yourself in a position where you've got to do this more than once, even for separate incidents, maybe they don't need your business that badly anyway.
If I had gone through the shit he has gone through
the mail I'd have sent would sound 10X more nastier
than what he had sent.
And maybe that's what mattered in the end. The cool
and collected way Mr. Maynard wrote the disgruntled-
customer email must've done the job(no pun intended).
The best planning can be done after the project completes.
I've known two people who have both done this when they got an unsatisfactory response from AppleCare. It's always the same: next day an assistant to Steve Jobs gives them a call, apologies, overnights whatever will repair the situation, and promises to fix the situation that caused you to get angry enough to email Steve Jobs to begin with. However, now that the cat is out of the bag, this might not be as much of a reliable last discourse any longer.
According to "Consumer Reports", Apple has the best customer service of ALL the PC and laptop makers and their quality also beats everyone. If you look at their charts, Apple takes the lead by a wide margin, none of this jazz of they're 8.2 while the closest competitor is 8.1. (Unfortunately, I don't have the issue in front of me to give you guys the real number numbers to show how well Apple rates.)
Now, here's the best, and they're pulling this horseshit!?
Stopping now because I need more coffee.
One famous manager (I don't remember who exactly though) once said, that if the company's leader performs mere employee's duties then either he does not understand his role or there is something terribly wrong with the way the company operates.
Look at this story: the guy waited for months for the support to handle the problem!
May Peace Prevail On Earth
"So, I installed the WGA update and it mistakenly identified my OS as pirated....after two months of trying to resolve the issue through technical support where I was repeatedly assured that, '...we understand problem...send you SUPER DELUXE answer....next day....you betcha!', I finally contacted Steve Ballmer himself. Amazingly, he showed up at my house the very next day!.....and threw a folding chair at me.....so I bought a MacBook"
[DISCLAIMER: every word of this is BS (duh)]
A goal is a dream with a deadline
Promptly I got a phone call from his assistant. Unlike Apple they did not fix anything. She offered a 20$ off 2007Deluxe, which is basically the standard discount everywhere from Costco to web downloads. I think they just sold the right to use Quicken name to some bank for a one time fee and Quicken does not care whether I keep the card or not. The bank is really dumb to lose me as a customer. I had charged more than 100,000$ over the years in that card. They should be willing to spend 0.5% or 500$ to keep me as a customer. They just lost me over a stupid 30$ software update I demanded.
I also heard a story about the CEO of Virgin Atlantic (charles bronson?? or was he an actor, God I have bad memory for names) traveling with the public or playing the role of a flight attendent/steward and listen to customers. One Indian guy had ordered vegetarian meals and it was not available. Charles was playing steward on that flight. He made an unscheduled landing at a nearby airport and rented a limo to take the passenger to an expensive Indian joint and flew him first class to complete the journey.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
1. Rename "Junior Customer Service Representative" to "CEO's Executive Assistant"
2. ???
3. Profit
Now if only Bill Gates would pay me for those emails that I sent out for him!
(Yes, I tried email him. Thousands of times!)Ahh, the Squirm Factor. Just work your way up the chain, the moment you find a person who squirm's, your problem is solved since it just became their problem. And when you get high enough up, people don't like having problems, so ... stay polite, and it will work out.
You know, some of us have known for a while that Steve replies to his email, or at least a small subset of the torrents he probably receives every day (a couple of public examples). He's answered a few of the questions I've emailed him over the years, too, and I'm just a regular Slashdotter Joe.
But the more publicity he gets for doing it, and the more people actually try to email him, the less likely he'll be to read and respond, and the less personal it's actually going to get. It's obvious from the numbers. Part of me hates myself for saying this, and I acknowledge that it's elitist as all hell, but I sort of wish these guys (the ones "in the know" about Steve's responsiveness over email) would keep it to themselves. Because if Steve stops answering his email, that's another piece gone of the old Apple spirit.
Of course, I suppose we must all eventually succumb to inevitability—but there's no harm delaying that end, while possible. So please. Enough. Let me suggest we simply appreciate Steve for keeping it real, and not trumpet it all over the blog-o-spierre.
Jobs did SOMETHING, Bill Gates would have just had it filtered out with his spam mail. And if he did get a letter like this, the best you'd get out of him is a letter from his assistant's assitant's dog saying "shove it up your ass". ... and then he'd proceed to sue you, and claim rights to your tone in the letter.
"anger?! i invented that!"
I'd bought an Ambra 486 which promised that when the Pentium overdrive came out, it would work. It didn't. Customer service basically told me tough titties. I wrote letters (snail mail!) to the CEO, president, chairman of the board, a couple of others, and the chairman's office called back immediately (in snail mail terms) calmed me down, got their Scotland division to call me and explain how they had screwed up, sent a floppy with a BIOS upgrade, bingo, problem solved. No free computer but it solved the problem.
Infuriate left and right
Customer Service call centers just suck. I probably should have tried this tactic with HP a month or two back. I think the big problem with so many of these places is that they refuse to admit thier own mistakes, or if they do, they refuse to properly fix the situation. In my case, I had paid for overnight shipping and the product wasn't shipped until they it was actually supposed to arrive, and even then it was shipped to the wrong address. Instead of just refunding me the cost of shipping and getting the part to me the next day, he tried to explain how it would have been impossible for me to receive the part on time. It looks like the same type of thing happened here. Someone in the customer care department made a promise and never followed through with it. For the record, while I was on hold with HP for over hour, I got the opportunity to listen to how highly rated their customer service was. Do high service ratings really mean anything? One really shouldn't have to go outside the regular system in order to get the level of service expected from these big companies. Hats off to whoever it was at Apple that made things right though. It's certainly better than I got.
Well the author of the mail certainly has not sent a flame mail. On the contrary, it is very level headed and well reasoned. However, I do believe the fact that he has been an apple customer for over 30 years and that he's an IT Manager at MIT with the ability to sway the students' and staffs' buying preferences (which he makes sure gets conveyed in the mail) had an effect. I doubt if I had been in the same situation and written a similar mail, would get a similar response. Overall, I applaud the author for doing the right thing.
Surely it is a bad thing that it takes an email to the chief exec to get this problem fixed...
In future perhaps all mac users should just send their support request to Steve Jobs, because their support sucks.
BOB SLYDELL: So what you do is you take the specifications from the customers and you bring them down to the software engineers?
TOM: That, that's right.
BOB PORTER: Well, then I gotta ask, then why can't the customers just take the specifications directly to the software people, huh?
TOM: Well, uh, uh, uh, because, uh, engineers are not good at dealing with customers.
BOB SLYDELL: You physically take the specs from the customer?
TOM: Well, no, my, my secretary does that, or, or the fax.
BOB SLYDELL: Ah.
BOB PORTER: Then you must physically bring them to the software people.
TOM: Well...no. Yeah, I mean, sometimes.
BOB SLYDELL: Well, what would you say... you do here?
TOM: Well, look, I already told you. I deal with the goddamn customers so the engineers don't have to!! I have people skills!! I am good at dealing with people!!! Can't you understand that?!? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!!!!!!!
u-bend
"Steve Jobs Personally Resolves Customer Complaint" .... ummm no he didn't. Customer sent email to address that was supposedly The Steve's but some dude name Mark took care of the problem for him from that point on. No evidence of divine intervention by The Steve .
1. Be an MIT IT professional mentioning influence on purchase decisions8 91675 and http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=232413&cid=189 33197)
and
2. Have some help on the inside (see http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=232413&cid=18
So yes, Steve probably did fix it, and no, he probably won't for you
well i imagine this helped quite a bit:
"I am also an IT Manager for one of the labs at MIT (J's MIT email)."
he wasn't just some guy who walked into an apple store at the local mall..
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
You start using foreign phrases and shit like that and it just oozes class.
A goal is a dream with a deadline
Remember the free Solaris 10 DVD that you didn't get back in January? But you did get all of the promotion E-Mails right? Well in May I used the return comments on one of the E-Mails selling a new server and asked WTF happened to the DVD? That E-mail shot to the top of the pile and two days later FED-X delivered the DVD.
BYTE ME
Could we please stop this Apple fanboyism? How is this interesting in any way?
"Today the great chairman Mao visited a poor child in the village Mangtung. He gave the child healthy food and read a story. This how out great chairman Mao cares cares for all the people."
You see not all problems have been fixed by Apple. I am sure there are many more complaints that have been filed against defective systems. This is just one lone incident.
Jobs right now has issues with US government about stock options. Greenpeace is wailing on him and someone, somewhere told Steve he is losing his coolness factor with the kids. He did what politicians do, choose a photo-op and make good on an issue. In this case, he probably told one of his PAs to pick a disgruntled Apple user and answer their complaint, no questions asked. It doesn't cost the company much, if anything at all, to express this largess, all the while appearing to be in touch with the community.
So there is nothing sinister. There is nothing hidden in the agenda except that one lucky person received what he should have gotten all along just because of Steve needed a little positive spin this week.
I feel many people are afraid to ask for or demand better service when needed. Sometimes you simply have to escalate as far as possible to get any sort of result. Systems break down and often it only takes the incompetence or lack of caring in one person in a lengthy process.
Around aught-zero my DSL provider was forced out of business by some rather dramatic changes in the DSL market. They had a length of time to shut down and began immediately cutting employees. At the time this was a very fast DSL connection and my bill was on the order of $200 a month. After canceling my service they continued to charge me. I called, of course it would be fixed! It wasn't for month two... then three... then four, every month them charging me only to refund money after many calls on my part and being told the problem was fixed for good.
Month five. They did it again. So I did what any pissed off customer would do, I flew down to their office and bea... er. Found their about page and looked for personal information for company employees listed at the VP level and above. Guess others had done the same, because it was all impossible to find. Then I noticed their board list, sure enough, many of the board members had information available online. So I wrote one, more out of frustration than anything explaining what had happened for the previous five months. Twenty minutes later the CEO of the company called me and assured me the problem would be resolved and then proceeded to offer me an additional refund for my "time spent on their failure".
The point of all this? Even the boss has a boss or someone he is "scared of" or "respects". When you come to the end of a normal process without success, it is okay to escalate to them.
--- I do not moderate.
I'm sure this has been said before, but what a fantastic way to totally screw every other passenger on that flight.
No no no, it means that when someone told him about a nasty email that referenced a month-long support problem, he personally told his assistant to find someone in the support division to do whatever it takes to resolve the situation. I personally think that makes a very strong statement about Mr. Jobs's commitment to superior customer service.
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
I really wish I hadn't BCC:d the Consumerist now. That was a mistake. I did it because I was angry and didn't expect any kind of resolution from Apple Corporate. I really didn't believe that even if Jobs read his email he would take action to resolve the issue. And now the whole shebang is posted to slashdot. Along with his email address. What a mess.
My situation was extreme. I do NOT recommend emailing Mr. Jobs until fully exhausting the Apple support chain. If you have a problem, ask for a supervisor. If the supervisor can't fix it, ask for "customer relations". Call your local Apple store before sending that email (I did). And finally, after a month of hell, if all else fails, well... do a google search and find his current email address.
But please don't waste the dude's time. I would have the same opinion regardless of the CEO or company.
Although by the time it would probably take you to read this, Chuck has already delived a kick from "Law" his left leg, propelling you into the afterlife - a second kick from his right leg "Order" will not be necessary. How is heaven treating you?
..........FULL STOP.
Bill Gates did the same thing once. The guy was found dead, strangled with his own Ethernet cable. I TOLD Uncle Chuck to get wireless, but would he listen...? Now it's too late...
I am a longtime Apple customer. In fact,
I have an original Apple II (not II+) still in my basement (and it still
works!). I am also an IT Manager for one of the labs at MIT.
It would have surprised me if he wasn't a Slashdotter, not that he was.
spoonerize "magic trackpad"
That can't be Steve Jobs! I heard Steve Jobs is 12 feet tall and shoots lightnings with his eyes, and if he were here, he would fix all your laptops with firebolts coming out of his arse!
The saddest poem
If he was "sold a non-functional computer" how did he get his data on it?
The other day, while running the CTO duties of my company, I had a call. Not only did I personally help the customer through rebooting his firewall, I also personally transferred him to Sarah who not only watches my young'uns, but lines up sales and picks up equipment from the Office Depot.
I personally think that makes a very strong statement about Mr. Jobs's commitment to superior customer service.
Hmmm...I can't seem to find the page on Apple's website that explains how to escalate your problem past the Customer Service monkeys when you can't get it resolved. How is that superior customer service? I think the problem is that we're so used to crappy service that when we get *any* service at all it's considered "superior". I, for one, am not about to applaud Apple for "going above and beyond" when the thing that necessitated it was a complete failure of the system in question.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
blah blah blah mac blah, blah bloh blah blah pc, blah mac, blah bloh cool blah blah apple blah blah pc blah lame.
(i was dying to make a switcheurs joke and biding my time.
Read radical news here
he did something for his $1 wage. good job jobs!
Consumerist is great in helping the victims of corporate greed. My parents had a horrible experience with United Airlines, and Consumerist helped me out a lot, though the issue is still unresolved. They covered my story and helped out a lot, but United has been unrelenting and the issue is still unresolved. I've pretty much given up because it has cost me so much time and grief.
This is the blog I wrote
http://tinyurl.com/y7fgsh
and the helpful writings from The Consumerist
http://tinyurl.com/yz8eoj
http://tinyurl.com/yz9qty
http://tinyurl.com/ykvbh4
Sadly, it's the only way to resolve a real problem. I've, unfortunately, had to resort to this for 1) Powerbook that was DOA and in repair for 6months (I'm naive) 2)2 DOA Powermacs (the 3rd one worked!?) 3) Recently a family member needed a logic board replacement and is unable to carry the computer to the store.(an imac g5 that had the extended replacement due to defective capacitors).
It's not so impressive that executive relations actually fixes things.. It should be embarassing that you have to go that route to fix certain problems.
My small number of support call pool leads me to believe that their telephone support is a whole lot less patient with people who know nothing about computers. A fact my family member brought up when speaking to executive relations. Just my experiences and your mileage may vary.
Steve Jobs didn't give birth to the iPod, it sprang from his skull fully grown.
Steve Jobs doesn't code software or fabricate hardware, he sensually caresses raw silicon until it wants to please him.
Steve Jobs' turtleneck is actually his own sleek yet soft and downy coat of fur.
Chuck Norris almost fought Steve Jobs this one time when Chuck's iPod died on him halfway through the kickass guitar solo in "Freebird," but Steve used his powers to not only repair Chuck's iPod, but also did a reality-restore point back to before the crash. Chuck Norris and Steve Jobs have been allies ever since.
Steve Jobs doesn't actually sleep, he astral-projects into other people's dreams. It's how he comes up with new products.
This is nothing new. sjobs@apple.com, stevejobs@apple.com, and a few other addresses all go to Corporate Executive Relations. This is a group of premier customer service folks that have the power to get things done if the lower tiers are failing.
Please, everyone, don't abuse it. I've had a couple of issues that the regular AppleCare folks weren't taking care of properly, and those issues were promptly resolved by the friendly people in Corporate Executive Relations. I'd hate to see them lose their effectiveness because they're being bombarded with things that ought to be going to regular AppleCare.
Did I ever tell you about the time Jobs took me out to go get a drink with him? We go off looking for a bar and we can't find one. Finally Jobs takes me to a vacant lot and says, 'Here we are.' We sat there for a year and a half -- until sure enough, someone constructs a bar around us. Well, the day they opened we ordered a shot, drank it, and then burned the place to the ground. Jobs yelled over the roar of the flames, 'Always leave things the way you found 'em!'
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I agree, but remember, I was just being sarcastic in my previous post, in trying to make a point about the non-sensical use of the term "personally". Note how I used the term in the part you quoted, compared to how I used it in the previous sentence.
... etc. (I don't have an assistant, but you get the point.)
So in other words, I *personally* told my assistant to find somebody to think that this makes a very strong statement about
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
Not for publicity?
The author of the original email BCC'd the Consumerist. Somehow I do not think that was overlooked by whoever read the email at Apple.
Yeah, his direct assistant... who reads and answers sjobs@apple.com.
Steve reads his own mail. I've heard of him reaming VPs at Apple who didn't.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
As far support goes, Apple has always been far, far, far superior to Dell, from my experience. Dell "support" means you talk to some person in India that doesn't listen to what you're saying, but listens for keywords in what you say so that they can look up a pre-written response to the problem (though its never the actual problem that you have, rather its the problem that would be more efficient for Dell to resolve, and it's your fault for not having the problem that matches their knowledge base). Dell doesn't care about resolving anyone's problems or selling a product that works like its supposed to and doesn't have exploding batteries. Steve Jobs (or his assistant) helping out a guy is nice, but Apple's support is already superior to the competition. The other reason Apple's support is better is because they probably waste much less time fixing stupid bugs that shouldn't have been in their software to begin with. I used Dell computers all my life until 2004, and then switched to Mac. Since the switch, I have never once had to close a window because of an "illegal operation". I hate you so much, Microsoft and Dell. You don't care about your customers, and we don't care about you.
I just only wish that someone at Blizzard would get this clue!
If your theory is correct, I'd say it's more like "until recently part of Apple's PR department because the people who tried this dumb-ass stunt have been quietly sacked" ("quietly" is a registered trademark of the Apple Rumor Mill).
It's clear to even the most casual observer that Apple strongly prefers to control, very tightly and very carefully, every aspect of their advertising and their corporate image in all contexts. They tend to avoid venues where that isn't possible. There's very little chance (approaching zero arbitrarily close) that anyone from Apple would post a story like this to Slashdot and encourage all the annoying comments about fanboys and the inevitable "it doesn't matter if Apple is green or if Steve will fix a customer support issue because the iPhone is too expensive so nobody will ever buy one and Apple is doomed so sell your stock now" comments (where *is* that one, by the way, anti-Apple-trolls seem to be slacking off here at Slashdot today).
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
How about this line: "I have GBs of ripped music, application installs, etc which I will lose." Hello! You are an IT person at MIT and you don't have a firewire/USB2 external drive with the backed up data? Really???
If he BCC'ed I have a feeling it was overlooked, yes....
If you mod me down, I *will* introduce you to my sister!
Also didn't get any follow-up e-mails. I wonder if those people who declined to be spamm^h^h^h^h^h marketed to gave up their chance to the discs?
F_T
I've always been pretty pleased with my Apple purchases, until I ordered one of the early Macbook Pro notebooks. I had to wait about a month for its arrival, which wasn't any fun - but I went into it knowing that would probably happen. What REALLY sucked is, when it arrived, it was completely D.O.A.! I could plug the power adapter in and got the green light saying it was supplying power, but the computer wouldn't do a thing. I went through all the usual steps (reset PMU, etc.) and no luck.
... or that's what I was thinking.) I opened the box though, and saw paperwork on top. Woah! It said they DID work on it already! New bluetooth module installed along with a few other related parts, AND they even fixed the display hinges I commented felt "a little bit loose"!
Apple promptly shipped me a postage-paid return mailer to send it back in, but I had to wait several *more* weeks for a second unit!
Then, shortly after receiving the second (working, thankfully!) unit, Apple announced a voluntary battery recall. Knowing the problems people had with other batteries splitting open, etc. - I called in to get that taken care of. I had to send in my original battery, which I did, but the replacement they provided refused to charge at all! I tried to get it resolved at the local Apple store, but after getting the big runaround (make an appointment to talk to us at the genius bar, drive home, and come back hours later, etc. etc.), I was simply told they had no more batteries in stock so they couldn't help me! Ugh! Why wouldn't they simply tell me that when I first came in, instead of the bull-headed refusal to speak to me until I made that appointment and came back later!?!
Then I called in to Apple, only to wind up arguing with some guy who tried to tell me I wasn't allowed to get free phone support because I had my laptop longer than 90 days and didn't pay for AppleCare! WTF?! I was asking about the BATTERY they JUST sent me, not the laptop itself! He finally did swap the battery for me, but only after a condescending attitude and an insistence I understand this was only being done because he was "making a 1 time exception" to their policy.
By this time, I was really getting pissed off at the way Apple's support seemed to be rapidly going downhill! But at least I had a working notebook for a while. That is, until one day, my bluetooth suddenly quit working! It was still within warranty by a month or so, so I gritted my teeth and called Apple. They made me give them my CC number first, but did walk me through some steps (including making a new user account in OS X to see if bluetooth would come back that way, which it didn't). Then they agreed it was defective and had me ship it back to them again.
I sent it off the next morning after receipt of their mailer, bracing for weeks of waiting AGAIN. The next morning, I had a box sitting on my doorstep when I was heading off to work. Huh? My notebook! I was REALLY pissed this time. (Obviously someone screwed up and didn't get it delivered properly, or Apple messed up and sent it back without even looking at it!
Was this service so prompt this time because Apple realized I had so many issues, and/or because I posted about all of it to several well-read forums? I'll never know - but THAT was TOP-NOTCH service!
Couldn't help it - it's a slow Thursday. ;)
Sounds like the making of an urban legend!
Mike.
Mmmm......sacrelicious.
Yeah, I got that. In fact, the first draft of my response specifically had your quoting intact. I don't know how it got dropped on the final post. I blame Apple support.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
A friend of mine had a similar experience with Dell. After his $5000 Alienware laptop died on him a month after the warentee expired (the monitor went -- a known problem with that particular laptop), he had to fight tooth and nail to get any kind of support. Eventually he wrote a letter to the president of the company (using teh email from the website) and got the repair done free of charge.
Bring macbook to local Apple store (cambridgeside galleria perhaps) instead of dealing with phone support.
Mac genius fixes macbook the same day.
rejoice.
How could Apple have known it was sent to the Consumerists if the Consumerist was in the BCC field? You know, Blind Carbon Copy. Which means the other recipients don't see whoever is in that field?
"This calls for a very special blend of psychology and extreme violence" - Vyvyan "The Young Ones"
I've had a couple of instances. Back in 1999, I bought a new HP Pavilion desktop machine. I was on dialup at the time and it had a Rockwell chipset modem on the same card as the sound. My phone line was not the best, 28.8 was obtainable on a very dry day in August, usually 26.4 was the usual connect speed, but I had no affordable alternatives. The HP modem would connect, but the call would be dropped within a minute. The two other computers in the house with different modems could stay connected for hours. I went through HP phone support with the techs there were reading from a script blaming the phone line. One of the guys even whispered "Read between the lines." I posted to their forums for my model and had my posts deleted where I criticized the modem. Finally, I wrote a very polite letter to the, then CEO, the one before Carly, describing the problem and why it was the modem, not the phone line or my setup. I mailed it from the Midwest on a Thursday. Monday I got a call from a gentleman in the CEO's office who said that if I bought whatever modem I thought would work and sent them a copy of the receipt via fax, they would immediately cut me a check for that amount. I bought the newest USR USB modem which sold for $239.95, faxed the receipt and got a check within 4 days.
Much more recently, I had trouble with a web site hosting company that I've had a site with for several years. They changed management and I started having serious trouble with the mail server where we have about 70 email accounts. For several days I tried to work through their phone support (Philippines - Very nice, Polite, easy to understand), but couldn't get the problem fixed with the server in Atlanta. I finally got escalated to email exchanges with a sysadmin, who wasn't getting the problem resolved either. I took a shot at guessing the email address of the CEO given that I now knew the pattern of their email addresses and got a quick response directly from him stating that I would be getting a phone call ASAP from their director of customer service and the head sysadmin. The calls came as promised and the problem got fixed quickly.
So sometimes getting to the top guy works, but I use it sparingly as it can be overdone, too.
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
I feel a new meme coming on....
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
I hate to say this . . . but this is normal.
I have had two situations with Apple and problem laptops.
An extended warranty iBook died a couple of weeks after warranty with the same screen problem that was covered.
My sixteen year old wrote (hard copy) letter to Steve. A worker at Apple called him and problem resolved. No Steve did not call him. A second time, had a problem with an out of warranty book and it was fixed. However, once one works up the food chain, the letter goes along way.
This letter was polite and nice and asking for help. No threats. No Apple hating. Just a simple request.
Apple is the BEST company when it comes to customer service. Yes, we all have problems with first level responders. However, Apple is really good when it comes to CS.
-- A computer without Windoze is like a choclate cake without mustard
Superior does not mean 'good', it means 'better then those guys over there.'
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I can confirm this. Apple had no idea I had BCC:d the Consumerist until was published. Then the assistant called me to say he would have preferred I had not included Mr. Jobs' email address. It was a somewhat awkward conversation. Mostly because I realized that what I had done in BCC:ing the Consumerist had no effect on the resolution and will instead cause an unnecessary headache for Apple.
Look, I'm just a customer. I had a problem with a company and got pissed. So I tried to make a stink. But before the stinkbomb went off, the company quickly resolved my problem. And then the Consumerist published the story. I suppose I shouldn't blame the Consumerist, they're just doing their job as journalists.
*sigh*
I had to email the CEO of my mobile phone service provider before they fixed a security problem with their online app. The problem: you could see other people's itemized phone bills given just an account number. Whoopee.
I waited some months for the grunts to do something, in the end I emailed the CEO, CC'ed a few other CxOs, and they put a half-baked fix soon after - the "fix" meant you need the account number AND the phone number. *rolls-eyes*.
I think they've finally fixed it properly now... But then they messed up their online payment system for a while - no feedback on click, no double submit prevention, so people could actually submit multiple payments without realizing it! So I grumbled about that too.
Maybe it's out of revenge their site (www.digi.com.my) now has tons of flash applets. Well I think it's incompetence.
I haven't switched because their service works, has reasonable uptimes and is cheaper than the competition. I hope their guys at the telco level don't ever get as crap as the ones they have doing the web stuff.
away.
" I bought the newest USR USB modem which sold for $239.95,"
What a bastard. SO someone says they will handle it, and then you take that person to the cleaners.
I just hate that.
I used to have a computer company. My angle was going to be great customer service. Well it turns out, people will call for anything... ANYTHING remotely connected to the computer.
Application x doesn't run.Ok, contact the company that owns application X. I did, they won't help, fix it.
No I didn't install it.
My computer won't run the game I want it to, you sold me a broken computer!!!! Well, you need more ram to run that. You should give it to me for free!!!
WHen they made the purchase, I was told that it would not be used for games. OK I was nieve not to think the son they were buying it for as a colleg present would use it for games, OTOH how was I supposed to predict DOOM was coming out?
I bought this computer at a garage sale and it is dirty, Your company made it, you should clean it for free. I'm sorry, but that company is no longer in business.
Yes, that was an actual call, 4 years AFTER the business had ceased to be. All I can figure out is he pulled my name from the copy of the invoice I tape to the inside cover of the systems. I also included a small screw driver attached to the back of the box. As far as I know, I was the first company to actually put thumb screws on the systems I sold.
Of course it was only on my last 2-3 machines before closing my 'doors' as it were. Yeah, never enter an over saturated market. There where a lot of small shops with more money then I had, and they prety much sold computers with no support. Which is why I thought I could make it.
oh well, live and learn
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
was an introvert, this would seem blistering!
/. has developed the habit of re-titling submissions.
OTOH,
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
What's really funny is that you even had to put a disclaimer about it. I guess the idea isn't too far from the truth...
I ordered a BTO iMac G5 back in March '05, and wound up getting entirely the wrong unit (and as equipped, it was pretty much useless to me). I went through the process of getting an RMA, and they told me I'd have a replacement in a week or two (the usual build cycle then). I was OK with that, but wrote a nice e-mail to Steve asking him what the manufacturing breakdown was that let that happen, and that though I was fine with the goof, I hoped it was a rare case. I even explicitly said in the message that I wasn't expecting anything from Apple as a result - it was just to let him know it had happened, and hopefully it wouldn't be a regular problem.
A couple of hours later, one of his assistants called me. He had all the info on exactly what had happened to that sales order, and explained the whole thing to me. The next morning, my new iMac arrived at my office around 9AM, even before the pickup was ready to go of the old one.
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
there are many lawyers
[Typed by professional engineer on closed course office computer....do not attempt]
A goal is a dream with a deadline
I had issues with an imac a few years ago and got no satisfaction from the local apple center. It wasnt until I send an email to steve jobs that I got a response. Again like the OP it was next day and from a senior exec who contacted me. They looked after me very well tbh.
Only three things are certain; death, taxes, and apocryphal quotations - Ben Franklin.
I hate that you think you need to post a disclaimer... have faith in us and/or yourself.
While I don't really care that Steve Jobs saved your kittens, etc...I do find it amazing that you have such a low slashdot id and don't have excellent karma. Do you troll Slashdot like you just trolled poor Steve? ;)
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
Excuse my ignorance, but is this dialogue from 'The Temp'? ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/Temp-Serena-Mackesy/dp/009 9409879 )
How do we know Steve's DOG isn't the one answering his email?
Just saying....
If you've never been modded as "flamebait" or "troll," you've never tried to argue a minority viewpoint here!
That actually bother to get their hands dirty, even when in a position to delegate tasks. I miss seeing that, and I'm one of those types, myself.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
I have to admit that the "genius" I've spoken to at the local Apple store was completely on top of things, and I didn't get any backtalk when I said I was in a hurry, and they didn't need to install the OS because I was goingto re-image it anyway... they just asked me when I picked it up to confirm that's what I wanted.
:)
I'm still not happy that I had to actually haul the thing down to the Apple store rather than having them advance-replace my drive, but that's Apple's design team at fault for making such an impractical laptop, there's nothing the genius could do about that.
I really wish Apple hadn't come up with such a twee name for them, though.
Find an executive on this list: http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/
And send them a LETTER BY POST (1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA 95014) explaining your problem.
In my experience, good things will happen. These people get shit done -- and they have assistants to specifically help out with exceptional issues.
-ch
Open Letter To Steve Jobs: Please Build The Missing Mac
y r uz modding me down?
I was simply told they had no more batteries in stock so they couldn't help me! Ugh! Why wouldn't they simply tell me that when I first came in, instead of the bull-headed refusal to speak to me until I made that appointment and came back later!?!
I can't speak for the rest of your experience, but this should be obvious should it not? They can't tell you what they will have in stock when your appointment comes until you're actually there. They may very well have had them in stock when you made your reservation, but by the time your reservation comes around they would be out because other people needed them. Then you'd be pissed because you were told they had something, and now they don't. And sure, in theory they could hold it for you, but what about the people in front of you that need that battery too? How would you like to be told "sorry, we're holding your replacement part for the guy coming in after you." Even worse if you don't even need the part (maybe it isn't the battery that's dead) then not only do you still have to deal with possibly waiting for a different part, but now they've turned away someone who did need that part. Hence, they don't tell you anything and find out what they have in stock when your appointment comes.
I worked for Apple and about once a week I would hear about some poor rep in customer care who had gotten frustrated and was, shall we say, less than helpful. The customer in question would then go up ye olde escalation path and end up at Jobs' desk, only to have the issue roll back downhill with everyone scrambling to fix the problem. It happened to me once when I worked for Dell, also. Nothing worse than getting an e-mail from the office of Michael Dell asking hard questions, like "why did this issue get to me?" and "do you feel that your role at Dell does not constitute customer service?".
Just goes to show, if you take the time to write a letter/e-mail, occasionally you get what you want/deserve.
Folks,
This doesn't surprise me. Steve is a hands-on, brain-actually-functions kind of guy. I've had and used Macs since day one. At one point in my life, I had all the training and certs one could attain for Apple gear, including the original LaserWriter. Spent some time developing NeXT applications and that put me into direct contact with Steve on several occasions. This sounds like something he would do.
As an Apple customer, I have ZERO issues with their support and service operations. In 23+ years of owning and using Apple (and NeXT) gear, I've had ONE hardware issue that required repair and no software issues other than a weird thing with iTunes on Windows with an obscure album I'd purchased. The support tech had me "fixed" in about 3 minutes on that one.
Considering I once unboxed 20 brand new IBM PS/2 Model 80's and had 17 OOB failures ranging from dead floppy drive to dead mainboard, Apple has no major issues across the product line.
I don't hesitate to recommend Apple computers and iPods to people because I feel they won't need much support and if they do, it'll likely be very good.
Oh, and I do have two HP/Compaq laptops for work and both died within the first 12 months of service. Only one was able to be resurrected. HP/Compaq Support is pretty useless on occasion and this was one such instance. And Carly was sitting in the big chair when this happened and never called, wrote, sent flowers or ANYTHING.
Seriously, humans + technology = something WILL get hosed, sooner or later. Apple does a better job of dealing with that. Whether or not Steve is holding the screwdriver.
I am my own gestalt.
So if Branson finds a satisfied man in Economy Class, and isn't convinced he's satisified but the poor guy just wants to be left alone for the flight with his emacs terminal, it'll turn into a pissin match to find what he wants the most. Perhaps Branson would even contribute some uncomfortability just to replenish a greater satisfaction, just for that Golden(tm) public-relations advertisement. Maybe he'll Offer the poor guy in economny a tank of oxygen after farting in his face. Mayeb he'll stuff the magazine pouch under the fold-up eating table with nothing but consumer Microsoft-centric magazins, just so the poor guy would ask for something else. Who knows, maybe that man is a GNU terrorist and he'll let him sit in the captain's chair and sing his favorite verse in the Announcement speaker.
"...thanks mr. Branson. Ah'hem-ptooey, shnk, blat-- This is your GNU captain speaking; join me in a chorus on our GNU flight, re-rought to the place I *WANT* to visit the last moments of my life--Redmond, Washington. Join us now and share the software;
You'll be free, hackers, you'll be free.
x2
Hoarders may get piles of money,
That is true, hackers, that is true.
But they cannot help their neighbors;
That's not good, hackers, that's not goooooooooooooooooood." *boooom* right into a prominent CEO office space on 1 Microsoft Way.
There are plenty of people in Guantanamo Bay Prison that Branson could "satisfy" of their loss to their countries because of such a long unlawful departure. Maybe he could help them found a country within the walls of the compound; they can call it the Guananamo Bay Prison Republic of the United States of Dominican Republic.
without prejudice
Please use sparingly.
---k--
</stupid>
When Steve Jobs was in the alps,
Fighting grizzly bears,
He used his magical fire breath,
And saved the maidens fair
When Steve Jobs travelled through time
To the year 3010,
He fought the evil robot king
And saved the human race again
And when Steve Jobs built the pyramids,
He beat up Kubla Khan
'Cause Steve Jobs doesn't take shit from an-y-bod-y...
And he'll transfer your data too,
Cuz that's what Steve Jobs would do,
That's what Steve Jobs would do!
No, I'm pretty sure he meant reaming.
There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
I'd find that hard to believe. Steve personally reads all his email - AFTER it's been filtered by a layer of exec assistants (and that's above and beyond spam filtering, etc). Bill Gates (billg@) has, last I checked on the org chart, up to a dozen of same.
What would amaze me would be if Gates or Ballmer or anyone at the VP level or above at Microsoft would show this personal level of support escalation enagagement.
But NO -they foist it all off on the OEM unless you have purchased and installed Windows yourself. And if you have bought Office or some other product you have to purchase 'support incidents' before they will even talk to -otherwise you can find your own way amongst the Knowledgebase articles and crappy search.
Activation Key issues in particular come to mind here.
Jobs' actions shows that he at least can admit that there are times when the support process breaks down or is ineffective.....
Microsoft's reaction is to generally blame the user -of course that's often the OSS response too unfortunately
-I'm just sayin'
Haven't you heard? You're not important enough.
If you're an average schmoe, I recommend reserving ahead online at least 24-48 hours in advance.
Otherwise, pay up.
---k--
</stupid>
You are making the mistake of believing that since Apple Customer Service is rated highly in general, that they can't also completely screw customers over from time to time also.
1
Not that anyone really wants to read such long drawn out (and usually personal), tales of woe but...
here: http://jeremy-bee.livejournal.com/2516.html#cutid
Is a long detailed account of my own customer service nightmare with Apple (on my very first order ever!)
The upshot of the thing is that I got screwed, and through the process identified a couple of clear problems with the customer service they provide, yet they don't even provide mechanisms to report bad service other than the telephone number. I know telephone support is fairly standard, but if you don't want to or can't hang on that phone for them to get to you, (for me it would cost a bit of money I wasn't prepared to spend), there are simply no other options.
I am a strong supporter and advocate of Apple, but my first experience with their customer service left me cold and angry. Their communication in particular leaves a great deal to be desired. Now because they don't seem to want to even know about my experience, I am probably going to just go around bad mouthing them to everyone.
That's just dumb on their part.
Despite the warm smiling photos, has *anyone* here had a positive experience with customer service in any corporation, big or small, lately? http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=st ock_photos
:-(
What too many corporate cubicle drones forget is that if the customer isn't happy, the company loses. In theory executives are supposed to craft a 'mission statement' that reminds employees of this. Trouble is the employees are all temporaries, on contracts or outsourced (how sweet is that? Insult someone else's customers and not even have to use your or your companies real name!)
Instead, too many executives treat their customers with contempt too (Hello Vista, Hello DRM). Listen to Bill Gates speak. Has he said anything in the last 15 years that sounded genuine or empathic or like he really cared at all about Microsoft's millions of customers. We're in the situation where companies can treat their customers like crap, but we still keep buying from them, reasoning they're all the same and it's too hard to change. (me too
Kudos to Apple and Jobs. It's smart business and it's not asking much, but they've realized what the likes of Microsoft, HP and eBay couldn't. Doesn't take much to stand out in the crowd these days. Good for them!
Steve personally reads all his email -
Yes he does. Ask him yourself.
AFTER it's been filtered by a layer of exec assistants
Nope, it only goes through the very same spam filter that's available to all OS X users. I've gotten responses from him from Pixar, NeXT and Apple addresses, to messages that no assistant would have considered important enough to forward.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Of course, the assistant could have just answered it themselves instead of forwarding it to Jobs.
I bought a 12" Powerbook and got a rebate (since I also purchased an iPod with it).
I mailed away the papers, and waited. 5 months later I still had no rebate, so I emailed the only email I could find (since the website for contacting someone about the issue didn't seem to have an email address) -- Steve Jobs.
I was contacted by a support person at Apple Canada who personally worked with me to find out what went wrong (the rebate centre ignored my written address and used an old one that was on the receipt sent in as proof of purchase), and solved my issue. I didn't threaten anyone, I merely explained myself, and I got the best customer service ever.
A similar event happened a few years back when I managed to find a security issue with the Airport base stations. I was actually phoned by an Apple tech who was working to reproduce the issue. The only other company that has taken the time to respond to bug reports with such capability is Danger (the Hiptop/Sidekick people). Again, I wasn't threatening to never purchase that product for a department.
I have plenty of other experiences with Apple, but they've already proven to me they care about customer service in ways that few companies do.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
...I have found that if you really want to get something done about a problem, you go straight to the top. It sometimes takes some time and effort to get to the CEO of a 50,000 employee company, but it's almost always worth it if all else fails. Yeah an executive assistant will intercept the complaint, but it will be forwarded to someone who can (and will) do something about it. It seems bizarre that an big shot executive would go out of the way for a single, measly customer with a tiny account, but I can't tell you the number of times that complaining to the big man at the top has netted some surprisingly positive results.
Thanks,
Mike
I bought a pair of expensive polarized glass lens sunglasses from a Maui Jim reseller some years ago. One of the screws was constantly coming loose and falling out. I considered this a defect, so I sent them in and they were replaced. The replacement pair had lenses that were not properly fit in the frame, thus allowing light to come through the edges of the lens where there were no coatings. This irked my pretty bad, so I began the customer service nightmare that we are all familiar with. After mailing those in and having them returned with a proclamation that they were normal, I wrote a letter to the CEO sending a copy to the crappy support manager. To Maui Jim's credit (or the CEO), he sent me a new pair, a t-shirt, and a hat. I still use the glasses daily.
More recently, I purchased a car from Hertz that had ~20,000 miles. It was a good deal compared to blue book, and the car came with a 3-day (or so, can't recall the specifics now) no-questions-asked refund. The problem was that the car I wanted was only available a long ways from where I live. So I made a road trip out of the purchase, and the guarantee refund was to expire between picking it up and driving to my home. Unfortunately, within 1 hour of leaving Tampa where the car was, and this was after the dealership had closed for the day, an air dam that was improperly secured after an oil change or some other service, came loose and got ripped off under the front wheel. The car was drivable, but I was obviously upset and a bit shaken (it was loud and seemed like a dramatic blowout). I called the salesman at the next phone (my Verizon was refusing to let me connect, but that's another story), and he agreed that they would cover the repair once I got the car to my destination. The car needed $1500 of repairs (new bumper skin, paint, air dam, etc.), and the Hertz service center was welching on the promise to cover the repair. The service manager in Oklahoma was essentially calling me a liar and saying there was no way that this could have been the result of their negligence. This escalated until I contacted, you guessed it, the CEO of Hertz North America. He personally called me and handled the situation. He agreed completely that they were responsible for the repairs, and he made good on it. So... Sometimes it does pay to be the squeaky wheel.
Hey I bought a tecra for about $2500 back in Sept in Canada.
I moved to London Uk
It broke in january and fried the firewire port on my camera.
I took it into a certified Toshiba repair site in London on Feb 9th
last monday i called toshiba and complained and they said someone would call me in 24-48 hours
On thur I called back asking why nobody had returned my call. I also asked to speak to a supervisor.
The call support guy REFUSED.
He said I neede to call Toshiba UK (even though the repair place said they had to order the parts of Canada)
I repeatedly asked to speak to a manager to no avail.
I then called Toshiba Uk and they of course said they couldn't help me
I called TOshiba canada again (take in mind all these calls are long distance for me)
I managed to speak to a supervisor and she didn't help. She said I was out of luck and had to wait.
She said my warranty doesn't cover replacement just repair and part is back ordered.
I asked to speak to the next level and she informed me there was no next level.
She said she was the only manager on right now
(even though she claimed to know nothing about the dufus who told me to call the UK 30 min before)
Finaly I called the head office. They said they would look in it.
Can anyone help me? anyone know the Ceos email? any advice?
Is TOshiba always this crap with customer service? It's been two months and I'm gonna have to buy a computer so I can use the internet connection I pay £20 a month for.
When I write to a machine, I follow the syntax rules precisely. When I write to humans, I expect fault tolerant parsing.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
"May I speak to your supervisor?"
Thats how it works... pretty much anywhere if you need it escalated up the chain.
I think you're missing my point. When I came back for my genius bar appointment, I was informed that they had NO batteries in stock at all, and hadn't had any in stock for some time. They weren't even sure when they were going to receive more of them from Apple!
That's clearly information they could have passed along BEFORE I had to make the appointment and waste my time and gasoline making another trip.
I wouldn't expect them to hold a battery for me, if someone with an appointment ahead of me needed it. But even some basic info like "We've only got 3 in stock at this moment, but we can't guarantee anything." would help me make a more useful decision.
...is now so strong and so widespread, that Apple hasn't actually manufactured any hardware for almost 3 years.
You just think you have a Mac Pro or a Mac Book or an iPod.
Indeed, you even think you're watching the "Hello, I'm a Mac" commercials. Nope. It's just the Hypnotoad, reenforcing the Jobsian Collective Illusion.
Guaranteed! This comment 100% Anthrax free!
Has anyone had a positive experience with customer service in any corporation? Yes, yes I have. I've bought several Fujitsu laptops, and not all of them have been perfect. One model, a couple months in, the screen broke. I called them, they said ship it and they'll fix it. So I did. Broke again a few weeks later. I complained. They said, alright, ship it back, they'll fix it again, and if it continues to break, they'll send me a whole new laptop. So I did, they did, and it did. Got a new laptop, the same model. That one lasted about 6 months before breaking - in the exact same way as the last one. Guess what they did? That's right - they sent me a new laptop again, a different model this time. This was most of a year later, too, so it means something when I say that they sent me a laptop worth the price I paid for the one that kept breaking, at the time.
A few years later, with a newer, better laptop, the hard drive broke. That time, it was totally not the result of a defect, just the result of heavy use of the drive over a long period of time. Nonetheless, it was still under extended warrantee, barely, so I called in. I told the guy my hard drive was busted, expecting that we'd probably have to go over the whole are-you-sure-it-wasn't-x-or-y process, but nope - he just accepted that I knew what I was talking about. In fact, he didn't even make me ship it across the country: he said I could drop it by a local distributor, and gave me a couple names to look up.
I was really rather sad, after all the great service Fujitsu had given me, that a year ago when I was once again in the market for a new laptop, I looked to Fujitsu first and discovered that they didn't actually have what I was looking for. So I had to buy an HP, and while I've been universally satisfied with the system's performance, and its price, their customer service does leave a bit to be desired.
Thanks for that info: I've had bad experiences with IBM, Toshiba, HP Compaq and Acer. I'm running out of laptops, and am considering trying Fujitsu. At least when it broke on you they did try. Unlike most else, they are still made in Japan. Japanese are big on quality. Even their 'Discount Shops' ('Hundred Yen Stores' they call them) reek of quality. Unfortunately, Fujitsu is the only manufacturer still making laptops in Japan. Everyone else has moved to China, including Toshiba:
Toshiba: The LCD had some bad rows. When I tried to get it fixed under their International Warranty (in Japan where Toshiba are located), rather than a local service center, they insisted I ship it at my expense to Tokyo (a long way away from where I was staying) *and* stay in the country for two weeks while they service it. When I returned home would they ship it back? No. When I did get back, the warranty was expiring. I used the laptop for a couple of years with the bad LCD rows before its connection to the powerboard failed. Despite my better judgement, fell in love with an bought a Qosmio/Cosmio Toshiba laptop in Japan. Reasonable unit, but there's some brown stuff that leaks near the bottom of the LCD (not the battery) and something loose that rattles around inside. Not the stuff of confidence.
HP Compaq: Their customer service is run in India by rude telephone operators who try and con customers out of their consumer rights. At home I'm sure they're nice people, but at work they think customers are on par with rats and cockroaches. If it does break, HP will pay for some guy working out of his apartment to fix it. It's in this guys financial interest for your laptop to fail again. Know your consumer rights, because it's Bob/Kumar's job to make sure you don't get them. These guys are absolute assholes.
Acer: Complete disaster. Wouldn't use their products no matter what.
IBM: Also bad. Failed 2 months out of warranty. The IBM authorized repair center charged me $40 to say 'Sorry, don't know what the problem is. I can replace the motherboard for $X (more than the price of the PC). They also had hard drives (DeskStars aka DeathStars) that had many failures. IBM denied the problem to the ire of users. I got mine replaced, but would never touch IBM again. Well, now I can't: IBM pulled out of the PC business. I wonder why. The IBM brand is worth crap.
So I'm fast running out of PC vendors! I think I'll try Fujitsu next. There's really little else. Maybe ASUS?
When you buy a PC, the warranty is very important but we don't know how good or bad they are until it breaks.
I had the same experience with Apple-- http://www.deviantpenguin.com/?p=8. Steve Jobs does listen, I don't think very many people e-mail him to try and get their problem resolved though. And I bet some people just send a profanity-laiden email to vent their anger.