Warning to all -- stay away from Apple!!

[josh20hung]

I just got off the phone with Apple tech support. I called because I needed help transfering songs from iTunes to my phone. When I called, I was connected to an agent who was very friendly. I explained my problem to her and was waiting for her assistance. She told me that because I've had the phone for over 3 months, that Apple charges the customer $35 per problem, but if I wanted I could pay $70 and get like 3 months of unlimited tech support. I couldnt believe what she was saying, I didn't realize that this was an actuall thing that companies did. I asked her if she was high? but then quickly told her not to answer as I didnt want to be charged.

She did tell me that she could give me the website where I could find the information (apple.com ... hey thanks).

Does anyone else agree that this is totally bullsh*t?? Im kinda debating canceling my phone and getting a blackberry! thanks for listening to my rant!

 

[greasyboots]

Whatever you do, DON'T get a blackberry! I was eligible for upgrade a couple of months ago & almost got the Droid, but I listened to this salesguy & got the blackberry & within an hour I regretted it. Everybody was saying how cool it was that I finally had a modern phone etc, but I found EVERYTHING about it REAL irritating. And i mean EVERYTHING. Space doesn't permit me to start a list! Except to mention that besides everything else, it is an awkward shape. Thus i'd forget to pocket it, or have trouble finding it even when it was on me---thus I set it down someplace & realized minutes later I couldn't find it, and didn't find it. The expense was a bitch, but i will tell you when i went in & got the Droid it only took a day or two to get accustomed & it works real well. BLACKBERRY is a piece of shit, everything about it is as future-obsolete as 8-track tapes, both are elaborate & unconvenient products.

 

[novice_btm]

That's also why in the stores they really push the 3-year "AppleCare". As the worker bee in the store told me, "Look, if ANYTHING goes wrong after a month, it'll totally pay for itself." I know too many people that have said, "I was kicking myself for being suckered into it, but I'm so lucky I had AppleCare. I would've had to basically pay for a new computer, in parts and labour if I didn't have it."

 

[B_VinylBoy]

I just got off the phone with Apple tech support. I called because I needed help transfering songs from iTunes to my phone. When I called, I was connected to an agent who was very friendly. I explained my problem to her and was waiting for her assistance. She told me that because I've had the phone for over 3 months, that Apple charges the customer $35 per problem, but if I wanted I could pay $70 and get like 3 months of unlimited tech support. I couldnt believe what she was saying, I didn't realize that this was an actuall thing that companies did. I asked her if she was high? but then quickly told her not to answer as I didnt want to be charged.

She did tell me that she could give me the website where I could find the information (apple.com ... hey thanks).

Does anyone else agree that this is totally bullsh*t?? Im kinda debating canceling my phone and getting a blackberry! thanks for listening to my rant!

Practically every single company that sells some kind of electronic or computer item has paid tech support lines now unless you've already purchased their extended warranty package... in this case being "Applecare". Regular warranties that come with Apple products come with a 1 year warranty for repairs and only 90 days of phone support.

Also, transferring songs to an iPhone is pretty simple. The problem is, you can't freely connect your iPhone to other people's computers to transfer music to it because of issues with synching. Not sure if that was your initial idea, but if it's only getting music to the iPhone you connect it with the white iPod USB cable and sync it to your iTunes. From there, you're able to bring on whatever music you'd like. Hope that helps. :wink:

 

[flame boy]

As the other guys have said, thats pretty much the norm for big tech companies to charge you for assistance outside of their initial 90 day coverage. What I normally do when I have a question/need help with any phone or computer stuff is look online. There are loads of forums (Apple's Forum may be a good place to start) which don't charge you for their help and you will normally find lots of other people have the same question.

Try googling "Transferring iTunes music to iPhone" for starters.

 

[simbablk]

I just got off the phone with Apple tech support. I called because I needed help transfering songs from iTunes to my phone. When I called, I was connected to an agent who was very friendly. I explained my problem to her and was waiting for her assistance. She told me that because I've had the phone for over 3 months, that Apple charges the customer $35 per problem, but if I wanted I could pay $70 and get like 3 months of unlimited tech support. I couldnt believe what she was saying, I didn't realize that this was an actuall thing that companies did. I asked her if she was high? but then quickly told her not to answer as I didnt want to be charged.

She did tell me that she could give me the website where I could find the information (apple.com ... hey thanks).

Does anyone else agree that this is totally bullsh*t?? Im kinda debating canceling my phone and getting a blackberry! thanks for listening to my rant!

Phone support thru Apple is only 90 days after your purchase date. You do have the option of going to your local (if you have one) Apple Store for free tech support on simple issues such as this. Applecare extends your warranty an additional 2 yrs after your purchase date and you also get phone support with that.

See the link below for the Apple discussion forum for iPhone. Either search or browse the topics to see if anyone else had your issue (or similar) and see the replies to their question. This is a good site for simple (and sometimes difficult) Apple related issues:

Apple - Support - Discussions - iPhone

Simba

 

[simbablk]

Whatever you do, DON'T get a blackberry! I was eligible for upgrade a couple of months ago & almost got the Droid, but I listened to this salesguy & got the blackberry & within an hour I regretted it. Everybody was saying how cool it was that I finally had a modern phone etc, but I found EVERYTHING about it REAL irritating. And i mean EVERYTHING. Space doesn't permit me to start a list! Except to mention that besides everything else, it is an awkward shape. Thus i'd forget to pocket it, or have trouble finding it even when it was on me---thus I set it down someplace & realized minutes later I couldn't find it, and didn't find it. The expense was a bitch, but i will tell you when i went in & got the Droid it only took a day or two to get accustomed & it works real well. BLACKBERRY is a piece of shit, everything about it is as future-obsolete as 8-track tapes, both are elaborate & unconvenient products.

OMG! I was JUST like you! My original iPhone 3G was stolen and I didn't want to purchase another one. A friend of mine allowed me to borrow his Blackberry to which at the very start I completely HATED! And like you, the list of things I hated about it are too long to list. It was SO bad I opted to purchase another iPhone because I could not have taken another day with that awful device.

I do wish though I had sprung for an Android of some type (and on a different network). I keep hearing really good things about them. And even though I absolutely enjoy my iPhone, I'm not married to it.

Simba

 

[mattflanders]

I wonder how Apple does things in Europe as EU law requires 2 years of warranty. Does anyone know?

 

[Sergeant_Torpedo]

Whatever happened to consumerism? The US and UK governments have consistently changed the laws to protect the big companies from having to deal honestly with their customers.

 

[chamisaguy]

That's also why in the stores they really push the 3-year "AppleCare". As the worker bee in the store told me, "Look, if ANYTHING goes wrong after a month, it'll totally pay for itself." I know too many people that have said, "I was kicking myself for being suckered into it, but I'm so lucky I had AppleCare. I would've had to basically pay for a new computer, in parts and labour if I didn't have it."

^^^^

This.

 

[Mickactual]

Whatever happened to consumerism? The US and UK governments have consistently changed the laws to protect the big companies from having to deal honestly with their customers.

Thank You!

I've learned to utilize the benefits of my annual Costco membership. I buy my electronics from them because they not only extend the mfg. warranty on TV's and PC's to 2 years, but they also offer a "Concierge Service" on most electronics they sell. It's basically a life-of-the gizmo free phone tech support service that comes in very handy.

 

[Mem]

I just got off the phone with Apple tech support. I called because I needed help transfering songs from iTunes to my phone. When I called, I was connected to an agent who was very friendly. I explained my problem to her and was waiting for her assistance. She told me that because I've had the phone for over 3 months, that Apple charges the customer $35 per problem, but if I wanted I could pay $70 and get like 3 months of unlimited tech support. I couldnt believe what she was saying, I didn't realize that this was an actuall thing that companies did. I asked her if she was high? but then quickly told her not to answer as I didnt want to be charged.

She did tell me that she could give me the website where I could find the information (apple.com ... hey thanks).

Does anyone else agree that this is totally bullsh*t?? Im kinda debating canceling my phone and getting a blackberry! thanks for listening to my rant!

It's complete bullshit, but doesn't surprise me from a company that tries to nickel and dime you like Apple.

 

[Frodo46888]

In consumer magazines, Apple's tech support rates far higher than any other manufacturer of this type of equipment. Apple stores have techs that actually know what they're doing, though at a price. Most problems can be remedied by perusing online boards.

 

[Pendlum]

Really.. It is normal to be charged after a certain time has passed? I've called for an old laptop, and the warranty has expired, and wasn't charge dick. All they said is if I wanted to send it in, I'd have to pay since the warranty is expired. No bullshit about paying for the call too. I have never heard of that for anything except my ISP. It's dial up, but it is free. Tech support cost you per call, but it is $10, which is a good deal if I use Apple as a gauge.

imo warranty's should be for parts when things fail, not so I don't have to be charged to talk to someone about their failing product. I mean if you don't have a warranty and you need to call them and send it in, charging someone $35 for the call on top of what they are going to have to pay for sending it in is a huge middle finger from Apple.

If you guys say everyone does it, maybe you are right, but it has never happened to me.

 

[FRE]

I've had an I-Mac for about four years now and find it more satisfactory than PC compatible computers.

With PCs, of the operating system crashes, it it always necessary to re-boot, and that cam be VERY time consuming. With an Apple, if an application misbehaves, the OS permits suspending and restarting the application without re-booting the computer; that saves considerable time. Also applications misbehave much less frequently with an Apple. Apple computers are much less prone to virus attacks, to the extent that may Apple owners do not even bother with anti-virus software.

One can have support problems with any computer or other equipment.

Although I would not want to go back to MS-DOS, in one respect I liked it better than Windows or Apple. If anything went wrong, I knew that I could fix it myself. With a PC, if windows failed, it was instant panic. Fortunately, I have not had a failure with my I-MAC.

 

[Mem]

http://www.lpsg.org/185750-apple-passes-microsoft-to-be-3.html#post2793370

 

[Pendlum]

Uh, in Windows if something crashes you don't have to reboot. I don't know where you got the idea that you have to reboot for everything from, but it's wrong. In fact if you try to close something in Windows that isn't responding, a handy little prompt pops up and asks if you want to terminate the process, just like pretty much every OS! And if you don't want to do it that way, all you have to do is hit ctrl+alt+del and open up the task manager, where you can end just about any process. All without rebooting.

And I'm pretty sure if the OS crashes for a Mac, you need to reboot, since it is the OPERATING SYSTEM that is crashing.

 

[B_VinylBoy]

Uh, in Windows if something crashes you don't have to reboot. I don't know where you got the idea that you have to reboot for everything from, but it's wrong. In fact if you try to close something in Windows that isn't responding, a handy little prompt pops up and asks if you want to terminate the process, just like pretty much every OS! And if you don't want to do it that way, all you have to do is hit ctrl+alt+del and open up the task manager, where you can end just about any process. All without rebooting.

And I'm pretty sure if the OS crashes for a Mac, you need to reboot, since it is the OPERATING SYSTEM that is crashing.

Not 100% true on either platform, as it's depending on what and how it actually crashes. In the case of the Mac OS, if the Finder crashes it restarts it automatically without the need of going through a lengthy reboot. Apps can crash on their own, separate from the OS, and those can be eliminated through a force quit. Even certain control panels and system preferences are ran like apps which present some of the usual OS crashes one would be prone to experience. However, if the machine kernel panics, then you have to restart the whole machine. Kernel Panics can be hardware or software related.

PCs will either have an application freeze that can be dealt with using a CTRL+ALT+DELETE, or if an important OS component crashes it blue screens and requires a full reboot.

 

[Pendlum]

Finder is the equivalent of explorer right? If explorer crashes, it also restarts on it's own. And if for some reason it doesn't, you can still start it back up by ctrl+alt+del->run->explorer.exe. Which means you are basically saying that they both behave the same way in these kind of situations.

In my experience BSODs are from hardware problems. Actually the only times I've BSOD'd is when my hard drive was dying.

 

[Deno]

tons of info here

iPod touch Fans forum