Who Does Apple Think is Buying iPods?
Recently Choice, an Australian consumer watchdog organization, seriously questioned the iPod’s quality and Apple Australia’s iPod service. In the quest for humor, Choice undermined its own integrity with the implication iPods - all iPods - could be lemons. A line from the report “An iPod is a significant investment, so you don’t want your Apple to be a lemon”. Chortle, chortle.
But as far as I can recall, no iPod has been universally labelled a lemon.
For Choice, an organization that by its very nature challenges the integrity of manufacturers and service providers, it was a moment that questioned its own integrity.
Choice this year established what it calls the “Shonky Awards”. In the introduction to the event (as shown on a video on the Choice website), the presenter says “Welcome to the inaugural Shonky awards where we name and shame the ten worst products of 2006.”
The iPod was among the ten worst products of 2006? Excuse my disbelief. People must be returning them in droves…
Another presenter says “...we celebrate another year of awesomely dud products”. Wow! Think how good the iPod can yet become! The same presenter after reading out the spiel for why the iPod received a Shonky Award, said “In other words the thing is complete junk.” (No wonder they aren’t selling…) Interestingly that line seemed to be followed by a murmur of disagreement from the audience, although the video was edited so I can’t be certain.
I accept that these awards were delivered with the classic Australian tongue-in-cheek, and were somewhat lighthearted and exaggerated, but once this information gets to the consumer, especially via the tabloids, it is reduced to headlines such as “iPods labelled ‘lemons’”.
Not the sort of misinformation any product wants.
Choice awarded the iPod the The Choice iShonk for Dual-level Shonkyness and said of it:
An iPod is a significant investment, so you don’t want your Apple to be a lemon. And if there is something wrong with it, you’d expect an easy repair and warranty service. Podluck.
Level 1. Several readers complained about cracked screens, faulty batteries and problems with sound reproduction.
Level 2. Apple doesn’t allow retailers to handle complaints under warranty (which is their obligation under Fair Trading laws) — you have to send your faulty iPod to Apple yourself via Australia Post. And if they decide the fault isn’t covered by the warranty, you’ll have to foot the entire bill.
Level 1 is a bit iffy, particularly as it implies all iPods. (I’m yet to find anyone who’s had a cracked screen on a shuffle.) Even though these same complaints have been made around the world, the implication of “Several” is that only a small segment of the review audience had these problems. Hardly enough to suggest iPods - all iPods - are lemons.
Level 2 is more interesting because it is likely to cause more ill-feeling towards Apple and the iPod than Apple should risk. Especially with the Zune soon to be released. Australians tend to follow the popular crowd, so were late getting to the iPod party, and equally, will get on the Zune party more readily simply because it’s Microsoft.
My wife works for a retail giant and has customers complain about the problems of getting iPods serviced for the very reason Choice mention. I don’t know about the rest of the world, but the average Aussie consumer wants returns and repairs to be as simple and streamlined as possible. That means handing it to the retailer and saying “Call me when it’s fixed.” Unfortunately, as Choice rightfully point out, Apple doesn’t allow that in Australia.
My wife has even had people offering to give her their iPod as they hate it and are going to chuck it out anyway. Reality is they hate the hassle to get it fixed. If it could be easily repaired and then work fine, they’d have no complaint and probably even talk up iPods and Apple’s service.
All this raises a worrying question: Who does Apple think is buying iPods?
Who are iPods really for? Are iPods actually for people who:
- Are happy to send their iPod to Apple for service
- Can afford the cost if it falls to them
- Are somewhat unquestioning of Apple’s practices
Hmm? It sounds like a description of a faithful Mac user. Are Apple still selling iPods to “Mac” users? That is, assuming iPod users will display the same faithfulness and forgiveness? Surely not.
Apple usually does very well in reports on consumer satisfaction with its service, but that’s like asking a Knicks fan who’s the best basketball team. Apple’s forgiving faithful are probably not the best ones to ask how good Apple is at anything.
Whereas, PC users are less forgiving and faithful because they have choice. If they get jerked around by Dell, they can go buy HP, Lenovo, Gateway, Acer or whatever. Apple Mac users don’t have that choice and so, having to either take it or leave it, usually take it on the chin, eventually growing blind to Apple’s failings.
The iPod crowd though aren’t the same, despite Apple’s attempts to create an iPod or nothing mentality and therefore that same faithfulness in iPod users.
Most iPod users come from a Windows background and want and expect choice. So when they discover the hassle of getting an iPod serviced, they will have no qualms about switching.
The one thing the Choice Shonky award does highlight is Apple (in Australia at least) is taking its iPod customers for granted, customers that don’t posses any sense of loyalty or faithfulness to Apple. With the Zune on the horizon, that disrespect could yet be Apple’s greatest mistake.
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SS said: Apple’s policy is actually the best way to provide a high level of customer service. As I pointed out, there is nothing to stop the retailer doing the mailing on behalf of their client should they wish - but it bestows no advantage…
Strange though how Choice and the customers my wife encounters totally disagree with you.
The advantage is clearly that it is:
1) Easier for the customer
2) From the customers point of view, they have a “face” that is dealing with their problem immediately.
People still like to deal with people. It gives them more confidence that something is happening and gives them someone they can go back to.
How is putting your iPod in a padded bag and sending it into the ether of Australia Post, hoping it will get to its destination, not knowing when it will, going to garner better customer confidence and satisfaction?
And then when you ring up to find out if they’ve got it and how it’s going, you get some robotic call centre operator who’s never seen the thing and are just reading stuff off a screen.
Point: And iPod users, in all the surveys I have seen, are generally happy with Apple support.
The surveys I have seen were about iPods, not Apple Macs.
Apple service is fine. Apple are not taking anyone for granted.
Couner-point: I caution you that these surveys are often slanted to produce the results that the pollsters want to achieve. If you ask the question the right way, you will get the answer you want.
Both points, btw, were made by the same person.
Stephen, enjoy Byron Bay ya lucky sod.
And you didn’t *have to* rub it in. That was really low. 
Anyways. We’‘ll just talk among ourselves til you get back.
You said:
What makes you think Apple dont know their iPod customers? Sounds like an unsupported assumption to me. Evidence?
Eh? That was an essential part of the article. I wouldn’t have even written the article without the evidence.
The evidence? Choice found customer dissatisfaction and so did my wife. And she’s just one checkout chick. Extrapolate that across all of them.
She also said I should mention that the desk that handles iPod returns are sick of the angry customers feeling they’re getting the run around. So the staff are telling their bosses.
One of three things will happen: 1) Your suggestion that the store provides the padded bag etc. 2) They’ll stop selling iPods, 3) They’ll just suck it.
btw Choice on it’s own wouldn’t have been enough evidence. But to add more evidence, here’s another by Charles Wright (a tech journalist, and mac user and fan):
http://blogs.smh.com.au/razor/archives/apple/001858.html
Personally, both my experience and my impressions of Apple have not done a lot to endear me to them. Apple often present a public image of arrogance and aloofness. Some quick examples:
- Charging iPod accessories makers new extra licence fees whilst criticizing countries that tried to impose iPod taxes.
- Send the lawyers out to anyone who uses a word that includes iPod. eg iPodLounge had to become iLounge.
- Likewise GarageBand
- Suing bloggers for revealing secrets
- Prancing around like every feature they add to OS X has never been done before
- Remorselessly putting new features in OS X that killed off small developers business.
- Charging almost as much to replace the dodgy batteries in shuffles as a new shuffle costs.
- Making the early iPods batteries extremely difficult to replace
And that’s just off the top of my head.
When it came time to replace my PowerBook this year, I chose a Mac again because of OS X and the applications I use, definitely not because of Apple.
If I coulda bought a PC that had OS X on it, I woulda been gone. I only stay with Apple because I have to to get the best OS.
Chris and others have made the point quite clearly that Apple consistently scores high in customer satisfaction because their customer base are UNUSUALLY loyal and VERY, VERY slow to criticize. And in some cases, like yours, utterly incapable of it.
They may have made the point, but that does not make it true.
Do you seriously think that apple’s customer service is an order of magnitude poorer than polls would suggest?
...Because if so that’s a very interesting proposition that deserves studying properly.
Do you seriously think that apple’s customer service is an order of magnitude poorer than polls would suggest?
I think Apple’s customer service is nothing special. And as Chris points out, and the reason he wrote this article, there is lots of room for improvement.
I don’t think there’s any question that Apple’s customer base in unusually loyal and uncritical. And I think there’s ample reason to question the conclusions of a survey that finds Apple at the top of customer service satisfaction for the reasons I’ve cited above.
That’s not to say that this is absolutely the reason for Apple’s high scores (even though I believe it to be a very reasonable supposition). I make the mistake of implying conclusiveness in my post, but I’m simply arguing that citing those surveys to prove that Apple really does have the best service is dubious.
- Charging iPod accessories makers new extra licence fees whilst criticizing countries that tried to impose iPod taxes.
In regards to Apple accessories, one particularly egregious stunt that people rarely mention is Apple arbitrarily switching colors on the iPod TV output so that users are fooled into purchasing an iPod video cable (for which Apple gets the substantial cut you mention) instead of cables they probably already have.
There is absolutely no justification for this beyond pure unbridled greed.
citing those surveys to prove that Apple really does have the best service is dubious.
Still, citing them to prove that apple really does not have the best service is considerably more so. But I agree (as I implied) that it’s possible and it definitely would be interesting to find out what effect if any brand loyalty is having here.
Definitely,Ben. And it’d be interesting to have them broken down by product and country.
Also, I don’t agree that the surveyors are biased as the surveys are across the board, all companies.
Unless it is a commissioned survey by the vendor, then it should be reasonably objective.
But as I said, Mac customers would skew Mac service results. Maybe not a lot, but judging by Mac users on every Apple site I’ve ever been, they do seem reluctant to speak ill of Apple.
As SydneyStephen pointed out though, recent surveys have included iPod users (which is why I’d like to see a product breakdown) and as I said, they wouldn’t be as loyal, yet he says the surveys still show Apple doing well.
I’d be really curious to see Australian figures though.
Still, citing them to prove that apple really does not have the best service is considerably more so.
I didn’t, and neither did Chris. I don’t doubt the numbers, in fact. I just think there is another explanation for the results.
I just think there is another explanation for the results.
Exactly.
And if the surveys showed Dell ahead of Apple, we’d be looking to explain why and what flaws were in the process.
But when Apple comes out ahead, we just accept it, no questions asked.
Loyalty has a life expectancy. Eventually the facts have an effect. PCs finally caught up with Macs performace marks and even surpassed. The Mac Faithful were entrenched. It wasn’t purly a matter of performance to them, but was a point of pride while it was true. It was hard to let go of that point for a long time, but they finally did because Apple didn’t regain that title in a couple Mac revisions.
Add to that that missconceptions die just as hard, on both sides of the issue.
Does Apple WARRENTY SUPPORT suck? Let’s be more specific: Does IPOD warrenty support suck?
SUCK is a subjective term, so let’s be secific here too: Are Apple iPod customers who have to deal with IPOD WARRENTY SUPPORT generally dissatisfied enough to NEVER BUY AN IPOD AGAIN?
And be honest, do we have any solid data to support our opinions? I don’t.
I’ve never had a problem with an iPod, and never seen a Survey that was specific enough to offer any evidence here.
Wm
P. S. I’m a mac faithful and a windows user. I find most people will argue w/o the evidence… we all just love to agrue, and don’t need a valid reason to do it. I’d say that along with everone else in this thread, I’m guilty of it, untill now. Over and out.
I find most people will argue w/o the evidence…
And that’s fine. Just pick one. Sydneystephen wants it both ways. He wants to be able to cite some vague iPod-only survey with no links or actual data in order to defend Apple, but demands real “evidence” from those making a counter-point and then simply dismisses all surveys as unreliable while continuing to cite that iPod-only survey (that I don’t think anyone has ever actually heard of or seen) as PROOF that Apple’s customer service is the best.
On a second point, I do NOT agree that all arguments are created equal and that we’re all just pulling opinions out of our asses. Some opinions are a matter of taste, and I’ve never suggested otherwise. But some aren’t. And many of those in the Mac-tard community are contradictory and hypocritical. Sydneystephen is a case study.