iTunes customer support a pleasant surprise
Apple has not been getting high marks from customers lately. Between it’s insistence on using AT&T for the iPhone and troubles in the Genius Bars around the country, not to mention the whole MobileMe fiasco, Apple has been taking a beating.
When I had trouble with iTunes recently, I actually dreaded getting in touch with Customer Support at Apple. I’ve always had great response from the folks at Apple Care in the past, but it had been a while, and I was concerned the recent onslaught of bad press might be making for some disgruntled Apple workers.
I needn’t have feared. When I explained what had happened – that a standard back up procedure had gone horribly wrong and erased a significant amount of my music forever – the folks on the other end of the email were more than helpful.
I had a generic reply email in less than 10 minutes once I sent my support request. Even better, it was blessedly short and not the usual long reply email with a bunch of legal disclaimers. Apple chose instead to link to that sort of thing and keep it short: they listed a case #, a time frame to expect a response from a real person, a procedure to use in the effect that response did not arrive, and links to the legal beagle stuff instead of full quotes.
The customer service representative contacted me within less than 24 hours, even faster than the window of time given, and provided a way to retrieve my missing music. When there was still a song or two missing after the retrieval, they happily (and immediately) made sure I got those back also. The only thing that would make the whole process easier would be a convenient button to email customer support right in iTunes so I didn’t have to go hunting on the Apple site, but that’s just me being lazy.
Was it an easy fix to a small problem? Absolutely, but often the easiest fixes are where companies fail, so Apple scored points for having a smooth system in place for this sort of issue. Overall I’d rate the iTunes support desk a ten out of ten, and I hope Apple can translate that positive vibe to the rest of the company products, and fast.
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