Apple and the iPhone – When the Customer doesn’t Matter…

“…because we’re too good for you…”

That is the vibe I get from Apple with this whole iPhone 3G shortage fiasco, or circus…

Everyone that reads my blog posts here knows that I have been quite disappointed with the customer care at Apple and their attitude towards the shortage and their customers. Well, today I got the “icing on the cake” on “great” policies from Apple.

I had “backordered”, that is, stupidly let AT&T charge my credit card for an iPhone that was going to be shipped to the store for me in 10-20 days — which was shipped in a week’s time (today). I got an email alert and went there to grab the iPhone, of course, not so excited to have it anymore. Not after waiting in line once at the Palo Alto store when I was in CA for an hour to find out “my corporate” discount wasn’t going to transfer, left the line and canceled the discount… got back in line the next day (it was too late that same day) and found out that my wife is the primary account holder and they couldn’t sell it to me even though I had proof of our relationship and her documents… mmm… leaving that alone (I already blogged about it)…

Back to the AT&T store: I got there, did everything and left with my iPhone. As soon as I called my wife (should have been me… seriously) I noticed there was a little “ringing” in the voice and all… I went back to the store: defective! So, I learned Apple doesn’t even ship enough iPhones to AT&T stores in case of a defective device like mine. Two options: get a refund and go back to the “backordering” process after re-chargin my credit card OR going to the Apple Store to replace the unit. I asked the AT&T guy to call Apple to find out if they had at least enough replacement units. THEY TOLD HIM THEY ARE NOT ALLOWED TO SAY WHETHER THEY HAVE iPHONES OR NOT, if that is the case!!!! Now, what kind of stupid store can’t even say whether they have more units or not (once they find out a costumer has a defective unit)???? Apple is STUPID, “geniuses”!!! Seriously: they wanted me to drive to the store to then FIND OUT THE SAME WAY I WOULD OVER THE PHONE if they have or not iPhones to replace mine!!! What kind of crappy policy is that?! Costumers in the first place! Apple got it all “right”! If it wasn’t an excellent device (with it’s flaws and all), I wouldn’t have gotten back to the “backorder”… but it is a good phone… so… I hope other companies soon catch up on the technology quality Apple has (HP seems to be getting close for Windows-based machines), because in the costumer care side Apple is stupid…