the stinginess of one company vs the amazing generosity of another company

[goateeman]

As a mustachian I like to know where I am getting the best value for my money and the best customer service.  I was stunned by two huge contrasts in customer service and value for money.

Example 1 - being screwed over by a hugely popular and profitable company: 

I purchased Apple Beats headphones for myself as a treat, and one for my wife as well, in April of this year.  In the Beats earphones boxes were 2 promotional cards with a code for 3 months of free Apple music, which basically adds $30 to your iTunes account to redeem towards Apple music.  So I had $60 worth of iTunes credit were I to redeem the codes.  I tried to redeem the codes via the Apple Beats website, and it failed to process.  I researched this and it seemed Apple's website was not working, and many other customers were experiencing the same issue.

I contacted Apple support and were told they were working on the site, and to wait and they would let me know when the site would be working.  Not being too overly worried since Apple is known for legendary customer service, I let this slide and let life move on.  When I did not hear back for two months on this, something triggered my memory that I should follow up on this.  I tried in June and the site was still not working.  I contacted Apple Support again, and was shocked when they explain that the promotion had ended May 19th and there was nothing they could do for me.   The May 19th expiration date was never stated anywhere in the Beats promotion, and Apple Support never told me there was a deadline.

I tried to escalate and get this resolved, and Apple Support came back several times and said "sorry".  I couldn't believe the world's most profitable company, with the most premium prices on their products, had screwed me out of $60 worth iTunes credit.  My jaw dropped...and I vowed to never buy an Apple product again.

Contrast to Example 2:
I was shopping for phone cases for my iPhone (the last I will ever own), and came upon 2 cases from an Amazon seller that I really liked. The seller had a promotion for Father's day where if you buy 2 items, you get $1.50 off.  So I put both cases in my shopping cart, and checked out.  For some reason, after I got the order invoice, there was no $1.50 discount.

I started a chat session with Amazon, explained the issue. Within 3-4 minutes, the Amazon rep told me that they were very sorry that the discount didn't apply, that they would apply a $5 Amazon credit to my account, and they would expedite the delivery of the cases from Prime 2 days to overnight, so I would get the cases the very next day.  My jaw dropped... I was only looking for $1.50 discount, and here Amazon blew away my expectations for customer service.

I couldn't believe the stark contrast between the world's greediest and most over-priced goods company, Apple, versus Amazon who bent over backwards to service its customers.

I will be a lifelong Amazon shopper, and buy as much as I can from Amazon (except Apple products lol).  I will never spend another penny on Apple products, despite having spent thousands of dollars on Apple products since the original 64gb iPod, iPhone (gen 1 through 7), multiple iPads, macbooks (air / pro), Apple has lost me as a customer over as lousy $60 in iTunes credit, where Amazon has won me over as a customer for life over $5 credit and overnight shipping.

[Bucksandreds]

That's all we can do. Punish the shady companies and patronize the good ones. I spend thousands every year on Amazon (all cleaning supplies, diapers, wipes, lots of food, some clothes, furniture,etc). Every time I've had an issue they don't even question it. If they are late ona prime product they add a free month of prime. If they forget something in my subscribe and save box they overnight another. If I don't like something, they pay return shipping and 100% refund. They deserve the growth they're getting. My only concern is Bezos likes to work his people raw. I hope he sees the value in work life balance.

[big_slacker]

My only concern is Bezos likes to work his people raw. I hope he sees the value in work life balance.

AMZN certainly has a rep for that, and I know people who have definitely had that experience working for them. I also know they pay very well, even more than the other big tech company in the area. But base is lower with the higher total comp made up of some cash bonus and restricted stock which you have to hang around for long enough to vest. I do know a few that are really happy there because they're on a good team, but like any big company that could change the next day.

On the original topic, the blood vendetta over $60 seems a little over the top. Ok, you had a bad experience. Sometimes that happens. sometimes you get a bad apple (see what I did there?), and sometimes a company is trying to cut costs and get worse then eventually course correct. Or they don't, it's when it becomes clearly company culture that I feel like it's time to bail. IMO droid OS is terrible and still feels beta after so many years in the market. And MSFT is catching up on the OS front but it's still a bit kludgy compared to OS X. Your choice of course, but I'd just call it strike one and move on.

I do agree on AMZNs customer service BTW. They'll give you an extra month or two of prime if a package shows up a day late, they'll swap just about anything usually sending out a new one before you send the old one back and just generally kiss your ass. It's because they're strategic and not emotional, it's just a numbers thing. A few $$ lost on shipping here and there vs a customer buying everything they can?

[sokoloff]

On the original topic, the blood vendetta over $60 seems a little over the top. Ok, you had a bad experience. Sometimes that happens.

I disagree. It's not just the $60 or the original mistake. Every company of non-trivial size makes mistakes.

The problem is that the consumer gave Apple a chance to correct the mistake and they passed. Even Amazon made a mistake in the story. The key difference is, when they were given a chance to correct it, they stepped up and delivered.

I dropped a vendor over a $0.74 mistake. This vendor (that I won't name here as I'm not on a crusade against them) is a SaaS supplier and has gross profit margins that are no doubt over 95% and their service costs three-figures per year. They made a mistake that was 100% theirs and was also annoying to me so I raised it to them such that they could fix it for me and other users in the future and I asked for a credit for $0.74. Customer service passed on both and I dropped them. By the end of this year, that decision will have cost them $1000 in revenue (and probably $950+ in free cash flow). I switched suppliers, with some cost and PITA factor on my end, and am again happy to do business with someone who has fair customer service policies.

[Ocinfo]

So, looked into this a bit and there were definitely others that had the same issue but looks like many were able to get it resolved. The effort required was way too high and Apple should be far more helpful. That being said, I've had plenty of experiences where Apple volunteered to replace a broken iPhone screen or exchange an iPad due to light bleed 6 months after I bought it.

As far as Amazon's ease, they want you buying everything from them without price checking. I've found many items that are actually more expensive than other sources. They're trying to create loyalty that will benefit them...that's not to say they don't have great customer service, just that they are doing it at least partially for reasons that aren't beneficial to you.


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[big_slacker]

On the original topic, the blood vendetta over $60 seems a little over the top. Ok, you had a bad experience. Sometimes that happens.

I disagree. It's not just the $60 or the original mistake. Every company of non-trivial size makes mistakes.

The problem is that the consumer gave Apple a chance to correct the mistake and they passed. Even Amazon made a mistake in the story. The key difference is, when they were given a chance to correct it, they stepped up and delivered.

I dropped a vendor over a $0.74 mistake. This vendor (that I won't name here as I'm not on a crusade against them) is a SaaS supplier and has gross profit margins that are no doubt over 95% and their service costs three-figures per year. They made a mistake that was 100% theirs and was also annoying to me so I raised it to them such that they could fix it for me and other users in the future and I asked for a credit for $0.74. Customer service passed on both and I dropped them. By the end of this year, that decision will have cost them $1000 in revenue (and probably $950+ in free cash flow). I switched suppliers, with some cost and PITA factor on my end, and am again happy to do business with someone who has fair customer service policies.

In my service industry days I talked to this grumpy old dude that was the extreme end of this. This was a small town, and he had a story for half the stores and restaurants locally. You needed a map to figure out his web of places that had offended him in some way and that he wouldn't patronize due to his principles. I ended up not letting him sit in at the newbie learn to play poker table since he was a regular in real games. He took it to my manager who told him to pound sand. I didn't see him again, ever. And I was happy. :D

I'm not saying this is you, don't take it that way. But for me at that time in my life as a 20 something with enough time to fixate on things and fight every small slight, I had a lightbulb moment about where that would lead if taken too far. Now as a 40 something with a lot higher percentage of my time and energy invested in more important things (family, health, day job, thriving side business) it would have to be something particularly egregious in terms of attitude, repetition or $$ amount for me to spend some non-trivial amount of time on a customer service slight.

[samsonator54321]

Amazon is one of the companies I'm most loyal to for this very reason.

I do own apple phones and I love their product. I've only had to deal with their customer service one time and it was when I dropped apple to try a droid.  I wasn't getting texts from other iPhone users on my new droid. Apple said my iMessage account was still active and they only deactivate them once every 90 days.  Fortunately I was 3 weeks away from their 90 day cycle. The customer service rep said I just had wait three weeks then I could get texts from iPhone users. This was a real pain since 90% of my friends and family had iPhone at the time.

My brother just got his first iPhone. He didn't realize he setup two factor authentication. So when he lost his Apple ID password he couldn't reset it.  So they had to go to account recovery.  He's been on and off the phone with them for three weeks trying to get his account reset.  Finally the rep told him he has to shut his phone off for a few days because every time it turns on it resets the account recovery process.  So apples solution to locked out accounts in 2017 is turn your phone off for a few days. This is ridiculous in my opinion and they have lost him as a customer because of it.

I will continue to buy iPhones because I think I they are the best product. But I'm not loyal to them like I am to Amazon.

[intellectsucks]

Where on Earth do you get the impression that Apple’s customer service is legendary?  Or did you mean legendarily bad?  I have the impression that your experience is the more common one.  The only example I can think of is when they released a version of the iPhone that had a serious design flaw causing widespread reception issues, blamed it on the users and then refused to offer and restitution to their customers.  My impression has always been that Apple has too loyal of a customer base to worry about having great service.  They seem to consider the business lost as a result of situations like yours as trivial compared to the automatic sales from their loyalists.
I agree with some of the other posters: vote with your wallet.  For those who are saying that Amazon only provides superior service so they can charge you more: so what?  Superior service and peace of mind have a value.  I’m completely fine with a company charging a premium for it.

[Milizard]

On the original topic, the blood vendetta over $60 seems a little over the top. Ok, you had a bad experience. Sometimes that happens.

I disagree. It's not just the $60 or the original mistake. Every company of non-trivial size makes mistakes.

The problem is that the consumer gave Apple a chance to correct the mistake and they passed. Even Amazon made a mistake in the story. The key difference is, when they were given a chance to correct it, they stepped up and delivered.

I dropped a vendor over a $0.74 mistake. This vendor (that I won't name here as I'm not on a crusade against them) is a SaaS supplier and has gross profit margins that are no doubt over 95% and their service costs three-figures per year. They made a mistake that was 100% theirs and was also annoying to me so I raised it to them such that they could fix it for me and other users in the future and I asked for a credit for $0.74. Customer service passed on both and I dropped them. By the end of this year, that decision will have cost them $1000 in revenue (and probably $950+ in free cash flow). I switched suppliers, with some cost and PITA factor on my end, and am again happy to do business with someone who has fair customer service policies.

I agree about the $60, but quabbling over $0.74 is sheer insanity, IMO.  That kind of insignificant amount gets written off regularly--in both directions.  It's not even worth the time it takes to make a phone call.  Issuing a refund check could cost the same, if not more than 74 cents.  That company may have been relieved to get rid of such a PITA customer.