Apple Store South Hills Village and an iPhone4 Experience

Saturday night, I drove to Pittsburgh to connect with my best friend in the whole world, Willie, and some of his family. Sunday morning as I was departing, I realized-"Hey! I'm not that far from the Apple Store, and I've been having some sound issues with my iPhone4. Maybe I can have someone at the store take a look at my phone before my next round of travel." And so I drove to the Apple Store in the South Hills Village Mall in hopes I could get a timely genius bar appointment and discern what was causing the issues with my phone.

I was able to get an appointment with a genius within 10 minutes of arriving. As I described my problem, a clicking sound that sometimes occurs while using my Skullcandy Full Metal Jacket headphones, we attempted to troubleshoot it while in the store.  The first suggestion was a backup and restore of my phone. I backed up all of my apps, and when attempting the restore, my phone failed to be restored. The genius at Apple replaced my phone. But that wasn't the end of the story.

I had iOS 4.3 on my backed up phone, and the new phone was running iOS4.2.1 so the first dilemma was updating the phone's operating system.  After this, we restored the contents of my old phone to the new phone.  Then, this new phone kept restarting every 2-3 minutes. So we restored the phone again, and started the process from the beginning again, only this time, we launched all of the back ups as a sync to a new phone.  Everything seemed great, and I left the store to do a little shopping around the mall.

Twenty minutes later, I pulled out the phone (which was fully charged) to make a call, and it had turned itself off.  Thankfully I hadn't left Pittsburgh yet, and I could make one more trip into the Apple Store.  The folks at the genius bar were really understanding, and they said that they had never encountered such an array of set-backs with the phone before. I responded that I hadn't either. ;) They then proceeded to bring out another phone, and began the process from the beginning for the third time that day.

All in all, the whole process took about five hours, and I watched dozens of customers get their problems with computers, phones, ipods, and ipads answered during my time at the genius bar. I'm glad I had extra time to take care of any potential issues before leaving, and the staff in the store were incredibly helpful as we worked toward a solution to the problem of my phone.

I wanted to share this because it was an incredible day of quality customer service. I deeply appreciated the time the Apple geniuses (Tom and Haley) took to help me out. I know that when a problem doesn't make its resolution quickly, it can be tiresome for all parties, but the team at the apple store did an incredible job.

If you have a problem with a piece of Apple Technology and you are close to an Apple Store, I highly recommend scheduling a visit to the genius bar.  The staff are friendly, patient, and incredibly helpful. They do all that they can to help customers make the most of their technology.

Lately, I've been finding myself really appreciative of great customer service. Too often we hear horror stories and complaints, but I think we should make it a point to highlight and applaud companies when they do an exemplary job.

Have you had an incredible experience in customer service? I'd love to hear about it, and I encourage you to share it with others too!

Iphone4 and AT&T Shortages

Ok, I admit it, I was in line around 6AM to upgrade my iphone. There were already about 40 people in line in front of me. Some had camped out since 11PM. I did not. I figured, I could get an early start to my day, and get some work done while I "waited." Many were just standing in line for the iphone, I just chose to work from the line. Regardless, I stayed in the line for a while.

Local AT&T store staff came out and offered people in line water. I thought it was a kind gesture, and I took a bottle. As I approached the front of the line, the representatives informed folks that they had run out of 32GB models of the new iphone, and that they only had limited quantities of the 16GB model. The guy in front of me asked if AT&T had a 30 day return period. He was informed that there was a $20 restocking fee for the return if he bought a 16GB version and decided to get a 32GB version when they arrived. The employee also stated that there was no guarantee that any 32GB models would arrive in the store during the next 30 days.

At the same time this shortage was announced, employees were taking "pre-orders" for 32GB phones that would be delivered in 5-10 days. So AT&T offered instant gratification of a 16GB phone (also in short supply, but apparently another order of 16GB phones were set to arrive later in the day), or a 5-10 day wait for a 32GB phone.

As I stood in line, I thought, "Neither one of these sounds appetizing to me right now." And then I thought, "why didn't they let the 40 people who were in line behind me know that they might not get their phones today?" The guy behind me told me he was already late for work, and was concerned that he would now not only be late, but he would show up with nothing but a voucher for a future purchase. Needless to say he was less than enthused by his wait.

He and others looked at me in shock when I left the line. How could I leave after waiting for this phone. I could leave because I have a phone that works. I could leave because, I hadn't felt the "sunk cost" of time waiting in line for the product because I just worked while in line. I could leave because I will be on the road over the next 5-10 days, and so I won't be able to claim my phone upon its arrival anyway.

Regardless, I have an iphone that was gifted to me, and I can download the iphone4 software on this phone and experience much of the same advances on a slower processor and an older phone. Also, since this phone was a gift, I'm not locked into a contract.

Are you an iphone user? Did you wait in line this morning? If you did wait in line, how do you like your new phone? One advanced feature that I think is pretty cool is the webcam that is built into the center of the screen--I imagine that feature will be seen on the next iteration of the iPad too.