The problem is that the phone does everything really well, except make phone calls.
And that’s a issue for me, since I spend an enormous amount of time on the phone with my clients.
Last week was the last straw. So, as I had done five times in the past, I made an appointment with a Genius at the Apple store and filed my complaint.
When I arrived at the store, we plugged my phone into their computer and looked at an analysis of my dropped calls. Even though on some of the days the dropped call rates were as high as 20%, 30%, and even over 40%, it was supposedly a “normal trend.” According to the Genius, 5 other people had been in the store in just the last few hours with the same problem.
I was ready to head back to Verizon…until the Genius suggested he give me a new phone and we turn off the “3G” service.
Two key lessons stand out to me from this experience:
(1) Be careful who you partner with because they WILL impact your brand. How do you think AT&T is impacting Apple’s brand today? I am pretty sure it’s not so good. I popped into the Verizon store shortly after and the customer service rep told me they were starting to get a lot of people switching over from the iPhone and back to the Verizon service.
(2) Take your customer service seriously. The ONLY reason why I am still an iPhone customer is because every time I walk into the Apple store I have an amazing experience. (And, most of the time, even if I am there for a complaint, I end up spending money as a result.)