Working Up

Mr. Cook,

I have been a user of Apple computers for about the last 15 years. Just this week, I bought an new iMac to replace the one I have been using daily without hiccup for six years. I always use Apple’s Time Machine to have a good backup of my iMac.

When I picked up my new iMac at the Apple retail store (see below), I asked the pleasant young lady how I should go about making my new iMac like my old one with all my files, apps, etc. She told me what to do and how to use Migration Assistant. Well, that was a disaster. Her instructions led to several hours of moving files only to find that everything was in the wrong place and the accounts were wrong.

Back to the Apple store the next morning with my new iMac under my arm and my backup drive in my jacket pocket. Eight hours later I was finished.

Three tech support persons at the Genius Bar “knew” what to do. Each spent an hour or two only to learn that they didn’t know what to do. They put me on the phone with a person who “knew” what to do. An hour with this person revealed that she didn’t know what to do.

Finally, after six hours and four “gosh, I thought that would work,” episodes, the person on the phone transferred me to another person on the phone. This gentleman looked at the records and said something like, “I have no idea why anyone told you to do those things. They are obviously wrong. Here is what to do.”

Two hours later, after the files moved once again from my backup drive to the new iMac, I was finished.

Once every four or five or six years I buy a new Apple computer. The restore-from-backup procedure is a little different as times and software changes. I can’t use the method I used the last time. It seems, however, that genius bar persons in Apple stores and support persons on the phone would do this type of thing daily or at least several times a week.

Well, just thought I would let you know about the state-of-practice with technical support at Apple. It was quite disappointing.

What I found appalling is at the end of an eight-hour day in the Apple store, no one, no one, no one at the store would talk to me about, “Sorry this all happened. Is there anything we can do to make this right?”

It would be nice to hear from someone on your staff with that statement and question.

A still loyal customer,

and so on, store information withheld to protect the innocent and others as well…

And yes, I actually did send this email to Mr. Cook. I have read the staff members at Apple read these emails and respond in some cases. We shall see.