The Worm in My Apple Gets Fatter: Ongoing IPhone Problems

After my ongoing problems with Apple, I finally got an appointment with the Genius Bar set for the past Monday. I had a conflict, so I called and canceled my appointment last Friday and tried to move it to the following Monday. Apple Care said they could not set an appointment more than a week out and arranged a call for me today.

Sure enough, an automated call came in at about 3pm, but when the representative picked up, he had no notes and no idea why I was on the line. In addition, he didn't speak English well and I had to repeat myself more than once. At the end of the long call, he said he was sending me an email with the notes and confirmation. When I got the email, it had no info. The case number didn't pull up anything but an error message that said the case number and email did not match, so I had to call Apple back.

I spoke to Yilka who said she didn't show any call for today, and I said, "Hold on, I have a case number right here," and I gave her the number that had the error message. Sure enough, the number DID pull up some info, but it was incomplete. Why did Yilka not see the previous call or older case number in my case files BEFORE I gave her the number?

Yilka was very nice and got my new Genius Bar appointment set up. Then I asked to be transferred to Customer Service, so she put me on hold and the phone was disconnected! I made my third call to Apple this afternoon a little after 4 and am still on hold with Eddie, a Senior Adviser.

Apple, you badly need to get your act together! I have been a faithful Mac user since 1992, and I saved up to get an iPhone after using a track phone for several years. I want to LIKE Apple iPhones, I really do, but this has been a tremendous hassle for almost a year!

Today I was on the phone for almost an hour on two calls just trying to make a new appointment at the Genius Bar. In the old days, I would have called the Apple Store directly to change an appointment. That call would have taken 5 minutes -- 15 minutes if the store was insanely busy.

Instead I had to call Apple Care on Friday to cancel the appointment, and THEY  had to contact the Genius Bar to cancel. Then we set up a phone call to move it to the following week. Then I had to go through the phone prompts today to get to the iPhone department and then I had to try to explain the entire scenario to a rep who didn't speak English well and sit on hold while he apparently set up the new appointment with the Genius Bar. And after spending 1/2 hour on this call --  absolutely NOTHING was accomplished but getting a case number with no info and NO APPOINTMENT. So it took a 2nd  call and almost as much time to get the appointment moved--almost an hour to do through Apple Care what I could have done myself in 5 minutes.

Now I am still on hold with Eddie, who has listened to the entire story and is supposed to be trying to transfer me to Customer Relations. I figure I have been on the phone about an hour and 45 minutes at this point and we still haven't gotten my phone working.  Today we have just been trying to reschedule my appointment to try to get me to the Genius Bar to see if they can figure out WHY my phone keeps having to be reset.

Hey, Apple, I have an idea. Why don't ***I*** make my OWN appointments with the local Apple Store, and you take your cumbersome and ineffective Apple Care out of the middle?

If I had been able to call the store myself and not had to go through Apple Care, this appointment would have been taken care on on Friday in ONE phone call! This is worse than waiting for Sarah to connect your call on "The Andy Griffith Show." Have we really regressed so far with new technology that the old days of phone operators now look more efficient?

This is my new case number 929659417. Let's see where it gets me. So far 30 minutes of funky hold music is all I have achieved with it.

Also see: A Worm in my Apple! Anyone Else Having Ongoing iPhone Network Problems?