Apple customer support: great, but a bit long-winded
Tuesday, October 25, 2011 at 4:34PM As you can see from the screenshot below, Apple charged me twice for a recent book purchase. I contacted them to highlight the mistake and was promptly sent the following email within 24 hours.
Hello Shaun,
Sarah here from the iTunes Store. I understand that you have been billed twice for the iBook "Steve Jobs" and would like a refund for the duplicate purchase. When it comes to your money, I understand how important it is to be treated fairly, and I am more than happy to look into your request today.
Shaun, I have reviewed the circumstances of your case, and determined that issuing you a refund for your duplicate purchase is an appropriate exception to the iTunes Store Terms and Conditions, which state that all sales are final.
You will see a credit of 12.99, plus any applicable taxes, in five to seven business days.
If your duplicate purchase was the result of receiving an error when downloading the first purchase, please note that it is best not to repurchase the item since it is probably still awaiting download in your account. To learn more about how to resume a download that has been interrupted, follow the steps in this article:
How to resume interrupted iTunes Store downloads
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1725
I hope you find the action taken in this matter satisfactory, Shaun. Thank you for contacting the iTunes Store. If you have any additional questions regarding this matter please feel free to email us back. Have a great day!
Sincerely,
Sarah
iTunes Store/Mac App Store Customer Support
I love Apple customer service for the fact that they always reply, they always offer the correct solution and everything seems to work, but does it really need to be this long? And also why do they have to write "determine that issuing you a refund for your duplicate purchase is an appropriate exception to the iTunes Store terms and conditions which state that all sales of final?"
This is the third time I have received a refund from Apple for errors while purchasing apps or books and every time is an exception. If you charge me twice, you have to pay me back.
The real irony is that iBooks is so shockingly bad that I am now considering asking for a refund for both copies. My settings are never saved, the books will not synchronise over all of my Apple devices and in general Amazon's Kindle solution works much, much better.
Reader Comments (12)
I agree.
Although I like iBooks as a program; I store pretty much all my books in it, but they were not bought through iBooks.
How many subsequent messages have you received from Apple to ensure that you're satisfied with the service? I tend to be very polite with email and usually reply at least once to thank someone for the response. With Apple, you can go back and forth more than once. It's almost like who gets the last word.
I recently had an issue trying to purchase gift cards for myself. I like to keep a running credit so that my credit card isn't swamped with small charges. In any case, I found that I was being limited to $100 total. I sent them a message and it came back in a similar tone to yours and they offered to bump it to $200. I said yes and was happy until I again hit the limit. Turns out that the limit is over any rolling 30 day period. Once I found that out I was satisified since that's not unreasonable. However, even after my thank you message, I got 2 or 3 additional messages. Next time I won't be so polite.
However, we should not complain. Many companies don't respond at all or take forever.
Maybe this is an AI that's replying :-)
I am quite happy with iBooks and use Kindle much much less since.
I have a feeling that Shaun loves to be "unsatisfied" by many things Apple.......
So, because iBooks doesn't work well for me and I believe Kindle is a better solution, that cannot be right? I must have another reason? OK then.
Shaun - did you not get the memo.? Apple can do no wrong.
Shaun, I have been following your site for quite a few years (almost from the beginning), that means I like a great many things you do. I also have a Kindle and loved it before I got the iPad (I have the Kindle on my iPad too). The Kindle device is great, but... I love to read in bed with lights off so as not to disturb my wife's sleep, and with the Kindle it is a "no-go". Also I do not buy that many books (mIRC is my friend! naughty, naughty I know). I did buy the Steve Jobs one however.
But still, I have a feeling that you feel unconfortable/guilty? when enjoying some Apple products.
Keep up the good work
Neil, I love my iPad and my iTouch, but I positively hates iTunes
Couldn't agree more there, particularly on Windows. iTunes on the Mac seems better, but it still freezes too often for my liking.
"I have a feeling that you feel unconfortable/guilty? when enjoying some Apple products."
Yes, maybe:) I don't know why, but there is a 'not wanting to join the crowd' thing going on in my head.
I just haven't found a part of iBooks that works as well as the Kindle software for me. I wasn't talking about the Kindle itself, but the software that also runs on iOS- the books are often cheaper and the way books are displayed works much better for me, particularly on an iPhone.
iTunes is a great example of trying to do too much in one place. I know that it evolved over time, but really they should have split it up long ago. I agree that it was almost unusable on Windows. It's still too big and clunky on the Mac. They really should split things off, the way it's done in iOS.
Shaun, there's "standing out from the crowd" and there's "cutting your nose off to spite your face" (or some such thing). The only reason you can stand out from the crowd with an Android phone is because there are so many of them (not said in a negative manner). It's still Android. If you want to use an iPhone and stand out from the crowd, get a crazy case ;-)
Buying Apple used to be "different". Now it's mainstream. While I'm sure that some people bought Apple just to be different, most bought Apple because they thought it worked better. And what's wrong with that. Now that Apple is mainstream, is that any reason not to use it if you genuinely feel it works better for you?
I'm sure that there's something else that you can rebel against to assuage your feelings of guilt :-)
Shaun - in regards to the refund - yes they do need to phrase it that way, and they are implying that they agree that you didn't request the book twice in which case the phrase would apply and you would have a double charge.
If you had decided to buy two copies (can't think why someone would if its an ebook) that would be your look out.
Strange that I quite like iTunes and find it to be the best solution of its type. I much prefer it to Safari etc. which feel much clunkier.
"I'm sure that there's something else that you can rebel against to assuage your feelings of guilt :-)"
Oh, I can rebel against anything. Anything at all:)