urban@spp2.UUCP (Mike Urban) (02/24/86)
A friend of mine has sent the following letter to Apple. I thought it might be of interest to others, so here it is: (reproduced with permission, but with the customer name deleted) ================================================================ February 20, 1986 Apple Computer, Inc. Customer Service Department 20525 Mariani Avenue Cupertino, California 95014 Dear Sirs, Please take the time to read this letter. I spent a good deal of time writing it. I'll begin up-front by saying I am not happy with your software upgrade procedures. The story below will hopefully give you an impression why. Enclosed you will find copies of all the paperwork I have accumulated over the past year regarding my MacTerminal 1.1 purchase. I will admit that the inclusion of some of it is superfluous to my problem. It is all enclosed for completeness. The nature of my problem is your manner of providing me with my "free" 2.0 upgrade. Please re-read your letter to me of June 10, 1985. It says that (1) MacTerminal 2.0 would be released in the Fall of 1985; (2) That it would be available from my Apple Authorized Dealer; and (3) That you would tell my dealer when it would be available. It is now Winter 1986 and the dealer that I purchased MacTerminal from does not have it. I did get a copy of Version 2.0 from another dealer, but that was like pulling teeth. The following is a detail of my ordeal: September 1985. Since none of the Apple Authorized Dealer's I ever visited knew anything about your shipping date, I called your Customer Service Department at (408) 996-1010 to inquire. I was told you had no idea. Decmeber 1985. I called your Customer Service Department again. I was told it would be out very soon. January 1985. Associates of mine told me at a meeting that they had aquired Version 2.0. January 1985. I visited an Apple Authorized Dealer in Glendale and was told that since I didn't by my computer from him, I would have to pay an unspecified charge for the upgrade. February 1985. I visited two Apple Authorized Dealers in Pasadena. One told me that their Apple Sales person was off that day and I would have to return for my upgrade. The second--the store that originally sold me MacTerminal--wasted more than half an hour of my time shuffling the papers and opening "MacTerminal" boxes looking for one that said "2.0" on the disk. (I did not return to the store that originally sold me my Macintosh because they went bankrupt six months ago.) I called your customer service department to complain about my difficulty. I was told the following: (1) The store that wanted to charge me was wrong to do that--and I was given the phone number of their corporate headquarters; (2) I might consider returning to the store who's Apple Salesmen was off-duty when he was on-duty; and (3) The store that couldn't find the upgrade should have received their upgrade in December with their "AppleGram". I chose to call the corporate headquarters of the computer store that refused the upgrade because they were the only dealer that actually admitted to possessing the upgrade. I got action the same day--both an appology from the corporate headquarters and from the store's sale's manager. I visited the store and left an original MacTerminal disk with them. I returned the next day for the upgraded disk. Now let me contrast the situation by describing how I got my Microsoft File 1.02 upgrade: I was sent a letter announcing the availability of the upgrade. The letter was accompanied by an order form requesting $10 plus tax. I filled out the form, wrote a check and mailed them together. Two weeks later, United Parcel Service delivered two disks containing the new version. I realize your upgrade is "free". But the disks provided by Microsoft, if blank, are worth at least $5 at retail. The upgrade required no long distance phone calls to their customer service department. It required no long distance phone calls to a distributor's corporated headquarters. Rather than requiring five trips to individual computer stores, it required just one visit to a mail box. Please consider changing your method of distributing software upgrades. And please answer this letter as soon as possible. I would like to know what you feel about the trouble I went through to get my MacTerminal 2.0 upgrade and what you will do to prevent a similar hassle from happening to me and the rest of your customers again. Yours very truly, (name withheld) -- Mike Urban ...!trwrb!trwspp!spp2!urban "You're in a maze of twisty UUCP connections, all alike"
chuq@sun.uucp (Chuq Von Rospach) (02/26/86)
> Now let me contrast the situation by describing how I got my > Microsoft File 1.02 upgrade: I was sent a letter announcing the > availability of the upgrade. The letter was accompanied by an > order form requesting $10 plus tax. I filled out the form, wrote > a check and mailed them together. Two weeks later, United Parcel > Service delivered two disks containing the new version. > > I realize your upgrade is "free". But the disks provided by > Microsoft, if blank, are worth at least $5 at retail. The upgrade > required no long distance phone calls to their customer service > department. It required no long distance phone calls to a > distributor's corporated headquarters. Rather than requiring five > trips to individual computer stores, it required just one visit to > a mail box. > > Please consider changing your method of distributing software > upgrades. And please answer this letter as soon as possible. I > would like to know what you feel about the trouble I went through > to get my MacTerminal 2.0 upgrade and what you will do to prevent > a similar hassle from happening to me and the rest of your > customers again. I have to agree with this. I don't normally patronize an Authorized Apple Dealer unless I'm buying something specifically from Apple (such as the Mac, MacProject, or MacTerminal). I've been snooping about looking for a copy of MacTerminal 2.0, and haven't found a copy at a dealer yet. Apple hasn't bothered to inform me that it is available -- I found that out here on the net, and didn't bother to inform me that it wasn't going to be available in Fall of 1985 as it originally informed me. sigh. I had similar problems with the finder upgrade, way back when. The local Apple Dealer did have those disks, and were more than happy to make copies for me, but only after I (1) showed them my original disks, and (2) bought a box of disks from them that they could then use to make the copies. $50 for a box of disks I didn't really need, for a 'free' upgrade. They even offered me the free upgrade of MacDraw at the time, even though I hadn't bought it. I realize there there are something like 300,000 mac's out there in the real world (so much for the Mac being a flaming failure in the marketplace...) but the current distribution setup for upgrades isn't really working. Apple really ought to take a close look at their customer support organization and rethink their hotline and upgrade policies. I would MUCH rather pay the $5.00 or $10.00 for upgrades knowing I was getting them from the source, and knowing that I was going to be informed when they were available than saving a few bucks and spending lots of my time (to date, I've put in about 10 manhours trying to track down Macterminal 2.0) for a 'free' upgrade. chuq -- :From catacombs of Castle Tarot: Chuq Von Rospach chuq@sun.ARPA FidoNet: 125/84 {decwrl,decvax,hplabs,ihnp4,pyramid,seismo,ucbvax}!sun!chuq Somehow, Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore...