How Apple lost the faith of a customer FOREVER

The honeymoon lasted a month and 2 days.

Product Name: MacBook Pro 13”

Date of Purchase: 19th August,2011

Date when adapter got bust: 21st August,2011

Time spent at the Service Center: 3 hours

I woke up after my afternoon siesta and went to the drawing room to check the progress of a file download. I found that the charging lamp was not lit. There was no power cut and I had no clue why my laptop was not charging. I promptly decided to visit the nearest Apple Authorized Service Center.

I reach the service center and tell them of my problem. After a few checks, they said that they have spotted a brown liquid coming out of the adapter.

The procedure of claiming a warranty is as follows:

Step 1: The Service Center guys take a photograph of the problematic material and mail it to some Apple guys located centrally

Step 2: Those Apple “experts” confirm whether the problematic material can be replaced/repaired and mail back the service center guys

Step 3: Service center guys inform customer about the status

What actually happened with me on that day?

The service center guys had taken the pic of the adapter and forwarded it to the Apple central guys.

They replied back saying that this was a case of the customer spilling a liquid “in” the adapter and therefore warranty was not applicable in such cases.

The service center guy was trying to convince me that someone might have accidentally spilt coffee near the adapter while I was not around

My side of the whole thing:

For people who know me, I do not have a gas connection at home, nor a coffee parlor within a 4km vicinity of my place.

There is no brown liquid in the room where I had kept the adapter.

For that matter, there is no brown liquid in my whole house.

Nobody enters my house except for the water canister delivery person who comes once every 10 days and stays at my house for around 3 minutes to help me put the canister on the water dispenser.

In short, there was no possibility of a spillage from my side because: a) There was no brown liquid in the house

b) Nobody else comes to my house

c) The doors and windows were securely closed. (Rules out the possibility of stray animals coming into the house and ruining my adapter)

What could have actually happened?

A power fluctuation in the house might have caused a trip in the adapter circuit causing it to burn or something similar.

What actually pissed me off?

The service center guys did not even have the courtesy to check the faulty adapter in detail other than holding it in their palm and photographing it.

When the matter was escalated, I was told that Apple products are made in a liquid free environment and there was 0% possibility that anything brown could have accidentally slipped into the adapter unit.

On insisting that this might be as a result of a power problem which might have resulted in the burning of the power circuit, they very strongly retorted that this was not possible.

They receive cases where customers have spilt something and this was definitely such a case.

They were not ready to even have the adapter opened up and tested for faulty workmanship.

Conclusion:

1) Apple guys are headstrong bastards

2) There is nothing a customer can do when they are faced with such kind of morons. As such, any warranty can be disregarded as a case of “physical damage”

3) On quizzing the service center guys further, I came to know that if they would have sent the adapter to the central office without “proper investigation”, then those guys would have billed these independent service center guys for the cost of getting the new adapter. Which means that these guys are always under pressure to ward off(scare customers away) for any service requests at their level. I am not sure whether this is a service strategy for Apple in India or is it the same everywhere on this planet

4) There is a reason why Apple has a bigger cash reserve than the US government. After googling it up, I have strong reasons to believe that the Apple warranty does not cover anything substantial and they make customers pay for every small part that has gone wrong. Besides that, you do not have basic features like a projector output port. An alternative projector adapter cost Rs. 1600.

P.S. I came back home and I realized that my Macbook was Made in China. Talk about foolproof manufacturing units.

Every dark cloud has a silver lining INDEED

6:45 am: My watch BREAKS free from my wrist

6:50 am: Forgot to tie my raincoat belt. It entangles itself in the rear tyre of my bike. Sudden jerk and almost had an accident before the belt snaps off. Get off the bike and take out the belt by rotating the rear tyre. Still is stuck in the chains. A few more minutes of effort pays off. My hand is all dirty with grease

7:25 am: Due to some issues with transport, around 15 students(25 % of my class) is unable to come to school. They were supposed to submit an important document back to us

8:00 am: Small misunderstanding with school principal regarding something. Gets resolved but is ruled against our wishes.

10:30 am: Magic show starts in assembly hall. More than 300 Marathi medium school students. Assembly hall is right behind my classroom. With see-through doors between the hall and my class. Whole class gets distracted

2:00 pm: Go to my co-teacher’s place (which is near my school) for a quick nap. Pune has power cuts on Thursdays.

4:30 pm: Community Visit- Finally something which goes off really well

Rekindling hopes about the journey ahead

I was returning home from a Teach For India training session at KCT. The sight of corn on the cob attracted me and there I was standing beside the cart in no time. Roasting the corn in the coal fire was taking some time. I noticed that 2 kids were trying to help the parents keep the coal burning amidst the cold moist windy weather of Pune.

I struck up a conversation with this guy inquiring whether he sends his kids to school. The answer was in the affirmative and before long, we were discussing the benefits of a good education.

The typical story of poor-never-been-educated parent trying to educate his kids with his meager income followed. Then we thought that we would put his kindergarten daughter to test about how much English she knew. We asked the kid her name. A shy answer (after some convincing from both the parents) and then she blurted out ‘Malaika’. Her parents reacted by saying it is ‘Mallika’ but the girl stubbornly stuck with her earlier version of her name. Curious to test further(well well this reminds me of diagnostics that we had administered to our students a couple of weeks earlier), I asked her what else do you know? This time around, she was much more confidant and gave us A-Z in less than 15 seconds. When we asked her about numbers, she did 1-22 in less than 15 seconds again. Mind blowing for a low income background kindergarten student I must admit. Thinking that was the end of it, we reluctantly asked what else does she know.

To our surprise, she gave us complete versions of 2 English poems. This was nothing short of amazing. Our discussion with the father continued. We introduced ourselves as teachers of PMC schools. Meanwhile, his wife had also joined the conversation. I was explaining to them how gifted his daughter is since some of my kids in Standard 2 still can’t write A-Z. Then on further discussion, we came to know that she studies in KasturbaGandhi School in Koregaon Park. One call later with Divya and I was ecstatic to tell the parents that this was a TFI school and 2 years from now, her daughter would be in the tutelage of a TFI teacher. Her father seems to recognize Divya(She teaches in Standard 2 in that school). She was like the “gori” didi who wears salwar kameez to school everyday.

The corn was ready now. I was feeling delighted about the conversation we have had. The kid brother who was all this while busy fanning the fire was free now. His father had told us that he was all of 3 years and he would be attending school from next year. Not to be left behind, the boy started speaking loudly (and more importantly in a clear audible voice) and without even being asked, he finished A to Z in about the same time his 3 year elder sister did. Before I could recover from the sense of wonder in which I had sank in, the kid who is too young to go to school gave me the full version of “Johnny johnny yes papa” poem.

I congratulated their parents on the kids current academic levels and told them that we now see a bright future for their kids. I told them a bit about TFI and told them that if their children can continue learning at this pace, they will surely make it to Vidya Niketan when their time comes.

I just hope that the talent I saw on the roadside today wouldn’t be wasted in the coming years. I HOPE that TFI will continue the partnership with that school in the coming years. I HOPE that the TFI teacher prediction which I had made to the parents of this kid would be fulfilled.

These kids today have re-affirmed my faith about “Sense of Possibility”. Kudos to them and their parents.