Is It Uncool to Criticize Apple?
Just as I finished writing an article for the current issue of Fortune about Apple's complexity I received a phone call from a guy I know complaining about Apple's complexity. The call was from a senior-level executive with serious chops in the technology industry, and his gripe was about something incredibly mundane: He couldn't get his detailed purchase history from iTunes.
Suddenly, I was on the receiving end of a tirade, the kind delivered by someone who has had an incredibly frustrating customer experience who just needs to tell SOMEONE. What made matters worse is that Apple's customer-service help line was fantastic. The Apple representative knew exactly what the problem was – but couldn't fix it. Instead, the understanding worker said he'd talk to his supervisor about getting my caller a refund. As for fixing the purchase-history problem, well, that just wasn't going to happen.
My irate caller and I discussed the insider nuances of the anecdote. It isn't surprising that Apple customer service was helpful. Apple CEO Tim Cook once ran customer service, among many other operational functions at Apple. He prides himself on outstanding responsiveness to customers. Yet it also isn't surprising that something like purchase history is broken and isn't getting fixed. At a company that can machine aluminum to military-quality levels, no one is getting rewarded for fixing the dysfunction in the bowels of its online services.
Help is near, I told my caller. I'm just publishing an article with anecdotes like this one. That only set my caller off more. He noted that for years people – especially Apple fanboys – have been unwilling to criticize flaws in its products. It would run the risk of exposing the complainer as uncool. It's hip to laugh at Microsoft or Yahoo. But not Apple.
And so with this post, I'd like to inaugurate a challenge. Comment here with your complexity gripes – or other anecdotes of aspects of Apple's products that just aren't as simple as they should be, and I'll post a collection of comments at Fortune.com.
Photo: pio3/Shutterstock
CEO at Trucking Planet
10 年After reading the story about the suicide nets installed around an apple manufacturing facility in China, I lost any enthusiasm I had for them. Now, they are the richest and most profitable company in the world and nothing has changed. How big does your yacht have to be while people who work for you are nearly starving?
Strategic Marketing | GTM Planning | Multi-channel campaigns
10 年I have nearly every Apple device they make and have made in the last 15 years. While I love my "stuff," I am also keenly aware that I choose them over others because I'm in love with their marketing genious. Their stuff is more about design than any real difference in substance-- the sexiness of the packaging, the way the sleek "look" makes me feel, and alas, the sensation of belonging to a "community." It's not really about what is or isn't "under the hood" at all. At the core, they've managed to humanize a completely in-human aspect of our lives: plastic, metal, and crystals. They win because we humans want to win... appealing to our pride, envy, lust, sloth, greed, gluttony, and even anger. A little scary, isn't it?
In November, my wife's iPhone died a spectacular death- completely inoperable. Not having dealt with the Apple retail experience previously, I walked into the local Apple store without a genius bar appointment hoping to ask them about what to do about the phone. I literally waded through a sea of Apple store employees who were idle- not working with any customers, chatting among themselves- only to be told that I could not speak to anyone unless I had an appointment. I asked if they could set up an appointment for me on the spot given that they clearly had people available and was told "no". Even more interesting (and frustrating) was that they told me they *could* sell me a new phone but that I would need a Genius Bar appointment for that also. Who gets away with a retail experience like this? Only Apple...
CHRO | COO | Talent | Culture | Transformation
10 年Adetya Chopra... you're not giving up on BlackBerry, are you?
Building HOAG
10 年on the other hand, lets all gang up on BlackBerry! Even without having tried their new products! Apple is a cult more than anything. Cults don't last, products do!