subject: A Lesson in Customer Service from Apple [print this page] A Lesson in Customer Service from Apple A Lesson in Customer Service from Apple
Now given that Monday was a bank holiday and I was working away all the following week, this meant that I would not actually get my iPad until the following weekend! I re-read the delivery card in disbelief, searching for some kind of reprise, something that would mean that I didn't have to wait a whole additional week, knowing that my iPad was at some warehouse waiting for me and I simply couldn't get to it! And then I saw it.....the opening times.... were Monday to Friday, 8am till 10pm - I had 20 minutes!
Then I looked at the address of the delivery warehouse and realised that it was a good 20 minute drive away and I needed to call them first to arrange collection. So I dialed and I waited and I waited some more until eventually no one answered! It was 9.43 and the only thing I could do was to jump in the car and head off down to the depot and hope that I made it in time and hope that calling first didn't really matter. So off I went, without, as I realised about five minutes after leaving home, my sat nav.
Now, I roughly knew where the delivery depot was located, it was one of these industrial estates with big warehouse type buildings, and lots of interwinding roads between them. So with one eye on the clock and one eye on the speedo I lowered the distance between myself and the depot. I turned off the main road, headed down towards where the depot was and to my horror all I found was a supermarket!
I finally arrived at the depot at 2 minuntes to 10 and there was no one around except for the security guard, so I drove up to the gatehouse, fearing the worst and tentatively said "is there any chance of collecting a package" and what do you think the jobs worth security guard said, given that the time had just ticked passed 10 pm? He said " sure no problem!" and asked me to wait a couple of minutes. Frankly I couldn't believe it, if someone had told me that I could turn up at a delivery depot, after they had officially closed for the day and still collect a package, from the security guard, I would have thought they were playing an unkind joke! But all credit to Apple, the delivery service they use, TNT, is extremely accommodating and understanding of the importance of deliveries to individuals. Top marks to Apple and TNT,
There was one slight problem, the guard returned and only had a part of the package. It was supposed to be in two parts, the iPad itself and a separate package containing the case and the SIM card. Luckily it was the case and SIM that were missing so I finally had my iPad and headed off home a happy chappy.
When I arrived home, I was surprised to find an email from Apple, apologizing for the SIM and case not being delivered and over the weekend they even telephoned me to let me know that the items would be delivered the very next working day.
The iPad just works, as a product, but we will get onto that later, what this is about is that the "just works" philosophy applies to Apple customer service too, even before taking my iPad out of the box I was rewarded with an unprecedented level of customer service from Apple, which even extended to their chosen delivery company.
I would be delighted to hear your stories of how you acquired your iPad so please email me at Paul@iPad-User-Group.com
