Is Good Customer Care Really That difficult Apple?

Before I start, I should first declare a conflict of interest in what I am about to write. I am a true, self confessed ?Apple Geek? ... there I have confessed. I have Apple stock (and therefore I have no financial tears) and I am the proud owner of ten (yes, TEN) iPods. I have been collecting them since Generation 1 iPods first arrived.

Last Wednesday, I excitedly ordered my new iPod Touch from the online Apple Store in Korea. I had been considering the purchase for about two weeks as $400 is a lot of money to fork out on yet another iPod. But with the decision made, I sat back, collected the email confirmations from my email (yes, a dot Mac account) and breathlessly searched through all the Korean words to find an anticipated delivery date.

That done I started spring cleaning my iTunes in readiness for the arrival of my iPod Touch 2 weeks later. I am in possession of some insider information. Apple Korea operate a ?under promise - over deliver? policy and so I expected to be in receipt of my iPod Touch by the early part of this week.

Sure enough, Monday night saw the arrival of the ?dispatched? email from Apple informing me my iPod will arrive the following day.

1pm saw the delivery to my office of the iPod. I quickly left the office, rushed home (only 5 minutes away) and carefully unpacked it, connected it to my iMac G5 (20?) and started the process of registering and downloading my music and podcast files.

About 30 minutes later all files were uploaded, the iPod had sufficient charge to operate and I was ready to test that luxurious touch screen.

Disconnected, freshly washed hands (of course I do not want dirty marks on the iPod's beautiful sleek exterior) and an operationally charged iPod, I woke up the iPod by pressing the little button at the top and put my finger excitedly onto the touch screen to unlock the iPod.

As I slowly moved my finger across the screen .... NOTHING happened. I tried again, no, nothing. Then the screen went black. I pressed the top button again, moved my finger across the screen, this time a little harder .... No, nothing.

Hmmm I thought, perhaps I needed to do something first. I then did the next thing any ?Mac Geek? would do, and that is read the instruction manual. After reading the manual, I discovered that so far I had done nothing wrong.

Next, I re-connected the iPod to the iMac and did a software update check. Sure enough, there was a software update downloading. Ahh I thought. That's what I need.

Following the update, I disconnected again, re-washed my hands and prepared myself for a thrilling experience. I nervously, now, slid my finger across the screen. NO! NOTHING! Again, ten seconds later the screen went black.

Next, another ?Mac Geek? move, go to Apple's support site. So, off I went and clicked on iPod Touch ?Discussion Board?. WOW! the number of posts about touch screens not working went into the hundreds. No help, but a disturbingly large number of very unhappy iPod Touch customers with no help or advice on how to get things working.

I then realised that my lovely new iPod touch was dead, it was never going to work, and continuing attempts at life saving surgery were futile.

I then began the devastating task of repacking my iPod touch into its packaging and returning to my office to call the Apple help line number to arrange for the iPod to go back to Apple and presumably to the little iPod heaven in the sky.

After 12 attempts and 45 minutes I finally got through to a human being. This, admittedly, kind and understanding human, told me someone would come to collect the iPod the next day or the day after and would arrange a replacement.

Now for a little break in this story.

What companies seem to consistently misunderstand is the emotions a customer goes through from the moment they decide to order a product, iPod or any other product of such ilk. The first emotion is relief at actually making that decision. Then the excitement and expectation emotions kick in. For me that included the spring clean of my iTunes, but more than that the following expectations occur:

A new toy to play with
That somehow the product will change my life for the better
The pride of being an owner of such a cool product.

Now, consider the emotions I feel now. First there is the disappointment of being so close, yet so far away from experiencing the above emotions. Second there is the reality that this new product is not going to change my life for the better, it is now going to add a great deal of inconvenience to it by having to repack, telephone customer services and send back the , what once was a beautiful item, now rapidly becoming an offending item.

But the biggest customer care failing in this story is the fact that Apple Korea are treating me like I was an idiot. It is perfectly clear to anyone looking at the iPod Touch support pages on the Apple website that there is a problem. So why is it that Apple Korea do not believe me? This is clearly a problem with many iPod Touches, why can they not simply bring a new one and take away the old, now dead, one?

I know there are some unscrupulous people out there who may have negligently damaged their iPod Touch and want a replacement. But these people much be few and far between. And certainly the profits made by Apple on selling these products would easily offset the cost of these incidences.

Clearly, Apple are going to damage their customer care reputation with this iPod Touch, there clearly are many customers out there with iPod Touches not working, but what really amazes me is how come so many companies fail to understand that good customer care is just as important as good marketing. If your customer care lets you down, then it does not matter how many billions of dollars you spend on marketing, because a bad reputation will not go away. Here in Korea, Apple products are regarded as expensive, cool products with a lousy customer care record. As a shareholder in Apple I fear I am beginning to believe them.

More on this story as the situation develops.