MobileRead Forums - View Single Post

DMB · 11-25-2011, 07:35 AM

I admit to liking Amazon. The customer experience is excellent. So perhaps I'm a bit spoiled. I thought Apple, being a large multinational, would offer something similar.

My daughter and son-in-law recently moved to Australia. He is by way of being an Apple fanboy and I decided some months ago that I would give him an iPad 2 for his birthday next month. I checked that Apple had an Australian website, so I thought I could go there and order it to be sent to him. I went through the whole online ordering process right up to the very end where I had to put in my billing address. I wanted to use a UK card, but the software allowed only US or Australian addresses.

So I fell at the last fence. Never mind, this morning I rang Apple UK to speak to sales support. I assumed they'd arrange it from my end but send the merchandise from their Oz store. No way. Apple Europe is quite separate and has effectively nothing to do with Apple Oz. So there was no way I could get any help from them.

Interestingly, I was thinking about buying myself an iPad some time in the middle of next year. So now they've lost two sales, because I'm sufficiently annoyed to feel I don't want to deal with such an unhelpful company.

I had Mac computers back in the 1980s and early 1990s, but have had nothing Apple since then. I have a certain amount of admiration for aspects of Apple, but not enough to take this kind of nonsense.

11-25-2011, 07:35 AM	#1
DMB Old Git Posts: 958 Karma: 1840790 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Switzerland (mostly) Device: Two kindle PWs wifi, kindle fire, iPad3 wifi	Apple loses a customer I admit to liking Amazon. The customer experience is excellent. So perhaps I'm a bit spoiled. I thought Apple, being a large multinational, would offer something similar. My daughter and son-in-law recently moved to Australia. He is by way of being an Apple fanboy and I decided some months ago that I would give him an iPad 2 for his birthday next month. I checked that Apple had an Australian website, so I thought I could go there and order it to be sent to him. I went through the whole online ordering process right up to the very end where I had to put in my billing address. I wanted to use a UK card, but the software allowed only US or Australian addresses. So I fell at the last fence. Never mind, this morning I rang Apple UK to speak to sales support. I assumed they'd arrange it from my end but send the merchandise from their Oz store. No way. Apple Europe is quite separate and has effectively nothing to do with Apple Oz. So there was no way I could get any help from them. Interestingly, I was thinking about buying myself an iPad some time in the middle of next year. So now they've lost two sales, because I'm sufficiently annoyed to feel I don't want to deal with such an unhelpful company. I had Mac computers back in the 1980s and early 1990s, but have had nothing Apple since then. I have a certain amount of admiration for aspects of Apple, but not enough to take this kind of nonsense.