USELESS ONLINE HELP FACILITIES For all the amazing productivity aids that APPLE offers the world I have to report that their online support service is worse than useless and has recently been the source of immense time wasting and irritation.

USELESS ONLINE HELP FACILITIES

For all the amazing productivity aids that APPLE offers the world I have to report that their online support service is worse than useless and has recently been the source of immense time wasting and irritation.

Incident 1. Since many months attempts to download new and updated APPs produced a response – Apple ID Disabled. I had no time to consult an APPLE Store due to work in distant lands. When I finally visited yesterday I was told that as my IPAD has been reported as stolen, and APPLE in its wisdom had blocked its usage! I am not sure how they became so misinformed and nobody every advised me while with a few swift moves APPLE could have located me by email address or SKYPE.

Incident 2. Once the above anomaly had been fixed I tried to down load a newspaper and diligently input my address, credit card number and personal data. Repeatedly I was advised that my Credit Card was invalid and my postal code was incorrect! Really!

I was left to guess that having moved from UK to the US I should have advised APPLE! Not being told of this requirement brought about a second visit to APPLE Store in the same day to waste both mine and their time with a routine anomaly. How parochial in the context of a globalized world!

In each case I tried to resolve the issues using online access to a help line and by calling by phone at the numbers on the APPLE Website. In each of four separate occasions I diligently went through the routine and
ended up with a message that thanked me for contacting Apple followed by a polite ‘Good Bye’!

In desperation I went to an Apple Store for the second time in a day as it is close to where I live when I am not working. On both occasions I was courteously attended to by Apple Staff.

However, my work is usually far away from the US and it is generally many thousands of miles to the nearest Apple Store therefore online help is viewed as imperative if one is to resolve issues away from home.

Why can Apple not provide a clearly marked EMAIL address and Telephone number at a Help Desk with real people to respond to requests for help? It would cost nothing in relative terms and might restore my high level of anti-APPLE sentiment that these two recent events have provoked.

Peter Hanney

Miami, Fl.