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This week I had the opportunity to interact with Apple customer service twice and it turned out to be an interesting experience. A few weeks ago I decided to get a new iPod nano for my wife for Mother’s day. Her iPod had been caught out in the rain one day while riding her bike and wouldn’t charge expect with her computer. So I bought a her a new iPod Nano (4th generation) and had it engraved to mark the occasion of her first mother’s day.

A few days later she began trying to use it with her accessories like her car adapter, speaker system, etc. It wouldn’t charge! Obviously a little frustrating since that is the primary reason I got her a new one. It was equally as frustrating for her, so I told her I wouldn’t be offended if she wanted me to try and return it. We didn’t want to replace a couple hundred dollars worth of accessories, so we decided to try an return it even though I knew Apple typically wouldn’t take back an engraved iPod.

I called Apple and got a very helpful woman on the phone to whome explained the situation. She told me she would refund my shipping but that they usually won’t take back an engraved iPod, but she would ask her supervisor for an exception. After a few minutes she came back on the line and told me her supervisor had approved the return and would refund me the full amount, I wouldn’t even have to pay the typical restocking fee. I would just have a pay to ship it back. No problem from my perspective.

The weekend rolled around and I figured we would just go to the Apple store and see if there was anything they could do for the old iPod. I took it in and spoke to one of the Geniuses. He said it wasn’t under warranty, and that they don’t even really repair iPods, they usually just replace them, but he didn’t think it would be cost effective for me. I explained the whole story again to him, about the charging problem, the new iPod, etc. He then told me he thought they had an adapter in the back that would make the new iPod work with my old accessories. He disappeared for a few minutes and returned with an adapter. It was $25 and he suggested I give it a try and if it didn’t work I could return it within 14 days. So we gave it a try and it worked.

In both interactions these last few days I felt like I had people involved that really wanted to understand my problem and give me a solution that worked. Good job Apple.

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