.
Rudeness and arrogance are two words oft associated with Apple, and Steve Jobs himself, but a recent email exchange with a customer has taken customer service and care to a whole new low.
With even hardcore Apple fanboys/girls forced to admit the new iPhone 4 has some rather serious reception issues owing to a dodgy antenna, it’s no wonder many are airing their frustrations online, via YouTube and other sites.
Control freak Apple, however, is having none of it, contacting users who have posted their angry rants and video clips asking them to remove them. Because freedom of speech and expression is just not something Apple can tolerate apparently.
One poor shmo by the name of Tom got the Apple bully-boy treatment after posting his YouTube video showing the signal degradation his iPhone 4 suffered when he covered the bottom left hand side with his hand, with the firm asking him to refrain from posting any more videos on the matter and adding to the “rumor hysteria.”
Tech rumor mill Boy Genius Report claims to have the entire correspondence between Tom and Apple, with Tom even purportedly getting the ‘privilege’ of a stroppy email from el-Stevo himself. And a rather rude one at that.
The first email published on BGR from Tom to an unnamed Apple engineer reads:
“[Apple engineer name redacted],
When we spoke, you would not tell me that there is a fix for this phone?
A friend just sent me this: http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/06/29/leaked-apples-internal-iphone-4-antenna-troubleshooting-procedures/
I assume there is no fix then. If this is legit, I have lost all respect for apple and just want to go back to Verizon and get a nice Android phone. And don’t tell me they have the same issues, all our co-workers with Androids are just mocking us right now…. “Hey, I am going to go in the basement and continue my call. You can use my office on the 2nd floor so you can get a signal”. You are going to kill your brand over one product. Apple is coming off arrogant and rude. If there is no fix just tell people so they can return their phones. We have work to do. I have bought just about every apple product made in the last 20 years and this is the 1st time I am ashamed to be a MAC fan.
This is just sickening,
[Tom]” [SIC]
Tom then gets an email back from Apple under Steve Jobs’ name. It patronizingly reads:
“No, you are getting all worked up over a few days of rumors. Calm down.”
Tom, obviously a long way from calm, and for good reason, replies:
“I am really insulted… “Calm down”…. “rumors”… What arrogance. This is will be marked as the begging of the end of Apple. Seriously, DO THE RIGHT THING. I just had dinner with 3 people who had iPhone 4s we all cant make calls without dropping. There is no rumors it is reality.” [SIC]
To this, Jobs counters with the almost laugh out loud:
“You are most likely in an area with very low signal strength.”
Tom, justifiably insulted replies:
“Stop with jackass comments. I have has every iphone made. They all had a bad signal but this is the so much worse X3. The whole country is is in a “low signal strength” in reality… all but apple campus and your house it seems? AT&T maps are a joke. I am in “excellent” to “good” coverage and on my iPhone 1, Iphone 3G, and my iPhone 3Gs, I could at least make a telephone call. After all, it is a phone. Iphone 4…. 5 bars….. touch the phone… ZERO bars call drops.
Steve. IT DOES NOT WORK! Geezzz I hope this this is not really you. Are we on a different MHz? I have yet to see an iPhone [4] work in Richmond when you hold it in your hand. It is not “isolated”. I was a big fan. But I am done.” [SIC]
Finally, so-called Steve Jobs offers a mildly acceptable response:
“You may be working from bad data. Not your fault. Stay tuned. We are working on it.
Sent from my iPhone.”
Only to wreck that response and undo any good he may have caused by following up a short time later with:
“Retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is just a phone. Not worth it.”
Not worth it, eh? Well, in our opinion you may just be right on that one, Stev-o, because RCR never really felt the iPhone was worth it anyway. And with arrogant, patronizing customer “service” and treatment like the above, don’t expect your loyal fans to think so for much longer either.
