To tell you Apple customer service is really bad (if you didn’t already know)

[Turquoisetamborine]

Bought year 7 aged son a brand new iPhone three months ago as he would be travelling to and from school by bus.

It has basically stopped working. We were supposed to be away this weekend but had to cancel to get this sorted out. So booked an appointment in the dreaded Apple shop. Not the Saturday I was supposed to have in The Lakes! They examine the phone and eventually admit that, yes, a three month old phone shouldn’t just stop working and it was their error so they will provide a new phone. This took a lot of arguing to get to this point. The phone will not arrive for another week though. How can my son access his bus ticket app in the meantime which I have just bought a months bus ticket on? Oh, we have a policy to not provide loan phones and never provide any compensation even if it is our fault.

What a fantastic company this is. So that’s a very expensive monthly bus ticket chucked down the drain. We have nothing else he can load it onto except his iPad which I don’t want him to take to school.

I’ll never buy another Apple product. I’ve never been spoken to in such a condescending manner in my life.

Just a little warning!!

OP, when you get the new phone, it might be worth getting them to fit a screen protector on it . They can do this in store and make a neat job of it - just had one done on my daughter's new phone to be on the safe side. (She's 18, but once had a phone knocked out of her hand on the street by an older person who just shrugged and walked away ) In your case, you might be able to persuade them to do this for free, as the original phone was faulty?

Sorry to hear that Op, but I’ve had only good experience with Apple. My phone wasn’t working properly, after a visit to the Apple shop & a few phone calls I got to speak to a man by the name of George from Athens. He said he’d call again on Christmas day, everyone said he wouldn’t, but he did! I got a new phone thanks to George.

Apple service is fab- worldwide

Did you book an appointment at an apple store?

I've never found them to be helpful. Software update fucked up my device and I was essentially told 'tough'.

I Have to say I always use the chat support service for Apple and have always found it outstanding - usually negates the need for the shop.

I feel your pain though, that must be really frustrating. Although surely the bus company must be fit to do something

It's not Apples fault that your son doesn't have a bus ticket.

If your sons phone went flat.
If he dropped it and it smashed.
If it got stolen.
Had it confiscated by a teacher.

There's so many situations that don't involve a faulty phone why someone may not have their digital ticket to hand or can't access it. It's shocking if go north east don't offer something else alongside/instead of only a digital.

Apple can be shitty with customer services but in this it's a go north east customer service issue not Apple.

My fil is a driver for Go North East and does a couple of school runs depending on the day, I'll message him and see if he knows of something you can do.

Your husband stopped talking to the bus customer service because she didn't understand the word contingency? Seriously, he couldn't have just rephrased the question?

You cancelled a weekend away to go to get a phone fixed, and antipathetic losing a whole day next weekend because of a 30 mile trip to pick up a phone?

You are either exaggerating or believe that everything in the world should revolve around making your life easier.

Things you could have done:

• bought a reasonably priced phone for your teen so it wouldn't be as much of a big deal
• popped to Tesco or Asda when this one broke and bought a cheap £25 smart phone to tide him over. Download the bus ticket to that.
• gone to the apple shop on a different day when you didn't have plans
• speak reasonably to the staff in the Apple store, so they would want to help you and arrange for the phone to be sent to your home.

Sorry, antipathetic should be anticipate, auto correct fail.

Here's a laugh for you OP. Person at work was getting internet connected. For whatever reason it needed call out from provider. After three visits and no working internet she called them yet again to find out what the problem was. The person she was talking to said there was a technical problem. Having heard that multiple times she pressed further and asked exactly what the problem was. This was the response "it is a problem that was technical" LOL

A loan phone would be no good for my app ticket OP. It’s transferable but only once so I could get it on the loan phone but I wouldn’t be able to transfer it to a new phone for a month.

To stop people ticket sharing presumably.