Apple III: one-click to buy = good; 20 clicks and 2 phone calls to return = bad
But alas, the story is not a completely happy one. For in addition to the iMac, I needed a router. At first bought a Belkin router from the Apple site. (By now, I had changed the one-click preferences to ship to my parents, so I was able to buy the Belkin router with one click.) But then seeing that I could get a Belkin wireless router elsewhere (of course, not on the site selling Airports), I tried to cancel the order from Apple. Yet when I went to return the Belkin router, life was not so simple. There was no link in the confirming email, and it took a good routing around on the Apple site till I found a web form to request the canceling of an order (it was too late to call, I discovered after calling). So literally 20 minutes after I placed the order, on Christmas Day, I sent a request to cancel it. Today, five days later, I received an email informing me that it was too late to cancel the order -- which I had discovered, since my Dad called to say the router had arrived. Twenty minutes on hold later, I received a RMA to return the router -- of course, we pay shipping.
I wonder just what the thinking of the Apple Exec who set up this one-click-to-buy, a million-clicks-to-fail-to-cancel system was: "We'll make it really hard for them to cancel an order, and maybe they'll get so frustrated, they just won't cancel it!" Yes, that is brilliant.
Oh well, here's to the Crazy Ones.
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Comments (17)
The same people behind this must be behind the mail-in rebate system. Easy to buy, a pain to redeem. (Oh, you filled in this one field wrong? Oops, void.)
Obstructionism is a deliberate policy to achieve rationing of service/product/etc.
Ah, this is very amusing, Lessig-san, you are playing with Mac computers. You have made the right decision. Rest assured, all of Hollywood sound efx, video editors, and music studios are Apple developers! Make sure you call me when you have a question. We can even get on iChat vidcam, then I don't have to travel to San Francisco to meet you!
Look, Apple has a real problem with support and help desk. It doesn't exist. In transitioning its loyal users to Mac OSX 10, Apple faced a firestorm of first-generation bugs. The DVD recorder drive was even worse. The third-party developers of video cards, RAID drives and monitors took months to adapt drivers.
Aplle doesn't mention the cowardice they exhibit in rolling over to Hollwyood copyright maximalists (input on DV Cams.)
It's all stable now. Call me.
"We'd rather have your dollar today than your business tomorrow"
FYI, You can also return (non-custom-configured) merchandise purchased at the online Store at your local Apple Retail Store.
Tom, all the Apple employees in Austin would be very interested to learn that they don't exist. Most, if not all, of that facility is help desk, tech support, and dispatch.
Lawrence, my "contact" in Apple CR says that if you "yell loud enough," you could possibly get Apple to cover the return shipping.
Oh, for heaven's sake, stop whining already! What a horrible thing it must be to make an entire career out of such pathetic whimpering.
You're a snotty child of privilege who has apparently never worked a day in his life, certainly not as a lawyer. If it's not a $650 airplane ticket, it's this. If it's not this, it's lame criticisms of men who actually do something with their lives such as Phil Goldman.
Others may feel free to fawn over your nonsense and complaining about how awful the world is. I'll save my admiration for people who actually work for a living and not waste it on stupid academics who merely try to play at life.
Get a clue and get a life!
Buell Boy
Welcome, Buell Boy, and do feel free to complain about my complaining. But permit me to whine a bit about your own whining: I never said anything critical of "men who actually do something with their lives such as Phil Goldman." As my post re Goldman makes clear, I have utmost respect for the man.
My friend built that store, from the ground up (though I am not, nor ever have been, an employee of theirs). I assure you, there is no intent in making it difficult to cancel an order, especially one placed on christmas day, when most of Apple is closed. Putting a big "cancel my order" button on a site is not good business for anyone. Do you also put "change my shipping address," "I want to use another credit card" and "can you gift wrap this?" buttons on the site?
All things considered, within 20 minutes, on christmas day, you were able to cancel the order. And they let you, with, presumably, no other reason offered than "I changed my mind."
The shipping is a drag, but it doesn't strike me as unreasonable you pay for shipping when you just changed your mind.
Also, keep in mind, there are limits to the one-click system. This you probably know, but they license the patent from Amazon (a debatable move, I admit), so there may well be limits to what they can do with it.
And finally, yes, any Apple retail store would have been happy to take back your return, sans shipping costs.
All that being said, they do lack somewhat in customer service sometimes... They may well have not told you about their more-than-reasonable policies (they often forget to mention you can return things at retail locations), and it does seem silly you have to "complain loud enough" to get free shipping.
Anyway, my two cents. I enjoy your blog, and I'm happy to see you experimenting with the Mac. Take Care.
I bought a 17" Powerbook recently. I switched from XP and Linux (I still have to use XP at work, and I still have a linux box, on principle I guess. I don't use it anymore)
The Mac is great. Takes a bit of getting used to the slightly different interface, but after a few short moments all was well and good.
I bought from a retail outlet however, so I could get an alumini discount and to make life easier if I needed to return anything.
Got an iPod too. Now complete with 20GB of music (all from CDs I own)
Anyway, good luck with your Mac mines been great.
I gather the gist of your complaint is that you would have liked to have cancelled the order before it was shipped, saving everyone time and effort and money.
Of course the inventory system they probably use (if it follows the best practices model) automates things so that once you click on buy, inventory starts moving. A system to intercept is costly and difficult (an interept would probably only impose a two hundred dollar cost per intercept).
Of course they could build in a half hour lag or something similar, but the problem is that most customers would not be sympathetic to a built in half hour lag, if they knew about it.
All of that said, by now you know that Apple will take back the sale at any retail store, about as much time and effort as going to a post office to mail it back, without charging you the shipping (so they are going to take, with the write down as already shipped, now "used" merchandise, etc., about a forty dollar loss on your change of mind. From a law and economics viewpoint, I'm curious how much of a better deal you got and that prompted the change -- and whether you would consider either a two hundred dollar cancellation/intercept fee or a forty dollar return fee fair).
Apple has already taken a more than fair amount of loss in order to try to keep you happy.
Hope that adds some perspective.
Though, I tend to think of Apple (and their history of run-time license fees, etc.) as the evil guys, Microsoft as the Borg and two button scroll mice as essential to life.
Steve, Apple has already decided to permit cancellation on any order prior to shipment. If you call (when they're open) they will cancel before shipment. Indeed, as I said, after routing around their site, they even have a web form that allows you to cancel before shipment. So they've built the system to give customers the right to cancel before shipment. What they've not done is make it easy (or efficient) to exercise the right -- e.g., by including a link in the confirming email. I can't believe the marginal cost of an automated link to cancel an order is higher than the cost of accepting a telephone call request to cancel the order. So the decision not to include that is not a function of costs, it is a function of the desire to discriminate between people who REALLY want to cancel what they bought and those who don't. It is just like coupons or mail-in rebates, but I suspect the experience people have when they do that is not as negative.
Should they "wait" before processing an order to allow time to cancel? They already "wait" to decide which items to bundle in one shipment. Again, the difference is not driven by costs.
But look, let's keep this in perspective. I posted three posts about apple -- two were insanely positive. No cause for buellification.
Rick: "Do you also put “change my shipping address,” “I want to use another credit card” and “can you gift wrap this?” buttons on the site?"
I use several sites that have the first two. Some allow a ship-to address different than the bill-to, some (for security reasons) send an EMail to you with a response address to verify the difference. I am sure the third exists on some sites.
Many sites (oddly it seems the smaller the company the more likely) have a "contact" button, some of which open a new page with several EMail addresses to contact.
And a number of companies - not just Etailers, either - have a "thirty-day" return policy which includes cost of return shipping.
To all those who are complaining about Apple's costs 20 minutes after an order placed, is more than a prompt request. If they're unable to cancel the order (really, before any merchandise is touched) their processes need some looking at.
Apple's site states: "If your order status is listed as 'Order Received' or 'Open,' you may change or cancel your order." It sounds like maybe the professor sent an email that had to be touched by a human to be processed. Lets face it five days is too long to get to a customer's email, even around Christmas. An order shouldn't get past the Open, or Order Received stage in less than 20 minutes, period. (Okay, perhaps if you've requested expedited shipping it should) I feel the professor is justified and Apple should cover all of his monetary costs, including his return shipping, since they'll just resell the product, as its unopened.
Brilliant indeed! Makes perfect business sense to me!
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