[Ti] Apple customer service

[Michael Levin]

When you charge premium prices for your product, then you need to provide
premium customer service. Other wise, why purchase your product?

This discussion resembles the value proposition issue that every firm faces,
and some people on this list and others have questioned Apple¹s value
proposition.

Rather than drag this dead horse across the finish line so that we can shoot
it, let¹s look at Apple¹s sloppy customer service from a different
perspective.

Steve Jobs defends the decision not to license OS X (i.e., no clones for
you) because the OS X¹s stability is due in large part by its tight
relationship with the hard ware. In other words, OS X would be less stable
or somehow less effective if Dell, Hewlett Packard, and e-machine built and
sold Intel-based machines with OS X installed.

Dell¹s customer service is lousy, but Dell competes on efficiency and not
effectiveness. Hewlett Packard¹s customer service is consistently
outstanding. IBM built a lap top that could withstand being lugged around by
its owner. Those companies competed on effectiveness (side note: I have no
experience with the Think Pad since Lavono bought it). H-P and the Think Pad
are more expensive than Dell, but those companies delivered on the value
proposition. Apple does not because Apple controls both the operating
software and the hardware, and that control has made Apple sloppy and
arrogant, which is always a winning combination.

Hopefully, H-P or a third party will create software that allows a user to
run OS X on their system. A reverse situation that exists now for the Apple
base. I love OS X but I hate Apple hardware.

Michael

On 6/10/06 10:59 PM, "Gene Steinberg" <gene at macnightowl.com> wrote:

> Apple's customer service rates, by far, the best in the industry. As
> bad as they might be, Dell and the rest are regarded as worse. So
> what incentive is there for Apple to improve?


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