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So, I like Apple. I think it’s pretty clear. I like what they make and I believe that I’m objective enough in my evaluation of products to say that for my needs Apple currently makes the best compromises. So anyway, whatever. But another thing that I quite appreciate about Apple is the customer service I’ve received. I know others have had a different story, but my experience has been long term and consistent – a recent example being the most above and beyond I’ve yet seen.

I am fortunate to live within easy distance of 3 major Apple stores, so maybe that helps. First up, the buying experience at such a store is amazing – better than almost anywhere else – certainly for computer gear. Second of all, being able to bring in my puter to the genius bar is much better than having to mail it elsewhere (yes, I know this is not an option for everyone, but still, for the many folks who are close to a store, it’s awesome) and I have found most of the “geniuses” there are actually quite knowledgeable with a few exceptions.

But here’s the latest. I recently discovered that everytime I sync’d my iPhone to my computer, the computer would crash. Everything would be humming along and then boom, some pretty colored stripes would roll up my computer and that would be it, I’d have to hit the button. That was ensaddening. I tried a couple thing, deleting the apps it seemed to be crashing on, but it would just crash at another app or even at music sync.

Finally, I tried posting on thursday or friday my woes to the apple support forums. I waited, another guy posted he was having a similar problem. I wasn’t sure what would come of it. Then on saturday, that’s right, Saturday, I get a call and the caller id says it’s from Apple. Whaa? After some confusion I figure I have something who’s warranty is about to expire and they want to see if I’d like to get my AppleCare on. So I answer.

Nope, not Apple Care, turns out it’s Charles from customer service who read my report on the forums and wanted to help me help them fix the issue. He asked if I could gather some data from the system (via an app he emailed me) and after some time spent gathering data he asked me to do a couple things that might help. I deauthorized then reauthorized my computer, then I downloaded the free iTunes single and a free app. Played the single in iTunes and then made sure that next time I synced my iPhone both of them would go over. Pow. That fixed it. Totally awesome.

I mean, here’s the thing, things go wrong when you have high tech gear, that’s just life. They’ll break, crash, what not. Hopefully it happens infrequently enough to be a nuisance instead of a way of life, which is where I’ve been lucky enough to be. It’s how companies help you out that really makes a difference – a nuisance handled poorly can become a real deal-breaking customership ending problem and a major problem handled well can leave the company looking great. Compare and contrast to my Time Warner or Delta customer service experiences. I just wanted to put this out there, some positive mojo on this here blog. What’s your experience been with Apple customer service?