The Saga of the iPad

After contributing to iPads as gifts for my in-laws this year, they returned the favor by chipping in to buy one for me. Call, order, ship, receive, right? My experience was not so simple. I called, ordered in plenty of time to have it for my Christmas Eve birthday, and the box was shipped. Sadly, when it arrived, it was empty. Sliced open with a box cutter, iPad stolen, and taped back up. Someone between the shipping point in China and my delivery address now has a new iPad that says Florida Keys Girl.com.

So I emailed my salesperson at Apple, who is very nice and was quite helpful. She transferred me to someone who said “OK, we’ll send you out another one, but we  will call you first to find out what happened.” Um, what happened was the iPad was stolen before it reached me. What is unclear about that? I asked if they would like the empty box. They said yes, so I still have the empty box and have received no instruction as to what I am supposed to do with it.

I never received a return phone call (the one that was promised within 24 hours), so I once again reached out to my sales rep. She got a “customer service person” on the phone, who then transferred me to her supervisor who said “Oh, they sent you another one. It will be there by December 27.” A. Would it have been so hard for anyone to let me know this? B. I would not be available at that address for two weeks (which everyone I spoke to already knew, and we discussed shipping to an alternate location) and C. December 27 is after my birthday.  Is that a huge deal? No, but why do I need to wait longer? I could have received one overnight had I not wanted it engraved, but then someone out there would have my Florida Keys Girl iPad and I would have a totally generic one. Unacceptable.

So, they sent out a third iPad to the correct address. After several calls and about six hours on the phone I was told that they would authorize Saturday delivery, but I would need to sit home and wait for it. All day. It did arrive, and it was on my birthday, which made me very happy.

On the other hand, after many hours on the phone, I was told I would get a return shipping label for the iPad sent to the wrong address that I now need to send back. I never got it. It is in a box cluttering my life. I would think they would want it back, no?

Overall, I am thrilled to have my iPad. I have already managed to get a lot of work done on that little thing. As for Apple customer service? It seems like it should be good – they say all the right things, but in my case, saying the right things is not enough. They needed to be a bit more proactive.