Apple Service In Thailand

[nikster]

Got a tip and a story. The tip first, the story is optional.

To get good customer service in Thailand, make sure to

1 - Try http://expresslane.apple.com to create a support ticket

2 - Call the Apple customer service hotline here 001-800-65-6957 (that number is on the Apple Online Store Thailand)

=== Story ===

I went to MacZone today with a broken power adapter cable - the cable is just frayed, plastic off, bare metal visible; the thing still works but it's only a matter of time.

First reaction: "Please call Apple and send them a picture, not sure this is covered under warranty." What a joke, but unfortunately to be expected at this shop. I said no way, of course this is covered, in fact I've had the exact same issue in the past and the adapter was replaced under warranty (on a previous laptop). Then he suggested (1) I wait for the manager and (2) I couldn't keep the adapter it would have to be sent to Singapore for repairs. Yeah right.

So I basically gave up on MacZone - I went through all this last time, there was a lot of negotiations involved, they made me call Customer support, I had to get explicit permission to keep my machine, and the whole thing took over an hour. Crazy considering it was a confirmed and covered under warranty issue.

Called support which suggested MacZone, then got talk to the supervisor who eventually presented me with this solution: Apple will send me a new power adapter, and what's my address please. Wow! Ok. Can't really complain about that. He even said something about me keeping the old one but not sure I understood this correctly. Normally I'd expect they want the broken one back for analysis/refurbishment/or just to prevent people getting multiple adapters this way.

[XINLOI]

Which and what city did you go to?. I saved your info on the tip. I'm a Mac user too an will use this at a future date.....

[nikster]

This was in Chiang Mai; but as I said the support from the actual shop was bad / non-existent as usual.... the good service is to be had over the phone.

[SoloFlyer]

Nic, does that warrantee cover iPhone/iPad adapters too? If so, for how long?

[wilgoster]

Thanks for the post. As an apple user, I have my eye open for relevant information. I took a second look at MS Office Mac 2011 and discovered that unlike Office 2008, MS Office For Mac 2011 doesn't support Thai Language, except in Outlook and PPT. The biggies, Word and Excel, do not. Anymore, speechless...

[nikster]

Nic, does that warrantee cover iPhone/iPad adapters too? If so, for how long?

Should be 1 year on iPhone and iPad adapters. I'd call the above number before going to the local authorized service provider as the latter are less than helpful in Thailand...

[negreanu]

As soon as you start to get messed around or unsatisfactory result.

Just email Tim Cooks office.

Within 2 days you will get a call from the Senior Level 3 customer support in Singapore. Who WILL sort it out.

2 examples:

1. Years ago imac developed dark splodges moisture within the lcd. Applecare thailand sorry not covered its your aircon causing it. - Email to Jobs back then. Replaced the imac screen in 3 days.

2. Macbook Pro Retina purchased. 4 week later Apple slashes the price. Email to Cook. 48 hours the difference is refunded to my credit card.

[SoloFlyer]

Nic, does that warrantee cover iPhone/iPad adapters too? If so, for how long?

Should be 1 year on iPhone and iPad adapters. I'd call the above number before going to the local authorized service provider as the latter are less than helpful in Thailand...

I avoid like the plague. Im on my 3rd mac in two years after 2 replacements. Wont let them touch this one.

[SoloFlyer]

As soon as you start to get messed around or unsatisfactory result.

Just email Tim Cooks office.

Within 2 days you will get a call from the Senior Level 3 customer support in Singapore. Who WILL sort it out.

2 examples:

1. Years ago imac developed dark splodges moisture within the lcd. Applecare thailand sorry not covered its your aircon causing it. - Email to Jobs back then. Replaced the imac screen in 3 days.

2. Macbook Pro Retina purchased. 4 week later Apple slashes the price. Email to Cook. 48 hours the difference is refunded to my credit card.

I was about to do this ... I had a list of Jobs' emails and that Mr Ivory guy ... alas I lost the list with one of the problems the mac had. What email do you use?

[GooEng]

Does anyone know if Apple have any plans to open an official outlet in LOS? Has anything been rumoured, mentioned, or otherwise speculated?

Sent using the iPad App.

[nikster]

Does anyone know if Apple have any plans to open an official outlet in LOS? Has anything been rumoured, mentioned, or otherwise speculated?

Sent using the iPad App.

Yes, it's rumored and has been mentioned that they'll open a store in Thailand. The only thing I am wondering is what takes them so long. Undoubtedly they're aware of the rather abysmal service situation in Thailand. And then, they'll take a lot of business away from the resellers. I've seen this play out the exact same way back when Apple started their own stores. There was a lot of whining from the existing Apple resellers (Apple wasn't the big hit then that it is now - it was a niche product).

However, those resellers had only themselves to blame as they were just horrible. Arrogant and unhelpful. That was right around Apple's HQ in silicon valley...

PS: I've been informed my power adapter has been sent off and should be here in 1-2 days.

PPS: Like negreanu I've also had good results emailing steve jobs when service here in Thailand was crap. Like that one time when MacZone Chiang Mai screwed up my mainboard; they would not take responsibility for it even though it was proven that the mainboard worked fine before they got it - they did the Apple hardware diagnosis test on it, after all - and broken when they returned it. They wouldn't fix it, or give me a new main board. Email to sjobs, was contacted by the customer service manager for Asia/Pacific who got a new mainboard shipped to Chiang Mai for them to install. Free of charge of course even though the machine was out of warranty.

[GooEng]

Seems like there's a market here for the services and products a proper apple shop would offer - the after sales service alone...

Sent using the iPad App.

[nikster]

Update: New power adapter arrived today. 2 business days.

[DMC1]

^ Right I'm going to email them too after being fobbed off by MCC in October saying my battery in my MB pro was perfectly OK. It's now down to 50% health after only 50 cycles. I recalibrate it nearly every time since then but now lucky if I get 3 hours use. Still got 12 months warranty.

[nikster]

^ Right I'm going to email them too after being fobbed off by MCC in October saying my battery in my MB pro was perfectly OK. It's now down to 50% health after only 50 cycles. I recalibrate it nearly every time since then but now lucky if I get 3 hours use. Still got 12 months warranty.

open a suport ticket, then call

you may have to go in to a service provider so they can run the automatic diagnostic test, that usually detects the bad battery and also sends the info straight to Apple so no doubts on your battery situation.

[DMC1]

Just out of interest has anyone tried icare in Chonburi?

This is supposed to be a repair centre but when you google it the map pointer is near 'The Avenue,' Pattaya!! When I called the guy said 'that's wrong we are in Central Plaza, Chonburi'

[DMC1]

^ Right I'm going to email them too after being fobbed off by MCC in October saying my battery in my MB pro was perfectly OK. It's now down to 50% health after only 50 cycles. I recalibrate it nearly every time since then but now lucky if I get 3 hours use. Still got 12 months warranty.

open a suport ticket, then call

you may have to go in to a service provider so they can run the automatic diagnostic test, that usually detects the bad battery and also sends the info straight to Apple so no doubts on your battery situation.

Got my case number from Singapore and they have told me to take it to my nearest repair centre which is the one I mentioned in 'Central Plaza, Chonburi.'

They said this battery should be replaced and that MCC (Siam Discovery) were wrong to tell me that this was normal last time.

I will send update as this 'iCare' place is far closer than trekking into BKK.

[DMC1]

^ ok went to icare (iStudio) in Central Plaza, Chonburi. Tech ran the diagnostic checks. No drama. 7-10 days will replace battery and repair card reader under warranty. Really quiet shop - no tourists.

[triffid]

As soon as you start to get messed around or unsatisfactory result.

Just email Tim Cooks office.

Within 2 days you will get a call from the Senior Level 3 customer support in Singapore. Who WILL sort it out.

2 examples:

1. Years ago imac developed dark splodges moisture within the lcd. Applecare thailand sorry not covered its your aircon causing it. - Email to Jobs back then. Replaced the imac screen in 3 days.

2. Macbook Pro Retina purchased. 4 week later Apple slashes the price. Email to Cook. 48 hours the difference is refunded to my credit card.

Would be grateful to have that email address - Tim Cook's office?

I have a black and white case of the appalling state of after sales service in Chiangmai. Bought an iPhone 4 from their Kad Suan Kaew iBeat shop, from the start every call needed earphones to be audible, phone overheating all the time - on the 8th day of purchase i.e. last Monday it died, totally off and non-responsive. Took it to Apple/Maczone shop/office on that road off Huay Keaw, they took it back but to date haven't replaced it, the chap supposedly responsible won't answer my calls, others in office say he needs authority from DTAC! I know from experience (I bought Macbook Pro last year from them) that their after sales is very bad, but the current situation is disgraceful and surely sullies the Apple reputation. I'd really like to write to the right person/office.

[nikster]

As soon as you start to get messed around or unsatisfactory result.

Just email Tim Cooks office.

Within 2 days you will get a call from the Senior Level 3 customer support in Singapore. Who WILL sort it out.

2 examples:

1. Years ago imac developed dark splodges moisture within the lcd. Applecare thailand sorry not covered its your aircon causing it. - Email to Jobs back then. Replaced the imac screen in 3 days.

2. Macbook Pro Retina purchased. 4 week later Apple slashes the price. Email to Cook. 48 hours the difference is refunded to my credit card.

Would be grateful to have that email address - Tim Cook's office?

I have a black and white case of the appalling state of after sales service in Chiangmai. Bought an iPhone 4 from their Kad Suan Kaew iBeat shop, from the start every call needed earphones to be audible, phone overheating all the time - on the 8th day of purchase i.e. last Monday it died, totally off and non-responsive. Took it to Apple/Maczone shop/office on that road off Huay Keaw, they took it back but to date haven't replaced it, the chap supposedly responsible won't answer my calls, others in office say he needs authority from DTAC! I know from experience (I bought Macbook Pro last year from them) that their after sales is very bad, but the current situation is disgraceful and surely sullies the Apple reputation. I'd really like to write to the right person/office.

PM sent.

[triffid]

Tried the number in the OP and on the Apple Thailand website. The guy at Singapore repeated the amazing (to me) statement of the Maczone people, viz that Singapore can help only if the product was bought online from Apple Thailand and that otherwise it's the service provider who has responsibility - even though I'd bought from the Apple shop, who said nothing about their own non-responsibility.

Lesson surely is to buy all Apple products online, never from the Maczone reseller here. But for now, since Singapore has proved a dead end for me, can someone please suggest another complaint point at Apple which will have some influence on Maczone?

[triffid]

Just to report the outcome - which became even worse before getting acceptable. I went again to their office/shop, the man gave me back the phone/box and said the their iBeat shop at KSK would now exchange the phone. When I arrived at the shop the 'manager and his cronies went into a huddle to minutely examine the edges etc for a good 15 minutes and when I lost patience announced that they would not replace it because there were traces of water somewhere. This really was adding insult to injury. I then rang the office and asked them to put in writing that their refusal to replace; and was then directed to the senior chap at the Applecare shop on the higher floor. He then opened the phone, tested every conceivable place, could find no trace of water and summoned the two men downstairs to explain why they had taken their position. After another 15 minutes of discussion (in thai, which I didn't understand) he said they would replace it. When I returned to the shop half an hour later I was handed the new phone and the faces their were sullen and trying to skulk behind their counter - an unpleasant experience.

In twenty years of buying apple products and encountering Apple-related employees all over the world these Chiangmai people are the polar opposite of what I have experienced before. Even were they dealing with a cheap local product sold a week before breaking down I would still call their behaviour disgraceful. The lessons I take away are

1) If I buy an Apple product in Thailand buy it online - and if elsewhere in the country, never from Maczone Chiangmai

2) As I had learned from an earlier bad experience when I bought my MacBook Pro here (MacZone, Airport Plaza) never let them register it etc - even touch it. Just take the box and do the initializing, data transferring etc, steps yourself at home.

3) If you have to go to them for support etc - which I may, having another 2 years of Applecare on my MacBook - cross your fingers or pray.

These two shops are a disgrace to Apple.

[nikster]

You've got to wonder about them, really. I just don't understand why they are trying so hard to blame their customers for every problem - Apple is replacing the devices anyway, it's not out of their own pocket? Anyway, these guys do remind me of the Apple Authorized resellers in the US _before_ the Apple Stores. Terrible service. They're the reason there are official Apple stores.

[SoloFlyer]

^ Isn't it farang owned?

[DMC1]

^ ok went to icare (iStudio) in Central Plaza, Chonburi. Tech ran the diagnostic checks. No drama. 7-10 days will replace battery and repair card reader under warranty. Really quiet shop - no tourists.

Drove in to Chonburi this morning to collect my MB pro. New battery & logic board replaced under warranty. It took them 12 days.

[triffid]

^ Isn't it farang owned?

I believe, not - but I may be wrong.

[SoloFlyer]

Theres quite often the same western guy sitting around out the back.

[SoloFlyer]

1 - Try http://expresslane.apple.com to create a support ticket

Seems they have dropped Thailand off support almost entirely. Thailand is no longer on their list ... The care girl I got on phone cant call me back or even email me the support ticket.

[triffid]

Theres quite often the same western guy sitting around out the back.

Really? Never spotted such a person. Which shop did you see him at?

[SoloFlyer]

KSG, several times.