We also had months where one could get assigned to spending 3 whole days helping a customer port all of their emails and photos out of a corrupted windows outlook installation over to their new mac for no other reason than they'd asked for help getting it done.

Or where you would be celebrated for spending 5 hours with a 65 year old grandmother buying her first computer carefully going over all her needs and specs and down selling her from what the competitors had convinced her she needed (seriously, no 65 year old grandmother getting her first computer needs the hardware or associated software to cut together professional film in order digitize her collection of VHS home movies) and finish up with a sale of maybe $1300 and directions to competitor down the street because they have better photo printers than the few we carry in stock all on the (IMO correct) theory that a customer who can trust you to exactly what they need and nothing more and send them to a competitor for a better product is one who will come back again and again on the basis of that trust.

I don't know how expensive those two interactions were in the short term, but I do at least know that 65 year old grandmother became a regular customer and could not stop telling all the other customers how much she loved us. For as many problems as I did have with how Apple hamstrung their people, I do wish more companies were even half as good as that.

I don't like Apple too much and try to avoid their products, but can't lie never had such a good customer experience.

The last time I had to talk to a human (and it was two years ago) was because I accidentally left a fire stick behind in Puerto Rico two years prior and someone bought a few seasons of True Blood with my Amazon credentials. They still refunded me, even though it took me two years to notice the charge.

I can't find the article now, but I read a piece about the volume of returns and what happens to them ("reverse logistics"). Basically, companies find it's more profitable to always allow returns and keep the customers happy -- and often, they'll let the customer keep the "returned" product because even if the product works 100%, the cost to ship and verify is below what they'll make reselling it.

I thought this was an interesting contrast to LL Bean, who a few years back decided to end their lifetime guarantee, and naturally upset some lifetime customers.

I am convinced a robot just snags "one of each" from a bin, and if some packs are broken apart and separate... then they meet that logic.

No? I've had issues with an external monitor and had an applecare specialist debug a bunch of settings and then schedule a call with me for the next day after they heard back from the escalation team. Thankfully I bought a different cable which fixed my issue, but they are very nice for support from my experience.

Try reaching out to their Facebook or Twitter/X profiles.

But it might be some version of Michael Seibels's classic "Who is your customer?" (https://youtu.be/C27RVio2rOs?t=10m11s)