Apple Computers are claimed to be world's best not only in hardware performance but also in after-sales-service. And all of this neither comes for free or cheap. Apart from paying the material cost the buyer has to pay a high brand premium that is in-built to the cost. However, it is worth paying the premium for the hardware as it is no doubt the best that money can buy. BUT, this is certainly not true for the after-sales-service, at least whatever is available in Varanasi.
The Varanasi Apple Service Centre is run by Reliance. Now, it is not clear what Reliance is this? Whether it belongs to the Ambani group or some other company having taken the service franchise of Apple. Whatever it is, the state of affair at the Apple Service centre managed and run by Reliance is absolutely pathetic, to say the least. I paid Rs. 17,000/- for two years extended warranty on my Apple MacBook Pro that is valid till October 2017. About a week back, some hardware problem arose in my MacBook and it stopped working altogether. This happened while I was traveling and as my laptop that carried all my data stopped working my entire trip was a wasted one. However, I am not blaming Apple for this.
When I returned to Varanasi, I logged in my complaint online and case id 100251981172 was generated and in no time I got a call from Apple Service and a technical advisor Mr. Madhusudan guided me through the online procedure of trouble shooting, ultimately determining that the problem in my laptop was hardware oriented and needs to be taken to Apple Service Centre for fixing. So far so good.
The Apple service centre in Varanasi in outsourced to one RELIANCE RETAIL LTD, PISHACHMOCHAN, MALDAHIYA, C 21/4G-1A, VARANASI, 221002, 91 ********55. I visited the service centre with my laptop and invoice. And this is when my nightmare started. The service centre was manned by 3 women who seemed most nonchalant and unprofessional of their job at the front desk. They seemed so bored being at the desk it gave the feeling as if they have been coerced to be there. One of them was attending to another customer and the other two looked indifferently towards me and then glanced away as it my being there was none of their business and the one already speaking to the other customer was responsible of all case handling. I patiently waited for my turn which came about 15 minutes later. I explained my woes to the lady who immediately retorted that I will have to submit my laptop. I enquired politely as to what she meant by "submitting my laptop?" She replied I will have to leave my computer at the service centre and they will tell me of the nature of problem in 3 days. I further enquired how much time will it take for the computer to be working again after the fault is diagnosed. To this the answer was 7 to 10 days, maybe even two weeks. This gave me a hollow feeling in my stomach and I submitted my courage to say my entire work depends on my computer. It is already a week that my computer was non-functional and how do they expect me to survive without work for another 12 to 15 days. Isn't there a way for moving things fast and how does Apple expect its customer to bear 15 days of turnaround time for a computer that is the lifeline of today’s business. Moreover, Apple charges so heavily for warranty and extended warranty only to ensure that customer gets immediate response and quick turnaround to their problems. And here I was being told to wait for 15 days. The lady in her most callous manner said she cannot do anything and I will have to wait for 12 to 15 days for my laptop to be back and added further very threateningly that I might even loose all my data, as if to shoo me away.
I pleaded that I am not so worried about my data as I have most of it backed up, but needed the laptop back in working condition soonest. She shrugged helplessly and looked the other way.
Anger, helplessness and despair arising inside me, I thought it was best to leave the place with my laptop lest I may loose my patience and gentlemanly manners and probably head to Delhi to find a quicker solution.
But the lesson learnt is that the expression "be a Roman while in Rome" holds true for Apple. They have mastered Indian way of treating their customer, if not directly, at least through their out sourced partners. They have no system to check, train and hold accountable their service franchisees. They have just adhered to the requirement of having service centre at all sales locations without bothering to assess their competence, readiness and resourcefulness in providing services to the standards promised and committed by Apple.
In India, customers are treated with utmost disdain and apathy and there is no one, government and Consumer Redressals Forum being the least to protect their interest and investment. The appalling situation at Consumer Forum only encourages the companies and service providers to be more and more apathetic and scornful to the customers need. Could Apple have got away with such standards of service providing in US? That is the question that now looms in my mind.
SHAMEFUL AND DISGUSTING.