I’ve watched “Identity Thief” with Melissa McCarthy few weeks ago (love her!) few weeks ago – it was a run-of-the-mill nothing special comedy – the kind you watch while folding laundry and peeling potatoes. Do people still peel potatoes?
So with the movie still fresh in my mind yesterday I thought I had a Melissa McCarthy of my own. A scary pop-up blocked my browser, as I was working from a cafe, suggesting that I call a number on the screen immediately. I called and had a young man with Indian accent introduce himself as Apple support, and tell me to open a specific page and start entering an access code that he dictated. That was the part where I hung up.
The guys at my local Apple store just shook their heads, as I walked in and handed them my laptop like a sick puppy. They hear this story all too often. Apparently, if I stayed on the line, the nice man with Indian accent would have eventually asked me for anywhere between $200-400 to “fix it”. Ahhhh, the joys of technology.
Everything is fine, and the incident prompted me to change all of my passwords (again) to something new and something more complicated. Phew.
Meanwhile, I am singing accolades to my local Apple store (and Apple stores everywhere). My god.
The very first time I walked into an Apple store was to purchase an unlocked iPhone. The store was crowded as usual – nine-to-fivers just got out of the office, and were now fondling white devices. Yet as soon as I walked in, a guy in a blue shirt materialized in front of me. “How can I help you?”, he smiled.
I walked out of the store ten minutes later, holding on to my new phone and my jaw (so it wouldn’t keep dropping to the floor). How… how did they just do it? That?? How? And if someone already figured out how to provide that level of customer service, why isn’t everybody else doing it? My god.
You see I have actually resisted Apple for years. Any manifestation of Apple. PC for the win. I did not want my PC world to be tainted by anything white. Hell, a pair of white headphones would have been too much. I mean, white? They were just so… pretentious.
And then I tried my first Apple product. Then my second. Third. Now, I am officially in camp Apple, and as a result, I have forever lost my trusty technical support person in the face of my father. He disowned me (thankfully only in the computer support role!) based on difference in opinion. We now belong to different religions. Ha.
Apple Music has been released yesterday, so I have been playing around with that. I started with Amanda Palmer, Lindsey Stirling and Glitch Mob (obviously). Oh, and the soundtrack for Fifty Shades of Grey [my review here] – the best thing about the whole phenomenon. By far.
Initial impressions – pretty and fully integrated (just like everything Apple), but a little confusing. Like with Spotify and other streaming services, you can indicate which songs/albums you “Love”, so the application can learn your preferences. It would be useful to see all the songs you “Loved” in once place though – right now they just go into a black hole.
As of now, I am not convinced that with my extensive music library, $10 a month would be worth it, once the free three month trial expires. Ask me again in September.
YOUR TURN: Have you had a customer service experience that blew your mind? Have you tried Apple Music? What do you think? Have you ever had your identity stolen? What did you think?
Hugs, SOLO
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