An Open Letter to Apple's Bill Evans Concerning Jaguar Release of OSX
I want to thank all my readers, and that reporter from C|Net, for the words of support and interest in what happened with Apple. I am pleased to report that after I sent my letter to Bill Evan's at Apple I received a phone call from a very nice man named Greg Johnson in "Executive Relations" at Apple who, after hearing my story, agreed that it was pretty silly that Apple should deny me an upgrade to the new Jaguar OS X release since the upgrade program was released only 3 days after I purchased the new iBook.
I was originally a bit miffed about the situation but had no intention of really doing anything about it except for silently not doing the upgrade until I happened to talk to the Apple representative who blatently treated me with such disrespect.
But I did do something and it turns out that either Apple recognizes that dismissing the concerns of such a good customer is in bad taste or the large amount of flow I enjoy through this site turned a few heads and, at least in this case, caused some executives at Apple to rethink they way that I was treated for trying to be a good customer.
I hope that it is the former. But in case it is the latter I'm going to start giving some more thought to how I might effect more change in my life through using the high visibility I enjoy with The Safer Sex Page.
Stay tuned.
(It may have been the latter since Mr. Johnson made it a point to ask if I was intending to edit my post to show my readers that Apple had responded.)
Mr. Evans,
I purchased an iBook, Airport, & Wireless card on July 14, 2002 for a total of $2,069.61. Based on my past experience with Apple, and the prompting of my vendor, MacMall, I felt confident that I would be eligible for the upgrade program as I have been in the past. Shortly after I purchased the iBook I found word on the web that your upgrade was only available to those who had purchased their computer after the 17th of July.
I wrote a note to Apple customer service requesting clarification. I never received a reply.
I made it perfectly clear that I would return the computer that day if I was not going to be eligible for the upgrade program. I specifically bought the computer at the time I did because I wanted to time the purchase of the computer to take advantage of the upgrade to the new system. because I desired the additional functionality of the new mail client.
Today I called your sales department to make my point and purchase the $19.95 upgrade CD. I was told that I was not eligible for the upgrade . The service representative understood my frustration and offered to let me speak with "Customer Relations" so that I could either get the upgrade through non-standard channels or be connected with someone who could help me out further.
I was transferred to a nice young man who assured me that an upgrade CD could be gotten outside of normal retail channels. He put me through to "Customer Relations" where I spoke to a woman named Chris Dimas and made the following report #11929433.
Chris Dimas was not helpful at all. Her approach was cold & without any sympathy for the ridiculous nature of the situation. Her attitude was condescending and where I was annoyed with the situation before i spoke to her I was livid by the time I got done being looked down upon by Ms. Dimas. She made it very clear by her language that she is empowered to make a call as to whether I could get the upgrade or not and she deemed it beneath her to offer any sort of concessions to my recent spending of over $2000 with your firm. Her thinly veiled contempt for my position has compelled me to write this letter to you.
I have spent way too much time with this. You can be assured that if I ever spend more money with Apple I will not do so when there is a system upgrade even remotely announced. You can also be assured I will not spend $100+ for your current Jaguar release.
I am going to post this letter on the front page of my website, The Safer Sex Page (https://www.safersex.org), so that my 5000 daily visitors can be sure to know about how Apple chooses to treat its best customers (6 machines now I've bought from you over the years).
Good day,
Christopher Filkins | 
· editor: christopher l. filkins