Effective Complaints Resource Blog

Why Apple Computers Suck: A Final Letter to Steve Jobs

effectivecomplaints@gmail.com (Managing Editor, EffectiveComplaints.com) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 20:30:00 -0500

Disclaimer: The views and opinions stated in this podcast are just that, one person’s views and opinions shared freely on the internet while exercising the freedom of speech guaranteed in the United States Constitution.

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In today's podcast, I talk about how Why Apple Computers Suck in A Final Letter to Steve Jobs who announced that he'd be retiring from the company. In it, I detail my experience with visiting my first Apple retail store, and writing two (2) letters to Steve Jobs that were never acknowledged. Here's what happened:

I had been ruminating over sharing this experience on this blog, but I never seemed to find the time to get around to it, but today, upon hearing the news of Apple CEO Steve Jobs resigning, I thought it was the perfect time to share my story and express both my disappointment in the brand and my hope that the new face of Apple does a better job with their company’s operations.

The very first computer that I ever got was an Apple that someone gave to me in high school. I was ecstatic! I was even more excited when I joined my high school's newspaper and Macintosh computers were the devices of choice. I took my love of Apple Computers with me to college (it was 50/50 PC to Mac ratio my freshman year), and while I embraced PCs on a daily basis out of necessity as a Business Student, it was my love of Macs, and my ability to seamlessly work on both platforms that got me a job in tech support on campus.

As a person of "limited financial means" for most of my adult life, I was never able to actually PURCHASE a Mac (though I used them regularly at work and to complete school work), and I vowed that when the day came (and I had the money), I'd finally get the chance to "deck out" my home IT setup with Apple products galore! I anxiously waited for this moment for more than a decade. Through undergrad, grad school, crazy jobs, and now my own venture, I've eagerly waited and anticipated the moment I could afford to buy the type of Mac products I wanted! It was going to be an awesome!

A little while back, I stood on the cusp of a major move forward in terms of finances both personally and professionally. With the next round of funding for my business that was due to come in soon, I could FINALLY afford the home and business IT setup I've always wanted. As such, I went to my local Apple Store in the Green Hills Mall in Nashville, TN for the first time EVER. Ironically, I happened to go to the store right after I left the bank talking to a loan officer (i.e. I was dressed pretty snazzy pants suit).

I walked into the store and was immediately "smitten" with all the wonderful Apple products strewn about! Though merely window-shopping on this day, I was making mental notes of exactly what I'd have in my soon-to-be-renovated home office as well as my new office space "in the city". By the time I had walked the aisle and landed on the other side of the store by the $3,800 27-inch, 2.8 GHz Quad-Core iMac, I realized that NOT ONE employee in the store had said a word to me. I looked around, and saw (quite surprisingly) that there were almost TWICE as many Apple employees as there were customers, so this struck me as REALLY ODD that none of the people "in Apple attire" had even bothered to say "Hi" or "Welcome to the Store" as so many contrived sales people do in retail locations. Perhaps being friendly and welcoming isn't an Apple Retail Store thing, but again, I wouldn't know this since this was my first visit.

I wasn't really sure what I was looking for, but I could have benefited from having SOME attention from one of the many employees that were there and not working with other customers. I continued to walk around the store, then I got the strange feeling that I WAS BEING AVOIDED! When I walked near two employees, they actually managed to move away from the direction where I was headed! As I had the opportunity to look around the store (unencumbered), I noticed that all of the sales people were pretty young and there were at least 4 minority workers (1 of which was Black). While I continued to make my way to the exit door I did some mental calculations to figure out that their "rate of diversity" was 1 to 4 (minority to white) and there were only 2 female workers making their "gender diversity score" only 1 to 8. This was simply something I noticed since I had LOTS of free time since there was no one around to ask any of the many questions I had about the products that I'd been toying with since I came into the store.

I started to look around to see if perhaps I was engaging in some kind of behavior that said "I don't need help nor do I want to be approached", and I realized I was doing nothing that was any different from what other customers were doing: checking out gadgets and accessories and computers. The only difference was, there were no overly enthusiastic Apple employees helping me figure out how their then-new Multi-Touch mouse worked (a tutorial of which would have been quite welcomed). The two most glaringly different things about me versus other customers in the store is that I had on business attire (after having just met with my banker across the street), and I was an African American woman. True, there was an African American employee in the store, busy helping other customers (not that I'd expect some sort of same race-based service), so I simply HOPED that the neglect I was receiving from other employees at the store was based on the fact that I "looked too PC" (if that's at all possible).

Needless to say, I am sorely let down by my first Apple Store experience. I felt slighted and ignored, and as if my money wouldn't have been welcomed there, even if I were willing to shell out the $3800 it would take to own the 27-inch, 2.8 GHz Quad-Core iMac I was eyeing! In all, this is a terrible personal and emotional blow to me, having been an "unofficial" Mac aficionado for years. It was always my intention to buy a Mac as soon as I could afford the one I wanted, but now after this most recent experience, I'm starting to feel as though doing so would be like shooting myself in the foot! I admit, I enjoy Macintosh computers, and I prefer them over Windows-based systems. Part of the "window-shopping" I was doing was in preparation for an influx of capital due to my business for equipment purchases, and I wanted to see how I could change my IT needs to a primarily Mac-based system. But right now, I just don't feel that I can do that.

I know in this day and age, it was rather unconventional for someone to actually WRITE A LETTER as opposed to sending an email, but I felt so strongly about my experience that I actually wrote a letter and mailed it to Steve Jobs on the day this incident happened. Six months after not getting a response, I sent a second letter, this time being sure to send a copy to their communications department, so that hopefully the letter wouldn’t be missed. Still nothing. Not even some horribly generic form letter stating that my letter had been received and would garner a response at a later date. Then, a few weeks ago, I read a headline online proclaiming Apple to be the richest company in the world! That was somewhat disheartening, especially given my deflating experience with the company.

So that’s my story of Why Apple Computers Suck in my Final Letter to Steve Jobs detailing my experience and my disappointment. This was quite a letdown after more than a decade of affection I've had for the company and its products.

I wish my Apple Store experience could have been better.

Good Riddance Mr. Steve Jobs

By the way, the goal of the EffectiveComplaints.com website and this blog is to be a resource for people seeking complaint resolution, thus you are invited to join in and become active in the community:

Visit EffectiveComplaints.com and send a message through the Contact Us page,
Continue to visit this blog, blog.EffectiveComplaints.com, and comment on our blog posts and subscribe to our RSS feed,
Become a Fan on Facebook at the Effective Complaints Fan Page,
Follow us on Twitter (@complaint_help), or
Give us a Call on our Google Voice line at 920-543-HELP (4357).

How we can help?

If the player above isn't displaying, or working properly, you can also download the podcast from iTunes for free!

Facebook is Holding My Email Address Hostage!

effectivecomplaints@gmail.com (Managing Editor, EffectiveComplaints.com) — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 10:15:00 -0500

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In today's podcast, I talk about how Facebook is holding my email address hostage by allowing someone that has fraudulently signed up for an account using my email address to continue using it with reckless abandon!

This is a really good example of a company that uses a variety of underhanded tactics to keep from being contacted, and there's irony in the fact that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a proponent of so many "open policies" in terms of making everyone's information available to the world, yet Facebook itself employs a variety of means to insure that you can't find out any information about contacting their company directly.

Feel free to click on the podcast in the player below, or read the following for my "rant":

More than a month ago, someone in some African country, fraudulently used one of my email accounts and signed up for a Facebook account. Facebook, somehow let them continue to keep this account, and move forward without them having access to my account to do whatever confirmations that were necessary, and this person continues to get notification messages sent to my account.
It’s clear from the messages that I’m receiving, that the person who signed up for this account, knows that they did so on a fraudulently obtained email address, because they keep adding friends, participating in a variety of different Facebook activities, and notifications of such activities keeps getting sent to my email address.

I have tried to find some way to contact Facebook and let them know that this is the wrong email, but any email address I can find, does not work, or says it’s been discontinued and that I should refer to their Frequently Asked Questions page, but the Frequently Asked Questions page doesn’t lead you to a resolution, it just takes you into an endless loop of questions that don’t really answer your query.

I’ve even gone so far as to search out other means to contact the company Facebook and get my email account removed from their service and get them to take note of this issue and rectify it, but all attempts at this have failed, because as probably the largest company for having everyone’s account information and details, and with a CEO like Mark Zuckerberg who is infamously known for wanting everyone’s information to be public and for things to be transparent, Facebook itself is very secretive and shady when it comes to showing you how you can get in touch with someone that can get an issue resolved within their company.

They have an INTENTIONAL system of checks and balances that insures that you can’t find a real live person who can take ownership of an issue and see that it gets fixed and this is showing just ONE MORE REASON why Facebook and all the information they hold is a very dangerous threat to people and companies throughout the globe.

And to be clear, I do have a Facebook account, so that’s how I say confidently that the person who is fraudulently using my other email account is doing so with the full knowledge that they shouldn’t be! Every time you log into Facebook, you have to give your email and password, and there’s NO WAY that someone can mistakenly enter an email address that isn’t theirs time after time, week after week, and continue to add friends and events and all sorts of other things via the Facebook interface!

Now we see how Facebook can tout that it has "500 million users", it’s holding innocent people’s email addresses hostage to build up its numbers! Yes, Facebook has allowed someone to STEAL my email address and use it fraudulently for SEVERAL MONTHS, and they won’t even allow ME, the OWNER OF THE EMAIL ADDRESS any means of recourse for reporting this issue besides creating this podcast and blog post about it!

And by the way, Facebook does NOT have 500 million users. They probably have about 300 million users (which is still a vast number) but the 500 number is inflated, as I guarantee you at huge percentage of the 300 million I mentioned have multiple accounts, and I’m not just talking about the ones who have been given additional fraudulent accounts the way that I have.

My next step is to look into what government agencies are supposed to regulate Facebook and their activities, because I suspect that this situation is allowed to continue at Facebook because it relates to some other fraudulent or illegal activities, and Facebook is merely choosing to turn a blind eye to it now, since it doesn’t negatively effect their bottom line at this point to see that the issue gets rectified.

So, with that said, in closing, I’d like to say once again: FACEBOOK IS HOLDING MY EMAIL ACCOUNT HOSTAGE, and I would like for this person’s account to be deleted, or at the very least have my email address removed from their account, since it was used illegally, and is continuing to be used without my consent!

Also, Facebook needs to change their policies for people signing up for accounts, because I clicked the link they gave for “if you did not sign up for an account at this email address”, but it didn’t work! As did none of the other links in their Frequently Asked Questions page that deal with this topic. Then, since there is no “Contact Us” page, or way to get in touch with the company, or someone that oversees these problems, there’s no means of recourse on my end except for the internet.

So hopefully, the people that work at Facebook are megalomaniacal enough to have “Google Alerts” set up about their name, and sooner or later they’ll see this message, and contact me, and give me my email address back! Or, perhaps Anderson Cooper will just be perusing the internet, come across this site and post, and do a major story on CNN about this issue. I’m certain if it’s happening to me, it’s happening to MANY other people as well. This is fraudulent behavior that is unfortunately continuing unchecked!

Where is the Facebook police?!

By the way, the goal of the EffectiveComplaints.com website and this blog is to be a resource for people seeking complaint resolution, thus you are invited to join in and become active in the community:

Visit EffectiveComplaints.com and send a message through the Contact Us page,
Continue to visit this blog, blog.EffectiveComplaints.com, and comment on our blog posts and subscribe to our RSS feed,
Become a Fan on Facebook at the Effective Complaints Fan Page,
Follow us on Twitter (@complaint_help), or
Give us a Call on our Google Voice line at 920-543-HELP (4357).

How we can help?

If the player above isn't displaying, or working properly, you can also download the podcast from iTunes for free!

Who To Write Your Effective Complaints To

effectivecomplaints@gmail.com (Managing Editor, EffectiveComplaints.com) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 06:45:00 -0500

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In this week's podcast, entitled "Who To Write Your Effective Complaints To", I talk about the importance of addressing your effective complaint letter to the right person.

A written complaint can end up going nowhere if it’s not address to the right person. And while there are times when it's best to "follow the chain of command" up from the front-line manager all the way to the CEO, there are also times when the best course of action is to find the head people in charge.

How do you determine who that person is? It can be tricky, but with a little investment of time, you can figure it out. For instance, if you're looking for a person within the federal government, start at USA.gov, where you can find Government Agencies and the names and titles of people who work there.

If you're looking for a major corporation, check their company's website, and look for "About Us" or "Contact Information" or the "Investor Relations" page, which is sure to have the names and titles of higher-level executives with the company, as well as the corporate headquarters.

For smaller companies that don't have a web presence, you can try calling them directly and asking for the name of the person who would be responsible for handling your issue. Chances are good that perhaps someone on the phone can help you get your issue resolved, and if not, then they can definitely give you the name and contact information of the person who can.

Wikipedia is also a great place to find the names of top corporate leadership within larger firms, and though every grievance probably shouldn't be brought to the attention of the CEO of the company, if you feel its important enough, and you've tried other avenues but can't get satisfaction, then we’ve uploaded a brief tutorial on Youtube that shows a few ways to locate a corporate CEO:

The goal of the EffectiveComplaints.com website and this blog is to be a resource for people seeking complaint resolution, thus you are invited to join in and become active in the community:

Visit EffectiveComplaints.com and send a message through the Contact Us page,
Continue to visit this blog, blog.EffectiveComplaints.com, and comment on our blog posts and subscribe to our RSS feed,
Become a Fan on Facebook at the Effective Complaints Fan Page,
Follow us on Twitter (@complaint_help), or
Give us a Call on our Google Voice line at 920-543-HELP (4357).

How we can help?

If the player above isn't displaying, or working properly, you can also download the podcast from iTunes for free!

When to Write Effective Complaints

effectivecomplaints@gmail.com (Managing Editor, EffectiveComplaints.com) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 06:45:00 -0500

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In this week's podcast, entitled "When to Write Effective Complaints", I talk about the importance of writing with a "cool head". Writing when you’re angry isn’t a good idea. I find, it’s best to jot down major points of how you feel when you’re angry to jog your memory for later, then wait 24 hours from the time of your injustice is a "cool down period".

When you return, try to view the situation as third-party or "outsider" would, then script a narrative in your letter that concisely conveys your message and shows what your expectations were, and exactly where the company failed to meet them.

Here are some tips that can help you cool down when you’re really steamed:

Take a Walk.
Have a Cold Shower.
Meditate.
Get a Good Night's Sleep.
Take Deep Breaths.
Listen To Music.
Whatever it Takes for you to Temporarily "De-stress".

The goal of the EffectiveComplaints.com website and this blog is to be a resource for people seeking complaint resolution, thus you are invited to join in and become active in the community:

Visit EffectiveComplaints.com and send a message through the Contact Us page,
Continue to visit this blog, blog.EffectiveComplaints.com, and comment on our blog posts and subscribe to our RSS feed,
Become a Fan on Facebook at the Effective Complaints Fan Page,
Follow us on Twitter (@complaint_help), or
Give us a Call on our Google Voice line at 920-543-HELP (4357).

How we can help?

If the player above isn't displaying, or working properly, you can also download the podcast from iTunes for free!

What to Write for Effective Complaints

effectivecomplaints@gmail.com (Managing Editor, EffectiveComplaints.com) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 05:05:00 -0500

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In this week's podcast, entitled "What To Write for Effective Complaints", I talk about things to keep in mind when deciding what to include in your effective complaint letter.

The goal of the EffectiveComplaints.com website and this blog is to be a resource for people seeking complaint resolution, thus you are invited to join in and become active in the community:

Visit EffectiveComplaints.com and send a message through the Contact Us page,
Continue to visit this blog, blog.EffectiveComplaints.com, and comment on our blog posts and subscribe to our RSS feed,
Become a Fan on Facebook at the Effective Complaints Fan Page,
Follow us on Twitter (@complaint_help), or
Give us a Call on our Google Voice line at 920-543-HELP (4357).

How we can help?

If the player above isn't displaying, or working properly, you can also download the podcast from iTunes for free!

How To Write Effective Complaints

effectivecomplaints@gmail.com (Managing Editor, EffectiveComplaints.com) — Fri, 6 Aug 2010 04:05:00 -0500

Visit the Effective Complaints Website

In this week's podcast, entitled "How To Write Effective Complaints", I detail the 10 Key Steps for Writing an Effective Complaint Letter:

Be Business-like: Type your letter on your own stationery using your own personal letterhead. It’s very easy to create your own stationery using a program like Microsoft Word, or Open Office 3.
Include contact information and the date on each page.
Address your letter to a real person, and CC (carbon copy) key people: To Whom It May Concern" generally concerns no one. Visit the EffectiveComplaints.com/who/ page, and find a video tutorial of how to find CEOs and key executives at major companies in the U.S.
Start with a good lead-in story.
Clearly state the problem.
Back up your facts with documentation whenever possible: But remember to only send copies and never your original files or paperwork.
Ask for what you want (Be reasonable).
Set a deadline for response (Again be reasonable).
Watch your tone (Be friendly, but firm).
Be sure to follow up if your deadline for a response has passed. Follow-through is key. This can often be the difference between a complaint letter and an effective complaint letter.

Visit EffectiveComplaints.com and send a message through the Contact Us page,
Continue to visit this blog, blog.EffectiveComplaints.com, and comment on our blog posts and subscribe to our RSS feed,
Become a Fan on Facebook at the Effective Complaints Fan Page,
Follow us on Twitter (@complaint_help), or
Give us a Call on our Google Voice line at 920-543-HELP (4357).

How we can help?

If the player above isn't displaying, or working properly, you can also download the podcast from iTunes for free!

An Effective Complaint Letter Positive Outcome: How Safe Are You At U.S. Bank?

effectivecomplaints@gmail.com (Managing Editor, EffectiveComplaints.com) — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 06:05:00 -0500

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In this week's podcast, I share a story about an effective complaint letter I sent to U.S. Bank President and CEO Richard K. Davis. I hold several accounts with this company, and recently my account security was breached several times in a major metropolitan/high crime area. Essentially, someone made a deposit into my account and was able to access my balance on more than one occasion. This angered and disturbed me, because a criminal could just as easily do the same thing, and abscond with everything in your account by being able to so easily retrieve the information by simply making a deposit in the first place.

I initially voiced my concerns with the bank branch in question, but their response was that they assumed there was a level of trust with a person who had my account number, despite the fact that ANYONE who you've ever issued a personal check to would have access to that same number, since it's on the bottom of your checks.

Because I didn't receive a successful resolution in my first attempts to resolve my issue, I found the right person, and wrote a letter to them. I soon received a response from the Executive Communications department at U.S. Bank, telling me that the issue happened at a newly acquired bank branch, and that as a result of my letter, the staff at that location had been brought up to speed with what it takes to be in compliance with U.S. Bank policy procedure (which requires identification prior to releasing account information). The podcast cast has more details, if you're interested.

Visit EffectiveComplaints.com and send a message through the Contact Us page,
Continue to visit this blog, blog.EffectiveComplaints.com, and comment on our blog posts and subscribe to our RSS feed,
Become a Fan on Facebook at the Effective Complaints Fan Page,
Follow us on Twitter (@complaint_help), or
Give us a Call on our Google Voice line at 920-543-HELP (4357).

How we can help?

If the player above isn't displaying, or working properly, you can also download the podcast from iTunes for free!

We're in iTunes!

effectivecomplaints@gmail.com (Managing Editor, EffectiveComplaints.com) — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:30:00 -0500

You can now access our podcast series for FREE in iTunes!

Here's the link to the main page:
http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/effective-complaints-resource/id383813024

You can subscribe to it from iTunes directly, and we hope that you do.

EffectiveComplaints.com

Introducing the EffectiveComplaints.com Website!

effectivecomplaints@gmail.com (Managing Editor, EffectiveComplaints.com) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 06:00:00 -0500

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Hello, my name is Kindra Cotton, and I don’t like to complain. I like when things are done right the first time, and when they aren’t, I’d like to see a swift and effective resolution to the issue.

A complaint is merely an expression of an unmet expectation.

I am a reasonable person and so are my expectations. I wish in my heart of hearts that people would do the right things, for no other reason than the fact that it simply is the right thing to do. I wish people would start treating others the way they want to be treated, for if they did, we’d not only have happier people, but the world would be a better place.

There’s a cliché about “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”, but I'm not sure if that’s still the case. I have reluctantly become a "squeaky wheel", because for me, enough became enough!

Paying for products and services who QUICKLY process payments, and are even quicker to initiate collection proceedings, but who move at a snails pace when they are in the wrong, has encouraged me to spring into action!

I've learned that there is strength in numbers, plus I just know that all these crazy injustices and daily indignities aren’t just happening to me. There have to be others out there like me, and now is the time that we should band together!

Most people don’t complain. Ever! Lots of people have complaints, but very few of them do anything about it. I’ve read statistics on this that say only 10-15% of people who have complaints actually do something about them, and for those that don’t, the reasons are cited as followed:

Concern that the process is too time consuming,
Thinking that nothing will ever change,
The issue at hand is considered to be too trivial to be bothered with,
Feeling that whatever went wrong is ultimately their own fault, and
Not knowing how to complain or how to do so effectively.

Many people will complain among themselves or their family members and friends, but rarely take their complaint to the source or the entity most likely to be able to correct it!

In the introductory podcast that you can listen to by clicking the player below, or by downloading it from iTunes, I talk about my experience with writing effective complaints and getting results and how I hope that the EffectiveComplaints.com community can work together to build and grow the community, and its resources by actively participating and adding content.

There’s a generally accepted rule in business that says “If you make 1 person happy, they’ll tell 5 people, but if you make 1 person unhappy, they’ll tell 20”. I imagine in the age of the internet that number can be astronomically higher, bumped up to 200, maybe even 2000 or more!

In the world we live in now, where advertising is becoming more and more ineffective, we’re seeing a “Trend Towards Trust”, where people are far more likely to trust the recommendations of a friend or family member, over a sales pitch or random ad campaign. This is a day and age where opinions matters, and more importantly the internet is working to make the opinions of just about ANYONE relevant to SOMEONE!

If only one person complains to a huge entity, that person can be dismissed as "crazy", but if you find others to join with you, your voice and your mission become that much stronger!

With that in mind, I’m looking for like-minded people to join me and help resurrect a consumer advocacy movement that works to put the power back into the hands of the people, and hopefully, wrench some of it from the grasp of the big greedy corporations who take our money, with reckless abandon, and feel that they have no responsibility to us when they have wronged us!

Please visit the EffectiveComplaints.com website, as well as its Facebook Fan Page and make a note that you LIKE it.

I encourage you to visit other websites and communities that deal with complaints, like ComplaintBoards.com, My3Cents.com, and PissedConsumer.com, but remember EffectiveComplaints.com as your Solution-Oriented Consumer Advocacy Home Base. The site is called “Effective Complaints”, where the emphasis is on “efficiency”, because my goal here is to help people that want to help themselves. If there’s something I can do to help, I’ll try, and at the same time, I invite anyone within the community who can offer assistance, or chime in when necessary, to do so.

Finally, I want to point out that the EffectiveComplaints.com site isn’t about writing letters for you. We don't write complaint letters for you, nor do we claim to be legal experts. We're just regular people trying to do what we can to help our fellow consumers.

I would like for the EffectiveComplaints.com website and this blog to be a resource for people seeking complaint resolution, thus I invite everyone to join in and become active in the community, and reach out to me in the following ways:

Visit EffectiveComplaints.com and send a message through the Contact Us page,
Continue to visit this blog, blog.EffectiveComplaints.com, and comment on our blog posts and subscribe to our RSS feed,
Become a Fan on Facebook at the Effective Complaints Fan Page,
Follow us on Twitter (@complaint_help), or
Give us a Call on our Google Voice line at 920-543-HELP (4357).

Let me know how we can help.