Customer service sucks.

For this generation, this isn’t anything new.  This is more or less a friendly reminder.

So I am in the market for the iPhone 5.  I visited my local Apple store at North Avenue today.  I knew it might be a longshot to even purchase one, but I was having a good morning.  Naturally they were sold out.  Shocker.  I then asked the Genius Bar employee if she could help me locate the iPhone 5 at a different Apple store.

“No, we can’t help you with that, but you can call the Apple store at Michigan Avenue or the AT&T store.  I think it’s the one on Division,” she says very politely.

Ok.  Fine.  I don’t have a problem with doing the leg work on my own.  I enjoy research.  But when did this happen?  When did store employees stop helping you locate your product?  Isn’t that a part of their jobs – to actually assist you?

At least she was polite.  It was a lot better than the response I was given from the Genius Bar employee at the Apple Store in Skokie.  I asked if they had any new iPhones in stock.  I was told yes.  I then asked how many they had left.  I wasn’t trying to be difficult.  I just wondered if I should make the 20 minute trek to Skokie.  If they only had one or two phones, I don’t think I would have.  It didn’t matter.  Here’s the rude and terse response I was given:

“I just don’t know many we have in stock.”

Well, I just don’t think I’ll be shopping at your store.  Or to quote the great George Costanza, “The jerk store called, they’re running out of you!”

Needless to say, there is hope.  After calling two AT&T stores with short responses and no help, I finally found an employee willing to go the extra mile.  An employee at the AT&T store at 1730 W. Fullerton told me they, like everyone else, are out of stock with the iPhone.  However, he checked in his computer and found that the AT&T store on Michigan Avenue had two phones left.  I was saved!

Except for that whole Chicago Marathon thing.  So we drove downtown during the middle of the Chicago Marathon.  We took the expressway and hopped off at Ohio, thinking we could avoid the marathon.  Not so much.  We ran into the closure of Lasalle Street and that was that.

This story does not exactly have a happy ending.  No iPhone 5 for me just yet.  There is a silver lining though.  Good customer service – no matter how poor it can be – is not dead.  Thank you, nice AT&T guy at the Fullerton store, for giving us a little hope.