Apple lists the price to repair a HomeView smart home hub without AppleCare+ at $279, just $20 shy of a new unit.
(via Cult of Mac - Your source for the latest Apple news, rumors, analysis, reviews, how-tos and deals.)
Apple recently considered laying off about 5,000 support employees [to replace them with AI], but it has put those plans on hold indefinitely, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
[…]
Last month, we reported that customers who call the AppleCare phone number (1-800-APL-CARE) from the U.S. or Canada are now routed to an AI-powered support assistant.
The assistant can answer questions and troubleshoot issues with your Apple products, with it able to provide detailed step-by-step instructions. The assistant can still transfer you to a human advisor if it cannot answer a specific question, or if you ask to speak to a real person.
[…]
Apple has also been testing a new AI-powered chatbot in its Apple Support app, through a new “Ask” tab that has rolled out to a limited number of users.
I actually kind of like support chatbots in that they can be very fast for handling basic issues. As to the layoffs, it’s not clear to me whether this is Ternus reversing a Cook idea or something else.
The main problem I have (and I hear others having) with Apple’s support is that for more difficult problems you reach a ceiling where nobody can help you and it seems like nobody cares. Anything that can’t be addressed via a hardware swap is like filing a very time consuming Radar that goes into a black hole with no follow-up. Some software issues seem fixable in that they are more like server database entries than bugs. A sufficiently high level support person should be able to go in and edit the entry. But it seems like this only happens when there’s a major story in the press.
Apple could probably lay off 5000 AppleCare workers if Apple programmers spent more time working on their operating systems and default apps for another 6 months before releasing them to the public.
Previously:
The ‘ads’ in question appear in the Settings app in iOS. They can be found near the top of the iPhone’s display and promote several products to the user, including paid-for iCloud+ storage, free trials for services like Apple Music and Apple TV, and the AppleCare+ extended warranty.
Infuriatingly for iOS users, the only way to disable these promos is to either let them expire — which in many cases could take weeks or even months, leaving a persistent notification badge on the Settings app in the meantime — or pay for the service being offered. There is not always a “dismiss” button to shoo them away for good, and when there is, some people have reported that it doesn’t seem to work.
Previously:
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