Inconsistent Apple Support responses

[Morac]

I don’t know why when contacting Apple Support about a problem, the answer to the same exact problem can vary so widely.

Here’s an example. I contacted Apple Support because I enabled ScreenTime in iOS 16.5 and MacOS 13.4 and neither time nor settings are syncing across devices (the later is listed as fixed in the release notes). I called 3 times and got these 3 responses:

1. First person consulted a senior advisor and told me ScreenTime does not support syncing settings between devices which is demonstrably incorrect (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210387#limitusage). He then asked if I wanted him to make an appointment for me at an Apple Store. I declined.

2. Second person escalated me to a senior care advisor who seamed friendly, but recommended I reboot my router and if that didn’t work, sign out of iCloud and back in. He said engineering would not accept an elevation if those weren’t done. I said I don’t like signing out of iCloud as it’s a pain setting things back up when I sign back in. He told me he signs out of iCloud several times a week (really?). He said he’d send me a link to get me back to senior care for when that was done. Despite my better judgement I did as he suggested on my iPad (didn’t work). The link just took me to the case, but calling back put me at the lowest level of support.

3. Third person who escalated me to a different senior care advisor. This person seemed much more qualified. He recommended that I never to sign out of iCloud unless directed to do so and that doing so isn’t a requirement for escalating to engineering. He said he’d research the issue and get back to me and gave me a link to directly send him messages. I’ve had advisors promise to call back and never done so, but at least this is promising.


We have 3 different responses ranging from giving blatantly incorrect information, to passing the buck to somewhat promising. Apple used to have standards. It shouldn’t take 3 calls to reach someone at Apple support who at least gives an indication that they may try to help.

This isn’t an outlier either. This has been the norm when contacting Apple Support the past several years to the point where most times I don’t even bother.

What happened to Apple support?

 

[maflynn]

What happened to Apple support?

Like anything in this world, people are different and differently skilled. One day you may get a rock star who hits it out of the park in terms of support another day you may get someone new, inexperienced or just inferior and as such your experience suffers.

 

[Morac]

Like anything in this world, people are different and differently skilled. One day you may get a rock star who hits it out of the park in terms of support another day you may get someone new, inexperienced or just inferior and as such your experience suffers.

I can understand that, but if all these people are looking at the same internal/external support documents how can the response to the question “does x do y?” be “yes” from one person and “no” from another. It doesn’t look good.

 

[jdogg836]

My guess is the document doesn't directly answer "does x do y?" and they are filling in the gaps with their knowledge (or lack of).

I once had a co-worker that would tell customers that something doesn't exist just because we didn't carry it. He would only learn the training materials and nothing more. OTOH, I would read up and familiarize myself with everything I came across that was relevant to my position so I could speak to it. As @maflynn alluded to, people are different and their knowledge/skillsets are just as varied.

 

[Morac]

My guess is the document doesn't directly answer "does x do y?" and they are filling in the gaps with their knowledge (or lack of).

Except that the answer is in this case is on a public support page as I said in the OP. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210387#limitusage

As such either the first support person I spoke to never contacted senior support, the senior support person was lazy and just blew the guy off with the wrong or no answer or the senior advisor had no clue.

It doesn’t help that there are actually like 4 levels of Apple support with the second level being labeled as “senior” indicating that they know more than the base level (who know nothing).

It’s similar with the misnamed “Genius Bar”, but at least they should only be dealing with hardware issues.

It wouldn’t be as bad if there was a way to report software issues to Apple without going through support, but it’s been over 5 years since anyone at Apple even acknowledged a bug report. Ever since they switched to the Feedback Assistant they stopped reading my bug reports, no matter how much technical detail I include in them. Trying to give that kind of detail to Apple support is pointless.

 

[Nermal]

it’s been over 5 years since anyone at Apple even acknowledged a bug report. Ever since they switched to the Feedback Assistant they stopped reading my bug reports, no matter how much technical detail I include in them.

With every new OS version I find myself updating dozens of bug reports with "still happens under [current version]". It's ridiculous.

At one point I contacted them via a different means and asked for a status update on one of my reports. The paraphrased response was "we don't do that; go away". Why do people keep giving money to this company?

 

[Graham Caracas]

Did you actually do any of the things the techs suggested or are you still waiting for someone else to do it for you?

 

[jdogg836]

Except that the answer is in this case is on a public support page as I said in the OP. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210387#limitusage

You're assuming their tier 1 support documents refer to this, I surmise that this is not guaranteed. Tier 1 is more of a turn it off and on again, toggle the setting off and on again support level.

It doesn’t help that there are actually like 4 levels of Apple support with the second level being labeled as “senior” indicating that they know more than the base level (who know nothing).

I see this and agree for the most part. Which makes your whole thread unnecessary as it identifies why the messaging at this level is so inconsistent. Basically, you answered your own question and should move on before you give yourself a heart attack. The reason for the tiers is that far too many people never reboot, never update, never do anything to ensure their devices are operating properly.

 

[Morac]

Did you actually do any of the things the techs suggested or are you still waiting for someone else to do it for you?

I did and they didn’t help. When I called back in the new senior advisor I spoke to told me that he would not have recommended I do what I was told to do by the prior senior advisor. Hence my OP.

I’m waiting for a call back from the last advisor I spoke to.

 

[Morac]

You're assuming their tier 1 support documents refer to this, I surmise that this is not guaranteed. Tier 1 is more of a turn it off and on again, toggle the setting off and on again support level.



I see this and agree for the most part. Which makes your whole thread unnecessary as it identifies why the messaging at this level is so inconsistent. Basically, you answered your own question and should move on before you give yourself a heart attack. The reason for the tiers is that far too many people never reboot, never update, never do anything to ensure their devices are operating properly.

Except the tier 1 support person claimed he was given that information by tier 2 support. I never trust anything tier 1 says.

The next 2 people I spoke to were tier 2 (see my post above this one).