Notes

Unsolved Apple Tech Support and Compansation Demand

To whom it may concern,

This is an angry mail.

My name is Emre Şölenoğlu. I am from Turkey. I am a tour guide and a mucisian. My Apple ID is: [email protected]

I've been using Apple products (iPod, iPhone, iPad) since 2009 and I am still using them actively. I am a loyal customer to Apple products and I have been defending them all these years. I had a few minor problems with your products throught the years as everybody might experience and thanks to your staff I always had semi-satisfactionary results. But the last incident that I was experiencing for last few days literally affected my social and professional life, and my financial situation and my mental health greatly in a messed up way. And the thing that frustrates me most is that I was literally shooed away by Apple support team.

The story goes like this;

I have been working on a musical project for over 4 months now. And as you know, every single person on this earth has different limits on their budgets. I reached to a point that I need to buy a device to record my musical samples anytime and anywhere I want with good quality with a limited budget. That's why I picked Garageband as well for the DAW since it is suitable for my budget. As an Apple user, I wanted to purchase Logic Pro X but since I do not own a Mac or Macbook, after many researches, me and my musical partners decided to buy Apogee Jam Guitar interface for 400 liras (approx 190$) from Apple Store Turkey.

I ordered Apogee Jam from Apple Store at 08 January 2015. I made the purchase with my business e-mail which is [email protected]. But the credit card I used is the same with the one that is saved in my Apple ID. The reference number for the order is W288297359. According to Apple Store, it was supposed to be delivered at 09 January 2015. But due to bad weather conditions, it was delivered at 10 January 2015. Yes, I know, that doesn't concern apple, because delay was caused by UPS.

For using Apojee JAM, as you know I need to use Garageband. Yesterday (9th Jan) I went to UPS to pick up my item. On the way back to home I finalized all payments for today's studio session and booked necessary requirements. When I came home and tried to download Garageband but the device told me to update my IOS to latest version in order to use it. So I updated it.

After than that I purchased Garageband for 10ish Turkish Liras (approx 5$) and I started to download it. Once the download process reached to around 90%, I came across with an error message, saying "Garageband can not be downloaded at this time. Please try again later." I tried it couple of more times, but it didn't work. I was not able to download Garageband even though I purchased it. But I needed Garageband to create samples. So I tried the same procedure with my iPhone 5S but I came across with same error message on my iPhone 5S as well. Before you read rest, I would like you to know that I have great knowledge about networking, software and hardware that is related to internet, PC and similar devices.

- I checked how much space did Garageband require in order to download it, it was 627MB. I had 3.7GB free space on my iPhone 5S and almost 7GB on my iPad Retina. So, that wasn't the problem.

- I thought it might be a problem related to my internet connection. So I restarted my router and turned WiFi on and off couple of times.. It didn't work, so that wasn't the problem either.

- I tried to download it with my iPhone using 3G. It didn't work.

- I established a hotspot wireless connection between iPad and iPhone and tried to download Garageband again. It didn't work, same error message.

- I did reset both devices and tried to download Garageband, that didn't work either.

- I did hard reset both devices and tried to download Garageband, that didn't work either

- I ereased all the content from my iPad and started it as a "New iPad", so I had 12GB free memory, that didn't work as well.

- I tried to download it with Wireless again with dozens of different DNS, VPN, Proxy settings. Nope, still didn't work

- I asked WiFi password of my neighbours and tried to download it using their internet, that didn't work as well..

- I went to Starbucks and another local cafe to try to download it, didn't work.

- I went to an internet cafe and connected their internet with wireless, didn't work.

- I went to my cousin's home which is closeby to internet cafe and tried to download Garageband there, didn't work.

- I tried to download Garageband via iTunes to PC so l could transfer it to my iPad from PC. That didn't work as well (Same procedure was tried with couple of different PC's)

- I signed out from my Apple ID in Apple Store and waited for an hour and then relogged in to see if l can download it. No, it didn't work as well, still giving me the same error message "Garageband can not be downloaded at this time. Please try again later."

- I logged into Apple Store with my iPad with a friend's Apple ID and tried to download Garageband (he already purchased it before and I am familiar to program due to this, but he lives in lstanbul so l couldn't borrow his iPad) that didn't work as well.

- I am able to purchase and download other apps. I only can not download Garageband.

- While l was doing all these above, I thought maybe there is a technical problem in Apple Store Turkey so that's why I can't download it. So I asked my friend in Lyon, France to purchase and download it, she did and it worked for her.

- Then l asked another friend of mine that lives in Turkey but in a different city and uses Apple Store Turkey who owns iPad Retina as well to purchase Garageband and try to download it. It worked instantly for him. He bought and downloaded and used it..

- I made research on Apple discussions and forums for hours and even tried your help links in your website's support sections, nothing worked. A total zero.


Finally, my last resort was to have a phone call with Apple so l created an appointment for today for 15:30 TR time, because earlier times were not available and I was supposed to be at the studio with my samples and musicial partners at 14:00 in order to start our musicial procedure. I had no choice but to postpone our reservation to 16:00, because l thought it would be fixed in half an hour. My request number for phone call was: 728494462 and my phone number is +90 538 226 34 00

At 15:30 a nice lady from Apple Support called me. It was understood by the tone of her voice that she was a beginner. I told her everything that I tried to fix it as I listed above. We talked and tried to find solution for the problem for more than half an hour and finally she understood that she can't help me, so she told me that she will redirect me to another person in another department in Athens, Greece.

This time it was a gentlemen tried to help me, named Mehmet Can and he made me do a few things to fix it that l already tried many times. So I understood that he was not well informed by the previous lady about my problem, so l suggested him to brief my situation and what kind of methods l tried to fix my problem, he accepted and so I gave him a briefing. But even after than that, he made me do pretty much every single thing that l did before to fix my problem, repeatedly. First he asked me to log out and log in to Apple Store. And then he made me reset my devices and then he made me hard reset my devices. And in between all of these he made me try to download Garageband for dozens of times but no, nothing worked. The thing that frustrated me most was that even though l was telling him that l tried everything that he tells me to do, he still asked me to do them. Maybe it was a double check thing, I don't know.

Close to the end of our conversation, he said that he is not able to help me either and he needs to contact to upper level people in Ireland, so he put me on hold for total 30 minutes. And when the wait was finally over, he told me this: "I talked with necessary people in Ireland about your problem and it's solution. I told them every method that we tried one by one. And they told me to tell you to sign out from your Apple ID and try it again after an hour. If that doesn't work you can call us again tomorrow." I told him "Are you kidding me? No sir, there is no 'tomorrow' for me. I am dealing with this for two days and this was supposed to be fixed hours ago and I should have started recording already. I was supposed to be at studio 4 hours ago but instead right now I am sitting here and talking with you for almost 2,5 hours for a problem that I am trying to fix for 2 days! I am dealing with a problem that was caused by Apple's application with Apple's iPad to be able to use a device that I bought from Apple Store. The drummer for studio came here all the way from Ankara, which is aprox 550 kilometers far away from where l am right now, just for today and I rented the whole studio for the whole day and you just tell me to relog to my Apple ID which l tried already for thousand times, and if it doesn't work I should call Apple tomorrow, again!?" And he said "This is what they told me and I have nothing else left to do, as I said, if your problem still continues, you can always call back tomorrow." And then I understood that it was pointless to argue with him so we ended the phone conversation but l was utterly frustrated! He even told me that he can refund 10 liras for buying Garageband but I don't care about that. What is 10 liras compared to all money I lost, all mental and psychial frustration that I experienced!

Started by not being able to download Garageband that I purchased, the chain reaction of all that happened literally wasted all my efforts that I spent and prepared for more than 4 months and put me into really REALLY hard situation both in my social and professional life and in budget as well! And I clearly say that I demand a compensation. As I said, like everyone I have a limited budget too and becuase of that reason I bought Apogee Jam and Garageband from your Apple Store, thinking that it will arrive on time. It arrived 1 day later but that wasn't a problem that I wouldnt be able to overcome if I was able to use Garageband properly. I was supposed to record over 90 samples and bring them to studio so that l could collect fruits of my 4 months worth of efforts. I rented one of the greatest and most expensive studios in Izmir (my city) for a whole day, I hired a session drummer to come to Izmir from all the way from another city just for one day, and again I spent 4 months for this, and now all of these things turned into dust! I can not tell to studio or my musical partners "Well, I know I made you all empty your Sunday for me but I can't pay you since I coudn't bring the material because I couldn't download Garageband.. So yeah, deal with it." No!! I had to cancel and pay for everything! I had to cancel 4 months of my life, I had to cancel today and I ended up paying for nothing, I don't like giving numbers but all the total cost was somewhere around 1150-1250$. And that is just the "material" side. Do you realize this? If you can create emphaty, you can at least try to understand what kind of chaos l am in right now. And all because of an app I purchased but couldn't even download that YOU created to be used in YOUR product which can be used by a device that YOU sell in YOUR store. I literally lost all my sense after that phone conversation and I am not threatening anyone but I just can't leave all that happened like this. I am a consumer and I know my rights and as one of the world leader companies you should know about such things too.

I am sure that you can reach to any phone call or report you want about this incident. Please do so and you will see that I don't make anything up. As I said I demand a compensation to all these and if required l am willing to take this incident to any place that is necessary.

By any means, if this email ends up somewhere that I am not aimed for, please redirect this mail to Apple US headquarters, to a person that is capable of answering this.

I am looking forward to hear from you.

Sorry for grammer mistakes. English is not my native language.

I thank you for your time and wish luck for your future successes.

Name: Emre Şölenoğlu
Country: Turkey
City: İzmir
Phone: +90 538 226 34 00
Apple ID: [email protected]
iPad Retina Serial Number: DMPLJCWQF185
iPhone 5S Serial Number: F2LML1E0FFG8