I live an hour and a half away from the nearest Apple Store, so I really value the ability to solve most problems that arise with my Apple products using Apple’s great phone support. Apple was the first company in my experience to offer immediate “call back” for product support. Many companies make you fill in long diagnostic forms online and then wait on hold for a tech support agent for over 10 minutes. Apple has a relatively painless pre-call process. As long as you are within the one-year warranty period, or if you have purchased the AppleCare support contract (three years for a Mac), you can quickly select the most convenient option without going through any additional menus:

• Talk to Apple support now (provide your phone number and Apple support will call you)
• Schedule a Call (at a particular time)
• Call Apple Support later (provide your details, call at your convenience, the agent who takes your call will have your info ready)
• Chat
• Take it in for service (Apple Store or Authorized Service Provider)

I’m an impatient soul. I always request the “call me right now” option to at least debug the problem I’m having. What always amazes me is how fast Apple calls me back. It’s usually within 30 seconds! Barely time to refresh my coffee! The person on the phone is knowledgeable; they have the records about my computer up in front of them; and they can troubleshoot, diagnose, and, usually, fix the problem in a single call. Often, they take control of my screen to check things on my computer faster than I could. When it’s a software problem that requires reloading software, they’ll get me started and then tell me when they’ll call me back depending on how long the process will take (in 30 minutes or 1 hour, etc.). It’s always the same person I was working with. If they know there will be a shift change and they’ll be off duty at the appointed time, they tell me that ahead of time, and reassure me that the next person who calls me in 60 minutes will know exactly what’s going on. And they always do.

What happens if another call comes in when you’re expecting a call from Apple? No worries. Their automated system retries a number of times until they get through. I’ve never been left in the lurch.

There’s only one catch. Apple’s support isn’t infinite. Even the paid support. I just discovered, to my dismay, that the AppleCare contract on my 2011 Mac has expired. (These are 3-year contracts, and they’re not extendable.) So now I know that the next time I have an issue, I will need to pay for support (which is fine). However, the good news is that the experience will be identical. I don’t have to jump through more hoops to do more troubleshooting or answer more questions. I can still avail myself of Apple’s excellent service. I will just need to pay for the call and pay for any hardware replacements or software upgrades I need. Seems fair to me.