iTunes Customer Service

The iTunes Music Store has the best online customer service I have seen in a long time. A couple of days ago I purchased a DJ compilation and it didn’t seem to want to play. I tried purchasing it again to see if the second download would work, no dice. I filled out the online form and within a day I had the following email in my inbox:

Dear Ben,

I hope this email finds you well. Your issue has been escalated to me and I will be happy to help you from now on until I am sure everything is resolved.

I'm sorry to hear that "Kitsuné BoomBox (Mixed By Jerry Bouthier) - Single" doesn't seem to sound correct. I have posted the missing item to your account. Please follow these steps to download the item:

From the pull-down Store menu at the top, select Check for Purchases (if you're unable to upgrade and are using iTunes 6 or earlier, you'll find this option in the Advanced menu). If you can't find this option, you can also click this link to Check for Purchases:
https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/checkForPurchases

Enter your account name and password, then click the Check button.

The missing item should begin downloading and appear in your Purchased playlist. If you receive an error message while downloading, try again after turning off any firewall or web-accelerator software that you may have installed. If the download process is interrupted for any reason, it should resume once you reopen iTunes.

Please let me know if your third download has the same problems. I will be happy to refund you for your duplicate purchase as soon as the transaction clears. I would, however, like to know if the third download works for you before I refund you for the duplicate purchase. I may need to refund you for both purchases if the content is still not up to par.

I appreciate your patience Ben and truly wish you nothing but the very best. If you have further questions concerning this issue please reply to this email and I will be happy to assist you.

Fascinating... Not only was the email actually helpful, but it was also written in a way that didn’t make me feel like the customer service representative was selecting a canned response from a list. The third download worked great and I emailed the representative back to let her know that it worked. Within a day I had the following email in my inbox:

I'm pleased to hear that "Kitsuné BoomBox" downloaded properly.  I hope you enjoy your purchase.

I have also reversed the charge for the duplicate purchase. You will see a credit of $5.99, plus any applicable taxes, in three to five business days. If store credit was used for this purchase, you should see the credit after you sign out of the iTunes Store and sign back in.

In the unlikely event that you receive a download error in the future, please remember that it is not necessary to repurchase items when downloads are interrupted, because the items should still be in your account, waiting to be downloaded. To learn more, follow the steps in this article:

How to resume interrupted iTunes Store downloads
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n93015

I hope you continue to enjoy using the iTunes Store.

This level of customer service is really impressive, especially when compared to organizations like CIBC and Air Canada. I have sent CIBC a number of emails within their online banking system and generally I receive crappy responses that do not have anything to do with the issue I contacted them about in the first place. Air Canada often tends to solve that problem by not responding to your email.

On a related note the album I downloaded from iTunes wasn’t very good… It would be great if iTunes allowed you to preview more of a song, especially for long club mixes or DJ compilations… Oh well, you can’t win ‘em all!

Comments

[Debbie Bell]

i purchased 2 songs and they took the money out of my account and then it said there was a problem downloading. i waited a few and tried again. i did this about 3 or 4 times. Then i minimized the itunes box, pulled it back up and then clicked purchase and the songs weren't there and still aren't. i would like 2.00$ back on my acount so i can rebuy my songs.

[lil mom]

today is may 26th, 2008
I purchased a 2 year itunes membership and i can't sign in, or download music, please tell me how i can do this. My card has been charged and i got a email, but still can't get in.

[Richard Hagen]

Enjoyed your comments about iTunes help. I'm probably blind, but I searched your page to try to find out how I can write to iTunes to get help. Could not find out how to do this.

[b]

Ben, I wish I had your luck...I think I just got screwed with the "all purchases final" deal.

I had just watched "Walk the Line" again on tv, and I had a desire to listen to Live At Folsom. Well, I searched for Johnny Cash, then pulled up an "entire" listing of JC albums available on Itunes. The ONLY Folsom album listed the first time through was a 3 album set for $25.

I didn't realize it was 3 albums until after I clicked. Stupid perhaps, however, I then tried to rectify the problem by pausing my transaction, this way I'd only bought a couple of tracks of the album.

I then go through the ENTIRE library listing of Johnny Cash again, sorted by best sellers, then release date and it yields no Folsom. I see San Quentin, I see America.

I go to purchase support where I'm unable to find contact info, but then read ALL PURCHASES ARE FINAL under their canned support link.

I go back to Johnny Cash on itunes and miraculously, after searching again through albums without success, there it is, listed under his main artist picture.

This comes after I most certainly clicked on "purchase album", title: Ghost Reveries from the band Opeth.

I didn't realize until after this JC mess that too had been screwed up. It downloaded the wrong album. I in no way, shape, or form clicked on the other album.

So today's $30 plus purchases have yielded me 1 album I didn't want, and another I didn't need ($25 vs $8 purchase).

So why am I telling you this?

I finally was able to dig through the caverns of web links to get a support number with is only open M-F (it's Sunday). But nowhere on the web page can I find a GD EMAIL ADDRESS!!!!! Run around link after run around link yields only failed promise.

Do you happen to know what it is?