'Apple Community+' Launches to Recognize and Reward Top Contributors in the Apple Support Community

It would be rather helpful if trillion dollar company Apple employed more support staff, rather than rely on members of the public.

I only go there occasionally and have noticed the highest ranked people give answers that are deferent to Apple and usually blame the user in some way.

There was a story a while back about a woman who posted on how to save photos from a broken iPhone. She runs a repair shop where she can work on the actual board. Apple had said the data was lost, and she wasn't even allowed to tell people it was possible to recover their photos.

When people go looking for help online, one obvious place that comes up in Google searches about iPhone problems is the Apple Support Communities forum, where users can submit information to learn more about their device and troubleshoot their problems. But even there, people are often told they're out of luck.

Jones said she had attempted to answer some users' questions about data recovery, contradicted an answer suggesting that it couldn't be done, and pointed out a solution.

She said she was then warned about giving "questionable advice," her message was deleted and eventually her account was banned from the forum.

This has happened several times, she added, both to her and to some of her colleagues.

"It's absolutely heartbreaking, because it is absolutely not true," she said.

"Most toilet phones, common family water accidents, most of those are recoverable, especially [from] water damage."

CBC News also contacted the official site for Apple Support and received a similar answer from one administrator.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/apple-can-t-help-how-a-molecular-biologist-trained-stay-at-home-moms-to-recover-lost-iphone-photos-1.5079639

When I worked for a contractor of Apple's doing Apple Sales Online (apple.com and the Apple 800 number), I got screamed at by a supervisor when I told a customer they could upgrade their MacBook's HDD after purchase.

If people don't remember, both MacBooks and MacBook Pros had notoriously easy upgrades for HDDs. In fact, one MacBook even had a latch that opened up the bay for the battery an HDD and had the instructions for replacing the HDD engraved on it.

I showed my supervisor the manual that comes with the MacBook that gave step by step instructions on how to replace the drive (the good old days).

And she just responded that wasn't their policy. I was expected to lie.

The same with this person trying to help people recover their photos.

Edit: Not for nothing, but the levels and perks on Apple's page of going up the ranks immediately made me think of Scientology's Bridge to Total Freedom, especially given that you get points for being a narc (reporting other people's posts).

This really looks like a way to make sure the spin always stays positive.

For example:

The SSD on your new baseline M2 Macbook Pro is the most solid, secure, and innovative that Apple has ever produced. The speeds are [I]revolutionary and will make your Apple experience magical.[/I]

1,000 plus replies for any meaningful level. Seems incredibly high, and the perks are probably not worth it. It's Apple's way of shifting technical support from paid levels to volunteers helping out.

Most Common Apple Support Community responses:

1) Link to generic Support Notes that do not address stated problem

2) People stating that “I dont have that problem” (so therefore its a non-issue)

3) Telling users to Reinstall Everything


Its a shame because you can see that most people who use Apple Support forums are lower end users that have solvable issues but are rarely given relaxant solutions. I feel like this will only encourage more problem deflection and that “politely blame the user” support.

Everybody that has a support problem already knows not to go the Apple forums and instead come here or one of the product subreddits for some real answers. It used to be helpful about 10 years ago when not every answer is like this. It starts with "Hey it seems like you're having a problem with enabling Bluetooth on your menu bar.." That right there is the first sign. Then it goes into a copy-pasted content on turning on and off your iCloud, resetting SMC and PRAM, and re-installing MacOS from scratch.