Apple Inc (AAPL)

[langostino]

"Sounds like the big 'server' blew up"

... and a miracle occurred -- only 1% of .Mac/MobileMe customers had any change in service! (Poor David Pogue, how did each and every one of those 1% happen to choose to e-mail him about it, lol!)

Heh. Between Jobs & Co. lying about his having had a second surgery, and Apple lying its butt off on the 1%, somehow the latter seems more offensive to me. The former, at least I understand and have some sympathy for the lie (even if I do think it's the wrong policy). The latter, there's just no excuse. Presumably, the purpose of the lie is to leave people with a more favorable impression of Apple. Ironically, it strikes me as more likely to have done the exact opposite. If they'd owned up to the full extent of the outage straightaway and been forthcoming, professional and responsible in their customer communication in the intervening period, I doubt seriously anyone would come away with a worse impression. Instead, they've managed not only to tick people off with the failure to acknowledge and communicate, but they've then taught any of them with a functioning clue, that Apple is willing to lie right to their faces on matters of customer service, warranty, etc. Not that Apple doesn't have a long history of denying, denying, denying, on all sorts of manufacturing flaws, design failures, etc., only to later cave in and admit not only to the screwup, but to the lie and ensuing coverup. But still, there are floods of new customers coming to Apple these days, who are getting their first taste of what Apple's all about. It's a shame there's nobody that can speak truth to Steve's power to tell him on this particular matter, this approach, the emperor has no clothes.