robjam.es

I am a big fan of the Apple AppStore process, and I find myself buying anything that I think will be useful. And generally they work. But recently, I bought an App that just would not work for me. So a disclaimer; The application was Mini Confluence, which is an Atlassian Confluence Client for the iPhone. And for the life of me, it just would not authenticate with any of the Confluence instances I have. So I can’t comment on the application itself, it may be fantastic, but for me it doesn’t work.

So after spending $5.99 and not having it work, I though I would try my luck at getting a refund. And let me tell you that I wasn’t feeling very optimistic about the process, but my expectations were unfounded.

I started by selecting the Contact Support option from the AppStore, and I told them what my issue was. And within 12 hours, I got the following response;

Dear Rob,

I understand that you purchased the application “Mini Confluence” but it will not work on your iPhone. I know how eager you must be to have this resolved and I will be happy to assist you any way that I can with this issue.

Since you are unable to enjoy this application, I will gladly refund this purchase for you. However, please know that the order containing this item is currently processing. I would like you to be assured that I have retained your case so that I may personally make sure the purchase is refunded. Please note that processing can take up to five business days from the date of purchase.

Thank you for your patience. Have a wonderful weekend!

Sincerely,

Julia
iTunes Store Customer Support

Well that was a promising start, but I still had this awkward feeling that there is going to be some chasing up on my part, which I was even wondering whether I would do for $5.99. But then 2 days later, I get this email;

Dear Rob,

Thank you for your patience. I am happy to let you know that I have reversed the charge for the purchase of “Mini Confluence”. In three to five business days, a credit of $5.99 should be posted to the credit card that appears on the receipt for that purchase.

I have also submitted this item for investigation. Apple takes the quality of the items offered on the iTunes Store seriously and will investigate the issue with this item.

Thank you for your understanding. I hope that you continue to enjoy using the iTunes Store. Have a wonderful day!

Sincerely,

Julia
iTunes Store Customer Support

Awesome! Nothing to be done. And then within a couple of hours of that email, I get another “Adjustment Note” email that highlights that a -$5.99 adjustment has been made against my Credit Card for the purchase.

Now that is what I call customer experience. I like to think that I am not an Apple Fanboy, but Apple constantly impresses me with their attention to detail right across their business spectrum. I can’t say that they are perfect, but with a response like the above, I will not hesitate to make other purchases through the AppStore!!

I recently re-discovered a power feature on Firefox, and its ability to use keywords to help Firefox know which search engine you want to use without having to select it from the search engine lists.

Why do this, well if you are like me, and get annoyed at the need of selecting a search engine form the drop down with your mouse before executing the search. Then you probably just don’t do it.

So here is the trick; Select the list of search engine drop downs on your Firefox search bar, and select “Manage Search Engines”. Now go through and add keywords to your favourite search engines. I only have a few, so I use single letter keywords. ‘g’ for Google, ‘e’ for eBay, ‘w’ for Wikipedia etc. Keep it simple. Your done! Now to search to Google, just type ‘g your search term’ in the address bar and it will search google. Try a few options of switching search engines. Command-T (on Mac) and y9ou open a new tab, then start typing;

• g news for sydney
• w portals
• e iPod 8gb (e is my eBay keyword)

Now to tidy things, up, get rid of that search bar which you no longer need and make your address bar longer. Right click on any blank space on the Firefox Header and select “Customize”. Now drag your search bar off the window and into the customize window and it disappears.

Now your really done! Feel the speed power and power of firefox!!