Is Steve Jobs Moonlighting In Customer Service? (AAPL)

Dan Frommer | September 1, 2008 9:00 AM

steve-jobs-hand-on-chin.jpgWhat's the easiest way to get ahold of Steve Jobs? Don't bother calling Apple PR or looking for a quote in the business press. Just email him, apparently: Apple's super-secretive boss appears to be increasingly responding to individuals' notes, which then inevitably get leaked to the Mac/gadget sites and made public.

The most recent: Last week, Jobs allegedly told a Gizmodo reader that Apple (AAPL) and AT&T (T) were "discussing" how to offer a "tethering" option for iPhone subscribers. This would allow someone to use their iPhone's 3G Internet access on a laptop, either over wifi or Bluetooth, if they couldn't get to a wifi hotspot. From "Steve"...

We agree, and are discussing it with ATT.

Steve

Sent from my iPhone

Also recently, Steve supposedly alerted someone that Apple would be trying to fix the iPhone's reception problems...

We are working on some bugs which affect around 2% of the iPhones shipped, and hope to have a software update soon.

Steve

...and told someone else that another update would fix some iPhone app flakiness, too...

This is a known iPhone bug that is being fixed in the next software update in September

Is this really Jobs? Impossible to know either way -- Jobs didn't return our email seeking confirmation, nor did Apple's PR department. But it does make sense that a CEO would want to be in some, limited interaction with his customers -- and this seems like an easy way for Jobs to show he's listening without actually having to talk to anyone.

And at least once, a Jobs email has revealed (minor) details that aren't yet public -- but proved to be right: A bug fix coming to the iPod touch calendar. From Macrumors, last October:

MacRumors forum user DavidJearly emailed Steve Jobs, asking about several features that are lacking on the iPod Touch. This included issues with full image syncing, notes, disk mode, lack of calendar input and lack of games.

Steve Jobs reportedly replied and addressed the last two issues:

David,

Nothing can be done about the games. The new iPod touch is a completely different animal inside than the old iPods and the games just don't translate. The inability to edit and add calendar events is a bug that will be fixed in a future software update.

Best,
Steve

But then again, Steve's history of supposedly replying to some emails could be enough to inspire a few attention seekers to pen some fan fiction. And it's not too difficult to "predict" that Apple would want to fix the iPhone's bugs in a software update. In other words, it's entirely possible some (or all) of these are fake.

See Also:
Is Apple Losing Its Touch? The Numbers Say No
Comic Book Ban Shows That Apple Needs An Appeals Court
Apple's iPhone 3G A Month Later: Excellent, But Not Euphoric

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47 Comments

loosingtouch said:
@Dan you should send an email to Steve asking if he is moonlighting in customer service and see if you get a response.

Mark said:
"In other words, it's entirely possible some (or all) of these are fake."

Hmm, a fake steve jobs actually working at Apple?

Dan Lyons should sue...
Juan Mariscal said:
I have e-mailed Steve Jobs many times over the last 5+ years and almost always got a response.

One insignificant issue was that my son bought the original shuffle and we had problems with it and we couldn't get it fixed by Apple. it was only a, what was it originally, a $79 purchase.

I wrote Steve Jobs an e-mail and got a prompt response from him that it would be looked into and I got a phone message from someone in the Apple Executive Office and he asked me to call him which I did.

They sent me a replacement (I think it was defective ear buds) and provided me with some other items to make up for my inconvenient (certainly they didn't give my son a mac. It probably was a gift card for iTunes or something minor.

Now did the real Steve Jobs get my e-mail and reply to it. I doubt it. In my organization, e-mail to the top dog go to someone else to draft a reply and send it out under the CEP's name.

Was the person in the "executive office" that called me work directly for Steve Jobs? I doubt it.

the point here is that these issues get attended to.

Perhaps in between MacWorlds and board and staff meeting the $1/year Apple CEO really has nothing else to do but work in customer service.

Then again, I think Steve Jobs would say everyone in Apple is working in customer service so why not him>


stone said:
I'm not sure if this is real or not but if it is than Steve Jobs is to be commended for being a real person and proving that he actually cares about his customers. This is terrific if true!
Patty said:
I think Steve is just getting VERY tired of the complete incompetence within his ranks.

They take a VERY nice piece of hardware like the new "iPhone 3G" and can't even get the simpliest things working on it... due to very buggy software.

Steve... give'em hell!
Hehateme said:
More PR bullshit from apple.
LarryS said:
I'm a university professor. Must be near 20 years ago I boght one of the original NeXtCubes, and along with it bought an upgrade, a bigger hard drive. Surprisingly, rather than coming installed, the drive came in a separate box. After a lot of tinkering, we came to the conclusion that there was no way the new drive could be made to fit in the NeXtCube. NeXt did not solve the problem. The upgrade had been designed for a different model, but that was just my tough luck.

I wrote to Steve (yes, there was indeed e-mail back then!) and had all my problems attended to by a woman who identified herself as "Steve Jobs' personal assistant". When I spoke to her on the phone, she seemed to be young, energetic, and undoubtedly a sex kitten as well!

Steve's responsibilities have grown a lot since then, so I doubt all you young kids will get the chance, as I did, to be attended to by Steve's personal sex kitten.
pj said:
go away apple!
Mike (URL) said:
I mailed Steve Jobs about a problem a friend of mine was having with her Powerbook repair a few years ago, as she was so stressed out by it she didn't want to even talk to Apple any more. It got fixed, and fixed fast.

Oh, and that friend's now my wife. Maybe, at least in a small way, Steve Jobs' responsiveness to email was responsible for that? I hadn't thought about that before..
John C. Randolph said:
Steve reads his own e-mail, and has been known to come down hard on Apple VPs who didn't.

Apple won't give out the addresses, but if you send mail to Steve Jobs, Ron Johnson, Bertrand Serlet, Tim Cook, or anyone else at Apple, they do get it.

-jcr
John C. Randolph said:
Larry,

I know one of the women who was Steve's personal assistant when she was at NeXT, and your insinuation is offensive. Should I assume that because you're a university professor, that you're trading grades for sex with your students?

-jcr
Mario R. said:
It's custom for Chinese employees to have a Western name in order to communicate more easily with customers from Western countries. Probably 'Steve' is a very popular choice amongst the customer centers in China doing support outsourcing work for Apple.
Personally, I'd not be surprised if Steve was actually sending out these messages. He reads his emails and he does reply to them. Have been lucky enough to be on his good and bad side regarding that. As long as the email contains something valid which can be looked into and solved and is not just some stupid gripe. Come on, the guy's busy running the best company in the world. He's got a lot on his plate :)


the aforementioned 'sex-kitten' is Andrea Nordemann unless she's been replaced. She's an amazing woman and she is Steve's right hand, but she does not answer his emails. He sends them out himself. The man is a whiz at typing and he's very thorough at replying. I worked with him directly at PIXAR from 1991-1997 as his Macintosh Systems Engineer in charge of all Macintosh computers in the company.

As far as Andrea being a sex-kitten...might talk to her hubby about that or simply go get a life. She's just an amazing human being and any CEO would be lucky to have her work for him. Steve takes great care of his people.

Mike
al said:
jcr & docmurdock speak with authority.

Steve cares deeply about Apple customers and their experience and won't allow others to speak forr him. These emails are from RSJ (real Steve Jobs)
LarryS said:
Hi John,

Very sorry, didn't mean to offend. I was speaking in jest, in the spirit of the late Fake Steve blog, of which I was a great fan. I was also attempting a tip of the hat to Real Steve's great popular legend.

I referenced my University position only because, at that time, the NeXt was only available through university purchases (remember that?) -- and of course was far too expensive for most individuals.

Larry
pereshaped said:
There are many Steves in the world. Where does it sign Job's surname on the email response? ;-)
Matt H said:
Hey

They seem legit to me, I sent one to an address that I assumed was steve, got an extremely brief one line reply

Anyone else working for the company would be worried about at least being nice in the email, steve's the only one who doesn't have to worry about his customer service skills
Matt H said:
Forgot to add, checking the mail headers will tell you if they're legit!

I got mine a few months back, steve was using an old version of Mail.app by the looks of it!
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.919.2)

Cheers


B Stew said:
Steve Jobs has three administrative assistance who take care of his email.
Robin said:
Actually the sjobs@apple.com address goes directly to the Apple Executive customer service team.

I emailed them not too long ago about my power adapter which caught fire, and instead of steve jobs, a woman from the Apple Headquarters in Ireland called me. I once emailed this same address asking about the 'iPod Tax'.

The person handling the email obviously didn't research tax in the UK but it was too prompt a reply considering it was something like 4am in the US by that point.
LarrySFan said:
Chill out guys. It was obvious from the way LarryS wrote his post that it was all in a jest.

Geez. Whatever happen to people's sense of humor these days?
Torley (URL) said:
I'll never forget the response Steve gave me, many years back, when I emailed him and asked what his favorite breakfast was. :)
Jiff Loo said:
Wow, guess he is just a normal guy afterall. Who would have thunk it.

Jiff
www.useurl.us/17n
Larry said:
Give me a break. Just one more piece of s__t coming out of the Apple PR dept. I am very surprised that there was no reference to reports of Bill Gates never did this.
Reading the tech colunms it is easy to see that more than 2% of the Iphones are having problems and that the AT&T network is not up to speed to handle 3G.
Steve jobs is a modern day robber baron that runs sweat shops to get the lowest price possible for his products. His products fail far more often then others and the fact that they are replaced and the customer service rep is friendly does not satisfy me that the product failed in the first place.
pablo said:
@Juan


"it was only a, what was it originally, a $79 purchase. "

One of the many differences between typing and speaking is a backspace button.


eric said:
I just sent steve an email asking how he was doing, the response:


I'm Okay.

How Are You?

-Steve
shame said:
@ pablo

"One of the many differences between typing and speaking is a backspace button."

I ejony the haumn qliatuy of the cmemont rtehar tahn the ienrrevret aim-speak. I guess it's a matter of personal opinion, but why not include the thought process behind the comment? We don't all have to pretend to be robots, do we?
AMT said:
Larry, I don't know whether you're ignorant or stupid, perhaps both. Apple does not run "sweatshops." Employees who work for manufacturers of Apple products, whether in Taiwan or the Chinese mainland, earn salaries equal to or well above the average wages in those countries. Studies have shown conclusively that if Apple forced their manufacturers to pay far above the average this would have a serious disruptive affect on other manufacturers and would thus be regarded with great disfavor by the governing authorities. Yes, it would be nice if Apple manufactured everything in the United States. But then their products would be so expensive that few people would be able to afford them. Clearly you have no understanding of labor economics whereby virtually all salaries are determined by market forces not whether the employers has a heart of gold. Perhaps you do, but I would bet that when you hire a carpenter or plumber or house painter you don't, out of the goodness of your heart, pay them more than the going rate. Don't you take competitive bids? Why don't you just tell anybody you're hiring that you'll agree to any price they ask if you are so concerned with the welfare of those you employ.
Alfredo Octavio (URL) said:
I don't buy it. I wrote to him when I was not allowed to enter an Apple Store and he didn't respond...

http://alfredo.octavio.net/index.php?id=1088

Unless, of course, he gave the order to not let me in...
Ladon said:
Hmm... I have something I'd like to ask him about a specific piece of tech that I think they're having trouble releasing because of a lack of demand. Wonder if I'll get a response? *tries*
Larry said:
Typical Apple Cadre attack of calling names like stupid. Ignorant, possibly because many of us are not informed but I try to stay very informed on issues.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13357555/

http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/sweatshops/4010.html
AMT
Apple does not run "sweatshops." Employees who work for manufacturers of Apple products, whether in Taiwan or the Chinese mainland, earn salaries equal to or well above the average wages in those countries.

When the standard is low than keeping up with that standard is not all that hard. The live in factories in China have been documented as bordering on criminal. The Apple plants have workers working 15 hour days for $50 a month. And of course the study done by other robber baron manufactures like Steve Jobs would not want to disrupt that cart by raising wages.

AMT
Studies have shown conclusively that if Apple forced their manufacturers to pay far above the average this would have a serious disruptive affect on other manufacturers and would thus be regarded with great disfavor by the governing authorities.

Who did this study AMT? Apple, other Steve Jobs types that want every last dime they can squeeze out of the workers and customers buying their products.

AMT
Clearly you have no understanding of labor economics whereby virtually all salaries are determined by market forces not whether the employers has a heart of gold.

AMT do you people have no shame and how many of these people are you willing to throw in the furnace for your $$ returns.

BTW I have no problem with companies making a profit and I know that this is terribly off the topic to Jobs returning e mails but his man is no where near the saint that he has been made out to be.

I cannot believe the people posting here that believe a canned auto reply from Steve Jobs is authentic. If you people are that gullible then send me you email and I will have Santa and the Easter bunny send you e mails.
John C. Randolph said:
Robin,

That address is Steve's, not the customer service team's. He often forwards messages to Applecare Executive Relations, but they don't get them all.

-jcr
John C. Randolph said:
"jcr & docmurdock speak with authority. "

Not authority, just experience. ;-)

-jcr
Richard said:
Do you honestly believe that Steve Jobs is answering your emails? I don't suppose he gets emails from other people like mmmmmm his team perhaps? This is so his company can bring you products?

He must be the only Steve working at Apple, you know, being such a unique name..

I must go know and email Steve about what I should have for dinner
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