Dear Mr. Cook

Dear Mr. Cook,

First of all, let me relay how great Apple’s support staff are! They were all knowledgeable, helpful and polite! However, they were not able to resolve my issue.

My issue is a simple one, I purchased a book from iBooks a few months ago and it does not appear on several of my devices including a new iPad Pro 12.9 I just purchased.

The background. The book I purchased was “The Complete Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Series Books 1-7”. I purchased it a month or so before the premier of the Foundation series on Apple TV. I wanted to get through the original three books before the series started. I accomplished that and have continued reading the remaining books in the series. I am now on book six.

When I purchased the book, I downloaded it on my iPhone and my small and large iPad Pros. All was good!

A month or two ago, I wanted to do some reading on one of my Macs and the book did not show up in my purchased list. After a lot of troubleshooting, I finally called Apple support and they verified it was in my purchases. We were cut off during the chat so I never received a final answer. At this point I had an idea what the issue was as I no longer saw the book in the iBook bookstore.

Forward to several weeks ago. I decided to upgrade my large iPad Pro to the latest model as the new screen looked to be a nice improvement on an already outstanding device. Knowing the issue I had with my Mac and the book not showing up, I made sure I did a backup of the old device and then did a restore of that to setup the new device. Well, the book was not restored even though I thought it would be backed up. At this point, I only had the book on my iPhone as I gave my small iPad to my wife.

As you can imagine, I was not very happy. I decided to call support again and get a final answer on the issue.

After talking to several support folks, I finally had my answer, since the book was no longer in the Apple bookstore, I no longer had access to it. This means the book I purchased several months ago, I can no longer download and I no longer own. Interestingly enough, it no longer shows in my purchases either (when I look) but when I asked the Apple support folks to check, they verified they could see the purchase on their side.

I could vent my frustration with all this but I’m sure you have already heard that frustration from other customers and they have probably been referred to some obscure section in an agreement somewhere that said this may happen. Not good enough. Not by a long shot.

A purchase is a purchase. To most everyone it means you now own or own a copy of the thing you purchased. If I buy a book from a bookstore, I still have that book if the bookstore no longer offers it. Bits should work the same as a physical item.

I am aware that deals are made and contracts signed that may tie your hands. I understand that and think it is BS in this day and age.

Knowing that, Apple should be honest and not have a Buy button but a Long Term Rental (or similar) button instead. Put it bold and upfront that you are not buying the item (movie, book, music, etc.), you are only able to use it until someone decides it is going away.

The list of items that went away should also be right in front of the customer so they know right up front what they purchased and what they no longer have. Most folks don’t have money to throw away on bad investments.

I would say Apple is being dishonest, lying in fact, that a customer is actually buying something. These “purchases” can just disappear including from your list of purchases. The thing is, it isn’t Apple that it being dishonest, it is a manager somewhere in Apple that made the decision to do things this way and their manager that approved that decision (and so on). It starts to make customers wonder what else those managers are being dishonest about.

I don’t mean to be harsh but please tell me where I am wrong.

I now have to decide what I want to do going forward. First, I will never purchase another media item from Apple as long as things stay the way they are. I may rent but that’s about it. I also know that what I have on an old Apple device may not be available on a new Apple device. I was going to upgrade my phone this year but I doubt I do that now as my iPhone is the only place I have my book and I’d really like to finish reading it! Will I buy anything else from Apple, I don’t know. I’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars with Apple over the years and have recommended them over and over. I can’t do that now, at least not without some big caveats.

You see, if Apple would have been honest and upfront to begin with, I would have had the honest information to make an informed choice on where to make my purchase. Instead, the information is hidden and the only way I find out I no longer have the item I purchased is when the item I purchased has disappeared. NOT a good customer experience and also NOT a good product. Isn’t that supposed to be at the core of who Apple is?

Finally, Mr. Cook, a couple of questions. Why should I buy any more “media” (movies, music, books, apps, etc.) from Apple and why should I buy any more hardware from Apple as the media I have purchased may or may not be available on that new hardware?

Thank you for listening and I look forward to your response.