The ingenuity, peculiar personality and strong professionalism of Steve Jobs, during his forced departure from Apple, the founding of NeXT and his later return to the company’s leadership, turned into fun anecdotes (like that time the future of Apple depended on where Steve Jobs had parked his Porsche) that are really heart-warming. Today we are going to learn about the day Steve Jobs saved a family’s Christmas.
Five iMacs, one sentence and an unexpected phone call
In 1998, Regis McKenna (one of the big names in tech marketing) and his wife bought five iMacs as Christmas presents for their grandchildren. The iMac was exactly what many people were looking for at the time: a computer that could easily find a place at home, with a friendly design and a feeling of “this was made for me”. And, in fact, when she opened hers, Molly, only 5 years old, said a sentence that stayed with them: “Life is good.” It is easy to understand the family’s joy and their gratitude at being able to enjoy such innovative technology.
However, during the first few hours of use, they noticed a problem: the disk drive door would not open. So they contacted the dealer, who replied indifferently that changing this part meant following a specific protocol, that he was not authorized to do it, and that the usual process involved a repair that would take several weeks.
McKenna then wrote an email directly to Steve Jobs to ask about the return and exchange policy for a newly purchased product. A few minutes later the phone rang. It was Steve himself. He asked him what was going on with the iMacs, asked for the name of the dealer and told him he would call back. Shortly afterwards, it was the dealer who called, with a completely different tone, an apology and an immediate solution: he already had a brand-new iMac ready for the granddaughter that very same day.
McKenna wrote to Steve Jobs again, thanking him for stepping in and assuring him that thanks to him his granddaughter had had a very happy Christmas, and that she was delighted with her present. To which Steve replied with a simple and fitting “Ho, ho, ho”, like a proper Santa Claus.
We are talking about the CEO of the company himself getting personally involved in a specific incident affecting a single customer, overlooking internal policy and offering a direct solution. The conclusion? For Apple, the customer really does matter. The user is at the centre of its philosophy. Its whole approach revolves around the people behind the technology, to whom they want to provide the best possible tools to make their everyday lives easier and better.
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