Recently after the need to contact several different vendors’ support departments, I was reflecting on my first Apple iPhone Support experience…

I had been primarily a PC user for years and had only limited exposure to Apple’s products.

But I’ve always been somewhat of an early adopter and, of course, had to have one of the early iPhones. I loved it. The whole Apple process and I don’t mean just the device and it’s applications. I was obvious to me that someone had put thought into each aspect of the experience from the ease of initially ordering the phone to opening the box. Even the cables were packaged in a way that had the end user in mind.

A couple of months later something went wrong with the iPhone and I called Apple Care for support. The telephone support experience was great, the tech was on the line in no time, courteous, personable and knowledgeable. We determined that I did indeed need a replacement phone and it arrived via Fed Ex the next day.

Apple’s focus on the details was obvious. In the box was the replacement iPhone, a return shipping label, a wad of packing tape and instructions.

The instructions told me to take a paper clip, remove the SIM card from the failed iPhone and plug it into the new one. That’s when I noticed another small zip lock bag in the box and it contained, you guessed it, a paper clip.

Apple had provided everything I needed to get my replacement phone working and return the defective one.

I still have the paper clip.