Reddit User Claims Tim Cook Changed Apple Hold Music After Email Complaint

A Reddit user has come forward with a cool story about Apple’s legendary customer service, Tim Cook, and a subsequent improvement to the brand’s hold music… if the story is true.

A few sites have posted the comment by a Reddit dude about not only an email to Tim Cook at Apple about the brand’s allegedly shoddy hold music, but also a nearly implausibly swift response considering the parameters.

Which is not to say it’s untrue… but the comment definitely beggars belief, and we’re surprised there were no responses directing the user to r/hailcorporate. Also, there’s been no independent verification of this tale from Apple or the poster (or anyone else for that matter), so far be it from us to say that a Reddit comment belongs here and not in, say, r/thathappened.

Caveats aside, it is a super cool story if true, because one of the admirable things about Apple is the brand’s commitment to quality… and what Reddit’s u/lerde has to report is definitely interesting.

According to the Redditor, all it took to change the multi-gazillion dollar retailer’s phone-based customer service tone was a simple email to Tim Cook, whose email is public, and who likely receives more emails per day than the Pope:

“I once sent Tim an email about the quality of music while on hold with Apple. It was super low quality, therefore an upbeat rock song sounded like pure distortion and really aggravated me because I was on hold for 20+ minutes for something so simple (iPhone didn’t turn on, needed to set up a repair as in my country no Apple Store = have to send it to another country).”

He (or she) continues:

“Much to my surprise a lady from Cupertino called me up the next day, saying she’d received a concerning email from Tim about ugly distortion hold music while on the phone, that Tim had tested this himself and agreed that something had to be done. She assured me that the hold music would be tested to make sure it sounded pleasant on all types of phones and connections.”

The very next day? Cook must have not been busy.

The poster concludes:

“The next time I called Apple, the hold music was indeed very pleasant.”

Is this Apple-centric tale of extreme customer service cromulent? We don’t know. Does Apple go to insane lengths to ensure its brand is totally perfect? Yes, but still, this sounds very fast and comprehensive, like did Apple just play any old thing on its hold music? Probably not.

In short, this Tim cook email story could have happened, but we don’t know that it did. Apple (and Cook specifically) also very likely receive plenty of broad-scale complaints like this every single day, after all — do you think this is a legit story?