taken from the iphone discussion board

great letter I copied/pasted with the author's approval.
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Dear Steve,

I was there on day 1 at the exact same store you were at. I saw you and you saw me, but I'm sure you don't remember who I am. After all, I'm just a little Apple customer. In fact, there are lots of little Apple customers and without us collectively, there wouldn't be an industry giant named Apple.

Your first line in your letter is laughable at best. "I have received hundreds of emails from iPhone customers who are upset about Apple dropping the price of iPhone by $200 two months after it went on sale." REALLY? Wow. First off, it was probably more like "thousands," not hundreds. And who would have thought that people would be upset after you rip them off of $200 dropping the price faster than Lance Armstrong descending the Alps?

Next you talk about the "Holiday season." IT IS SEPTEMBER!!!! Please spare us the excuse and just be honest with us.

Point #2 covers the technology road is bumpy. Give us a break. No kidding this is the case. However, why not give us a bunch of examples of large companies selling as many units of their product as the iPhone (with a similar price point) where they then decided to slash the price by 1/3 just a few months later.

For point 3: "we need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price. Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these."

OK... now I see, so the early customers that trusted you now only get shafted out of $100? Not only are you not giving cash refunds, but just store credits so people will buy more of your products. It is nice to know that the early loyal customers aren't as valued as the new customers that you are dropping the price for. People who camped out on day 1 get $100 store credit from Apple. People who are new customers get $200 cash credit. Way to "take care" of the early iPhone customers Steve! Thanks!

Finally, "We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple." You are? Then why not tell us if MMS is possible. Why have you kept us in the dark about ringtones until now? Etc, etc, etc?

Note to Steve: Try being honest with your customers. Try sharing upcoming news with us. Try to value your hard core customers who waited on day 1 more than the newbies who didn't put forth the effort for your product in the first two months. Stop making excuses and just own up and say "We could have done this better. We sincerely apologize. Here is a $150 store credit back on the iPhone and a 25% off coupon for a one time Apple store purchase within the next year. Thank you for supporting us because without our loyal customers, our company would not be successful."

Cheers.
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IMSandman
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1118864&start=0&tstart=0