As the owner of a PowerBook I recently went through Apple's battery recall. One of my two batteries was affected. I filled out the online form and within a week a new battery was delivered with a postage-paid return envelope for the old one. Crisp, clean and efficient. Of course, Apple thinks I live in the US and sent the replacement to my father's address in San Francisco. So I got the the deluxe American treatment.

Chinese people who own Apple computers think they are getting shabbier treatment, however, and they are burning up the Internet about it.

ChinaTechNews reported a few days ago that contributors to Chinese Internet forums are complaining about how the recall has been handled here. Unlike in the US, where Apple handled all shipping and essentially made the process effortless, Chinese consumers have to pay for the shipping themselves.

In fact, it seems expectations are unreasonably high here, with some consumers griping that Apple won't go door-to-door to collect old batteries. Couriers are cheap in China, but the logistics of such a full-service recall might be beyond Apple's relatively small business operation here (as opposed to the colossal manufacturing operation outsourced to Foxconn in Shenzhen).

Now Apple is being accused of having a "double standard" for Chinese consumers.

That's an accusation commonly leveled at multinational corporations that seem to have dropped the service ball in China. Chinese consumers are proud and prickly, and they don't like being made to feel like they are seen as less important or worthy than consumers in the US or Europe. MNCs that make them feel that way do so at their extreme peril. Dell found this out some months ago when it was bitterly flamed on the Chinese Internet over what should have been a relatively minor customer service issue.

Like other Chinese consumer Internet flame-a-thons, this may blow over quickly. But it may also leave a bad impression in a market where Apple is not exactly thriving.

Here are a few golden rules that we PR types often discuss with our consumer-brand MNC clients in China:

1) Remember that modern Chinese consumers can easily compare the service they get here with what people overseas get. Bear that in mind when setting customer service policies in China.

2) If you must provide a different level of service in China than you do overseas, do your best to make that inobvious, try to ensure that it doesn't affect customer service, and have a good explanation lined up for when you are inevitably found out.

3) If your customers are Internet savvy--as users of Apple computers are, more or less by definition--bear in mind that they will be only too happy to share their impressions of your service with everyone else on the Chinese Internet.

4) MNCs have almost no room for error in customer service. Chinese consumers complain that MNCs often have double standards. The great irony is that it is generally Chinese consumers who apply the double standard, holding MNCs to a much higher one than they do Chinese companies. Unfortunately, this is not a usable defense when you have a customer service crisis.

5) When a complaint goes public, act on it fast, fast, fast. Speed saves in these situations. If the home office bureaucracy slows down decision-making on consumer complaint issues in China, bargain for autonomy or buy asbestos underwear.

As for Apple, they should think of a way to make their customers here happy, and the sooner the better.

Note: Apologies for my recent scare postings. It's been a bit crazy at the office. This Saturday, the 23rd, I head back to the US for Christmas and New Year, so postings may stay light for a while.

--Will