Apple swindles old man

Jimmy Guphanti said:

I was at an Apple Store today picking up a Mac that needed fixing. While I was waiting for them to bring it out, I overheard a conversation between an Apple "Genius" and an elderly man who was buying an iPhone for the first time. He said his old phone that he had for 10 years broke, and he wanted to buy an iPhone to do FaceTime with his grandkids. The guy was unsure about most of the features and generally unfamiliar with the iPhone. The genius asked him if he takes any pictures, watches movies, or plays games and he said no. The genius then asked him how many people he plans on calling on it. I wondered why this made a difference so I listened closely while standing nearby to hear the explanation. The old man said about 10 people, and the genius told him that to fit 10 phone numbers he would need to buy the 64 GB. He was hesitant but said ok and the genius walked off smiling. When he came out with the iPhone he whispered to his buddy who laughed, I'm assuming he told him what he did although I couldn't hear. I felt like explaining to the man how he just got swindled while the guy was in the back but I did not want to implicated in the whole thing, but I regret not saying anything now. I am going to question the next Apple purchase I make. This is appalling.

Click to expand...

OP I feel for you. It's kind of a tough one. In todays world you have to be very careful about how you butt into people's situations. If I had came into the conversation from the middle, then I would not have said anything, because I don't know what was said before I heard anything that prompted the 64GB recommendation.

Now, if I heard the conversation from the very beginning, then depending on the situation, the most I would do is make a quick statement to the elderly gentlemen, and my next action would be based off the elderly man's response. If he's receptive and wanted to know more, I would gladly explained it more. If he was defensive, annoyed or anyway wondering why I was in his business, I would have moved on. At least then, I know I tried to do something.

This was personal morals not the company obviously. Some people don't have any respect for others. This will always be around.

I call BS on this.

SpyderBite said:

Thus I don't understand what motivation the Genius would have for recommending more phone than the customer needed.

Click to expand...

Maybe there is an incentive to gross as high as possible in sales to get a promotion or bonus etc.

I didn't know even sold stuff, I thought they just fix things. If you need help buying can't you get personalised shopping or something.

I've been calling BS on the OP's story since the first page of this thread. With a post history like the OP's I would be very surprised if the story is real.

That is ridiculous and a flat out lie by the Apple Employee..no wonder their stock is crashing. Love the products...but...I would have had no problem telling the old man that a 16g would be just fine for what he was using it for...even if the apple employee heard me. That would have been the right thing to properly educate him.

Damn that's pretty sad. I would have spoken up and said something.

MonkeySee.... said:

I call BS on this.

Click to expand...

Why? There are dishonest salespeople in every retail setting.

When I was in college I worked at RadioShack for a while, and they really push the extended service plans, and you get nice commission when you sell them. My boss (who was new to management at the time, and was a sleazeball of a salesman), was showing a customer some item first thing Monday morning, which was the day new sales went into effect. This item had gone on sale for $20 off, but the signs weren't out yet. When trying to talk the guy into buying it (who wanted the item, but didn't quite want to pay that much), my boss, instead of telling him, "hey..good luck, this just went on sale", decided to say "I tell you what I'll do for you...if you buy this today, I'll throw in the extended warranty (which was $20) for free."

The guy bought it. I didn't say anything in front of the customer since it was my boss, and frankly I needed the job, but I did call my boss on it afterwards, saying I thought it was unethical, as the guy probably would have rather saved the $20 than have the warranty....and he just brushed it off. "I got the TSP sale!"

In this case, had I been in the store, I'd have said something. I've been known to offer my expertise to customers when I hear a sales rep who doesn't know what they're talking about, especially with regards to computers and such. I build my own, so I'm pretty familiar with all the hardware configurations and impacts on performance. Once in an Apple store this fall, I overheard a customer ask the Genius when the iPhone 5 would be announced, and at that time, the rumors were essentially locked in for the date of the announcement, but of course the Genius couldn't say anything (though I'm sure they knew). After the Genius walked away I walked up to the guy and said "Announcment will be Sep 12, with release probably a week or so later."

Jman13 said:

Why? There are dishonest salespeople in every retail setting.

Click to expand...

Why? because it just doesn't sound right. Why would he risk his job to scam an old guy for a few quid that he wouldn't even see?

OP needs to be careful. If he has made this up and I suspect he has (maybe bored) then he could get done for slander.

AFDoc said:

Agree. IF you go to purchase something and you're ignorant regarding the purchase that's IS on you.

Click to expand...

A good salesman will sell you the best possible product at the highest possible price. So when you go home you think "I paid a lot of money, more than I wanted, but what I got was well worth it". Like selling an iPad with Retina display instead of one without, the customer pays more for a better product and is happy. 27" iMac with Fusion drive vs. 21.5" without Fusion drive. Customer is happy (customer's wife isn't ) and salesman is happy.

But charging more than it is worth, and selling things that are useless for the customer, that's not good for business long term. Apart from all moral considerations.

bandityo said:

That is ridiculous and a flat out lie by the Apple Employee..no wonder their stock is crashing. Love the products...but...I would have had no problem telling the old man that a 16g would be just fine for what he was using it for...even if the apple employee heard me. That would have been the right thing to properly educate him.

Click to expand...

If this had happened and I was in that place, I would have no problem asking the sales person to get his store manager and ask to repeat what he said in front of the store manager. But the "if this had happened" is a very, very, very big if. Especially since the person was supposed to be a "genius" and these guys don't actually sell anything.

MonkeySee.... said:

Why? because it just doesn't sound right. Why would he risk his job to scam an old guy for a few quid that he wouldn't even see?

OP needs to be careful. If he has made this up and I suspect he has (maybe bored) then he could get done for slander.

Click to expand...

I call BS too... But there's never going to be any way to prove it one way or another so... oh well... if nothing else it brings a new topic to discuss.

I went to Verizon with my father-in-law to help him with his iPhone 5 purchase. The sales lady didn't like me and how mouthy and knowledgable I was but as they say "tough s***". My father-in-law knew nothing of phones/iphones whatever and wanted someone there to assist. He had an iPhone 4 but beyond knowing how to answer "what kind of phone is that?" ("an iPhone") he knew NOTHING.

I fully intend to help anyone who asks me about that kind of thing. In fact, I get frustrated when my parents come to me with XYZ problem or tell me they just went out and bought XYZ gadgetry and didn't consult me first. They learned the hard way several times but now they get it...

Myiphone7 said:

The retail manager works for apple...

----------



It's apples fault if an apple employee breaks ur iPhone apple picks up the tab

Click to expand...

I agree that Apple is responsible for taking care of the problem if their employee break your iPhone, but that's very different from saying what OP said: "Apple swindles old man."

As in my example, if an employee of a company stole your phone, it doesn't mean that the company that employee works for stole your phone. The company may be responsible for it. But that's two different things.

If you have trouble understanding this, here is another example. If you are a 12 year old and you break your neighbor window, your parents are responsible for paying for the damage, but it doesn't mean your parents broke that window.

Why bother making that distinction? Well, if you are a 12 year old, then there may me not much of a distinction there because you may be focusing on the cost of the window (sorry if I offend some 12 year old who are more mature), but as an adult, the accusation of breaking someone window is far more serious than the cost of paying for that window.

cardinalryan said:

That employee represents Apple, therefore Apple did the swindling. Apple is slowly, but surely, coming back down to earth. It's still going to take another 5 years or so, but eventually this company is going to fall back to the way it was during the interim of Steve Jobs' tenures at Apple. The company has basically never been successful without Jobs and I am seeing no reason why this will be any different.

Click to expand...

That is one possibility. The more likely one is that this post was completely made up, which seems likely when you look carefully at what was stated as "facts" and the posting history of the thread starter.

Wait... people lie? For money? Nooooooooo......

I refuse to believe it! Next you'll tell me Michael Jackson died.

I missed the part where they put the gun to his head and forced him to buy something. He asked a question, got bad information, acted on that information, and has every right to return the phone for a full refund (for 14 days) if he decides he got "swindled".

Bad things happen all the time. It stinks. I wish we could all get along and never lie to one another or steal from each other... but if that happened Samsung would have never produced the SGS3

Jman13 said:

Why? There are dishonest salespeople in every retail setting.

Click to expand...

Theres loads of trolls in every forum setting too.

I worked for a large computer retailer in the late 90s.

One mid week evening, was slow. We did all our shelving/stocking.

Standing around talking and a guy comes up, hands in his belt.

"Which one of you guys actually want to do some work? I need a new computer, and not one of those ones with that celtron processor." (he said it as "sell - tron")

One of the guys stepped forward and said "I'd be glad to help you sir". And this guy said "Don't even bother asking me about warranties, I don't want it!"

So he obviously is familiar with our "process". (Pick out the machine, quote it with a warranty, try to sell the warranty.).

15 minutes later, he was walking out the door with a Compaq, Intel Celeron Inside on the box.

Someone obviously guided him purchasing the PC. Don't get a *Celeron*, don't waste your money on the extended warranty. He just musta heard "celtron" because he fell for the line "Yea those Celtrons were terrible, these new celeron chips are amazing, fast!". He came in acting like he was all edumucahted hot stuff and he got zinged.

We all laughed.

It was returned a few days later.

What the hell is wrong with you people .
1) get used to being up sold. At restaurants I saw a waitress try really hard to sell my grandpa a dessert with his meal . Completely unnecessary . I didn't say anything so I wouldn't complicate things . But my grandpa paid it so that's ON HIM. Old dudes are the first ones who say NO if something's overpriced

At car washes they want you to pick the highest detail package, at abercrbie they ask for your email to send newsletters and coupons, like honestly get over it

The behavior you displayed however was very cowardly . Go up to him and tell him hey bud your overpaying more then what you need don't be afraid to ask for the basic phone ! Then wall away and see the guy smile because of the courage you inspired with him. I 100% agree with making the most money off suckers as you can but I am disgusted with you being NON ignorant and not trying to help . It reminds me of people who witness murders but don't say anything because they don't want the hassle of cops asking them questions and doing investigations . That non initiative ruins a lot of things .

I thought Apple store employees don't work off of commission?

It sounds like OP missed something, besides apple store employees are not commission based so there is no reason to lie.

My aunt went to the Apple Store in Delaware to buy a Macbook, and she was originally going to get a 15" macbook pro because she thought the bigger screen meant bigger content

The Apple Genius, actually talked her down to the 13" and compared and showed her that the stuff is the same size, you just have more room to play.

I was suprised, and my aunt's kept asking him why they were telling her to spend less money instead of more.

gnasher729 said:

To be honest...

There are two explanations for this post. One explanation is that an employee at an Apple Store was behaving in a despicable way ripping off an old man, that another store employee thought it was funny, even though in reality getting caught doing this would get him into deep trouble with his manager, and that someone overhearing it all didn't even think about doing anything about it.

The other explanation is that the story is completely made up.

We have exactly the same amount of evidence for each side. However, the store "genius" is usually there to help with technical problems and doesn't do sales. He or she doesn't make any money by selling a more expensive phone. And he or she would carry an extreme risk if the customer talks to anyone who knows what they are doing, returns the phone and gives as a reason that he was ripped off.




If he checked with his kids, then most likely he will check with the kids again, return to the store, and the sales person will be in trouble. And since the sales person knows that, the likelihood of all this actually happening is quite low.

Click to expand...

Another option is that the OP heard a conversation between an Apple employee and a customer and believed that he heard one thing that could've been another. I can't imagine any self respecting person would hear what the OP says he heard--and be 100% sure of what he heard--and not step in or ask to speak to a manager about the incident.

It could of course also be totally made up. I don't see why any non-commissioned salesperson would be motivated to do something that puts their job at risk just to sell a more expensive iPhone. Something doesn't add up somewhere.