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A lying saleswoman at the Apple store

B

bollweevil

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 1, 2008
410
1
I had a rather unpleasant experience at my local Apple store. My father and I went in to buy him a MacBook Pro, and she offered us the $30 off MobileMe discount with no prompting. She made a point of the fact that she was required to tell us about the promotion.

Here was the big lie: She said that MobileMe includes 20 GB of iDisk storage plus unlimited backup storage. I didn't realize this was a total lie until I got home and researched it. It seemed plausible because Mozy offers unlimited backup for $5 a month.

Here was the really unpleasant part: She said, "It's a really great deal, some families have bought so many Macs that they will have discounted MobileMe until 2020." I immediately became concerned for the financial wellbeing of those families, if they really do exist.

I asked, "To get 10 years of discounted MobileMe, did they have to pay $690 to Apple all in advance when they bought the computers, or did they get to keep their money and pay $69 each year?"

She looked at me like I was an alien speaking gibberish. "They get $30 off each year."

My father and I spent literally five minutes trying to get her to answer the question. We used MobileMe boxes and pantomimed money as props, and she still didn't understand. "I buy a computer now in January, but I don't need to renew my MobileMe subscription until December. If I want the discount, do I have to take $69 out of my pocket now in January and hand it to you, or do I get to keep the $69 in my pocket for 11 months and THEN hand it to you when my current MobileMe runs out?"

I hold make-believe money and reach for the box. She replies, "That's right, you only pay $69!"

She finally relented and admitted that Apple collects the money up front and won't refund it if you cancel MobileMe before using the extra year(s) you have bought. But she maintained that it didn't matter. We then tried to explain the economic concepts of present value and the time value of money. "That's why you have to pay interest when you borrow money." We also explained the idiocy of paying in advance for a product which is likely to change drastically before you actually receive it. In the past 10 years (or less), MobileMe has been iTools and .Mac. Who knows what these 'families' will actually be receiving in 2020. Who knows how cheap Mozy will be then, it may quite honestly be free.

Ugh.
 
Bad luck. Call to the store and speak with sales manager or her supervisor, they can do something for it. Sometimes people just have bad days or didn't sleep enough. Apple employees are regular people, no robots :)
 
She wasn't having a bad day, she looked like she was having a really good day. In fact, I was amazed by how oblivious she seemed to be to the ridiculous nature of our conversation. I am sure she didn't realize the extent of our frustration, my father and I are not emotive or confrontational guys.
 
I'm going to go on to consider this thread title A seriously misinformed saleswoman at Apple.
I'd say she is wrong and you're overreacting. I would call the store and calmly explain what happened. Whether you believe she is having a good day or not, as a retail employee she may very well just need additional training. There is no benefit to her in lying so why would she do it intentionally? When you deem someone a liar ask yourself what they gain. If it's nothing, reconsider your theory.
 
bollweevil said:
..............................
Here was the really unpleasant part: She said, "It's a really great deal, some families have bought so many Macs that they will have discounted MobileMe until 2020." I immediately became concerned for the financial wellbeing of those families, if they really do exist.
....................................................
Ugh.
Click to expand...

gee, that was a flippant comment to show that some families buy many macs. That's all, get over it. No point in nitpicking on words. Also being "concerned about the wellbeing of those families" is a bit over the top. If they exist they just bought 10 Mac's so I don't there is a problem.

The claim about the unlimited backup storage is the problem here.
 
Hmmm... "misinformed"? After the long discussion involving many different approaches, it might be that you have encountered a "stupid salesperson". These are rare and often confused with the "ignorant person". Through testing, you've determined that this is indeed the "stupid" variety. An ignorant person is someone who is simply uninformed, a temporary condition. This "stupid" variety was confirmed by your numerous attempts, including street theater complete with props, blocking and script, as someone who could not be informed.

At any rate, don't condemn all the saleswomen at the stores as liars simply because you ran into a stupid one. Move on to the next. You're not going to save the world with a forum post. Besides, it's "buyer beware".
 
The saleswoman sounds misinformed, or got her facts mixed up. I'm sure not everyone that works at Apple live and breathe Apple like some people on this forum. I don't think she was deliberately lying to you.

I don't trust most of the things these people tell me anyways. 2 geniuses told me that my classic 17" MacBook Pro is not compatible with the 30" ACD, while another guy told me that the MBP would be compatible with the new LED 24" ACD. So there you go. They're just not informed.

Most people here on this forum are much, much more informed, and I would trust them more on their experience than I would these geniuses.
 
Was she young or old?

The conversation, as it stands, in silly and professionally unacceptable. However, if she was just a teenager then the likelihood of her simply not grasping the idea of money, time, and value is very high, and thus not intentional.
 
Did you then dust off your pocket protector and tell her why old Trek is better than new Trek?

You wanted to feel superior to this whoever chick was. If you're so bright, you should have just not bought Mobile Me (and frankly, that you even thought Mobile Me was a good deal from the start makes me think of you the same you think of this girl - naive) and just kept your mouth shut and been happy with the money you saved.

No reason to make some chick making a bit more than minimum wage feel like crap.
 
bollweevil said:
She made a point of the fact that she was required to tell us about the promotion.
Click to expand...
Yes, Apple requires the Specialists to explain MobileMe, One-to-One, and AppleCare to each customer. Some Specialists don't like that requirement (as they think the customers will think it's some big sales pitch), so they'll preface their explanation with "I'm required to tell you about this...".

Here was the big lie: She said that MobileMe includes 20 GB of iDisk storage plus unlimited backup storage. I didn't realize this was a total lie until I got home and researched it. It seemed plausible because Mozy offers unlimited backup for $5 a month.
Click to expand...
Yeah, she was flat out wrong on that one. Even though Apple retail employees are given free MobileMe accounts, not all of them use it (and have the experience to show from having used it).

If it makes you feel any better, Apple retail employees don't work on commission or get spiffs for selling things, so she didn't personally stand to profit by selling you MobileMe. There was no incentive for her to "lie" to you to make the sale. She was simply wrong on the facts. You should call the store back and speak to a manager so they can straighten her out.

My father and I spent literally five minutes trying to get her to answer the question. We used MobileMe boxes and pantomimed money as props, and she still didn't understand. "I buy a computer now in January, but I don't need to renew my MobileMe subscription until December. If I want the discount, do I have to take $69 out of my pocket now in January and hand it to you, or do I get to keep the $69 in my pocket for 11 months and THEN hand it to you when my current MobileMe runs out?"
Click to expand...
Apple only discounts MobileMe $30 at the time you purchase an iPhone or a Mac. You can't come back a month after the sale and buy MobileMe for $69.

What some families with multiple Macs will do is buy the discounted MobileMe when they upgrade one of their Macs, even if their current MobileMe subscription isn't up for renewal. When it does come time to renew, they simply dig out one of the MobileMe boxes they bought during one of their last upgrades.
 
Welcome to Retail Hell

In order to get promotions, raises or even just to get manager's off your back you have to sell 25% mobileme, 60% applecare, 50% one-to-one, and 10% procare. These are called metrics and they are based on your computer sales and applecare on your ipods. If you have good numbers you are required to mentor people who are not meeting their metrics whether they are your senior , manager or mentor.
 
HighestLaw said:
In order to get promotions, raises or even just to get manager's off your back you have to sell 25% mobileme, 60% applecare, 50% one-to-one, and 10% procare. These are called metrics and they are based on your computer sales and applecare on your ipods. If you have good numbers you are required to mentor people who are not meeting their metrics whether they are your senior , manager or mentor.
Click to expand...

I believe! Praise the resurrection of this fine thread!
 
My father had a similar experience.

They pressured him into buying the one-on-one training (not so bad), and the Mobile Me. WTF is a 72 year old man with a single Mac going to do with Mobile me?

Even worse, they activated Mobile me immediately.

I was kind of pissed when he told me about it. He didn't want to bother me to go down to the store.

There are some opportunists working at the Apple store, despite everyone's disbelief.
 
OP - the saleswoman didn't lie to you, she was just misinformed. you bashing her like she's your nemesis is flat out childish. grow up.
 
Depends, really ....

By your same logic, I could ask "What's a 72 year old man going to do with a new Mac computer??" Who knows? My grandpa would have used it as a doorstop. Others would do all kinds of amazing things.

Maybe they thought he'd want to have off-site backup of things like his Safari bookmarks and address book entries, vs. having to teach him how to properly back that stuff up to recordable CDs?


pilotError said:
My father had a similar experience.

They pressured him into buying the one-on-one training (not so bad), and the Mobile Me. WTF is a 72 year old man with a single Mac going to do with Mobile me?

Even worse, they activated Mobile me immediately.

I was kind of pissed when he told me about it. He didn't want to bother me to go down to the store.

There are some opportunists working at the Apple store, despite everyone's disbelief.
Click to expand...
 
I used to work at CCity and Best Buy years ago and it can be hard on the sales person if they are new to know every thing about pricing and promotions. She may have been nervous and not know the answer to your question.

One thing about electronics retail is if the sales person doesn't use the product, they most likely don't know much about it.
 
There are great salespeople and there are struggling sales people. Sometimes their training is less than great. Some are afraid to ask for help. We have all had experiences with this.

Remember Circuit City after they got rid of the competent sales people?
 
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