How much experience in sales or retail did you have? Do you think they hire people with no experience? Thanks
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Apple Launches Improved Employee Hardware Discount Program for Mac and iPad
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How much experience in sales or retail did you have? Do you think they hire people with no experience? Thanks
Already doing? The store I know has sold out every shipment right away and not because anyone was holding them for friends.. Why would you hold one, if the friend could get the 15% if they waited
Thats just lame.
Apple is nowhere without their employees so everything should be included.
Not having enough stock is just BS.
This is commonplace in a retail environment. Your employees are a built-in customer base and regular customers have the choice to go elsewhere if you are out of stock.
I'd rather have my employees wait then have them scalp a product in short supply therefore making more profit than I would - and at my expense to boot.
It is easier to teach people with a personality product knowledge than to teach a new hire with a ton of knowledge to be personable.
I think this is a pretty gross generalization. Can you quantify this "incompetence?"
"Unfortunately for those Apple employees looking to apply the discount to the new Retina MacBook Pro, the model is not included in the program and is not even available through the employee purchasing portal. This is typical for new Apple products, and with supplies remaining tight for consumers it may be some time before availability loosens up enough for Apple to add it to the employee purchasing program."
Thats just lame.
Apple is nowhere without their employees so everything should be included.
Not having enough stock is just BS.
EDIT (because some of you don't understand my point)
I don't mean having low stock is BS. A new product is always low on stock. I mean not including your own employees on new products is BS.
I own a store and would never treat my employees with this capitalistic nonsense. Doesn't Apple earn enough. Tjees!
If they want heavily discounted products they can wait a while - I'd be happy to wait a while for a $500 discount PLUS 25% off! If an Apple employee just has to have it on launch day they can pay full price jus like the rest of us.
If you're taking a laptop, they won't even blink.
As for firing employees for giving friends discounts, while I worked at Apple, before 2006/7, it wasn't an issue. We had 10% off everything, 15% off 3 items and 25% off one item per calendar year. Of course those discounts were meant for friends and family as well. My manager even helped me with getting a friend 15% off his iMac.
Um, no. Never ever have I or anyone I used to work for been asked to prove I own a device. As most had iPhones when I left as it was just released, management got the first model free, the rest of us got a small discount. Never, in two stores in NYC, were we asked to prove we owned an item. Aside from devices you can carry with you, iMac's, Mac Pro's or even MacBook Pro's, you are never asked to prove you own it at any time after your purchase. I'm sorry, it's rare that I am this emphatic, but this is absolutely untrue and I know it still is through my friends still with the company.
As for bringing in retail interns for corporate work, I have never seen such. Apple retail and Apple corp. are too entirely different segments and rarely, if ever, do they bring retail management, etc into their Cupertino/corp. base. Apple was/is notorious for their "glass ceiling", and was well known for keeping that divide.
My good friend worked with Apple corp. years ago, moved to LA then reapplied. She spent a year interviewing with them in a corporate position. After numerous flights up to the Bay Area, phone interviews, etc she was finally re-hired and moved back to the bay area. Many qualified candidates are rejected by Apple, Inc.; they keep a tight ship of multi-talented experts they can move around between departments and unless you have at least a stellar college degree (in which case you're entry level and working your arse off) or a Masters (in which case you're middle tier and, yes, working your arse off), Apple corp/Bay Area is extremely competitive. Google is notorious for their Ivy League loving headhunters/HR, and Apple is extremely difficult to obtain a corporate position, even at the lowest level(s). So no, there is most certainly a glass ceiling with retail vs corporate in Apple, and I can assure you if someone interned at Apple (for pennies if that), they must have been a diamond in the rough.
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Employees are the best ambassadors and promoters for the company...
not allowing them to get access to the products is just as frustrating as not rewarding them or not recognizing their hard work everyday...
isn't that the way most retail companies work?...aside from getting to possibly store manager, they typically hire outside for the higher end jobs.
If all this is true about the 25% salary increase and this discount I'd say now is a good time to work at apple.
internal promotion is almost non-existent
only 1% are concerned by moving to a better position (from sales to training or leading a team), otherwise one cannot expect to start with an entry-level position and to end up manager even after 2 or 3 years...
I was at the Apple Store 5th ave yesterday, checking out the new MBA. Blue shirt dude comes up to me and says you have any questions. I asked him, "What new features does the new MBA have"? Dude responds, "The MBA hasn't been updated in over a year. What's new is the new MBP with retina display...check that one out instead...". Sigh, didn't want to bust his chops, so I just said "okay". I had to then google up some site to see what the new changes were.
Apple has very talented people at their retail stores, and they know how to deal with people really well. However, some of them need to work on their base knowledge especially when there are major product launches. Not knowing the MBA was updated a few days ago is simply inexcusable. They also can't just handover these type of questions to other blue shirts or Genuises too, as that can be the case sometimes.
Apple has very talented people at their retail stores, and they know how to deal with people really well. However, some of them need to work on their base knowledge especially when there are major product launches. Not knowing the MBA was updated a few days ago is simply inexcusable. They also can't just handover these type of questions to other blue shirts or Genuises too, as that can be the case sometimes.
Exactly (and see my longer post below)
Agreed, but the issue (at least before 2006) was that Apple kept their info even secret from us. We had no future knowledge of product launches or updates, and in fact most new info came from customers/clients/etc. who read MacRumors, etc. We were not allowed to post on any online forums for obvious reasons, although we could read them. It was a shame, no matter how knowledgable and experienced one may be, that we were often sandbagged by loyal Apple fanatics. I recall getting phone calls behind the bar the day the iPhone was announced. Our store was so slammed, even Geniuses had to deal with customers asking when they can pick up the iPhone, does it do a, b, c, etc. We had to admit we had no knowledge, and looked like fools.
This is an instance in which Apple secrecy makes Apple retail look like incompetent retailers.
No. Studies have shown that dissatisfied customers tell on average 9-15 people while satisfied customers average 4-6. Of those 9-15, many will not return and it costs about 5 times more to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one. Therefore, an unhappy customer - one who was unable to buy a product in short supply - will cost your business more than selling that same product to an employee.
SOURCE
A good employee will understand that the customer comes first. A good employee will want a customer to be satisfied even if it is at the cost of them waiting.
i don't care about what studies say, what matters to me is what i can see from my own eyes at work...
at every new product launch, i see my colleagues working the a$$ off, sometimes lining up like any regular customer to buy it full price. No one is asking for free stuff, just not waiting for 6 months to get access to a new toy...
I'm sure most of the customers they deal with on a daily basis are at least 100 times more incompetent.
And yet, Apple Retail Store customers seem to be quite happy as a whole. You are entitled to your opinion (which oddly sounds like a troll), but it does not seem to reflect the majority viewpoint.
Apple routine rates the highest in retail store customer satisfaction and the sales numbers reflect this. They have the highest revenue per square foot in the retail industry.
So you worked at apple 5 years ago but have the balls to talk about currently apple policy ? You HAVE to be able to account for the location of products bought with the discounts for a year. Failure to do so can result in termination. That's that. No question.
That is great! Glad to hear Tim Cooke is adding more perks and incentives. They all work hard and deserve a good deal on products they sell and work on 