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That sucks. Ever since Steve has been off, Apple has been going down the drain. Well, so long macmall, i have to go spend an extra 500 bucks just to be ELIGIBLE for one to one and procare.

Record quarters
Increase in their already disgsutingly large amount of chash on hand
App Store milestons
Innovations in the 17-inch MBP
New iPhones (SUBSTANTIAL advances)
New Shuffle (big seller)
iLife improvements
New directions and plans for iPod Touch/iPhones
New verisions of Pro apps
Snow Leopard
MobileMe improvements
Billion-dollar server farm
Ranked tops in Consumer Reports
Tops AMR Research's Supply Chain Top 25 list for 2nd year (thnaks mainly to Tim Cook)
Stock soaring to 140
Continued investor confidence
Ranked #1 in customer service (again)
Experiencing among the smallesr contraction in computer sales in the entire industry (in this economy)
Apple keeps proving itself recession-proof, quarter after quarter
Developers flocking to iPhone while dumping other platforms

Yeah, Apple's really "going down the drain." :rolleyes:

And you'd better get used to Steve being off. It doesn't really matter, anyway because Apple doesn't need Steve Jobs. We wish Steve all the best, but Apple goes on.
 
Well not everyone who buys a Mac knows how to transfer all of their stuff and set everything up. Everytime I walk into an Apple Store and I see those who are getting 1 to 1 help, it's always "older" people (30+ usually)


LOL, I wouldn't say 30+ are old, plus people in their 30's have used computers a lot(at least I have). I would say 'older' users who may not be computer oriented would be 60+ :D
 
So much for the niche market

Apple is going mainstream. That's the message I get here.

I'm a recent convert from PC and just loved going through the setup process myself. I suppose everyone has a different learning style but....I thought "learning by doing" was probably the best way to go about it, personally, because I think I retain a heck of a lot more that way. Plus, it's pretty difficult to mess up, really. And the process is so much easier and far more intuitive than the chaotic web that PC users often have to go through.

I'm starting to rave. Better stop now before it gets ugly. :cool:
 
From the AI article mentioned above:


Again, I fail to see how this would be a benefit to anyone.

the program was set up and always meant to be for those new to the Mac computer. or even computers in general. I remember that from the first announcements 3 years ago. Having transferred data from a PC to a Mac it is not something the average user would know to do or even probably feel comfortable doing it. so the data transfer, even at $99, is worth the price. the year of training for those folks is worth the price.

and the new mix is actually a great idea. now instead of just the one session a week (if you are lucky to get one) you have small classes, private tutoring, study hall and guided independent study at home. with luck the workshops alone will help to open up slots cause they can get a lot of the very basic folks out of the way there and leave the 'one to one' sessions for more advanced stuff.



This is a horrible change of policy. You can only order it at time of purchase? So if I decide I want or need to learn more after I've gotten used to my Mac for a month, or a year, I'm out of luck?

there are still open workshops, videos and help pages on the apple website and I'll bet you even money that the same folks that you could walk in and ask a question haven't been told to shut the F up just cause this program changed.

heck I haven't renewed my membership since last year and I get more than enough help walking up to a baby blue shirt when I"m on the mall. most of them are thrilled to help cause it gives them an excuse to learn something new.



That sucks. Ever since Steve has been off,

you really think Steve was out of the loop. for all we know, this was his idea.

2)receive the Mac as a gift and hence need the service. Dear old dad didn't know that Jr. had no clue how to transfer all the data...so Jr. gets the shaft?

actually no. guess perhaps you should talk to them before you raise a stink. cause if you had (as I did yesterday) they would have told you that even though you paid for it today, when you give Jr the computer next week on his birthday, you will give him an activation number. when he enters that on the website THAT is when his membership starts and that is when he can take his brand new computer and his old one in to have them do the transfer etc.

I wonder if this policy is only for purchases of new Macs going forward or if it's retroactive? Anyone know?

retro only for Apple store purchases (brick or online) for the last 14 days.

folks like it or not, Apple has a right to change the terms at any point. given the number of times I've been in my local store and heard someone gripe loudly about the lack of sessions available, about having lied about the topic they wanted to try to get a session and then ended up with a trainer that couldn't do what they wanted, blah blah, i'm not surprised they had to do something.

and i'm betting that most of the folks on this site would never actually do One to One cause you don't need to be trained and coddled on your computer. you are just gripping cause you can, cause big bad Apple is saying no to something they used to say yes to. get over it.

Hiring qualified people only working 2-3 peak hours per day might be difficult too.

as someone else pointed out, you have a space issue for many stores as well. my local store has two tables with space for 6 laptops each if it's just the user. if you are actually doing a private session it's 4 so folks have room to work.

the sales area is so swamped during the day that it would be a nightmare to do sessions there. imagine paying for a class and then having to deal with a horde of kids at the next table goofing off with the web cam. or even just the back and forth of sales talk. the folks at my store are very good about keeping sales out of the back of the store where the one to ones and the genius bar are located which is a huge plus. they would have to buy off one of the adjacent stores to have a separate studio (and maybe Genius Bar) do to much more.

People buying elsewhere are Apple customers, but not Apple Store customers... so, this was an obvious line of distinction. Not saying I like it, but I think interpreting it as an insult or an anti-customer statement goes to far.

look at it from their point of view. Best Buy etc aren't selling at any less of a price. it's stuff like "buy a mac and get a $20 itunes gift card" going on there. so if you have an apple store in the area, why wouldn't you come to them to buy. and if you are so cheap as to go to something like MacMall then you are probably nasty enough to come in and bark your way into a price match (which I hear they will do if they are asked and you have proof of the price as current and it's the same model not a discontinue or a refurb etc). and if you insist on ordering online from MacMall etc then you are probably not going to use One to One anyway cause the target audience is often folks that either don't know such places exist.


Apple is going mainstream.

actually mainstream, aka shades of the Way of Windows, would be to just drop the program all together. and then next quarter they drop the free Genius Bar visits for everyone that doesn't have Apple Care or a device less than a year old
 
Hiring qualified people only working 2-3 peak hours per day might be difficult too.
Believe it or not, that's not usually a problem.

Apple Stores have a big staff of Specialists (the folks in the light blue shirts that answer questions on the floor), and most of the Specialists are part-timers.

Apple also has an excellent in-house training system that allows employees in one area (i.e. Specialists) on-the-clock training in other areas of the store (i.e. Creatives, Geniuses, management, inventory control, etc)

So it'd be fairly easy for a store to schedule properly-trained, part-time Specialists to work as Creatives from 5pm-8pm weeknights (and during other peak times), ... they just run into the issue where you can only have so many training sessions in a store going at once. :eek:

I think what Apple needs is much larger retail stores. Maybe they can move into the Circuit City locations. ;)
 
But don't tell your loyal customers, "Sorry, sucks to be you, but you aren't new enough for us to care about anymore

I am sorry but welcome to the new mission statement of Apple moving forward. They continue to stick it to the true Apple people.
 
It will benefit the people who bought their computers from Apple. Apple makes far more money from those sales than from sales through their partners, so Apple gives them preference. Capitalism :)

An Apple Customer is an Apple Customer. In the eyes of a consumer you buy an APPLE computer it doesn't matter where you get it, its an APPLE. Just like if I buy a Toyota from Carson Toyota in Carson, CA I can take it to Claremount Toyota in Claremount, CA for service and not be told sorry you didn't buy the car from Claremount.
 
That sucks. Ever since Steve has been off, Apple has been going down the drain. Well, so long macmall, i have to go spend an extra 500 bucks just to be ELIGIBLE for one to one and procare.

A little dramatic?

This is shocking to hear though. Apple was so proud of its one to one service. I used to work in an Apple Store, and it was pushed hard, but in a good way. I remember when I started there, there were always one to one customers in there, but sometimes just one or two. When I lefts, a little over a year later, it was packed all day with one to one customers. It was a great service and still is, but there really is no room for it to expand anymore. It's still a good deal, buy a computer and you can get it for up to three years.
 
I'm sorry but I don't see how this is a great change. Basically they are saying if you cant buy your mac directly from us then we cant help you with our learning sessions.
I just purchased my first mac and the only way I could afford it is on credit. I only have a best buy card with the credit to buy my mac so I get it there. Now you are telling me that because that was my only option, I now cant get the help to learn how to use this new OS that I'm not familiar with.
Everyone that purchases a mac whether it be directly from apple or from an authorized reseller is investing in the company. All these customers should have the same opportunities to attend these one on one sessions. In these economic times people are trying to save money where ever they can and cant afford to shell out an extra $100 at the time of purchase. I can definitely understand and would accept paying a little more then those that buy direct from apple, but to just completely shut you out....Just Wrong

They should just adjust the pricing to allow others the 1 on 1 experience. I know a few people that are now having second thoughts on switching from PC to MAC because of this. Its a small % but what if everyone else knows people that are also thinking twice about switching. Thats my 2cents
 
Seriously, you act as if it is the end of the world. Get a grip. Sure it may suck, but it's not like you are going to die because Apple changed their One to One policy.

Don

listen to yourself for a second. This is a policy change that greatly effects the culture of buying an Apple computer. Such a small change could has a ripple effect. Just like when Apple opened Apple Stores they basically said F you to all the loyal third party providers. This is just another way for Apple to slowly but surely eliminate any competition.
 
I do understand that Apple had to do something, selling a service and then having not enough slots for appointments is not desirable. Hiring qualified people only working 2-3 peak hours per day might be difficult too.

Not as difficult as you may think. Many people who work there are there just a few hours a week. My shifts were 4 hours a shift. A lot of people do it part time. Works out perfect for the employee as well as the store.

I suspect the real problem in this whole thing is space.
 
How ridiculous. Oh well. The one-to-one program has been stripped down from what it used to be anyway. It used to offer lots of training on Adobe software as well. I think it'll go away eventually.

I'm sorry, if you buy a Mac anywhere, you should be able to participate.
 
To all the whiners,

"Why would Apple change such a popular service? That's idiocy"

No, it's not. It's idiocy to offer a service when you can't handle the service. Apple is bigger, much bigger than it was a few years ago. Next time you get excited about Apple's market share growth, think again. The more customers, the less personal it will get. Deal with it.

The iPhone alone generates a ton of customers that would never be in an Apple store otherwise. That's a lot of Apple's time @ the Genius Bar. I've noticed Apple's Genius reservations are available at dates later in the week, opposed to the same or next day as they were in the past. Apple is getting bigger...and this is one of those things that happens as companies grow with limited space / time.

Everyone is always excited when Apple's market share grows. What a lot of people don't realize: The higher the market share, the lower the support. Too many customers, too few stores to provide "Apple Service". That's just the nature of the beast....
 
Record quarters
Increase in their already disgsutingly large amount of chash on hand
App Store milestons
Innovations in the 17-inch MBP
New iPhones (SUBSTANTIAL advances)
New Shuffle (big seller)
iLife improvements
New directions and plans for iPod Touch/iPhones
New verisions of Pro apps
Snow Leopard
MobileMe improvements
Billion-dollar server farm
Ranked tops in Consumer Reports
Tops AMR Research's Supply Chain Top 25 list for 2nd year (thnaks mainly to Tim Cook)
Stock soaring to 140
Continued investor confidence
Ranked #1 in customer service (again)
Experiencing among the smallesr contraction in computer sales in the entire industry (in this economy)
Apple keeps proving itself recession-proof, quarter after quarter
Developers flocking to iPhone while dumping other platforms

Yeah, Apple's really "going down the drain." :rolleyes:

And you'd better get used to Steve being off. It doesn't really matter, anyway because Apple doesn't need Steve Jobs. We wish Steve all the best, but Apple goes on.

You're fanboyism is so hilarious. You obviously are so blind by the wonders of Steve Jobs and Apple that you are failing to read between the lines. Apple as a culture has turned its back on its long time supporters and in turn is really changing there overall culture. The thing that made Apple so "different" is now turning them into a Hippy Wearing version of Microsoft. All you people that bash Microsoft I hate to tell you if Apple was as big as Microsoft they would be worse. Apple is the true definition of Big Brother. I love there products, I hate there new culture.
 
I think the government needs to step in and save Apple. Apple is too big to fail, and this policy is the first step down that road.
 
An Apple Customer is an Apple Customer. In the eyes of a consumer you buy an APPLE computer it doesn't matter where you get it, its an APPLE. Just like if I buy a Toyota from Carson Toyota in Carson, CA I can take it to Claremount Toyota in Claremount, CA for service and not be told sorry you didn't buy the car from Claremount.
And when Apple limits Genius Bar service to only Macs purchased directly from Apple, you'd have a point.

You can't buy your car from Carson Toyota and show up at Claremount Toyota's "New Toyota Customer Initiation" orientation.

Every reseller does their own value-add. Is Best Buy sticking it to Apple owners by offering a warranty that covers physical damage when Apple doesn't?

Is Amazon screwing Mac customers by not charging sales tax?


They should just adjust the pricing to allow others the 1 on 1 experience.
To how much? What's the max you would pay for One to One? $250 a year?
 
I think the government needs to step in and save us. Apple is too big to fail.

Obama only gives (throws away) billions of (tax payer) dollars to failing companies that supported his campaign.

And when Apple limits Genius Bar support to only Macs purchased directly from Apple, you'd have a point.

You can't buy your car from Carson Toyota and show up at Claremount Toyota's "New Toyota Customer Initiation" orientation.

Every reseller does their own value-add. Is Best Buy sticking it to Apple owners by offering a warranty that covers physical damage when Apple doesn't?

Is Amazon screwing Mac customers by not charging sales tax?



To how much? What's the max you would pay for One to One? $250 a year?

As a former Genius I can tell you that we were extremely critical with Third Party providers and most of the time told a customer if a 3rd party provider fixed it to go back. This was pretty much company wide to.

As for new customer initiation dealers are independently owned. The thing with Apple is they are either going to sell Apple computers to everyone, or they are going to shut down all there third party providers and just have Apple Stores. Like I said this is just the beginning of the end for places like Mac Mall and the sorts.
 
They continue to stick it to the true Apple people.

'the true Apple people'. you mean the folks on their second, third, fourth, fifth Apple. the ones that by now know the computer inside and out. so basically they don't need the training the program was giving anyway.

yeah, shame on Apple for sticking it to folks that weren't going to buy the program anyway
 
As a former Genius I can tell you that we were extremely critical with Third Party providers and most of the time told a customer if a 3rd party provider fixed it to go back. This was pretty much company wide to.

I was told by a Genius once that since I'd bought my computer from Best Buy, Apple might not replace it if it were deemed defective. That made me less than happy.
 
'the true Apple people'. you mean the folks on their second, third, fourth, fifth Apple. the ones that by now know the computer inside and out. so basically they don't need the training the program was giving anyway.

yeah, shame on Apple for sticking it to folks that weren't going to buy the program anyway

Again do you have any sense to read between the lines. Everyone acts like Apple is Santa Claus. Such a jolly good fellow that is kind loving and giving. Apple is just as evil of an empire as every corp. on this planet.

What happens when you goto the genius bar with you computer and there are iPhones in front of you? Apple has instructed there Geniuses to handle the phones first and make the computer customers wait. That is what I am talking about.
 
IMO, the One to One program doesn't physically scale.

I mainly agree but Apple has to resort to this kind of action? Seriously, most of the Apple stores open at 10am (in New England)...Apple couldn't open 1 hour early for these folks?

There is no silver-bullet answer that I can supply...and I know (as someone else said) that Apple was (like other's in the field) loving it when people buy a service and never use it (can we say a gym membership is a great example). But when people really do find it valuable, this seems like an extreme change in policy for a service. If the demand is that high then simply have a priority system such as "new Mac owners are guaranteed a 1-1 service within 30 days but after then, all bets are off." or even prioritize it by who purchased directly from Apple and who did not.

I still think Apple is going to get a lot of business...IMO I believe MOST people buy a Mac from Apple directly as the prices are practically identical to any non-Apple store...there's a lot more value in buying a Mac directly from Apple. So the 1-1 is still going to be rather full and IMO they will need to change the conditions yet again.

Apple can do what they want...they are a business...but this press release, no matter what facts/figures we provide, wreaks of snobbism (if that's a word).
 
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