While not feeling as strongly, I tend to agree with TorontoAllan for the most part. Why get rid of something, or decrease the impact/value/reach of something because it is too successful? That would be a lovely problem to have.
It makes me wonder if Apple ever intended this service to be worth it at all. ...
As has been discussed here, there's probably (at least) two issues.
#1 is that they're apparently "out of room" and thus can't offer the level of quality that they want, as they can't handle the service because they're currently out of physical room. Hats off to them for taking steps to address a QUALITY issue, IMNSO.
And while we do agree that there were alternatives, Apple is reportedly taking action on some of these too, such as with 25 new and
100 Apple Stores being remodeled. Read the link, for it explicitly mentions that the plans are for the Genius Bars to be expanded by 50%.
Apple wants to promote the ownership experience at their stores (not Best Buy, Mac Mall, etc.), which is why the change was made. They want to control the ownership experience as much as possible so customers walk away happy.
Find me somewhere else where you can get trained for less than $2 a session.
Reason #2 is that the program is a very good value and Apple was probably originally expecting to see a much lower customer utilization than they have gotten.
Anyway, it's fair enough to let other sellers offer their own customer support options.
We can probably agree that it isn't particularly ethical to do our window-shopping and questioning of a salesman down at the local brick-n-mortar and then instead of rewarding them for the time that they spent with you, you go home and order the item over the Internet for less. This practice is shortsightedly non-sustaining, because in a few years, that local Brick-n-Mortar will go out of business and you won't have a salesman to help you.
This change to keep "out" buyers from non-Apple outlets will help to prompt the 3rd Party resellers to have a better support staff, since they won't be able to simply "dump" customers' problems/questions on the local Apple store who lost that sale.
So instead of EXPANDING a business practice (if there aren't enough people working to keep up you ADD more employees!) that seems to be working and increasing jobs and helping both themselves and the economy, they choose to scale back support and thus discourage sales from retailers like Best Buy (and thus overall sales since Apple stores aren't everywhere like Best Buy is; my nearest Apple Store is at least 60 miles away). Good decision Apple!
The underlying problem was apparently more of the availability of retail floor space than employees, so its time for you to go on a Quest for the Harry Potter
Magical Wand of Construction Permits and Overnight Renovations without Contractor Overruns to banish this problem. Its buried under the Free Money Tree that's on the banks of the River of Infinite Free Bandwidth, disguised as a Mac Pro Quad with an MSRP of only $799.
Meanwhile, back in reality-land, Apple is working to solve the floor space problem through remodeling & expanding, as per the URL link already provided above.
Of out curiosity, if you were Apple, what would have you done to address the issue?
Exactly. The rule of business is to never take a problem to your boss without also having a couple of suggested solutions to offer. Complaints without anything that even looks like a suggestion go into the Corporate Killfile...oh, and that complainer employee just capped his career.
If your nearest Apple Store is 60 miles away then you probably wouldn't buy 1to1 anyways.
Well, there is that point too.
Unfortunately, some people aren't happy unless they have something to complain about.
I am trying to order a refurbished iMac for my Mom. I can't find One to One anywhere on the Online Apple Store for purchase with it.
This is an important point...I hope someone at Apple is checking into this.
If the mom and pop stores want to provide one hour training sessions, once a week, for an entire year, for $99, let them compete. It's a free market.
Amen.
This bums me out. I work in a K012 IT department and i have suggested to a few teachers that they buy the One2One in order to learn hands on at the mac store. Now they won't be able to. I understand their point. $99 for 52 hours of training is a stupidly low price, but i won't be able to send my teachers there any longer for indepth professional development.
Something to raise to Apple management through the .EDU department channels. Of course, Apple would simply prefer that the teachers make their next home PC purchase a Mac, which then facilitates a One2One purchase without any special accommodations.
-hh
