Look, guys like you used to berate Apple for being secretive and not admitting mistakes (antennagate).Now you berate them for admitting and apologizing for mistakes. They can't win with people like you can they.
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Apple 'Messed Up' with Retail Store Cutbacks, Denies Mass Layoffs
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Look, guys like you used to berate Apple for being secretive and not admitting mistakes (antennagate).Now you berate them for admitting and apologizing for mistakes. They can't win with people like you can they.
My experience with this in PC World. I bought a small item, about £12, and was immediately offered an extended warranty. I declined before she got the first sentence out. Of course, that wasn't the end of it, "Just let me tell you about it"
"No point, I'm not buying an extended warranty on a £12 item, no matter how good it is" I said.
At this point, I've started walking from the display to the checkout, and now she's following me, "You must let me tell you, i'll get in trouble otherwise"
"Really not interested" I said at this point, giving up all pretences of being polite.
By now i'm queing at the checkout, so i'm a captive audience, and she starts again. This time i literally give her the 'talk to the hand' hold my hand up between her face and mine, and looking away. I hear her finish with "so shall I arrange that for you?" before I just chuckle pay and walk off.
Thats the Browett experience.
We're talking about a company who lobbied to get the SIM card standard changed to save a couple of millimeters. The old connector is huge by comparison.
What would you have them say? In fact, when a company messes up, what else would they say? Can you provide examples of companies that did something, then backtracked and then didn't offer an apology or acknowledge their mistake?
Does anyone know Cook's reasoning behind hiring this guy? Wonder if it needed to be approved by the Board or Schiller. Seems like his Dixon's work was pretty well known even before the hire.
lets be honest here, John Browett is a "B player" and we all know what should happen to this B player.
Pure speculation, but a lot of the larger PC World stores in the UK have a mini but official Apple store/bar in them so they may have had a prior working relationship.
Browett was hired because that's how executive level hiring takes place in most by the book uncreative HR/Personel departments.
Step 1 look at applicants, step 2 who is famous/has brand names/blue chip on CV, step 3 hire, step 4 regret/offer large pay packet - rinse repeat
Seems to me that Cook is very hands off and probably has no idea who this guy is, some HR drone just recommended him and he signed off.
And regarding Apple's 'bloated' retail staff and 'meeting profit targets', seems to me apple is meeting plenty of profit targets, being the most cash rich publicly traded company in the world.
The only staff shake up it needs retail wise, is hiring more on interpersonal skills and advanced computer knowledge, and less on pushy salesmen/who looks the most 'alternative'.
I'm tired of going to the store and being more knowledgable than the staff, whilst they simultaneously patronise the less computer savvy person next to me, by throwing around words like 'iPhoto' as if they are the most advanced features of any computer ever.
Step 1 look at applicants, step 2 who is famous/has brand names/blue chip on CV, step 3 hire, step 4 regret/offer large pay packet - rinse repeat
Seems to me that Cook is very hands off and probably has no idea who this guy is, some HR drone just recommended him and he signed off.
And regarding Apple's 'bloated' retail staff and 'meeting profit targets', seems to me apple is meeting plenty of profit targets, being the most cash rich publicly traded company in the world.
The only staff shake up it needs retail wise, is hiring more on interpersonal skills and advanced computer knowledge, and less on pushy salesmen/who looks the most 'alternative'.
I'm tired of going to the store and being more knowledgable than the staff, whilst they simultaneously patronise the less computer savvy person next to me, by throwing around words like 'iPhoto' as if they are the most advanced features of any computer ever.
This seems to have been botched from the beginning. Where was the proof of concept here? When making changes like this, it is prudent to try the new "formula" out on a handful of carefully selected retail stores so it can be evaluated without a major upheaval company wide. There is no indication that Apple did this. They appeared to use the big bang approach and convert all retail stores at the same time to the new staffing formula. Bad planning and execution. Is anyone minding the store?
It takes a lot of courage for a large company to admit to an error and to apologize.
Kudos Apple!
Man up Apple. This wasn't an unintentional "error", it was an intentional cutback in staff.
What's wrong with being straight up and saying "we thought we were overstaffed, but determined that the need was for that staff was still there."
Or is Apple's new retail guy just trying to cut expenses without regard for the actual impact?
I was about to say, you don't hear that from Apple very often, so it's nice that this time they skip the fluffy marketing and PR and just admit the messed up.
I can't blame the workers. They probably get harassed by their supervisors to "get their numbers up" daily.
These bad ideas always come from up top from guys like Browett. Thankfully, Apple employees will be whistle blowers quick fast when Browett starts trying to implement his stupidity to bolster "profits" at the expense of the Apple store experience.
It certainly feels like Apple has made more high profile missteps and admissions of mistakes in the last year than the prior several years under Steve Jobs. I don't have anything to back up this opinion, but I'm getting a distinct feeling that Tim Cook has a more hands-off management style than Jobs.
Let's face it. Apple was Jobs' baby and life's work. For Tim Cook, Apple is just a job. I'm starting to see the difference in how the company is being run.
Let's face it. Apple was Jobs' baby and life's work. For Tim Cook, Apple is just a job. I'm starting to see the difference in how the company is being run.
This isn't a first. They did it just a few short weeks ago as well. Apple admits they were wrong to abandon EPEAT
Exactly. They cut hours in the 4th quarter when iPhone was in the early summer like clockwork. It's just common retail practice.
And I wonder how many of these laid off employees were UK season help for the Olympics or slackers that were constantly late and/or doing a bare minimum job. Given how many times I walk into a store and see a pack of 3-4 blue shirts chilling and ignoring customers I say if they are being culled, good riddance
You're right. Car companies will be falling over themselves now trying to deal with a whole new dock connector. I don't know if they will be able to handle the pressure.
I can imagine the news headlines now, "Car manufacturers go bust due to new Apple dock connector being required" and "Consumers heads explode due to inability to fathom changes at Apple".
You're a fool if you purchase modern technology and expect it to last forever. And you're ignorant if you think companies shouldn't innovate/change for the better.
I'd be all over a dock connector that I can insert either way, and one that is smaller and thinner. And for those accessories that can't fit an adapter and iDevice, there will likely be a adapter cable that has maybe 30cm or so of cable so that the device can lay on the table or something.
Funny how a lot of posters think attachments are something Browett will be introducing. AppleCare 60% One to One 40% are what apple salesmen need as a minimum to have a prayer of advancement. Go browse a computer at the apple store today if you don't believe me and see how much time the salesman spends talking up those programs.
You really think anyone, even Ron Johnson, can completely turn around a company in less than a year.
You're more patient/tolerant than me. I had a similar experience - might have been PC World, can't remember - but when I realised the numpty didn't understand 'NO' I put the item I was buying in their hand and said, "There you go. Not only have you failed to sell me the warranty, you've just lost the sale of this" and walked out.
Browett is the one in need of a Pink Slip. The first real signs of creeping corporate orthodoxy invading Apple. That worm needs to be cut out now.