I would like to see online classes. Some of us live some distance from Apple Stores and or like learning from online sources. Use the ITunes U for delivery.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple No Longer Offering 'One to One' Training as Add-on During Online Store Checkout
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
What I mean is...would you tolerate that kind of attitude when they tell you.. "yeah, we rather refund you than honoring the service."
Says who? Do you have insight into how many people actually subscribed to the service?
But how do log on to AOL to get to internet? What is a DOCK? or a 'Safari' for that matter? LOL
Apple stores have a regular series of lectures and workshops you can sign up for. Have you been in an Apple Store recently? Sparing a single Genius for a single person seems a little much. But you can ask questions in the store, and they'll solve most problems.
Eventually, Apple Stores were going to lose that customer service shine. This loss of one to one is just the last gasp of breath of Ron Johnson and Steve Jobs vision of retail. Come on they have a jewelry fashionista running all the retail operations and before that the British equivalent of a Walmart-type.
They're done with positioning it as a place to discover the products, they're done with that. Everyone uses Apple products now. Now they're trying to make them even more cash cows than they already are.
It's like finding out there's no such thing as Santa Claus. Sorry you guys, Steve is gone. There is no more of what it used to be... I'm not saying I like that, it sucks that the soul is gone from the Apple Stores... But reality sucks sometimes
They're done with positioning it as a place to discover the products, they're done with that. Everyone uses Apple products now. Now they're trying to make them even more cash cows than they already are.
It's like finding out there's no such thing as Santa Claus. Sorry you guys, Steve is gone. There is no more of what it used to be... I'm not saying I like that, it sucks that the soul is gone from the Apple Stores... But reality sucks sometimes
Reading comprehension fail. The Free Workshops have always been available. They're just taking away the 1to1 option. Like others, I've directed senior members of my family to the 1to1 training sessions. They're a Godsend. What's happening is that Apple is probably losing money on this, so greedy Tim decided to cut it off. Or it could be Ms. Burberry Ahrendts with her $70million dollar salary and her difficult job of changing fonts at Apple that decided to do the cutoff.
Please provide the detail you have on the number of subscribers for this service.
Ooooh, Reading Comprehension Fail, rush me to the burn unit. Stat. Wait a second, "xxxx Fail?" Do people still say that out of school?
You seem very angry as well. It's not about Ms. Ahrendts large salary, or, as you put it. Mr. Cook being greedy (please say that with eyes squinted while slowly turning your head back and forth, so we know you are really serious). Needlessly referencing that quickly zeros your credibility and diminishes your ability to craft a cogent argument. It's about not charging customers $100 for something that is much better handled in a group learning environment; i.e. FREE (no doubt that is greedy as well, in your eyes) workshops allowing people to hear others' questions and accompanying responses from the instructor, furthering the learning process.
I worked at Apple retail as a Genius up until last week so I have some insight into why they are discontinuing the program. When they looked at the number of sessions they were delivering and the demand for workshops it was clear why One to One needed to change. At our particular store, 5% of the One to One members were utilizing 60% of the training resources. People who were new to the program and had just signed up were often unable to schedule their first One to One session for one or two weeks out and so lost interest after the initial data transfer that was part of the program.
Apple is not giving up on customer service. This is not a cost cutting measure as so many people seem to believe. This is a re-alocation of resources to better serve customer demand through more FREE classes and Workshops.
Apple is not giving up on customer service. This is not a cost cutting measure as so many people seem to believe. This is a re-alocation of resources to better serve customer demand through more FREE classes and Workshops.
This makes sense to me, tbh. There are numerous resources already on how to learn how to use a Mac and the software it comes with. The technical support will still be there and online documentation is second to none, if people actually looked at http://support.apple.com to find information. Even Google... it'll take you there, too. Why have to pay $99, schedule a class you can't make and drive you AND your Mac to an Apple Store to get 2/3 of a 1 on 1 session. Logically, logistically, this makes perfect sense. Online classes were mentioned. Try YouTube. The amount of free attainable knowledge out there is impressive, to say the least. Perhaps incomplete and / or out of order but task by task, it can prove quite valuable.
Honestly, I just Googled 'PC Classes Online' and the results were noteworthy. A vast amount of them also teach Mac since it's ever so popular today. (PC is a valid search, anyway, since the Mac still classifies as a Personal Computer)
Honestly, I just Googled 'PC Classes Online' and the results were noteworthy. A vast amount of them also teach Mac since it's ever so popular today. (PC is a valid search, anyway, since the Mac still classifies as a Personal Computer)
Never bought One-to-One only because I enjoy setting my devices up on my own. Feels like opening another gift, the first gift being whatever you bought, then loading all your things on there from a Time Machine or iCloud backup is the second. Actually for me though, discovering all the smaller updates Apple didn't cover in the Keynote or on their website is fun and almost like the third.
#nolife #yesiwillusehashtags #yesimgoingonmythird I'm gonna stop now, hah.
#nolife #yesiwillusehashtags #yesimgoingonmythird I'm gonna stop now, hah.
No Not recently...
Never had good results with the Apple Genius Bar. Taken my iPhone 4 there because the battery was dead in less than 6 months and they said that it was normal and I would have to pay for another battery.
Bought a 4S and the sound was not working within a few weeks tried to get a genius to look at it but they said they would not even put me in the queue to talk to a genius because the rookie said that I submerged the phone and the water indicator was pink on the new phone. I said I wanted to talk to a genius anyway but they refused. The phone was never wet, I figured out later that going in and out of a cold environment was the cause of the pink. I was able to get the phone to work later by cleaning the 30 pin connector. It had nothing to do with water. If I was able to see the genius they would have probably figured that out but the whelp wouldn't let me.
Well, you might know this but your battery should have been replaced if the phone was <1 year old - it has a 1 yr warranty. However, that seems to be water under the bridge.
Humidity in the cold air is unlikely to cause the internal sensor to discolor and the only thing that will do that is moisture. Again, not impossible, but unlikely. Honestly, as a long, long time iOS device user, those connections can get dirty - but that's up to you to maintain, not Apple. I know, you didn't know, now you do. I'm just saying... You should have been able to make a Genius Bar appointment, you should not be able, however, to walk in and just see a Genius on demand. It's well known that they work on appointment and if I have one, you can't just jump in front of me because you're there. That's just how it works.
Glad it seemingly worked out in the end.
No surprise here. Apple has been emotionally out of the computer business for some time now. Sure they've got of couple of oldie-but-goodie models that have been updated to be fine machines. Serious catering to the creative crowd, the productive crowd, power users and computer enthusiasts has all but been replaced by tablets, phones and toys.
I worked as a Creative for almost 4 years (til 2011), so hearing that One-to-One is being dissolved is a little sad for me. I imagine some of my former customers, many with whom I formed friendships, being very disappointed to not have One-to-One any more. Yes, many of them were seniors who could barely use a mouse, but they loved the program, they loved Apple because of our lessons, and I'm sure they were great advertisement for Apple. These weren't just customers; they were friends of all the Creatives. Heck, when I left Apple to attend grad school, one of my former customers took me to his swanky, whisky/cigar/thick steaks club to celebrate and congratulate me.
My first response to this news was cynicism, of course (Oh, how we are quick to judge when we don't know the whole story...). So thanks for your post; I'm glad to hear a skeptical outlook on Apple's customer focus is unwarranted, even if the "personal" element may shift a bit after this change.
Apple wants customers to defend for themselves when educating people... the only thing that springs to mind as why they got rid of the paid one-on-one.
U never get as good for free u do paid.... That *why* you pay.
u want advanced Final cut Pro stuff, u pay for it... its not free legally anyway.
U never get as good for free u do paid.... That *why* you pay.
u want advanced Final cut Pro stuff, u pay for it... its not free legally anyway.
Wow, way to be kind and understanding of other people and their experiences. The fact you never considered that there is a group of people who aren't comfortable with using the internet, who can't sift through all the results, and all the god awful "tutorials" online.
You are making an assumption that people are at a skill level they are not.
Pretty sure apple could survive tomorrow if they suddenly stopped selling OS X machines. If they stopped iOS devices tomorrow there would be thousands and thousands of layoffs.
Your claim that a workshop is a superior learning environment is incorrect. It is a different learning environment, and for some it is better, for others, it is much worse.
You make the false assumption that everyone learns in the same way and at the same pace. They do not. Workshops are a helpful tool and a great service but they are not a one size fits all solution. One to One offered a flexible and continuing solution that was a great value to many customers, especially those who were the worst fits for workshops.
Group/class settings work for an ongoing courses, say college. But that group/class work requires supporting work (homework, lab time, etc) in order for the content to stick effectively.
The free workshops at an Apple store are a series of individual topics repeated. Meaning the material doesn't build across multiple sessions, an iPhone workshop this week covers the same content as the iPhone workshop from last week. If you don't get your question answered then you have to attend the exact same workshop again and hope you get a chance to ask ONE question. And if it is out of the scope of the workshop they will move past it, because if they don't then you end up sitting through a workshop that never addresses the topic. And hanging around after to ask your question only works for one question.
So imagine, do you want to spend an hour to ask one question, or have an hour to ask your question along with an hours worth of follow up, and come back next week to continue to build and add to your education, or to hear the exact same content again?
Additionally, some people learn by reading, some by seeing, others by doing, a workshop is passive, if you try and do, you fall behind. Imagine this, iPad workshop, instructor shows everyone how to turn on cloud sharing in Photos, the person next to you watches the instructions then turns their attention to their own iPad in order to apply the instructions to help their retention, the workshop doesn't stop for that. They tap the wrong thing and ask the instructor to go back, how would you feel. Even in a hands-on workshop and the instructor asks everyone to repeat what was just shown, someone will have forgotten their Apple ID, or doesn't even know if they have an Apple ID, how do they feel when the workshop HAS to move on, or how do you do feel if the instructor spends a third of the workshop fixing that one persons Apple ID issue while everyone else waits?
It just doesn't seem you've really thought through the entire scope of the verity of people who go into an Apple Store.
Workshops are great and it is a testament to Apple that they spend so much on labor to provide a free service, but workshops are extremely limit and inflexible method for educating and empowering a lot of people to do all they want.
