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Apple Retail Employees Vent Frustrations About Stores Becoming Less 'Shopper-Friendly' in Recent Years
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[doublepost=1557342007][/doublepost]You can do that with the Apple Store app. Anything that doesn't have a serial number...
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Well I think you scan or choose the item and pay while you are in the store. It's been a while since I have done it, but yes, you can walk in and grab something off a shelf, buy it with the app and leave with no need to speak to anyone.
Can you use an Apple Store Gift Card linked to the Apple Store app or only credit cards?
This means there are HD if not ultra HD cameras all over the store watching us.
Those watches on the stand are actually for display and are not fully functional. They are only loose because they have been twisted off and grabbed off the stand so many times by customers.
Can you use an Apple Store Gift Card linked to the Apple Store app or only credit cards?
This means there are HD if not ultra HD cameras all over the store watching us.
I honestly don't know. I have only used my debit card which is linked with Apple Pay.
Funnily enough you can use the Apple Store app to do just what you're suggesting. You can then arrange to pick it up in store and have it delivered right to you. If you don't need any assistance or questions answered it's easy peasy. It's when you want to talk to a specialist that you have to wait and wait because so many people come in and want their hand held over every purchase from a phone to a case for that same phone.
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When exactly was this? The first year the stores opened? I remember taking my kid to get a cable for her iPod Video replaced at a store in 2005/6 and not even being able to be seen that day. The appointments were all booked and they did not do walk ins. We had to schedule for another day. This was WAY before iPhone and the insanity that is the current swarm of people into the stores.
OnceTV+ goes live, you can sit at the community Apple Centre *cough*Store*cough* and enjoy the just announced Apple Coffee brew.
Feeling pampered and fat already...
Ironically I feel this reflects their product line as well. The average person might not know the difference between a Macbook, MacBook Air, and a MacBook Pro. Similarly how about the difference between an iPad, iPad Air, iPad mini and an iPad Pro? It just seems chaotic and all over the place as if they don't know which direction to go in.
Going off on a bit of a tangent, they need to simplify to only two lines of each product: a regular version (Macbook) and a Pro version (MacBook Pro) of each item with different sized screens in each. Then have a BTO option for those who want to hand pick their components from there.
11" Macbook
13" Macbook
13" MacBook Pro
15" MacBook Pro
Maybe their stores need to follow suit and have areas for the professional and the consumer?
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The Apple Store experience has definitely gone downhill. The stores are more chaotic with employees often dealing with customers in a haphazardly manner. Things can go slow even if there’s not that many customers in the store. My cynical side wonders if it’s maybe intentional to get people to make more purchases online. Most likely not, but it’s definitely something Tim needs to address sooner rather than later.
Same exact thing happened to me. I walked in to purchase an iMac, I knew exactly what I wanted. I was told I'd placed in a queue and the wait was about an hour. I said f**k this and walked out. Wrote Apple an email about this and the manager of the store ended up calling me, offered a substantial discount for my trouble and took care of the order over the phone.
At least the manager stepped up and took care of me but for people in my situation there absolutely shouldn't be that long of a wait if I want to give them over $3k.
The cynical side of me actually thought that Apple was really trying to make the store a a hangout spot because that is how proud and arrogant of their brand. They wanted to create a community
What they have found is that the average Apple store consumer is still not a sheep quite yet.
What this article fails to mention, and probably the one thing that has damaged the service experience the most, is that Apple Store technicians have to fulfill a very high number of appointments per hour or else their "rating" declines. Each technician is scored in such a manner and the requirements are quite insane. Often times management wants the technicians to take multiple appointments at once, in fact this is always. Customers obviously don't like this.. a rushed service appointment makes most customers hate the entire experience.
I used to be able to handle 2 Mac queues at once with no problems (8 Mac appointments per hour, every 15 minutes, 2 at a time). Sometimes I could handle 3 Mac queues at once. You would get 15 minutes per Mac appointment but they are very easily to multitask since you can simultaneously launch various diagnostic tools that take multiple minutes to ran. Managing multiple Mac queues is certainly an art form but with mobile devices (iPads, iPhones, Watches, etc) you are given only 10 minutes per appointment. Mobile devices actually take longer to troubleshoot / work with than Mac appointments. There's so much more involved (Apple's official troubleshooting of a mobile device takes longer than 10 minutes).
The chest pains that I used to get working in that environment.. sometimes I wonder the damage I did to myself. The stress level is unprecedented. Management is never satisfied. I absolutely loved working for Apple but as I got into my 30s I just couldn't keep up anymore with the continued heightened expectations. It's a job best suited for 20-somethings.
Call outs are extremely regular. A lot of Apple Store employees, especially technicians, probably called out once every 6-8 weeks or so on the regular. These callouts absolutely affect the efficiency of the store. A lot of times people would call out knowing that they would be "on point" for 8 hours that day. The stress level is so high that sometimes I would get home and couldn't sleep at night due to how strained my body felt.
I used to be able to handle 2 Mac queues at once with no problems (8 Mac appointments per hour, every 15 minutes, 2 at a time). Sometimes I could handle 3 Mac queues at once. You would get 15 minutes per Mac appointment but they are very easily to multitask since you can simultaneously launch various diagnostic tools that take multiple minutes to ran. Managing multiple Mac queues is certainly an art form but with mobile devices (iPads, iPhones, Watches, etc) you are given only 10 minutes per appointment. Mobile devices actually take longer to troubleshoot / work with than Mac appointments. There's so much more involved (Apple's official troubleshooting of a mobile device takes longer than 10 minutes).
The chest pains that I used to get working in that environment.. sometimes I wonder the damage I did to myself. The stress level is unprecedented. Management is never satisfied. I absolutely loved working for Apple but as I got into my 30s I just couldn't keep up anymore with the continued heightened expectations. It's a job best suited for 20-somethings.
Call outs are extremely regular. A lot of Apple Store employees, especially technicians, probably called out once every 6-8 weeks or so on the regular. These callouts absolutely affect the efficiency of the store. A lot of times people would call out knowing that they would be "on point" for 8 hours that day. The stress level is so high that sometimes I would get home and couldn't sleep at night due to how strained my body felt.
i tend to agree. i mean i'm fine with modern tech but i'm getting really annoyed with the full court press BS over what's baby internal upgrades. its not totally Apple's fault. the media has been generating a lot of the BS with their page hitting games of pumping up every frigging rumor and then every actual announcement. and I'm including MacRumors in that. their whole business is based on those rumors etc. and that's fine when it's one site. but when every other website is doing the same thing it gets annoying. save the huge hype for when Apple does a product announcement and reveals something really big like a VR headset or AR glasses or that they just scored a national contract to put fiber in every city for a mere $5 a month to the user and the project will be finished in the next 12 months. or their car system. not 'oh and this year the iPhone will have a 2.9 megapixel camera instead of a 2.8, isn't that amazing'
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i heard that over the past year or so they started making every computer that could go to some offsite for all repairs. especially if it was in warranty/apple care. that way only the stuff that was out of warranty and simple like batteries stayed in the store. i heard sometimes they were told not to even bother with diagnostics just have them sign that they had a backup and ship it off.
Maybe I'm unique in this but I have no issues with Apple Stores. I can always find what I need, I can always find an employee. I check myself out with the app, so no waiting to buy anything.
Yes, last time I was at the store, I actually had to explain the difference between USB C connectors vs. USB A or B. This was to an apple employee seemingly helping me with finding an adaptor for my MBPro. Amazing.
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If you want a MBPro or a new Mac, you cannot check yourself out. You have to wait until someone finishes teaching some people how to turn on their iPhone.
A new article by Bloomberg has highlighted some customer and employee frustrations with the state of Apple's retail business, particularly in the wake of changes introduced by former retail chief Angela Ahrendts. According to some current and former Apple employees, the retail stores have become more focused on branding than satisfying shoppers, leading to more complaints lodged against some stores.
Ahrendts left Apple last month after first joining the company in 2014, and Apple executive Deirdre O'Brien has succeeded Ahrendts in the retail position. The shake-up happened as Apple's retail business faces more and more issues alongside slowing iPhone sales.
O'Brien is now tasked with revitalizing Apple's retail business, even if that means moving away from the idea of Apple retail stores as social gathering places, which was the initiative spearheaded by Ahrendts. The former retail chief built stores with less clearly defined locations for checking out and speaking to Apple's Geniuses, in an effort to promote the company as a luxury shopping brand amid the launch of the first Apple Watch and its $17,000 Apple Watch Edition models.
According to Bloomberg's sources, this led to customer confusion and was accompanied by other issues, like less skilled employees and the removal of the traditional Genius Bar at some stores.
One former Apple executive said that O'Brien is looking to borrow from the past and break up Apple stores into more clearly defined sections. These include areas that promote Apple's growing services business, like Apple Music and Apple TV+. A few employees speculated that she will also bring back the original Genius Bar.
To help boost sales in the interim, Apple has begun offering discounts on iPhones, cheap financing, trade-in offers, and more. These offers were seen around the world, including specific promotions in Australia and China, with Apple typically e-mailing customers about the limited-time discounts. In the United States, Apple even updated its website to promote a monthly payment option for iPhone XR and XS trade-ups.
The first Apple retail store that will open under O'Brien will be the Carnegie Library location in Washington, D.C. on May 11. As of now, Apple still sees its stores as communal gathering places. According to CEO Tim Cook, "We should probably come up with a name other than 'store,' because it's more of a place for the community to use in a much broader way."
Visit Bloomberg to read the full article: "How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster".
Article Link: Apple Retail Employees Vent Frustrations About Stores Becoming Less 'Shopper-Friendly' in Recent Years
Not the point. Its a store. You should be able to walk in and buy stuff then and there.
All of this was completely true a my store too. Multitasking wasn’t just expected, it was an essential part of the job. I’d always be in at least two appointments at a time, and it easily detracted from the “customer experience.” If you didn’t take 5+ appointments an hour, it would almost be like Office Space and the TPS reports - several different leads and managers would talk to you in hopes of “coaching” you to better performance. My store would consistently see over 450 appointments a day with a staff of about 15 people on queue at any given point. The time limits and pressure are absurd. We viewed callouts as mental breaks. And the cycle just perpetuated itself. Four people called out yesterday? I picked up their slack and will probably need to call out tomorrow to make sure I’m not overworked. And no matter what, I always was.
I’m sure I also did damage to my body. Hell, I clock in at 6’2” and had to work leaning over tables that were 4’ tall. My back is destroyed and I’ve had doctors tell me this environment made it far worse. They clearly never thought about the physical and mental strains of the job.
I went to an Apple Store to buy a replacement Mac power supply because my daughter's MagSafe connector was frayed and sparking.
The guy who took the box off the wall for me heard me mention that, and he asked if I had a Genius appointment. Puzzled, I replied no, so he shrugged and said that it might have saved me money if I could wait around another hour or so. Seemed an odd thing to say.
After I got home I was curious, so I Googled and found that those badly made power supplies were being replaced for free or a reduced cost, and this widely known at all stores.
I was pissed. In any other retail environment, the sales person could've themselves offered up that info, but in the Apple Store only a Genius is allowed.
The guy who took the box off the wall for me heard me mention that, and he asked if I had a Genius appointment. Puzzled, I replied no, so he shrugged and said that it might have saved me money if I could wait around another hour or so. Seemed an odd thing to say.
After I got home I was curious, so I Googled and found that those badly made power supplies were being replaced for free or a reduced cost, and this widely known at all stores.
I was pissed. In any other retail environment, the sales person could've themselves offered up that info, but in the Apple Store only a Genius is allowed.