Whiny low-lifes ??? I see you never had a job in retail.
Its bloody hard mate, not as easy as photography, trust me on that.
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Apple Retail Store Employee on Product Launches, Store Culture, and Customers
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Whiny low-lifes ??? I see you never had a job in retail.
Its bloody hard mate, not as easy as photography, trust me on that.
Why don't you look into what I was saying. Thats what they teach you. Obviously I didn't believe it.
"The power of Apple compels you..."
"The power of Apple compels you..."
"The power of Steve Jobs himself compels you..."
LOLOLOLOL... (and thank God no one is hearing me....)
You just made my ENTIRE WEEK!!!
One of the best posts - ever....
Ive had pretty reasonable treatment from Apple.
Been in the store twice to replace my broken iPhones, (3G and a 4) And the Apple Genius seemed a little reluctant to do it. Got a stern lecture from him for my 3G he was replacing, because even though I'd restored it with iTunes, a portion of the jailbroken code must have stayed in the OS, because after he plugged it into the computer and scanned it or something, it was discovered
When I bought an iPad over the phone, I got put through to an American salesman, even though Im in the UK. And he was brilliant, a real pleasure to talk to, he even stayed on hold for 20 minutes because my Bank rejected the payment and I had to ring them and undergo a security check.
The 2nd time I bought an iPad, for my parents, I just walked into the store past the drones of returnees and non-customers. And thankfully they'd set up a 'Quick-Buy Stand' with a huge stack of iPads behind the desk. He did look really surprised when I asked for an iPad though, and a little disappointed after I told him I already had MobileMe, and even more disappointed when he found out it was for my parents, and tried to sell it to me again, for them, and I said no again.
Been in the store twice to replace my broken iPhones, (3G and a 4) And the Apple Genius seemed a little reluctant to do it. Got a stern lecture from him for my 3G he was replacing, because even though I'd restored it with iTunes, a portion of the jailbroken code must have stayed in the OS, because after he plugged it into the computer and scanned it or something, it was discovered
When I bought an iPad over the phone, I got put through to an American salesman, even though Im in the UK. And he was brilliant, a real pleasure to talk to, he even stayed on hold for 20 minutes because my Bank rejected the payment and I had to ring them and undergo a security check.
The 2nd time I bought an iPad, for my parents, I just walked into the store past the drones of returnees and non-customers. And thankfully they'd set up a 'Quick-Buy Stand' with a huge stack of iPads behind the desk. He did look really surprised when I asked for an iPad though, and a little disappointed after I told him I already had MobileMe, and even more disappointed when he found out it was for my parents, and tried to sell it to me again, for them, and I said no again.
Yowza! Someone's a little personally offended. I was talking about when products are already released on the website and not in store yet. Sometimes even when they're in the back but not on the floor. I would say that's just sleazy. That's not me 'fearing' or 'following rumors'. Oh and guess what, there will be a new iPhone in June and new iPods in September, shocking rumor right?
Yeah, it's their job to sell stuff. That's my point. It's Apple that tries to push how unique and customer oriented they are. Are they really?
My 'cult-like' comment was obviously with a good dose of hyperbole. Maybe you're the one with the perception problem if you can't tell that I don't mean "Apple employees go in the back and pray to a Steve Jobs statue". They do sell the idea that working at Apple is beyond special and different. That selling AppleCare is so much more customer oriented than a BestBuy employee selling their 2-year extended warrantee. I'd say they have their employees drinking that Kool-aid pretty hard.
If I didn't have a regular job perhaps I'd try to go there work myself just to see what it's like compared to my Best Buy experience.
Speaking of Best Buy, when I was working there, everyday the store manager would gather around and literally chant and jump around. We'd go around yelling Best! Buy! and ended up with a cheer where we had to scream from top of ours lungs - "Who's Best Buy?" "MY BEST BUY!!!!!"
Does it sound all crazy and cultish to you? Oh yes. It's just a sad reality of any big retailer with many young employees. The thing is though, in my personal experience the level of BS spewed by Best Buy employees usually is far higher than what I usually get from Apple retail employees. And as sucky as the article makes it sound, the treatment and experience are really better at the Apple retail store compared to somewhere like Best Buy in general from what I've heard.
Maybe I still should try to work part time just for the discount...nah probably not. A retail job like that is almost always soul crunching experience. Although I do have some friends who work for HP, Olympus, etc and on-site at big box who like their jobs more.
Might have been Canadian actually. Most phone support and sales for Apple comes out of Canada.
Ive worked at BBY and the Apple Store. The only Best Buy anything I got was our monthly meeting where we got to watch the Shrink Stopper. Other than that it was chill and relax (I worked at 4 Best Buys training Techs.) Apple was fun the first 2 1/2 years I was there. Once the i device became king, Apple was no longer fun and at times was down right unhealthy.
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Everyone at the Apple store bothers me. The customers a little bit more than the employees that I have sympathy for. Terrible clueless asshats. I get a gag reflex every time I am in one. Then again, I was an employee like 7 years ago. I brown box everything and never go inside unless NO other option presents itself.
I brown box everything and never go inside unless NO other option presents itself.Darn, I envy you for not getting the crazy store managers. The troubling thing is two other Best Buys in the city where I had friends working were just as bad for those chanting and attach rate monitoring - constant staring by the managers at the monitor to see how well the store is doing in relation to other stores, going around to yell those who don't carry their clipboard with you (WTH?) etc .
Almost forgot this one: http://gizmodo.com/#!5311140/the-seven-types-of-employees-you-meet-at-best-buy.
I got hired to work in a new Apple store but actually turned the job down. Their interviewing process was interesting for a new store. The first interview was a group interview with at least 40 people in the session (and maybe 15 sessions total?). The wide range of people wanting to work there was really amazing. It did feel very cult like though. Our first activity was to be paired with a partner, spend 5 minutes learning about their "Apple Passion" and then present your partners Apple passion to the group. It was more like an audition for the theatre. Then a group activity of 4 people where you had to sell an Apple product to a fake customer with a random scenario. This was a neat thing, but flawed. If you're partner in the first activity was a dud (mine was), you were at their mercy. Same with the group. They were looking for team work, but good luck! Everyone feels like they are competing for their lives. I'm sure it helped weed out hundreds of people. The real interview was a panel with 4-5 other people which was somewhat intimidating at times, but if you gathered the cult like focus they have and drank that kool-aid you did just fine. Basically go to the interview as an Apple Borg and you're good to go. It was obvious they wanted a conformable personality, not individuality except in what you do with a Mac. That was where they liked a variety of people.
However, I worked for Starbucks for 5 years, and I think they invented the Cult Corporate Culture. With most companies, they assimilate you and you buy into this mantra they have to later realize you're no better than a Dividian in a compound.
None of their practices are unusual. Just because the employees aren't paid on commission doesn't mean their job isn't to sell. Retailers... they are in business to sell. There are pros and cons to this, but if employees didn't have goals to hit, how would you rate their performance? "He looks more perky than Juan in his apple t-shirt. Let's give him a raise."
And I can't blame Apple for admonishing speculative behavior. The average person didn't have a conversation with Chris, the guy who works at the apple store in the South Hills Mall. "The Apple STORE or APPLE told me the new one is going to have this." Not "That guy think they'll do it too but doesn't know either. Just seems logical to add it."
At the end of the day, retail is retail, and if you've never worked in retail, you have no idea what it's like, and you probably are one of "those people" and don't even know it.
However, I worked for Starbucks for 5 years, and I think they invented the Cult Corporate Culture. With most companies, they assimilate you and you buy into this mantra they have to later realize you're no better than a Dividian in a compound.
None of their practices are unusual. Just because the employees aren't paid on commission doesn't mean their job isn't to sell. Retailers... they are in business to sell. There are pros and cons to this, but if employees didn't have goals to hit, how would you rate their performance? "He looks more perky than Juan in his apple t-shirt. Let's give him a raise."
And I can't blame Apple for admonishing speculative behavior. The average person didn't have a conversation with Chris, the guy who works at the apple store in the South Hills Mall. "The Apple STORE or APPLE told me the new one is going to have this." Not "That guy think they'll do it too but doesn't know either. Just seems logical to add it."
At the end of the day, retail is retail, and if you've never worked in retail, you have no idea what it's like, and you probably are one of "those people" and don't even know it.
Maybe they're Newfies!
They probably are. I was on the phone with an Apple rep trying to locate a large purchase we made and she asked me about the weather. She followed it up with they dont get much sun here in New Foundland. I was like ah yes! For a second I thought she was a relative of Shrek living in Minnesota but alas a Newfie
Sad but understand
I agree retail ia great for job experience, mine was at Safeway, all in all I loved it. Thankfully I did my job and was slightly promoted from my 3 years of work, 16-19. I always said "thank you Mr. Smith, you need help to your car", the whole script, or show someone to what they can't find. If iever did fall off script thankfully a secret shopper never got me.
My only problem with this article is not being able to say "come back in a month, here's my card a new model will be out." I just can't do that to people, nor not visit my favorite websites. So many people have told me to work with apple because of my passion with their products. I just knew it would ruin a lot if I did. I can handle being on the bottom of sales, just not telli the truth to some family buying an Apple, saving up and a new one comes out soon especially in this economy. Maybe others can do this, but I know can't. Guilt would get to me.
I agree retail ia great for job experience, mine was at Safeway, all in all I loved it. Thankfully I did my job and was slightly promoted from my 3 years of work, 16-19. I always said "thank you Mr. Smith, you need help to your car", the whole script, or show someone to what they can't find. If iever did fall off script thankfully a secret shopper never got me.
My only problem with this article is not being able to say "come back in a month, here's my card a new model will be out." I just can't do that to people, nor not visit my favorite websites. So many people have told me to work with apple because of my passion with their products. I just knew it would ruin a lot if I did. I can handle being on the bottom of sales, just not telli the truth to some family buying an Apple, saving up and a new one comes out soon especially in this economy. Maybe others can do this, but I know can't. Guilt would get to me.
Has anyone here heard of Wegmans Food Markets? I have no idea what corporate division life is like, but if it's anything like Store Operations division, it's most certainly a cult.
I've been working there for almost 5 years. Cult Corporate Culture at its finest. But unlike many other people on here, I can say I've never had a bad experience with the company. Ever. They are very accommodating with scheduling (especially with college students), give me a $1500/yr scholarship, etc etc. All meetings are paid (including employee orientation and training). Benefits are great, and it's generally a happy place to be. I could go on all day about how good of a company it is to work at, but I'll let Fortune's 100 Best Companies To Work For list do the talking; this page speaks it.
Yeah, I love Apple. But would I like to work for them? Not in retail. I did apply and went to a seminar and was promised an interview but never got it. I probably would've turned it down anyways.
I've been working there for almost 5 years. Cult Corporate Culture at its finest. But unlike many other people on here, I can say I've never had a bad experience with the company. Ever. They are very accommodating with scheduling (especially with college students), give me a $1500/yr scholarship, etc etc. All meetings are paid (including employee orientation and training). Benefits are great, and it's generally a happy place to be. I could go on all day about how good of a company it is to work at, but I'll let Fortune's 100 Best Companies To Work For list do the talking; this page speaks it.
Yeah, I love Apple. But would I like to work for them? Not in retail. I did apply and went to a seminar and was promised an interview but never got it. I probably would've turned it down anyways.
Sounds like a typical lame retail job...
Apple's strategy of frowning upon talking about updates or upoming products is bad form. They, more than any company, should be able to hold their head high while talking to customers by saying: "Yeah the iPad might get updated soon but the one we have now is still worth your money."
Apple's strategy of frowning upon talking about updates or upoming products is bad form. They, more than any company, should be able to hold their head high while talking to customers by saying: "Yeah the iPad might get updated soon but the one we have now is still worth your money."
It's not bad form at all. If some retail employee says what you just said, and the person regrets the purchase, don't you think the customer will be angry with Apple? Likewise if the employee says the opposite (the new MBP will be liquidmetal!) and it's not true.
Unless you're saying that APple should just publicly announce upcoming vaporware products months in advance (like RIM, MS, and everyone else). Because that's just bad marketing.
Its also bad form to have "Mac Genii" who have no clue about a product you brought in because they have never seen it before or had any training on it. Most customers knew more about new products than us. We got our NFRs for software sometimes weeks after release. One notable was when Tiger was released. None of us had it but clients did.
Right , because we all know that "chicks" with electronic equipment aren't nearly as serious about their electronics nor warrant the same level of service that a guy might.
Neckbearded much?
Whoa whats your problem! I don't think anyone else though I was making a sexist comment. Calm down. Feminist much?
I have to agree with her. Whether you meant it to come off badly, it did.
Especially since you changed genders for who was the person who was more "valid" and who was the silly person that they wanted to help.
And what's with the feminist much? So it's a bad thing to want females to be viewed equally with males?
Oh, and I'm a "chick" and I've been using Macs since the 128k
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I worked at the Apple Store in Columbus Ohio for almost two years.
The strict, ridiculous rules are all true at (what was at the time) the only store in the city. The managers were (and are) useless, overpaid robocops. Our district manager (Bill) was/is a lying piece of garbage. People were fired for politics, for low attachment rates, for health reasons (not even kidding!) and more. Apple changed drastically when the iPhone came out. They started hiring people who had never owned a Mac simply because they knew they could get away with paying them less.
As for pay rate? I started at $13/hour (specialist). Not bad for such a mind numbing job, yet totally not worth it.
I will say that my best friends were people I found during my early times at Apple. They were all terminated once the new hipstery kids who were satisfied with $8/hr rolled in.
Apple lost its "community" feeling.
I'll finish my mini-rant with a big Eff-you to manager Tim D. You're scum.
I worked at the Apple Store in Columbus Ohio for almost two years.
The strict, ridiculous rules are all true at (what was at the time) the only store in the city. The managers were (and are) useless, overpaid robocops. Our district manager (Bill) was/is a lying piece of garbage. People were fired for politics, for low attachment rates, for health reasons (not even kidding!) and more. Apple changed drastically when the iPhone came out. They started hiring people who had never owned a Mac simply because they knew they could get away with paying them less.
As for pay rate? I started at $13/hour (specialist). Not bad for such a mind numbing job, yet totally not worth it.
I will say that my best friends were people I found during my early times at Apple. They were all terminated once the new hipstery kids who were satisfied with $8/hr rolled in.
Apple lost its "community" feeling.
I'll finish my mini-rant with a big Eff-you to manager Tim D. You're scum.