Apple Store Worker Says Staff Routinely Get Death Threats From Customers

[Gutwrench]

For shares of non-UK companies, it's usually 6 months savings (money is taken out of your salary), and at the end of the six month period, you decide whether you want your money back, or shares at the price of the day when the scheme ends, minus 15%.

Thanks, that's your company? I'm interested in mentalfloss's input too. Mine were vested over four years. It was questionable whether it was a good deal. In my case: nope.

 

[ant69]

The £11 per hour isn't a bad wage for uk retail, and despite the fancy titles and high profit/profile product lines.... It's just a retail job. If people were unhappy about it they would work elsewhere. But they don't.

 

[5105973]

Its surprising to me that they don't promote internally (according to the interviewee). Is this normal in retail?

I was dismayed to read that as well. I worked for a bank and found out the hard way after making multiple bids for jobs at HQ or managerial positions that it was my bank's policy to never promote from within, but to acquire employees laterally by poaching from other banks or other retailers.

I had a college degree and a very successful work record. I did initially apply for an HQ job straight out of college but was told at the time I needed to put in time at a branch and gain direct customer service experience. I did so, only to find they don't promote from within. I left as soon as I learned this. It's fine to have that policy, as strange as it is, but the ethical thing would be to be upfront about it and not keep your employees hanging.

This is not the first time I've read of Apple doing this. I find it odd but I think it's their way of ensuring all of their retail staff is fairly young and malleable and less likely to be a drain on the health insurance costs.

 

[bbbb4b]

There are two faces of Apple. The one that they put out in their marketing and Keynotes, and the other one that customers experience and employees face. Apple need to resolve this otherwise I'll end my loyalty, dump their products and stock. There was life before Apple, and there certainly will be life after Apple. Does Apple want my business or not?

You left out the "third face". The one you create in your own mind that has nothing to do with reality.
I talk to these people all the time, in the most crowded Apple Stores on the planet. They are (generally) genuinely happy.. (except for the few who are not; welcome to planet Earth)
[doublepost=1464470586][/doublepost]

For years Apple could coast. Mac OS X trounced Windows technically, for years the MacBook Pro shamed the high-end Windows machines. The iPhone was great, the iPad created a whole new class of product.

But now it's time to think platform agnostic and forget any fanboy 'Apple love' you built up over 5, 10, 20, 30 or whatever years as Apple's getting worse and worse.

Windows 10 is bearable.
Nobody gives a s***

Ubuntu is now very pleasant to use.
Nobody gives a s***

Dell's XPS range is, OS choice aside, just plain better than Apples' offerings.
(it's not, and...) Nobody gives a s***

There are plenty of great Xeon workstations.
Nobody gives a s***

Apple gives you a crazily overpriced trashcan and doesn't update it. Apple stores are just McRetail. Why are we surprised that it sucks to work there?
Ohhhh, I misunderstood you. You're just a crybaby troll. Now i get it.
Never mind...

 

[dan110]

This is rather unsettling. I can't believe in a company that doesn't promote from within.

 

[dampfnudel]

Apple could never make so much money if it had to start paying their retail workers more silly! These stores print money, so you would think bonuses would be standard here. And since Apple (Tim) is very vocal about social issues, income inequality you would think would be one of the things he could directly affect at his stores by paying 2x minimum wage. People say a lot of things, but at the end of the day, it's how they run their ship that counts.

As long as they run a tight ship for their stockholders and investors, it's all good. Nothing will change until someone puts an effective spotlight on some of Apple's internal deficiencies which you wouldn't expect based on how vocal Tim gets over social issues, which income inequality is definitely a big part of.

 

[now i see it]

I can't think of any good reason to not promote from within.

Promotion within sales retail staff "promotes" competition among employees, which would have to be measured by a quantifiable metric: i.e. Sales. Exactly what they are trying to avoid.

 

[Sheza]

Promotion within sales retail staff "promotes" competition among employees, which would have to be measured by a quantifiable metric: i.e. Sales. Exactly what they are trying to avoid.

But the managers they do hire were promoted in their previous stores because of that. And they don't know anywhere near as much about Apple products as the other workers do.

Hiring managers almost exclusively outside is a farce, in my view. There are many poor quality mangers of other retail stores that don't match the ethos of Apple and yet they are getting hired.

 

[Dennison]

I wonder what that "occasional direct access" to Tim Cook is... having emails forwarded? To get to talk with him when he visits a store? Anyone know? Just curious....

Read the article.

 

[Urban Joe]

How long until Angela gets to be CEO and bring big heart and soul back to Apple? And maybe in 8-16 years she will be the first female president of the USA. I hope one day to meet that sweet lady and give her a big hug!! If she sticks around Apple things will get better!!

 

[Gutwrench]

Promotion within sales retail staff "promotes" competition among employees, which would have to be measured by a quantifiable metric: i.e. Sales. Exactly what they are trying to avoid.

I know nothing about Apple retail, but just because the sales force isn't paid on commission does not mean they are measured to a degree by it.

 

[MrCrowbar]

I always try to be nice to retail employees even knowing they have no idea what they're doing. I hate being asked how I can be helped as I cross the threshold of the store and then having to find one and get their attention for minutes just so they can scan the item and take my money. Especially in an apple store, just yell out your question and someone in the crowd will yell out a good answer.

Apple stores are weird, when I just go in there to pass a couple minutes because I have to wait for something, everything is fine. If I have the intention of buying anything, employees seem to get angry for some reason. So I just check out new things in the store, see if I like the feel of it and go buy it online later. It's not like they have the thing I want in stock anyway.

I'm amazed the classical retail store for electronics still exists actually. Just have a small exhibit, no stock, let the customer feel out the product for a while and give them a little code so they get a small discount and the clerk gets a small commission when the customer buys it online.

 

[Gutwrench]

I always try to be nice to retail employees even knowing they have no idea what they're doing. I hate being asked how I can be helped as I cross the threshold of the store and then having to find one and get their attention for minutes just so they can scan the item and take my money. Especially in an apple store, just yell out your question and someone in the crowd will yell out a good answer.

Apple stores are weird, when I just go in there to pass a couple minutes because I have to wait for something, everything is fine. If I have the intention of buying anything, employees seem to get angry for some reason. So I just check out new things in the store, see if I like the feel of it and go buy it online later. It's not like they have the thing I want in stock anyway.

I'm amazed the classical retail store for electronics still exists actually. Just have a small exhibit, no stock, let the customer feel out the product for a while and give them a little code so they get a small discount and the clerk gets a small commission when the customer buys it online.

Weird is right. I've had nothing but positive experiences in Apple stores and have found their sale associates quite knowledgable...more than me at least. Only on rare occasions do they not have what I want on hand. Beside if I know exactly what I want (which is usually the case) I can check stock before going.
[doublepost=1464473151][/doublepost]As for the thread, any public facing person gets death threats. The public is filled with arseholes.

 

[inkswamp]

Of course Apple has every right to pay their retail staff just as poor as their Chinese factory workers.....

Does Apple have Chinese factory workers on their payroll? I thought they outsourced manufacturing to Foxconn. How would Apple have any control over what employees of another company are paying their staff?

It just flies in the face of the Apple promotion machine that constantly projects a magical company that just cares about being a good corporate citizen out to save the world and looking cool doing it......

Apple is, of course, far from perfect but show me a company in the tech industry that has done as much as Apple has to rectify some of these things and/or be transparent about it. They haven't exactly been shy about these issues or downplayed them. Meanwhile, not a peep from Dell, HP and others on their use of Chinese labor. What has Dell done lately about this situation?

Seems to me, we should praise U.S. corporations when they attempt (even imperfectly) to address these concerns. Instead, if Apple is going to be eternally branded as the bad guys no matter what they do, they may at some point start asking why they're bothering. And make no mistake: cynical consumer attitudes will be a contributing factor.

I don't know, they make about 8 billion dollars profit a quarter, the management consists of a bunch of multi millionaires, would it kill them to set an example and pay everyone well and maybe make only 7 billion a quarter.

Of course, it wouldn't. But do you think constantly carping at Apple that they're evil slave lords every time they attempt to do something to fix these things is going to further that effort? Or do you just like to complain about them?

 

[gnasher729]

Thanks, that's your company? I'm interested in mentalfloss's input too. Mine were vested over four years. It was questionable whether it was a good deal. In my case: nope.

Multiple non-UK companies (actually, all US companies). Share purchase scheme where you save money for 6 months and then buy shares at a rebate, plus share options vesting over four years when you start at a new company.

For some legal reasons, UK companies in the UK can have much better share schemes, and the tax treatment is much better.

 

[Jimmy James]

There are two faces of Apple. The one that they put out in their marketing and Keynotes, and the other one that customers experience and employees face. Apple need to resolve this otherwise I'll end my loyalty, dump their products and stock. There was life before Apple, and there certainly will be life after Apple. Does Apple want my business or not?

The trouble is the competition isn't any better. Or you could become a Luddite.

 

[Snoopy4]

The £11 per hour isn't a bad wage for uk retail, and despite the fancy titles and high profit/profile product lines.... It's just a retail job. If people were unhappy about it they would work elsewhere. But they don't.

Please tell that to the US burger flippers that want $15 an hour.

 

[Gutwrench]

Multiple non-UK companies (actually, all US companies). Share purchase scheme where you save money for 6 months and then buy shares at a rebate, plus share options vesting over four years when you start at a new company.

For some legal reasons, UK companies in the UK can have much better share schemes, and the tax treatment is much better.

Thank you again.

All stock sharing at my US company were vested over four years. I wasn't part of the executive leadership so I don't know their deal.

 

[peterh988]

The guy works in a UK Apple store. I guess that does fit in your narrative.

I'm going to guess the employee is female, from the 'bitch' references. Bitch is almost exclusively aimed at women when used as an insult, here.

There aren't the many Jesse Pinkman types here.

 

[TheHorrorNerd]

One thing to remember is that Apple's entire philosophy around the Store is to not pressure customers into buying an Apple product every time they walk into the store, so it makes sense why they aren't incentivizing employees to sell to customers.

That would turn it into a Best Buy: every time I walk into the store, I'd have 3 people offering to show me a lot of products i'm not interested in that are all out of my price range, which would cause me to not go back to the store in a while.

The promotion issues are rather annoying.

You do realize that Best Buy doesnt have comission either right?

 

[American Hero]

The former employee responded directly to the question about taking a selfie wearing your Apple shirt. The actual response was:


You can take one, but can’t share it anywhere. You technically not supposed to write on Facebook that you work at Apple. You can’t say anything about Apple online.

It's still ridiculous. It's not like they work for the secret service.

Oh no, he works for a technology company?! Nobody can know that!! It's gotta be top secret!

 

[gnasher729]

Thank you again.

All stock sharing at my US company were vested over four years. I wasn't part of the executive leadership so I don't know their deal.

I read the article, and the deal at Apple is actually a lot better: You save money over six months, and then they buy shares for you _at the lowest price of that six month period_, minus 15%. So if AAPL goes from $90 to $130, you get $130 shares for $76.50 and make lots of money. If AAPL then drops from $130 to $90 in the next six months, you get $90 shares for $76.50 - much less of a deal. Next six months it goes back from $90 to $130, and you are laughing again. With AAPL going up and down all the time, you'll have good deals and not so good deals.

 

[bigpoppamac31]

That seems to be low pay for a specialist. My brother works at an Apple Store here in Canada as a specialist and he makes $17/hour or so and went from part time to full time in around a year since he was hired.

 

[MICHAELSD]

There's a 15% discount on AAPL shares?

 

[TheHorrorNerd]

I read the article, and the deal at Apple is actually a lot better: You save money over six months, and then they buy shares for you _at the lowest price of that six month period_, minus 15%. So if AAPL goes from $90 to $130, you get $130 shares for $76.50 and make lots of money. If AAPL then drops from $130 to $90 in the next six months, you get $90 shares for $76.50 - much less of a deal. Next six months it goes back from $90 to $130, and you are laughing again. With AAPL going up and down all the time, you'll have good deals and not so good deals.

Thats not exactly true.
Its the lowest price at the beginning or the end.
So if the period is January 1 to July 1, it would be whichever day it is the lowest of those two days.