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Former Apple Store Employees Provide Amusing Glimpse Into Company's Retail Culture
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Hate to knock the credibility of this, but the lightning-in-a-30-pin-case just isn't true. The iPhone 5 was announced over a month before launch (stores get stock a day or two before), and lightning was featured in that year's keynote - so it was no big secret.
New products are just shipped in black wrap with a "do not open until xxxx" on it. Nobody's going to open it and lose their job. No fake cases, or anything like that. But I guess it takes a fancy story to get your name in lights
Don't apologize for promoting truth. MacRumors should have seen through this obvious fake.
Agree. I started off my career on the grill flipping burgers for a summer.
Completely untrue statement.
99% of people who update their software in the first few releases have NO major issues.
It's the minor few that have any real issues, and they are reported like they affect all users when they don't.
Why? Because the truth of their experience at an AS is rather mundane and wouldn't have ever been published.
I personally have had some bad experiences at the Apple store. Although, not so much the employees, but the policies.
My late 2012 iMac with the 1TB Fusion drive, that was 2 years into its Apple Care warranty, was having hard drive failure issues.
It problems started out very intermittent, but then got to the point that the iMac was unusable. A fresh OS install would fix the issue for a few weeks, I guess until the new data got to the bad sectors, then it wouldn't boot up.
I would take it to the Apple Store only to have the drive pass their HW test. I had them do an extended 1 week test, but it still passed. I would take it home only to have it unable to boot a few weeks later. Then back to the Apple Store only to have the same thing happen.
Finally, 12 days before my warranty was over, the HDD totally broke, wouldn't boot into any mode, normal, safe, recovery, internet recovery.
And, the Apple store guy could not boot up into their HW test for almost 2 hours. It finally booted, and luckily it failed the HW HDD test. They fixed it under warranty.
But, if the iMac HDD held on for just a few more days, it would have been past the warranty and I would have had to pay for the repair.
My late 2012 iMac with the 1TB Fusion drive, that was 2 years into its Apple Care warranty, was having hard drive failure issues.
It problems started out very intermittent, but then got to the point that the iMac was unusable. A fresh OS install would fix the issue for a few weeks, I guess until the new data got to the bad sectors, then it wouldn't boot up.
I would take it to the Apple Store only to have the drive pass their HW test. I had them do an extended 1 week test, but it still passed. I would take it home only to have it unable to boot a few weeks later. Then back to the Apple Store only to have the same thing happen.
Finally, 12 days before my warranty was over, the HDD totally broke, wouldn't boot into any mode, normal, safe, recovery, internet recovery.
And, the Apple store guy could not boot up into their HW test for almost 2 hours. It finally booted, and luckily it failed the HW HDD test. They fixed it under warranty.
But, if the iMac HDD held on for just a few more days, it would have been past the warranty and I would have had to pay for the repair.
I was once accused by an employee that I tried bringing a wrong iMac back for refund when he simply did not take the time to very the serial code.
Other time the same employee told me that I better pick the right colour of iPod because he is not exchanging it later.
I complained to management but that employee still worked in a different store a year later.
Other time the same employee told me that I better pick the right colour of iPod because he is not exchanging it later.
I complained to management but that employee still worked in a different store a year later.
Mine failed 2 weeks after the warranty expired. Rather than try to disassemble the thing, I set up an external fusion drive. Has worked flawlessly since.
Interesting article. And I do appreciate the assistance and knowledge of the retail teams in Apple Retail Stores. They are generally very good in what I can imagine can be a challenging, and liked underpaid, environment.
But, I really take issue with the statement in the next to last paragraph regarding the history of the Apple Retail Stores - "Apple has expanded to operate nearly 500 stores in over a dozen countries -- spearheaded by Senior Vice President of Retail, Angela Ahrendt". Ms. Ahrendt came on the scene, from outside the company, more than 10 years after the first retail stores were established and after many of the stores had been opened or at least planned. I haven't seen her bring much to the table, other than some out-of-touch heavy-handed management of retail staff (per a previous MR story) and, essentially, plans to re-arrange the furniture in the Apple Retail Stores. Check out her compensation in AAPL's 10-K - does she bring enough benefit (i.e., more than her cost) to AAPL to warrant that compensation?
Apologies for the rant.
But, I really take issue with the statement in the next to last paragraph regarding the history of the Apple Retail Stores - "Apple has expanded to operate nearly 500 stores in over a dozen countries -- spearheaded by Senior Vice President of Retail, Angela Ahrendt". Ms. Ahrendt came on the scene, from outside the company, more than 10 years after the first retail stores were established and after many of the stores had been opened or at least planned. I haven't seen her bring much to the table, other than some out-of-touch heavy-handed management of retail staff (per a previous MR story) and, essentially, plans to re-arrange the furniture in the Apple Retail Stores. Check out her compensation in AAPL's 10-K - does she bring enough benefit (i.e., more than her cost) to AAPL to warrant that compensation?
Apologies for the rant.
So true. Because I worked retail and know the abuse sales people get, I always treat them with kindness. One Christmas Eve while everyone else was yelling at an employee. I just remained calm. I explain hey it's Christmas Eve.. I know you are busy and will will wait.
She called over an associate who took me off the line, opened a register and rang me up.
As you hide behind your computer, typing your snide little comment about people and their apple watches, it is absolutely clear to us all that you are indeed one of those rare people with the right priorities in life.
My most amusing Apple Store story was dealing with a high school kid that was way too full of himself working at an east coast Apple Store. I was in town visiting family and my aunt wanted a new printer for her Mac. I knew the exact model for her needs concerning color, print rate and ink cost.
The kid did everything he could to up sell into their top of the line printer sold on their floor. This went on for about ten minutes when he started talking down saying he knew more about Apple products than I did.
Ended up showing a photo on my iPhone of Woz and myself to the kid. Even told him I also know the "other Steve." That shut him up real quick and got the printer I wanted for my aunt.
The kid did everything he could to up sell into their top of the line printer sold on their floor. This went on for about ten minutes when he started talking down saying he knew more about Apple products than I did.
Ended up showing a photo on my iPhone of Woz and myself to the kid. Even told him I also know the "other Steve." That shut him up real quick and got the printer I wanted for my aunt.
That makes no sense. Anyone can say anything about their job, mundane or not, and lie about it? For what advantage? To have their names incognito and publish a 'Cool' article? I think not.
The glass is actually fused to the screen so you need a whole new screen. 200 is a pretty chunk of change though.
True, but it does depend on where this happened.
Out in the sticks in rural Georgia? That's fine.
In someone's backyard in Brooklyn? Yeah, discharging a firearm there isn't legal. Sorry.
or even just any type of customer service.
I do Inbound customer service for a certain Large Technology company's online store
and the way people treat you over the phone, for literally doing your job, can be quite interesting. especially to then come on here and see people talk about how that they can't believe some of these stories. Let me tell you, some of the things you hear doing customer service in general, is insane.
I distinctly remember having this one lady one the phone, for a solid 45 minutes, screaming at me because she refused to pay the price for an out of warranty iPhone replacement. she had the iPhone 4s(this was shortly after last years 6s/plus release) and she said she had told the store she had dropped down a flight of stairs in a parking garage(which i could only assume would be cement or some time of solid metal stairs) but that it was not her fault that it was broken. on top of it, she was even more upset that we would offer her a refurbished phone(which i understand when its a new phone IE: 6/6s/SE, you don't want a refurbished, but for s 4s? we literally don't have new ones to give out) and said i was lying to her when i said we no longer produce the iPhone 4s and we have not for a few years now.
she demanded to speak to my manager, so i happily handed the phone over, she immediately starting saying that i was rude, that i called her offensive names and I used racial slurs over the phone(best part is all of our calls get recorded for this exact reason.) and demanded to be compensated for the abuse and her treatment by me, she then stated she never dropped the phone to begin with and wanted a brand new one, when again my manager explained we no longer produce new 4s phones, she then hung up the phone.
just goes to show, you can be a nice as possible, and people will try to go out of their way to not only get what they want, but to make your life harder, simply because you are doing your job.
Worked at Apple for years. The secrecy there was absurd; often we would have a new product released and have zero information on it, but be required to act as though we were the experts! Oh, and they push more for sales and business introductions more than they push for problem solutions. We were always expected to have "attachments" (a euphemism for selling accessories with any transaction) to anything we did, and the spin game we were taught was next level. Apple cares more about selling you new stuff than they do about making sure their employees have enough training to fix your issues. Don't believe me? Go in to any Apple store and ask for help with something like Final Cut. Or ask the average Genius how to access terminal commands. The chance of you getting help is slim to none.
Nepotism was awful, training was a joke (so was pay), and there was little (read: no) room for advancement. It was an eye-opening and disappointing company to work for ... if only they treated their employees with the respect and decency they advertise it would have been phenomenal company to work for.
In less than five years time I guarantee that the inside of their stores will be virtually indistinguishable from those of Best Buy, other than the Apple-only products. That being said, they have good products--even if they treat their employees like garbage.
To those of you calling BS on this story:
I lived through it. Had people all the time that would come in with wet phones, and accuse Apple of making phones that "created" water; had a guy come in pissed because we wouldn't swap his phone for free after he lost it riding on the interstate; had multiple people unsure why their phones weren't working, only to discover the interior had totally rusted out; so many people were floored when we told them warranties didn't cover damage.
Nepotism was awful, training was a joke (so was pay), and there was little (read: no) room for advancement. It was an eye-opening and disappointing company to work for ... if only they treated their employees with the respect and decency they advertise it would have been phenomenal company to work for.
In less than five years time I guarantee that the inside of their stores will be virtually indistinguishable from those of Best Buy, other than the Apple-only products. That being said, they have good products--even if they treat their employees like garbage.
To those of you calling BS on this story:
I lived through it. Had people all the time that would come in with wet phones, and accuse Apple of making phones that "created" water; had a guy come in pissed because we wouldn't swap his phone for free after he lost it riding on the interstate; had multiple people unsure why their phones weren't working, only to discover the interior had totally rusted out; so many people were floored when we told them warranties didn't cover damage.
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I have one of these cables hidden away because it's hilarious. Yes that happened. It's true. You had to more or less smash off the fake casing to get to the lightning cables. Not everyone in the store knows what happens/goes on.
Sorry about that, that really sucks.
I am not sure if you had the same situation as me, but I was telling them that there was hard drive issues, based off of my past experience and the symptoms the iMac was having. But, they said that they could not do a replace of the drive unless it showed up as messed up on their HW diagnostic test, which it passed every test over a few months time.
Luckily for me, it fully broke just in time.
I am not sure if the external drive would have worked in my situation. The Apple Store was using an external drive for the hardware diagnostic test, and it wouldn't boot from that for 2 hours.
I am not saying his story is true of not, but there are plenty of 18 year olds in high school. 19 year olds too.
I believe replacement parts are under $40 retail. Takes less than 30 min for an experienced repair tech.