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Former Apple Store Employees Provide Amusing Glimpse Into Company's Retail Culture
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As much as I love Apple products, I sometimes think the company is run by completely batsh1t crazy people
Depending on the phone, a replacement screen runs anywhere between 30 and 100 dollars, the most expensive of course being the 6S with its force touch panel. I have been replacing screens for friends ever since doing so on my original 4 after it fell out of my pocket face down onto concrete. The premium Apple charges is beyond ridiculous, given the process takes maybe 20 minutes for anyone that has done it once or twice as long as you have the correct tools (suction device for opening the screen, decent Pentelobe and micro screwdriver set, all of which can be purchased for about 20 bucks) I believe they set this premium because A) it gives the impression of quality (more expensive = better quality, if you're stupid or ignorant) and B) because they can, given the way most people are stupid and ignorant.
They only scenario in which it makes more sense to have Apple replace a broken anything versus doing it yourself or having a friend like me do it is if that item is still within AppleCare warranty, or if your Touch ID equipped home button is broken. Otherwise, go anywhere but Apple.
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Next time just use In Store Purchase, and tell the pretentious cultists to eat it.
I think it happens when you have idiotic management that gives in to those who shout the loudest.
In my experience, you just need to have the right attitude: Make the employee feel that they are a hero for helping you, and make them feel that helping you is in inevitable outcome of your interaction. Shouting doesn't achieve either.
Lucas: “Apple Maps was **** then. It’s **** now. Also I think the Apple Watch is the dumbest thing ever. Who is that lazy?”
Who cares what he thinks!
In some ways this dude comes across a conceited , disgruntled smart ass.
Apple maps has improved massivly and no where near ****.
Apple watch , i love mine…..And its seems it has the highest satisfaction rate in smart watches.
Who cares what he thinks!
In some ways this dude comes across a conceited , disgruntled smart ass.
Apple maps has improved massivly and no where near ****.
Apple watch , i love mine…..And its seems it has the highest satisfaction rate in smart watches.
Call the Apple Watch a dumb thing but it's helped me lose over 30 pounds with it's fitness features. Not dumb to me.
Actually, no. It was clearly broken earlier, you were just not able to prove it at the time. 12 months warranty covers you if it is broken within 12 months, which it would have been even if the final failure happened after 13 months. (There would be a question of proving it, but the fact that you brought it for a repair after 11 months would be proof).
You would think this would be the case, and maybe it would be.
But, during the many, many phone calls to Apple Support, I asked them what happens on the 3 year and one day if my iMac would fail their HW diagnostic test would Apple honor the Apple Care warranty since I had the computer in the store many times for the same issue.
They said that it would up to the store manager if they would honor the warranty.
This may not be true, but that was what I was told on more than one occasion.
You would think that given the situation of the repeat issue with the iMac that warranty would be honored, but I could not get that guaranteed from anyone I talked to.
lol the kid obviously had an attitude problem but I think it's sad you took so much pleasure in showing him a picture of you and Woz.
Are you certain that's not just because you're a courteous person? I think you might be underestimating yourself. Perhaps you might not have re-faced the products after you bought some without your retail experience, but if you're a courteous person, I'll bet you that you would have been courteous regardless, just in different ways.
I'm sure retail/food service has been a great learning experience for many people. But I've also seen it, with poor management which is all too common, foster an "us-vs-them" mentality. An "I'm-always-right-and-the-customer-is-stupid" mentality.
Complaining (excessively, I mean...) about the customer is kind of like a cancer in a retail/food service crew. Once it starts it grows and takes hold and festers unless good managers recognize it and nip it in the bud and figure a way to get that energy redirected back into the job, or at least into something less negative.
Trust me, retail makes you realize how s****y people can be sometimes and it makes you put in extra effort to avoid their mistakes.
My experience has always been great except for 1 instance when my MBP fan started to become really loud but it was hard to reproduce. They kept my MBP for over a week and at the end of the week they weren't able to reproduce the issue, which was nearly impossible considering how often I ran into the issue. I simply asked that they replace the fan and they flat out rejected. Even manager was a jerk about replacing a $1 fan. They finally agreed to have it shipped to a depo center to see what they could find.
What did the depo center find? That the fan was broken. 3 weeks later and it was finally fixed. I actually got a call from Apple Corporate and they apologized and sent me an Apple hat
What did the depo center find? That the fan was broken. 3 weeks later and it was finally fixed. I actually got a call from Apple Corporate and they apologized and sent me an Apple hat
I was told by an apple employee they could not help me when my connector stopped working on my new iPhone. I asked to talk to a gurus but they refused to even put me in queue.
They claimed I submerged my new iPhone, which was incorrect.
I walked out furious.
Here what it was i was working in a refrigerated environment and entered and exited frequently and it caused condensation to form on the connector but shortly thereafter it started working again.
They claimed I submerged my new iPhone, which was incorrect.
I walked out furious.
Here what it was i was working in a refrigerated environment and entered and exited frequently and it caused condensation to form on the connector but shortly thereafter it started working again.
I had my share of absurd retail experiences in when I worked in the cycling industry for 10yrs. Selling and repairing bikes that ranged from $200 to $15,000 brought in all sorts of customers.
"Not allowed to say no". I would never work in an environment with ridiculous communication constraints like this. It's mandated insincerity Just to follow an idiotic and arbitrary limitation. It enrages people. It's applied by executives who don't have to work in that environment and have zero clue on actual human interaction in actual service situations. It's one of the most ludicrous things about Apple.
That's *always* been my impression with Apple retail stores. The training they give and the way they operate really does provide a superior customer service experience. But it's at the cost of the sanity of the workforce.
Considering Apple's propensity to only hire staff "part time" and then proceed to schedule them for 36+ hour weeks (to avoid having to pay all the benefits required by law if they were full-time), I think it's a sucker's job in many ways. People always want to say they work for Apple, and especially for younger workers, it seems like such a trendy/cool job vs. working retail at most stores. But you'd have to pay me MUCH more than they earn to put up with that much abuse and stress.
I once got into a private email discussion with a guy who worked for an Apple Store in the DC metro area, and considering the cost of living out here? His annual salary was really low. He told me he "got by", but he didn't have enough money to be able to afford to drive a car - so he had to bicycle to/from work each day. And most of his pay was used up on a small studio apartment. He was single and embraced that "live simple" lifestyle (which you'd have to do, to keep working on those terms).
Almost without fail, if I spend more than about 10 minutes in the Apple Store closest to me, I overhear at least one customer spouting off something ranging from annoying to a flat out reason to kick them out of the store, burying their face in the pavement in the process. I think Apple store employees actually get MORE abuse like this than most retail workers, BECAUSE people have learned they're not allowed to verbally fight back. There are always the jerks out there who enjoy pushing someone to the limit. (The time before last, for example? The store was super crowded and they were running about 15-20 minutes behind on each Genius Bar appointment. Some moron kept screaming at the top of his lungs, every few minutes, about how late they were making him -- and how incompetent the place must be to make everyone wait so long.) The Apple employees kept ignoring him, except for someone occasionally going over and reassuring him he was still on the list and they'd get to him as soon as possible. I guess they weren't allowed to ask him to leave for screaming. Other customers even got irritated enough so some of them spoke up extra loudly, in response to apologies for the delays, saying "No problem at all! I appreciate how busy you are!" But this idiot wasn't deterred and kept shouting.
Considering Apple's propensity to only hire staff "part time" and then proceed to schedule them for 36+ hour weeks (to avoid having to pay all the benefits required by law if they were full-time), I think it's a sucker's job in many ways. People always want to say they work for Apple, and especially for younger workers, it seems like such a trendy/cool job vs. working retail at most stores. But you'd have to pay me MUCH more than they earn to put up with that much abuse and stress.
I once got into a private email discussion with a guy who worked for an Apple Store in the DC metro area, and considering the cost of living out here? His annual salary was really low. He told me he "got by", but he didn't have enough money to be able to afford to drive a car - so he had to bicycle to/from work each day. And most of his pay was used up on a small studio apartment. He was single and embraced that "live simple" lifestyle (which you'd have to do, to keep working on those terms).
Almost without fail, if I spend more than about 10 minutes in the Apple Store closest to me, I overhear at least one customer spouting off something ranging from annoying to a flat out reason to kick them out of the store, burying their face in the pavement in the process. I think Apple store employees actually get MORE abuse like this than most retail workers, BECAUSE people have learned they're not allowed to verbally fight back. There are always the jerks out there who enjoy pushing someone to the limit. (The time before last, for example? The store was super crowded and they were running about 15-20 minutes behind on each Genius Bar appointment. Some moron kept screaming at the top of his lungs, every few minutes, about how late they were making him -- and how incompetent the place must be to make everyone wait so long.) The Apple employees kept ignoring him, except for someone occasionally going over and reassuring him he was still on the list and they'd get to him as soon as possible. I guess they weren't allowed to ask him to leave for screaming. Other customers even got irritated enough so some of them spoke up extra loudly, in response to apologies for the delays, saying "No problem at all! I appreciate how busy you are!" But this idiot wasn't deterred and kept shouting.
I suspect a much less expensive fitness tracker could have tracked your exercises and weight loss. With the money saved you could have paid down your debt or put away some money for a rainy day.
I have to agree with a lot of this. But this whole "water damage" thing is probably a little more complicated than JUST a matter of dishonest customers lying about getting water in their Apple products.
My wife used to work at an Apple store, years ago (we're talking back in the era when iPods were still a pretty new offering), and she even said there were issues not long after she stopped working there with a rash of warranty claims denied for "water damage" - when that wasn't what happened at all. She knew multiple people with Mac laptops that developed issues with such things as LCD screens with vertical lines down them who got claims denied under that blanket excuse of "evidence of water damage". But when they had 3rd. party shops open them up to take a look, they said absolutely no water problems ... and tracked the issues down to other failed components.
She suspects the depot where most of the repair work was getting sent went through a phase of using that excuse on anything they didn't feel like servicing for whatever reason.
And as other people on here have pointed out .... Sometimes people work in conditions where high humidity or condensation can make those internal water sensor strips change color indicating water inside, When really - they haven't done anything with the product that they would think would void a warranty on it.
My wife used to work at an Apple store, years ago (we're talking back in the era when iPods were still a pretty new offering), and she even said there were issues not long after she stopped working there with a rash of warranty claims denied for "water damage" - when that wasn't what happened at all. She knew multiple people with Mac laptops that developed issues with such things as LCD screens with vertical lines down them who got claims denied under that blanket excuse of "evidence of water damage". But when they had 3rd. party shops open them up to take a look, they said absolutely no water problems ... and tracked the issues down to other failed components.
She suspects the depot where most of the repair work was getting sent went through a phase of using that excuse on anything they didn't feel like servicing for whatever reason.
And as other people on here have pointed out .... Sometimes people work in conditions where high humidity or condensation can make those internal water sensor strips change color indicating water inside, When really - they haven't done anything with the product that they would think would void a warranty on it.
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
New product is not wrapped in black wrap. It had to be secured and not opened but they never came in black wrap. The pallets delivered to the stores had black security wrap so we knew if they were tampered with by the carriers. Product came in usually day of for minor launches and sometimes a day or two prior to an event if it was announced. I worked for Apple for 14 years. No fake cases or product were ever delivered either. And yes new cables were delivered to the stores as Apple released a newer model.
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Yes they leak it on purpose
[doublepost=1470091987][/doublepost]Never let your kids or yourself sit on the "piss" balls around the kids tables. They are nicknamed this because kids piss and poop on them regularly and they are only changed out when really bad.
No thanks; totally glad I developed the skills so I never had to work retail. Everyone's story is different, so I'm not knocking those who work in retail. Everyone has their hustle, but that is one hustle I have no interest in doing ever.
Yeah, no. Not after the **** ton of work it's taking to get my Engineering degree.
I think that is reflective more of their sense of humor than their competence.
You can be a senior in high school and be 18 in all of the USA. He was in high school.
Reckless of endangerment and safety, If their was a witness/admission, he would have. Over an iPhone too.
There's a lot of similar interesting stuff like that over at http://www.notalwaysright.com (as well as from the other side of it all at http://www.notalwaysworking.com).