I'm starting to dislike every Apple Store worker I come across..

[chriszzz]

As someone who has worked in a variety of retail establishments, the exact same comments can be made about customers.

Imagine dealing with know-it-all idiots who don't listen to anything you say and repeatedly ask the same questions.

Don't give me any "thats your job....BS". No one wants to work in retail. It sucks. Most people are just trying to make ends meet.

 

[Disc Golfer]

I really don't shop at the apple store very much, it seems like they only sell products available on their website, but I haven't had a specific problem with employees at one. (I'll usually be visiting the university village location in seattle). Once I went to the store with my sister to get her a new macbook and they were pretty quick and painless about going to get it, then selling it to her. It's nothing like at Fry's, where the employees all are basically there to put stock on the shelves (and they don't do a very good job) and if you have a question or actually need assistance they can smell it and will scurry in the opposite direction every time they encounter someone who isn't a coworker.

I used to work at the (single-person staffed) service counter of seattle's Mac (not Apple) store several years back and was expected by the customers to exhibit an expert level of knowledge of Apple's complete current and recent previous lineups, all currently available software and networking systems, as well as diagnose and repair certain issues on the spot, for a compensation rate of US$9/hr.

 

[l.a.rossmann]

So you are saying I should accept **** attitude from low-IQ dimwitted employees just because there is worse out there?

If I made $10/hr and had to wear a flamboyant looking uniform, it'd likely twist me into a nihilistic, wise ass prick as well

 

[kellen]

Hahahahahahhaha.

Glad you said it, I was going to.

 

[Fast Shadow]

I've never had anything but positive experiences after doing business at the Apple store for many years. Maybe I'm just lucky, but everyone I've dealt with has always been friendly and helpful. I never really push them on technical questions because I already know what I want in advance. But in terms of being responsive and helpful, it's always been a good experience for me.

 

[akadmon]

I've never had anything but positive experiences after doing business at the Apple store for many years. Maybe I'm just lucky, but everyone I've dealt with has always been friendly and helpful. I never really push them on technical questions because I already know what I want in advance. But in terms of being responsive and helpful, it's always been a good experience for me.

My personal experiences have all been good. One bad experience I had at an Apple Store was when I witnessed a sales guy try to foist an older model iMac on an elderly lady the very day the new model was released/announced. Now I don't think the store had the new model in stock yet, but the fellow should have had the decency to tell the lady that if she would wait a couple more days she could get something better for her money.

 

[Fast Shadow]

Apple stock would plummet. Likely the only time Jobs will ever wear a suit again is while lying in state.

orly

 

[v66jack]

Every time ive gone into an apple store they always seem to be full up with time-wasters checking facebook, i should imagine for the staff its quite hard to determine who is actualy interested in buying something and who's there for a laugh.

Personally I cant say I wonder into a apple store without wanting to buy something but it seems many do.

 

[thegoldenmackid]

There are plenty of times in which iThink that the Apple Store employees won't be of help and they prove me wrong. I have never found one to be rude - as long as your nice, they seem to be nice as with most things in life.

 

[throttlemeister]

orly

You'd think someone like Steve Jobs would be able to get a shirt with the proper collar size.

 

[balticgreen]

The other reason I despise going to the Apple Store is the HUGE amount of employees they have working at any time (usually around 20 or more on the sales floor not counting "Geniuses" or people in the back, no joke), in a standard sized mall store..i.e. not alot of floor space. They usually equal the number of customers in the store on a weekday, yet it takes so freaking long to check out with anything. No kidding, you cannot make an "in and out" purchase in under 30 minutes at any Atlanta area Apple Store. Well, at least I've never been able to. When you finally get an employee to notice that you want to check out, they have to wait for one of the only two mobile check out devices to ring up your sale, then that is a slow process in and of itself.

So true, at least in my area. This is just my latest experience... I went recently to buy a video adapter cable that I thought I'd need for a presentation and couldn't wait for shipping. You walk into the store and are immediately accosted by no fewer than five salespeople who want to welcome you to the store and help you purchase a new computer. I said I need a video cable. "*frown* Oh, they're in the back. *unenthusiastic point towards the wall of accessories*" Okay. Well, I found what I needed with no help from anyone but that was the easy part. You pull the thing off the shelf and turn around hoping to see at least one of those five people who were so eager to take your money when you walked in the store but instead you find... no one. I flagged down an employee who was scurrying by and he said "You can pay in the back." So I walked aimlessly toward the back, which is a lot bigger than it seems when you have no idea where exactly in the back you're supposed to be headed. "Sir, do you need to checkout?" Oh thank god. Yes, please. "Credit card?" Yes. "Okay, you'll have to see Jenny (or whatever her name was). She has the only mobile checkout." First, who is Jenny and second, why is there ONLY ONE mobile checkout in the whole store? So of course since Jenny has the only checkout, she's swamped with people and there's no line or anything resembling order, just people waving products at her and demanding to be helped next.

35 minutes for what should have been a 5-minute in-and-out purchase and that was at 2:00pm on a weekday. I don't even want to know what it's like on a Friday night or weekend.

Like I said, that was just my latest visit. I bought Snow Leopard in the store also and the experience was only slightly better. On the other hand, I've bought two computers and one iPod in store all at different times and I thought I received a first class treatment all three of those times. Higher margins = better service, I guess. God help you if you want a lowly accessory or piece of software.

Every Specialist on the floor should have an EasyPay (mobile check-out) with them.

I agree they should. They don't.

Apple uses the Net Promoter method (via a third-party) to track customer/employee experiences with their retail stores. If you give Apple your email address/permission during a transaction (sales/repair/training) at the store (and also give them permission to contact you), you're likely to get an email asking you to rate your experience in the store. If not, you can go to http://www.apple.com/retail/feedback at any time. An overall rating of 6 or less will generate a call back from store management.

They have my email address and email me the receipt. Never have I received any solicitation for feedback regarding my store experience.

Thank you for the link, though. I reached the point that I never want to go to the store again but I can take a few minutes to tell them why.

They also always have at least one (low-volume) to four or five (high-volume) Specialists stationed in the software/cases/peripheral area, checking people out with their EasyPays, before they make it back to the regular check-out.

I wish that was true at the stores here.

Those workers are there to sell you products. Nothing more. They're only salesman. Just like at a car dealer, the salesman typically know absolutely nothing at all about the products they're selling. The only difference is that at a car dealer you have greasy guidos with chest hair and gold chains, and at the Apple store you have retarded hipster doofuses in shorts and sandals.

Have you been hanging around used car lots circa 1978? I've never seen any car salesperson I would describe as "greasy guidos with chest hair and gold chains." I bought my current car from a woman so I'm really glad there wasn't a chest hair situation going on there.

Seriously though, she was very knowledgeable about the car and not even arrogant about it like many of her peers in the luxury car game. Of course for the prices of these cars, I'd hope they can afford to train the sales people so they can teach us how to operate a car that's smarter than the driver.

You'd think someone like Steve Jobs would be able to get a shirt with the proper collar size.

When was that picture taken? Remember he lost a lot of weight when he was ill. Maybe it was around that time and it looks worse because of that?

 

[xizar]

I bought my current car from a woman so I'm really glad there wasn't a chest hair situation going on there.

Were you hoping to avoid the inevitable opportunity to massage her bare chest that the hair would have interfered with?

I wish I'd bought my car at your dealership.

 

[SDAVE]

I've been to many Apple Stores in the US and usually have had very positive experiences. Recently (I'd say in the last year), every Apple store worker I've come across is just a huge smart a$$. I'm pretty sure any macrumors poster is 10x smarter/knowledgeable than any worker there and having fairly good computer knowledge, it bugs me to have to talk to an Apple store worker who clearly isn't a a computer expert but talk down to me like he/she is a genius (pun intended). Anyone else having similar experiences? The last store I went to was the new Upper West Side in NY which had about 50 workers. It almost felt as if the workers were outnumbering the customers. I wish they would just hire 20 smart quality workers

Heh, that has happened to me many many times.

The funny thing is, I've been dealing with computers since the early 90's. I can run circles around any "genius" or repair guy.

I usually act dumb at the stores because you don't want to reveal too much. You just want the thing to get fixed.

I always leave going to the "Genius" bar as a last resort. I dislike Apple stores.

 

[TsuaSai]

I have horrible service every time I walk into an Apple store and leave mad cause I just got done spending so much money and got crap service. However I do like the product and I am praying that it will pay off if I ever have in a real trouble with any Apple products. Oh and I am normally even more made cause I drive 2 hours to get yanked around. One day I'll learn to just order online.

 

[OdduWon]

It seems that the only reason to go to a retail store is to see the shinny new Mac, who's specs we have been drooling over on MR, in person.

I find the retail staff to be generally uninformed and ill suited to help average people choose the "right" Mac. The one time I used the "genius" service was when I got a Netflix DVD (the movie Hackers coincidentally) stuck in my MBP penryn. I tried to hold space bar at startup to eject it, and reset the memory as instructed in my Mac manual with no results. The apple genius asked me to remove my Speck case for him, took it in the back and 2 min later he came out laughing ( due to the title of the disc inside) and upon MY questioning, he told me that he reset the firmware and that I shouldn't do that very often as it could be harmful to my machine. A nice guy.

on another note, there is a girl in my architecture studio that works at the retail store and she knows nothing about anything, the bobble head type . Nice to know there are some knowledgeable apple workers out there.

 

[maclook]

I too have noticed this changing of the attitudes of the Geniuses towards customers, and is one of the reasons I mentioned the smugness of Apple Store employees in my first post. I have seen them go from being truly helpful and nice to customers to being almost rude, arrogant, and a bit defensive toward customers over the past couple of years.

Just to be clear, since i started this thread, this is exactly what I'm am referring to. I never thought to connect the attitude change with the rise of the iPhone though, that's a very good observation. It's my understanding that computer knowledge isn't really relevant in the hiring process as much as diversity is (race/age/sex).
The geniuses that i've had to deal with lately (in the past year) just want to get me out of their way as fast as possible. Usually that results in my issue not being solved and becoming frustrated with the experience. I'm sure it is stressful for the geniuses to have new appointments every 15 minutes, but their egos prevent me from helping them so we can solve the issue together. I feel like the 'Genius' title has a psychological effect. Maybe if they were called something more neutral like, um, "mac friends" we could all get along.

 

[xpovos]

The geniuses that i've had to deal with lately (in the past year) just want to get me out of their way as fast as possible. Usually that results in my issue not being solved and becoming frustrated with the experience. I'm sure it is stressful for the geniuses to have new appointments every 15 minutes, but their egos prevent me from helping them so we can solve the issue together.

Well said, that last part. I would almost sooner just buy a new machine, no matter how small the issue, if it meant I could avoid having to deal with the Genius bar. I very much dislike having to go to an Apple store for any reason---and my wife now absolutely refuses to go in with me because of the treatment she has received from them in the past.

 

[AlienSexGod]

I submit that Apple appeals to the younger "hip, trendy" generation that LIKES piercings/tatoos/emo/punk look and they LIKE seeing people like that as Apple store employees. Who cares if middle aged fogies are put off by that? Let them go buy a PC. Apple is banking on the future. But - would it KILL Steve Jobs to ditch the turtleneck and wear a proper suit for once?

Lol you bashers are funny and forget that one of the most representative slogans that Apple lived by for years was ....

"Think different"

Any businessman who would be turned off buying a productive excellent by someone wearing a T shirt in this day and age ... to basically be different is an idiot.

Now we could argue it is time for Job's to act different but that's another story.

Yeah there are wankers in some Apple stores ... but there are wankers everywhere even in suits....

 

[tmofee]

i dont think its just apple users. i think the normal it/computers salesmen can be as bad.

the other day i went into one of the popular furniture/computer store chains here in australia to buy the play tv addon for the ps3. the guy tried to sell me a larger hard disc for all of the space i am going to be using on the drive. i told him im only using it for tv/home entertainment purposes and have a 360 for the gaming. he then goes into a rant about how silly that is because ps3 is the superior gaming console system and im wasting my cash buying games for the 360. yeah, maybe i use xbox live quite a bit or something else... *roll eyes*

 

[tmofee]

also - those handheld terminals cost quite a few dollars per month to rent.

i don't know what its like in the US, but in australia, only the really big stores can afford more than one of those terminals. how are they run there?? over here (i fix them) they run off of the 3G network with a simcard. most stores here just have quite a few cash registers with eftpos instead of the wireless units. well, small businesses usually have one. it's kinda funny, it's cheaper to rent just one portable unit than it is to get another phone line installed, pay rent on the phone line each month and also pay the smaller fee for the phone line version. it's just they pay rental for each and every one they have.

 

[SolRayz]

I submit that Apple appeals to the younger "hip, trendy" generation that LIKES piercings/tatoos/emo/punk look and they LIKE seeing people like that as Apple store employees. Who cares if middle aged fogies are put off by that? Let them go buy a PC. Apple is banking on the future. But - would it KILL Steve Jobs to ditch the turtleneck and wear a proper suit for once?

Now that you mention it, I tend to cringe when I see an emo genius, and I'm no middle aged fogie. Generally, I find that store employees are nothing more than iBots, preprogrammed for a specific mandated task by Apple. You can throw monkey wrenches when you ask question that are off script.

I know in a perfect world Apple would have the most technically knowledgeable people working there, then again, those people would hopefully have higher aspirations than working in a mall retail outlet.

Let us be happy that Apple service, as a whole, is unmatched in the industry.

 

[63dot]

Just to be clear, since i started this thread, this is exactly what I'm am referring to. I never thought to connect the attitude change with the rise of the iPhone though, that's a very good observation. It's my understanding that computer knowledge isn't really relevant in the hiring process as much as diversity is (race/age/sex).
The geniuses that i've had to deal with lately (in the past year) just want to get me out of their way as fast as possible. Usually that results in my issue not being solved and becoming frustrated with the experience. I'm sure it is stressful for the geniuses to have new appointments every 15 minutes, but their egos prevent me from helping them so we can solve the issue together. I feel like the 'Genius' title has a psychological effect. Maybe if they were called something more neutral like, um, "mac friends" we could all get along.

The whole genius thing seems to be a mini mold of Steve Jobs, as he would have liked to have seen himself as a kid when he was growing up. Whatever Steve says, these genius workers say, and for a small organization who has to compete against the likes of HP and Microsoft, it's really the only way to do it. If you want to buy a HP or similar branded generic PC, then most likely you are going to deal with a generic salesperson like at the big box store near me (who I won't mention by name), and if you have any questions about Windows, then hope that big box store has someone on staff who happens to be familiar with whatever flavor of Windows that seems to be the popular flavor for the month.

Apple does not seem to shed its elitist boutique image, but they are far too small to have their stuff in every store and control the market like the PC side and Windows.

We pay a little more for Apple products, but at least we get a genius bar we can go to when we walk into a store vs. that big box store who also sells lawn mowers, wine, trampolines, glasses, and pills. The service in an Apple store is far from perfect, but think of who the competition is. I have walked into one of those Fortune 100 super stores who sell everything in some 10,000 square foot complex sometimes unable to find a salesperson. When they did have the occasional Mac, they might be stored 20 ft. above my head where I have to find some kid with a forklift. And when you find them, the most they can say concerning your product is if they can carry it out to your car. So in the end, you can get $100 dollars off on a previous generation iMac which is not worth it to me. After my dad got his computer at such a store, I made sure the next time he bought a computer it was at an Apple store. Many times, while learning, he would call them or come in and they would give him the answer to his questions. For the first computer from the mall superstore, they will literally forget who you are as they sell thousands of shopping carts full of stuff, including computers, on a daily basis.

 

[AndyCodez]

I too have gotten to where I dread walking in any of the area Apple Stores, mainly due to the attitude/personality of the workers there. They all act very smug and "elitist", if you will, yet I find that they usually know very little about the actual products they sell. I find that I far more often than not know more about what they are selling than they do, such as specs, colors offered, history of their products, etc...even the "geniuses". I know that they don't get paid a HUGE amount for working there, but come on...have pride in your job and learn at least a little bit about what you're selling. My employees earn far less on average than an Apple Store worker, but yet know the products we sell in and out. For example, when I went about 10 days after the launch of the current Nano (the one w/video camera), the salesperson that got it out of the back for me looked at the box as he was walking out of the back room and actually said "hey, this one has a video camera? Cool!". It had been out a week and a half! And he didn't know this? This was a regular employee that I've seen in there many, many times in the months leading up to this, so it wasn't a newbie employee, either.
The other reason I despise going to the Apple Store is the HUGE amount of employees they have working at any time (usually around 20 or more on the sales floor not counting "Geniuses" or people in the back, no joke), in a standard sized mall store..i.e. not alot of floor space. They usually equal the number of customers in the store on a weekday, yet it takes so freaking long to check out with anything. No kidding, you cannot make an "in and out" purchase in under 30 minutes at any Atlanta area Apple Store. Well, at least I've never been able to. When you finally get an employee to notice that you want to check out, they have to wait for one of the only two mobile check out devices to ring up your sale, then that is a slow process in and of itself. Why can't they put back in at least one check out register in the stores? For a company that prides itself on "overall customer experience" with it's hardware and software, they could really use focusing some of that on a more efficient store. Being a business manager myself, it makes my skin crawl to see how many employees they staff in a store, even on slow days, to STILL be inefficient. No wonder Apple products cost so much, they have to pay the wages of all the staff members walking around with their thumbs up their rears. I'd fire them all and hire 4 of my employees to do a far better job than 20 of theirs.

Wall of text crits you for 2342342.

 

[justit]

You don't need to compare experience A to experience B to figure out if you came out satisfied or not.
Hahahahahahhaha.

Sounds like you should apply at Apple, and set everyone straight

My point is, don't judge "Apple" because of some bad "apples" (sorry the door was open)

I've had 'issues' with some employees myself, but it's as simple as asking someone else and getting the help you need. Let's not judge Apple on the personality of a few employees.

 

[justit]

So you are saying I should accept **** attitude from low-IQ dimwitted employees just because there is worse out there?

No you shouldn't accept attitude, just move on to another employee instead of brooding about it.

Too bad they are getting rid of the different shirt colors, I always stay away from the orange ones.