Your problem isn't with the south but the filthy city of Atlanta.
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Is Apple losing it, or just a bad experience?
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Your problem isn't with the south but the filthy city of Atlanta.
Call back again and if you end up with someone rude - tell them they are being rude and ask to talk to someone else.
I have lived in Atlanta and found most of the folks I met to be wonderful. Of course, like Florida, many in Atlanta are not from that area.
I've lived all over the country- 17 states- and was raised in the South. I have found those from the northeast to be the most judgmental, rude, and bigoted. I found people in California to simply be unique and varied, and those in the midwest to be the most down to earth.
I have zero doubt that I have a broader perspective about the people in different areas thank you do, and considerably more experience with diverse groups. Your comments sound closed minded and prejudiced.
I lived there for several years in the northern 'burbs. The city itself didn't appeal, but I loved the areas I lived in and frequented. I felt the same way when I lived in the San Francisco Bay area- couldn't figure out what was so great about The City, but loved the area overall.
My wife grew up in New Jersey, in the shadows of NYC. She also took a while to adjust to the South, and now absolutely loves it. It was hard for her to understand, for example, that "ma'am" was not a rude retort, but a sign of respect and courtesy. There are many other things which at first she misunderstood.
So nice to hear. A former co-worker who is from the South and recently moved back there, used to call me ma'am all the time. I figured it was a respect / courtesy thing but it's good to know that. Thank you for that tidbit.
Northeasterners can be very damn rude (yes, I can be if pushed hard enough) but I try to give people the benefit of the doubt. It goes without saying, doesn't matter who you are or where you are from, you're either a good person or a bad one. That's the only criteria I take note of. People have bad days too...
BTW, another Apple phone issue today. First sales rep was a dumb ass and placating. I was very clear, he obviously stopped listening once I mentioned I am calling about a return. The second sales rep and her senior adviser were very nice. Lately, my experiences with Apple phone ins, have been lame on 1st attempt and just fine with subsequent people handling the case.
If Apple folks aren't handling your issue to your satisfaction ask to speak to someone else. Doing this, may guarantee the outcome you want.
You think you have more experience than me? What makes you think so? You sound like a typical ignorant American male who thinks that you know better than every body else. Wonder why, the rest of the world dislike Americans?
I was born and raised in Europe. I fluently speak 3 languages. My father and my mother were of different nationalities and lived in a different country, therefore I speak all three languages and have exposure to much more diverse groups than you think.
Just because you lived in ONE country in 17 states, doesn't mean you have more experience with diverse groups! You have experience with only ONE country! Trust me I have lived in many countries, as apposed to only ONE. And I wasn't just a tourist, I lived there for long periods of time.
I am likely older than you. And I don't care about where you have been in Europe (did I mentioned I married a German woman?) because we're talking about the US. Personally, I don't care if the rest of the world likes us or not. You sound like the typical European who seems to think that you are inherently superior.
See? We can both play the "I'll be a jerk" game, only you revel in it and I find it loathsome, truth be told.
i had to phone apple portugal for my iMac problems. my portuguese isn't good so i asked the lady if she spoke english.even though its a portuguese freephone number she transferred me to a uk call centre, and the woman there was extremely helpful and nice, and one thing really impressed me. i couldn't find my receipt and didn't know what date i bought it (duh) and she needed to know it to figure out if their date in the system was accurate. i said id have to call back because the only way to check was to ask my wife to log into her online banking and look and it'd take her a few minutes. "no don't worry, just put the phone on the table, ill get on with something else and when you've got the date speak into the phone and ill pick it up again". where else have you spoken to someone on in a call centre who's happy to hold for 5 mins whilst you find a date you should have looked up before you phoned.
I also feel Apple quality control (especially software) has gone significantly downhill in the last 3 years, probably because they are trying to do too much, too fast, and so they let tons of embarrassing bugs just fall through the cracks. Similar to Microsoft, I'm now in the mindset "if it's Apple, of course it won't work", but I wanted to share a real story that shows where Apple is still quite different than Microsoft.
I've never had good luck with iCloud, but recently I had my iPhone replaced at the Apple store and found I couldn't reload the iCloud backup because it had been authorized to an AppleID that didn't exist. Long story short, it was an incredibly complex problem, starting form a server error that infected both the backup and all the devices in my house so that none of them could create backups that they were authorized to use. No sane person could possibly have figured all that out. So far, just like Microsoft.
But here's the difference. Tech support in Austin worked non stop with me for 3 weeks. They set up a complete simulation of my iPhone and their servers, simulating and resimulating with my backups on their hardware. I certainly didn't like having to wait 3 weeks before life would be normal on my iPhone, but they didn't give up, and they finally completely solved the problem. I now have my backup back and can backup normally. (But they did warn me that on no occasion should I even attempt to use iCloud Keychain, because that one is just too fraught with danger.)
And that is still a key difference. Microsoft would NEVER have fixed the problem. So I now view Apple as more of an American company - their products they churn out are somewhat flawed, but they put their scale on the back end, fixing the problems after the fact. I can only hope that at some point they WILL slow down, and start fixing basic things. Things like "why does the new iTunes GUI lie overtop of the DONE button in the playlist editing screen so I can't edit playlists?" Or, why does multimonitor desktops never work quite right anymore? Why do windows open up with strange field widths, or disconnected pull down menus that are a foot away from the windows? Just the truly fundamental stuff.
One thing Apple still has the ultimate edge on - Force Quit always works.
P. S. Sadly, Apple's current business model is they HAVE to give people a reason to want the next iPhone each year, so they HAVE to come up with new hardware and software features, which they clearly can't keep up with. They really need to hire more software developers so they can have an entirely different team following up on older features and getting them to work correctly. They need a tight, solid product foundation again. I'd be thrilled if they'd just double down on making the software work.
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Not trying to start a flame war or anything but the Unites States is almost 2.5 times larger than the European Union so 17 states is quite a bit of exposure. Almost like living in 17 different countries.
Not trying to start a flame war, but Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area.
Does it make someone born in Russia qualified to say that they have the most exposure to different cultures? Like twice as much exposure than United States and 6 times more exposure than all European countries combined?
Do you really think you have a strong argument?
It sounds like from this comment that you haven't really explored all that NYC has to offer. There are plenty of stupid people anywhere you go.
That's certainly been my experience with several Apple stores here in Europe, even after mentioning what I thought was pretty obvious details on some of the newer products.
Just browsing around one store recently, the salesperson started promoting the AppleWatch. I quickly stopped him in his tracks saying politely, "No, I'm really not interested as I happen to be a keen collector of mechanical watches". Back came the reply, "What's a mechanical watch?"
As Basil Fawlty would say, "You just can't get the staff these days......"
EX-wife, thankfully. And she had that same silly aloofness you have. And I told her the same.
so based on one sentence saying just that i bet your wife loves your opinions, i have a silly aloofness. aye okay mate. you are mental. you have no idea what nationality i am or where I've lived or may opinions. although I'm guessing you have decided that I'm not american because I'm clearly not good enough to be.
True, but I shouldn't make an equation between stupidity and willingness to help.
Sometimes the people who are most intelligent, or most senior, are also (a) the most obstructive and/or (b) least good-mannered. When (a) + (b) combine, expect people at the receiving end to have little or no patience with the badness.
I don't doubt the hard work, but the reputation of Apple in various areas could – should – be better. For example:
The less favourable assessments of Apple are too easily – too often – overlooked, dismissed or ridiculed.
"… customers who have to call for support more than twice are x6 more likely to churn …" – that's for mobile device loyalty; something similar might be true for notebooks, and for some of Apple's more modern desktop hardware (where a component that was traditionally upgradeable, post-purchase, is now non-upgradeable).
The opening poster:
– third time lucky.
@robgendreau would you describe that as second time lucky? And after the superb help, did you feel more or less loyal to Apple than before the first call?
@starzilla now how's your loyalty towards Apple?
Yes and no. Sometimes if a person begins with rudeness, my response will be immediately stern. If there's rudeness as a beginning on a bad day for me, then I might be more than triply rude in return; in my part of the UK, people are almost never prepared for that depth of comeback.
More often, I'll assume (and sometimes it's visible) that the person is having a bad day; I'll drop my own concern and do something unexpectedly nice, something completely unrelated to my original call/visit. Momentary random unexpected kindness of strangers can have a huge positive effect that will be remembered for decades (at http://web.archive.org/web/20111025074939/http://grahamperrin.posterous.com/ scroll down to June 2010, on human nature and randomness).
Was more than one Apple person involved in the solution and if so, did you see those people thank each other at the conclusion?
… Apple still has the ultimate edge on - Force Quit always works.
No, but that's a story for another day. …
LOL no disrespect graham, sometimes being nice works, sometimes it doesn't. I know that's helped tremendously in the brick and mortar stores lately with iDevice return and swap. I try to be nice.
However, when you sell me a non-working machine and then force me to invoke Tim Cook's name twice with senior advisers to get the return initiated. Well that is just plain sad.
No need for statistical reference on those points.
However, when you sell me a non-working machine and then force me to invoke Tim Cook's name twice with senior advisers to get the return initiated. Well that is just plain sad.
No need for statistical reference on those points.
Lol congratulations for copying that first sentence and link pertaining from Wikipedia, I can see how cultured and knowledgable you are already.
Anyway, I'm not exactly sure how the federalist system in Russia is set up, but I can assure you if someone was born in Russia and travelled to 17 "states" (or state equivalents) that yes, they would have been exposed to different areas and cultures. It's not just being born in a place that makes you more cultured, I don't know why you thought I said that.
Either way, I don't plagiarize so I will link you to an article that may give you a little perspective, again, i'm not trying to be all "americaaaa hell yeahhh" just stating my opinion.]
http://www.vagabondish.com/7-reasons-why-americans-dont-travel/
Regional bias and russian demographics (wtf - isn't there a domestic politics forum for you guys to hang in?) aside, there is a simple explanation for the misunderstanding.
Apple stores carry the standard spec models, large/flagship stores, or those in high wealth regions, also carry a "best" configuration. So, assuming you only went to a normal apple store in a normal town, they would only have MJLQ2 and MJLT2 available (the 2.2 and 2.5GHz standard configs).
If you went to a flagship/big store/one in a wealthy area, you'd also be able to buy a "best" configuration - which is the maxed out one. In the case of the current 15" model, that's 2.8GHz and 1TB flash, at $3200 + tax I think.
I'm going to go out on a limb that you probably weren't the best customer in the world - remember it's just a job, and you're dealing with a person, not apple. You asked for a model they didn't have, and she wanted to ask you why you'd really need the 2.8GHz (there must be special use cases for the 2.8GHz CPU to be a cost-effective option).
Apple stores carry the standard spec models, large/flagship stores, or those in high wealth regions, also carry a "best" configuration. So, assuming you only went to a normal apple store in a normal town, they would only have MJLQ2 and MJLT2 available (the 2.2 and 2.5GHz standard configs).
If you went to a flagship/big store/one in a wealthy area, you'd also be able to buy a "best" configuration - which is the maxed out one. In the case of the current 15" model, that's 2.8GHz and 1TB flash, at $3200 + tax I think.
I'm going to go out on a limb that you probably weren't the best customer in the world - remember it's just a job, and you're dealing with a person, not apple. You asked for a model they didn't have, and she wanted to ask you why you'd really need the 2.8GHz (there must be special use cases for the 2.8GHz CPU to be a cost-effective option).
Of course, not!. I say that because of your strong comments, biased and prejudiced, based on your own acts and words.
And I couldn't care less what nationality you are.
Well, I was definitely wrong. iPhone broke, had to call Apple Care and eventually make it into the store. Everyone was crazy nice and I can't believe they just replaced the iPhone for a broken button. Ignore this thread, apple still rocks. Just a few bad people on the phone I guess.