I'll say this again, I love Apple products, but you're fooling yourself if you think ANY publicly traded company thinks of anyone before they think of their shareholders.
Good customer service is a means to an end; it's not their primary purpose.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Microsoft Attempting to Lure Away Apple Retail Store Staff?
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I'll say this again, I love Apple products, but you're fooling yourself if you think ANY publicly traded company thinks of anyone before they think of their shareholders.
Good customer service is a means to an end; it's not their primary purpose.
Apple has no real presence in the business sector.
Unless they're somehow catering to Adobe or Intel.
Apple specializes in the home/consumer sector, through and through. And THAT certainly shows.
Good job ignoring the obvious yet again.
You said Microsoft only wants the cash flow from big business... I said same could be said for Apple. Apple wants the cash flow from 14 year old teeny boppers and fanboys like you. The old school Mac enthusiast don't mean anything to Apple anymore because they are more likely to hold onto a PowerPC than spend thousands on an overpriced PC in an Aluminum box.
I left apple for another large company support Apple products I made 45% more in essentially the same position.
Stealing employees away is an enormous compliment to Apple. Apple has already vetted out employee candidates with good customer service skills and then trained them up in the art of product evangilism. Microsoft has every right to staff their stores with employees who have that experience and patienence with customers who are unfamilar with the products or technology.
While Apple employees are happy to share the Apple brand, they are also just as happy to share the knowledge they have with technology. Any Apple employee who gets real satisfaction from sharing information with others will be just as effective sharing Windows technology. It's disingenuous to call the Apple employee traitors or disloyal because they see better oppurtunities working for another major leader in technology . Besides, someone is bound to walk into a Microsoft store asking for help with their iPod and iTunes.
While Apple employees are happy to share the Apple brand, they are also just as happy to share the knowledge they have with technology. Any Apple employee who gets real satisfaction from sharing information with others will be just as effective sharing Windows technology. It's disingenuous to call the Apple employee traitors or disloyal because they see better oppurtunities working for another major leader in technology . Besides, someone is bound to walk into a Microsoft store asking for help with their iPod and iTunes.
Like the move or not, this is such an unexpected tactic for retail. The whole mantra in retail is to pay the staff as little as possible (since margins, in general, are so low) which is aided by high turnover with people leaving Wal-mart job to work at target for 50 cents more an hour... AND to also pray that the employees do not steal from you to the level that it cuts in to profits.
Paying your retail staff more directly cuts in to the profit you make from the operation. And if you've hired people away at lucrative salaries, they're less likely to leave because you're now overpaying them and there won't be obvious jobs for them to switch to - so you're locked in to a fairly high cost structure!
BUT.. While we know MS isn't in this to "make money" (as clearly Apple is doing successfully with it where Gateway and others failed), all it takes is a few bad years of losing money for a new MS CFO to come along and admit it's not worth the investment just to put computers on shelves for people.
Paying your retail staff more directly cuts in to the profit you make from the operation. And if you've hired people away at lucrative salaries, they're less likely to leave because you're now overpaying them and there won't be obvious jobs for them to switch to - so you're locked in to a fairly high cost structure!
BUT.. While we know MS isn't in this to "make money" (as clearly Apple is doing successfully with it where Gateway and others failed), all it takes is a few bad years of losing money for a new MS CFO to come along and admit it's not worth the investment just to put computers on shelves for people.
You can paint it in as many colours as you like.
Sorry about you "old school Mac enthusiasts" (whatever that means.) Maybe it's time to get with it and get an Intel Mac.
I've let go of my old PowerPC from 1994 (does that make me "old school" too?) No reason for me to be angry about Intel Macs in 2009.
Exactly how much support do these "old school Mac enthusiasts" expect for their old PowerBooks, now years out of warranty?
He does have a point. Apple is in it for the money (as with any company) and most ipod users are spoiled, rude and immature 14 year old brats. I dont know how many times I've seen the freshmen/sophmore kids getting ther ipods taken away back when I was a senior few years ago. I was placed in a freshmen class my senior year and all those kids did was ignore the teacher and listen to their ipods and talk about myspace and that hanna montana and jonny brothers crap.
What about people that use 50k-75k dollar Protool rigs built for PPC machines? This is the perfect point. Apple force feeds. Microsoft does not. The company I work for uses Windows XP SP2 and we get 100% support. So horrible Microsoft doesn't force feed us Vista. Apple? Every Laptop we get has Snow Leopard even though we have begged Apple to ship us Leopard machines because Juniper SSL doesn't support SL and many other in house programs don't support SL. Force Fed.
Oh I forgot. We should just make it work. Good thinking. You obviously have not been in the real world. Do you have any enterprise or real world work experience, or are you even old enough to provide life experience. From your comments you just sound like the iPod customers stated above.
Right now there aren't any Snow Leopard only machines. Image Leopard onto them if you're within the bounds of your license situation.
425 Negatives?
This is good news, you fools.
Retail's a pretty grim hole for an entire generation to be stuck in. But it's where a lot of you are going to end up, and spend long fruitless years, a fate owing less to your talents and abilities than to dire market economics and the stubbornness of the Boomers to just go off and die.
So you might as well welcome every chance to make a bit better living than Apple is paying now. And try to remember this: Apple may be cool, but it isn't your "friend." When you work for a low salary for a corporation that's making enough to print its own damn currency, there's a word for that.
Look it up.
This is good news, you fools.
Retail's a pretty grim hole for an entire generation to be stuck in. But it's where a lot of you are going to end up, and spend long fruitless years, a fate owing less to your talents and abilities than to dire market economics and the stubbornness of the Boomers to just go off and die.
So you might as well welcome every chance to make a bit better living than Apple is paying now. And try to remember this: Apple may be cool, but it isn't your "friend." When you work for a low salary for a corporation that's making enough to print its own damn currency, there's a word for that.
Look it up.
But NDAs do prevent (and has been enforced by courts) sharing of customer lists, pricing policies, return policies, future product plans, etc. Even sharing the training orientation techniques. So when MS (or Safeway for that matter) hires Apple retail store clerks (and you are correct, NDAs can't prevent that; even non-competes have never been enforced on rank and file employees), the new MS employee can bring his "bag of retail skills" with him, but can't share Apple proprietary stuff.
You can't deny that he has a point.
You, Mattie, just got your ass kicked.
most of the folks making comments probably do NOT work for Apple. So they don't know the pay, the discounts etc.
and even those that say they do work for Apple can only speak to the fact that they themselves do or do not make a particular amount. every shop has a rule against talking about your pay rate so they likely don't know about the guy that had 3 years of starbucks and came in at the same time but is getting a dollar more an hour.
Exactly. I did not say anything about that. Re read my quote.
Most dont even work for retail., or even work at all.
Those type of people do not know how the working world works
FYI, the smilie was used in restraint - one could write volumes about your general ineptitude, clueless outlook, and overall, extreme incoherence. We'll just leave it at
, for now.Is anyone really stupid enough to leave a company where they can get employee-discount iPods and Macs for a company where they can get employee-discount Zunes?!?!?
Its not. Thats the point. Apple doesn't support going backwards on software. Never has never will.
What prevents Microsoft from making PCs?
Microsoft sells branded keyboards, mouse, MP3 players, Xbox, etc.
So what is stopping them from selling PCs with Windows XP/Vista/7 just like Apple does with OS X?
And if they do start doing so, then do have a direct battle with Apple Store concept....
Microsoft sells branded keyboards, mouse, MP3 players, Xbox, etc.
So what is stopping them from selling PCs with Windows XP/Vista/7 just like Apple does with OS X?
And if they do start doing so, then do have a direct battle with Apple Store concept....
your post title says Making PCs, but your actual post says selling (meaning HP, Dell, Sony etc)
and if it is so what? Unless microsoft copies apple in every detial, theres no legal problem here.
Because if Microsoft does it its a Monopoly, if Apple does it its brilliant and never done before.
didnt the gateway stores come before apple's did?
and I dont see it as that. It will be a place to get everything you need all in one spot.
Wow, what a disingenuous argument.
Seriously - what's your beef? Were you fired from Apple? I'd like to know the motivation for your endless anti-Apple rage.