So called "Mac Genius" doesn't know anything about Spaces ... or Leopard !

[Neutral Gamer]

So I went into my local Apple store (somewhere in England - let's keep it anonymous) a few days ago to see how Leopard looked on a 30" ACD. The animations for Spaces and Expose (connected to a Mac Pro) seemed pretty smooth and I wanted to get an idea of how Spaces would work and how smooth it would be if I connected up my MBP to it.

I asked one of the black shirt wearing staff about my query. He paused for several seconds looking like he was "thinking" about the question and then said that one of the Mac Geniuses would be able to better help me and guided me over to one of them.

At this point I thought, nice, I'll be able to have a proper technical conversation and ask some other questions about Leopard. But no! He said to me, "Yeah sorry, I haven't used Leopard yet so I don't know anything about Spaces."

What? Leopard's been out for over a month and this guy doesn't seem to know anything about it! Instead he told me, "I've got a friend who uses his MacBook with an external display to mix music and he seems to have no problems. Although he does use Tiger. His music's pretty good, I can give you his MySpace site if you want."

Thanks a lot. That really answered my queries well. At this point I thanked him for his "help" and told him I had a train to catch, which thankfully I did.

I left the store safe in the knowledge that most IT staff and Mac Geniuses share something in common; they're idiots and completely unsuited for their jobs!

(Apologies in advance to the minority who do actually know their stuff)

 

[tibi08]

It does seem quite shocking that a "Genius" hasn't used Leopard yet. Pretty piss poor, but that's the service you come to expect in any retail store these days.

I was told by an Apple salesman, when buying my dad a Mac Mini two years ago, that his PC mouse would not work with his Mac Mini and he'd have to buy a new one. When I said I doubted this, he said "not unless this is a new feature in Tiger".

 

[TimJim]

When i was buying my MBP i asked if the 17" or 15" had better battery and they had no clue, they had to go to the specs board and tell me the 15" had better battery life.

 

[TheStu]

When i was buying my MBP i asked if the 17" or 15" had better battery and they had no clue, they had to go to the specs board and tell me the 15" had better battery life.

Honestly though, the 17" and 15" have very close rated battery lives. The 15" gets 6hr, and the 17" gets 5.75... so maybe they just couldn't remember which was which. I mean, the 17" does have a larger battery, and aside from the larger screen has the same internals as the 15"

 

[tibi08]

Honestly though, the 17" and 15" have very close rated battery lives. The 15" gets 6hr, and the 17" gets 5.75... so maybe they just couldn't remember which was which. I mean, the 17" does have a larger battery, and aside from the larger screen has the same internals as the 15"

Isn't it more complicated than this. The 15" used to have a shorter battery life than the 17" until the LED backlit version, didn't it? So it's not surprising that people can't keep up.

 

[sananda]

When i was buying my MBP i asked if the 17" or 15" had better battery and they had no clue, they had to go to the specs board and tell me the 15" had better battery life.

what's wrong with that? they can't be expected to memorize every spec and they found out the answer for you.

 

[CalBoy]

I was told by an Apple salesman, when buying my dad a Mac Mini two years ago, that his PC mouse would not work with his Mac Mini and he'd have to buy a new one. When I said I doubted this, he said "not unless this is a new feature in Tiger".

I think that was his weak attempt at a Mighty Mouse sale I'm glad you didn't fall for it

When i was buying my MBP i asked if the 17" or 15" had better battery and they had no clue, they had to go to the specs board and tell me the 15" had better battery life.

At least he went to the board and helped you find it. If you think about it, small details like that can be hard to keep track of after a while, especially since battery specs change with almost every revision. I can forgive having to look at a board for that.

Not having used Leopard (which is central to the job) is out of line. I blame this more on Apple than the "genius." Apple didn't do a good job ensuring that all of its employees were up to par.

 

[davidjearly]

I think you would actually be doing other people and potential Apple customers a service by alerting a member of store management about this.

Even if you don't want to single the guy out, this was a ridiculous level of service to receive - especially at an Apple store.

As Mac users, we are sort of proud (maybe in a slightly sad way), that we have such a devoted, knowledgeable userbase and Apple stores are meant to convey this. Either this guy was having a bad day and couldn't be bothered (thinking you were a non-interested consumer who wasn't considering purchasing), or he genuinely did not have a clue about Leopard.

If it is the latter, then there is a severe management deficiency at that Store. Either way, someone needs to be told.

David

 

[Neutral Gamer]

When i was buying my MBP i asked if the 17" or 15" had better battery and they had no clue, they had to go to the specs board and tell me the 15" had better battery life.

I think that IS a valid question to expect a Mac Genius to know. I mean there's only THREE battery lives to remember! Macbook, 15" MBP and 17" MBP.

I think you would actually be doing other people and potential Apple customers a service by alerting a member of store management about this.

I was quite tempted actually; maybe an anoymous letter or e-mail or something. The funny thing was that when the guy directed me to the Mac Genius I went behind the Genius Bar to see the guy; I thought it was just another table rather than the fabled "Genius Bar". At that point the guy said to me, "Woah! You're on the wrong side there - that's for geniuses. Maybe I should get you a shirt?"

He said it to me in a joking way. But you know what he should have gone and got me that shirt; I would have shown that Genius how to be, well, a Genius! And I've only been a Mac owner for a few months! Haha.

 

[Bern]

A friend went to computer store here in Australia where they sell pcs and Macs (the Macs have a dedicated area within the store) and asked about purchasing a Mac to one of the sales staff. The reply from the salesperson, "... oh you don't want to buy a Mac they fall apart too easily..."

 

[macrlz9]

I took my grandparents to buy their first mac a few days before Leopard came out & asked the sales person about getting the Leopard up to date disc. She told me I could download it for free after it was released. LOL I had to question her several times to get her to confirm what she told me & she came back & said she was wrong... People make mistakes, but sometimes they are confidently incorrect!

 

[BEASTMAN]

lol thats quite funny

The store by my place is has quite a few people that dont know much at all

I went in the other day after a couple days of trouble shooting my mother's powermac and needed a firewire drive to boot from that I didnt have. When I went in the MG was able to boot it up and thought the drive was bad but I noticed it was recognizing the drive and just needed formating (honest oversight). After sitting around listening to him help others and talking to himself I could definatly tell he knew what he was doing unlike some of his coworkers I have seen in the past.

Nice guy too, is referring me to work at a new store opening up soon as well. Going for MG, MS, or Personal Shopping Specialist, would love to be sent out for certification so I picked up the desktop and portable systems apple training book today to read through until I get a call. Though I know a lot I just want to make sure I am not one of these guys you are all talking about

 

[zirkle2007]

Most of the time I go to an Apple Store, I leave questioning if the workers even use a Mac. I mean seriously, I have had questions about some very basic things and they respond that they know nothing about it. I understand its just another place to work, but Apple should really step up its standards. I'm pretty sure enough people that actually know Macs would work the store...it is sad really.

 

[TheStu]

I think a lot of it depends on whether they actually want to be there, or if it is just a job to them. My friend and I drove 3 hours to get to an Apple Store (actually not the closest, but we have friends that live in that city) arrived 3 minutes before his Genius Bar appointment (I am just that good) only to find out that they didn't have him down as having an appointment.

Johnny Awesome Floor Sales Guy though, upon hearing his plight, went into the system and pretty much made a spot for him. He also spent a good deal of time chatting with us about all the shiny in the store. He admired my awesome MacBook (1 of a kind sucka!) and basically was very knowledgeable and good natured. He also seemed to be the rule at that store, rather than the exception.

 

[solvs]

They aren't all bad. Most of the time you get a good one, but sometimes, yeah, the sales people don't know very much. Of course, I work on Macs for a living, and peruse Mac dedicated websites on a regular basis, so I tend to know more than they do anyway. But I've still met many who are in fact pretty knowledgeable. I'd say this was an exception, not the rule.

 

[kaiwai]

So I went into my local Apple store (somewhere in England - let's keep it anonymous) a few days ago to see how Leopard looked on a 30" ACD. The animations for Spaces and Expose (connected to a Mac Pro) seemed pretty smooth and I wanted to get an idea of how Spaces would work and how smooth it would be if I connected up my MBP to it.

I asked one of the black shirt wearing staff about my query. He paused for several seconds looking like he was "thinking" about the question and then said that one of the Mac Geniuses would be able to better help me and guided me over to one of them.

At this point I thought, nice, I'll be able to have a proper technical conversation and ask some other questions about Leopard. But no! He said to me, "Yeah sorry, I haven't used Leopard yet so I don't know anything about Spaces."

What? Leopard's been out for over a month and this guy doesn't seem to know anything about it! Instead he told me, "I've got a friend who uses his MacBook with an external display to mix music and he seems to have no problems. Although he does use Tiger. His music's pretty good, I can give you his MySpace site if you want."

Thanks a lot. That really answered my queries well. At this point I thanked him for his "help" and told him I had a train to catch, which thankfully I did.

I left the store safe in the knowledge that most IT staff and Mac Geniuses share something in common; they're idiots and completely unsuited for their jobs!

(Apologies in advance to the minority who do actually know their stuff)

Mate, I'm not surprised; when they hire people, they go for the person that'll cost the least amount. Come into an interview knowing your stuff and they instantly assume you want 'big cash' - hence the reason I don't work in IT any more. Too many people dressed in suites hoping appearances will make up for ineptness.

With that being said, assuming I hadn't used that feature I would have found a staff member who had.

 

[Neutral Gamer]

Why I hate IT staff

Too many people dressed in suites hoping appearances will make up for ineptness.

You're lucky, at least you've met IT staff who actually dress well. In the company one of my friends works for he never even gets to see the IT staff. Whenever he has a problem IT staff are the last people he'd call as when you ask them for help they will either:

i. Tell you to restart the computer.
ii. Flatly just say they can't help you / can't be bothered / are "busy".
iii. Repeatedly say they'll come down to help and that's the last you hear from them!

I remember when I was at Uni several years ago in the library the person next to me was downloading a printer driver and it was too big to fit on a floppy disk. So she asked one of the IT support guys who frankly looked old enough to be my grandad and looked like he had the same level of experience with computers as him!

He pondered the problem and decided that she would have to split the file up into multiple parts to fit on multiple disks. I laughed to myself when I heard this "solution". Of course he didn't have a clue how to do this so he went off to the IT support desk and for the next half hour (literally!) phoned up various people in the IT department to try and get some help.

All this time I was busy programming away (I was busy writing a virus and a program to hack into my friend's e-mail account, as you do) and the girl looked at my screen and said, "Excuse me you look like you know something about computers, could you suggest anything for my problem?"

The solution was obvious. I told her, "Go downstairs to the supply store and buy yourself a £1 blank CD and I'll show you how to put the driver onto the CD." She went off, came back a minute later, I quickly burned the file onto disc, she thanked me and went off on her merry way.

20 minutes later the IT guy came up to me and asked me where the girl was, I told her she had to go and he told me, "Good, I couldn't figure out the problem anyway".

You couldn't make it up!

I vowed to hate all IT staff from that day forward, especially when I found how much they were getting paid compared to everyone else. Is it me, or is it that the more money you earn the less skilled you are?

 

[solvs]

I vowed to hate all IT staff from that day forward, especially when I found how much they were getting paid compared to everyone else. Is it me, or is it that the more money you earn the less skilled you are?

I don't get paid that much (especially for down here) but I'm always courteous, follow up, and know what I'm doing. A lot of the problems we have are from higher ups telling us it's about volume not service. They actually encourage you to do things quickly, even if you don't do them right, then go back or send someone else back later because they get paid more. The other thing is bureaucracy, where we have 10 different people saying 10 different things, and everyone telling our customers that everything is some other depts problem. Plus, since we don't pay that well competitively, and get jerked around by our bosses and customers, it's fairly stressful and we have a high turnover, losing some of the better people.

Luckily, since no one knows anything about Macs, they leave me alone to do my own thing and I don't get caught up in it much. Plus the benefits are good. And I get along great with everyone, especially my customers, who like me because I don't act like everyone else.

 

[koobcamuk]

what's wrong with that? they can't be expected to memorize every spec and they found out the answer for you.

If us nerds can, and aren't paid for it, they can.

 

[Luis]

what's wrong with that? they can't be expected to memorize every spec and they found out the answer for you.

Umm, it's their job and they are paid for it! It's like being a salesman and not remembering the price of what you are selling.

 

[CalBoy]

If us nerds can, and aren't paid for it, they can.

Umm, it's their job and they are paid for it! It's like being a salesman and not remembering the price of what you are selling.

The EXACT battery life can be difficult to remember. As long as the salesrep can remember "about 5 or 6 hours," that's pretty good, considering all the other more important things they need to remember (or should in any case).

 

[koobcamuk]

The EXACT battery life can be difficult to remember. As long as the salesrep can remember "about 5 or 6 hours," that's pretty good, considering all the other more important things they need to remember (or should in any case).

I disagree. They should know the quoted information. The amount of stuff I need to know in life is far more than the so called 'genius' people at the stores need to know.

 

[Luis]

The EXACT battery life can be difficult to remember. As long as the salesrep can remember "about 5 or 6 hours," that's pretty good, considering all the other more important things they need to remember (or should in any case).

Yeah yeah, that is ok, but for a genius to say that he doesn't know anything about Leopard a month after it's release...

 

[CalBoy]

I disagree. They should know the quoted information. The amount of stuff I need to know in life is far more than the so called 'genius' people at the stores need to know.

Well I disagree with this philosophy. I think that a few details here and there can be lost in minutia. What makes a good assistant is one who will go to great lengths to help the customer. Saying, "I need to double-check for a second," is fine with me; it's certainly better than quoting me the wrong information.

Besides, I don't think we can expect perfection from someone who probably only makes $10/hour (which I blame Apple for; if you want geniuses, pay for geniuses).

Yeah yeah, that is ok, but for a genius to say that he doesn't know anything about Leopard a month after it's release...

I don't believe I condoned that...

 

[koobcamuk]

Well I disagree with this philosophy. I think that a few details here and there can be lost in minutia. What makes a good assistant is one who will go to great lengths to help the customer. Saying, "I need to double-check for a second," is fine with me; it's certainly better than quoting me the wrong information.

I agree with half of what you say, but I am off to bed. I still think the genius monkier is a little misleading... maybe compared to average Joe... but us lot know more than all the geniuses combined.