I didn't feel like reading the preceding 50 posts, but the Genius Bar is staying on Tiger because their back end system is not compatible with Leopard yet...
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So called "Mac Genius" doesn't know anything about Spaces ... or Leopard !
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I agree that this "genius" needs to do some homework, but I would rather someone tell me that they simply don't know the answer my question rather than give me BS.
Remember that the OP wrote that the "genius" hadn't even used Leopard yet. That is a tad too much. Have you seen a doctor who didn't know what an elbow was? Or a lawyer who's never heard of a will? It's really quite extraordinary. Again, I blame Apple. Clearly this "genius" hasn't been given appropriate training.
CalBoy said:
Thats not quite what I meant. Obviously I can see that better qualified people are going to apply for higher paid jobs, but what I am saying is that this will not stop the less qualified people applying in equal amounts as they would to an ad with a lower rate of pay. In fact, if anything it will attract more less qualified people to apply as it will simply be an overall increase in the number of people from both the less qualified and more qualified groups.
I actually read an article not to long ago about a guy (I believe he was a journalist), who spent a period of his life researching what it was like to work for an array of different companies. This formed the basis of his article. If I recall correctly, I also remember him writing about his time in Apple sales (UK), how the training was fantastic and the experience was great. I'll have to try dig up a link for that.
The bottom line? I simply do not believe it is Apple's training regime that is to blame for poorly informed staff. It is their unwillingness to learn/laziness/complacency that is at fault IMO. I also find it difficult to believe that someone working in an Apple store, even part time would not have a single clue about one of the popular features of the latest OS. Sure, they might not know it inside out, but they must have a basic idea of what it does. I almost feel as though the staff member mentioned here just couldn't be bothered. But hey, I wasn't there so who knows?
I'm afraid I still do. As a scientist, I have to remember massive quantities of information. Therefore to me, the amount of knowledge required by a sales member or Apple Genius shouldn't be too difficult.
There was a time in my life when I did both at the same time, when I worked in sales for a large electronics store here in the UK.
It's not insulting. Perhaps I just expect too much from people. I believe that if I can be both a scientist and work in an electronics store at the same time (where I would have to know as much information as any Apple sales rep if not more), then others should be able to do at least half of what I can do. Oh, and in addition to this, I also run our local Apple Mac User Group (MUG), which requires me to know much information about Apple's systems so that i can help a wide variety of users troubleshoot any problems they have.
I don't consider myself to any more intelligent than anyone else so I don't think this is too much to expect.
Most likely, he was right. Many of the Microsoft and Logitech mice don't have proper support for the Mac, i.e., programming the mouse buttons isn't as flexible as on Windows...
I have had great experiences at apple stores, the staff is generally very well informed, and have answered all my questions correctly off the bat, the genius bar as well really know their stuff. Personally I think from any other company weather in-store or by phone Apple has the best and most knowledgeable service BY FAR.
You've mis-quoted me!
Yes, but the point still stands. If Apple is claiming that these employees are "geniuses" then they ought to know about major products, especially an OS that has been quite successful in sales and offers a myriad of new features.
I posted my experience with the apple store staff from today here: https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/4574979/
They're mostly very friendly and attentive so I think Apple generally recruits people who are good at retail but their knowledge... not so good. I only know my way around the system, I can't do anything complex like in Terminal so I don't think I should be showing up these people on their latest and greatest product (that I hadn't really read up on since macworld). One guy had no problems admitting he didn't know (fair enough) the other just came out with garbage when put on the spot probably not wanting to be shown up by a woman. The concept of backup drives you can boot from was totally alien to them.
And nobody there seemed to know of Super Duper! Maybe it's a little obscure, I dunno but I love that app.
They're mostly very friendly and attentive so I think Apple generally recruits people who are good at retail but their knowledge... not so good. I only know my way around the system, I can't do anything complex like in Terminal so I don't think I should be showing up these people on their latest and greatest product (that I hadn't really read up on since macworld). One guy had no problems admitting he didn't know (fair enough) the other just came out with garbage when put on the spot probably not wanting to be shown up by a woman. The concept of backup drives you can boot from was totally alien to them.
And nobody there seemed to know of Super Duper! Maybe it's a little obscure, I dunno but I love that app.
What on earth is super duper? another piece of hackward guaranteed to stuff up ones Mac installation?
Similar Experience at our local reseller
I went in to the Local Premium reseller yesterday. Either they were playing dumb, or they truely are as thick as ****. I went in to look at the Mac Pro's, they really were trying to push me into buying one.
THey hadn't even heard of Penryn or the improvements it brings, let alone Caneland or Nehalem. One of the sales blokes was contunually trying to convince me that buying the current stock config and upgrading the RAM would be more benficial then waiting for 8 Core Penryn. Now either they have been told to treat everyone as a moron, or they are really thick. And to think I wanted to work there. If that is the destain they treat there customers then no thank you.
I went in to the Local Premium reseller yesterday. Either they were playing dumb, or they truely are as thick as ****. I went in to look at the Mac Pro's, they really were trying to push me into buying one.
THey hadn't even heard of Penryn or the improvements it brings, let alone Caneland or Nehalem. One of the sales blokes was contunually trying to convince me that buying the current stock config and upgrading the RAM would be more benficial then waiting for 8 Core Penryn. Now either they have been told to treat everyone as a moron, or they are really thick. And to think I wanted to work there. If that is the destain they treat there customers then no thank you.
I have heard apple staff give some simply awful answers to the most basic questions. A month or so ago I was in the pentagon city mall in Virginia just outside dc and I heard a sales rep. Tell two customers that they could not set up an iPhone to access an aol email account. If this guy had taken the time to glance at the iPhone right next to him while he fumbled for an answer the would have seen the preference pane that had the big shortcut button for setting up an aol account since the "add account" prefs pane was open. I kindly interviened and pointed to the phone. The guy was about to lose two sales because he clearly hadnt used the company's hottest product. Talk about embarassing.
Dear Apple,
Train your sales staff to actually know the dang products.
Thanks
Dear Apple,
Train your sales staff to actually know the dang products.
Thanks
I assume he meant the following program:
The 2005 and 2006 Eddy Award winning SuperDuper is the most advanced, yet easy to use disk copying program available for OS X. It can, of course, make a straight copy, or "clone" -- useful when you want to move all your data from one machine to another, or do a simple backup. In moments, you can completely duplicate your boot drive to another drive, partition, or image file.
Does't sound like a "piece of hackward" to me, sounds pretty damn useful!
Yeah that's a typical sales thing. If you've got stock in right now you obviously want to sell it and maybe "playing dumb" is one of the ways to try and get you to buy. I remember a few days before the new iMacs were released a salesman at an authourised Apple retailer kept telling me that he knew nothing about the imminent release and that NOW was the time to buy!
You should have got yourself some commission on that one mate! Also, "dang", haha, you Americans crack me up sometimes ...
You should have got yourself some commission on that one mate! Also, "dang", haha, you Americans crack me up sometimes ...
Well I try to keep it family friendly here. I had some choice words for that particular Apple employee.
To be honest with you I think that the apple retail experience (genius bar excluded) could benefit from increased associate specialization. The store is already pretty clearly divided by product, station an associate near a group of products they are trained to know and have them handle that area. Sure, it wouldn't be as flexible during high traffic as the current roaming configuration especially in small stores with limited staff, but it could help lower the ignorance factor.
Though to be fair to Apple's retail staff it is unfair to expect them to know EVERYTHING when products and features change or to be up to date on every third party product.
Apple staff/geniuses
My experience with the geniuses at the Apple store in Southdale/Minneapolis has generally been awesome. THey work in a fishbowl with impatient people standing around staring at them while they try to work on three or four computers at a time and patiently answer questions from people who don't know that you don't hit a hard return each time you get to the edge of the page when typing a letter. I've seen them take the time to be sure that all questions have been answered and problems dealt with whatever it takes.
I can also say that having the three year APple protection plan seems to get me better service.
On the other hand, I was disappointed when I had made an appointment to meet with a "Pro" to help me install and configure Apple Server on a Mac Mini. I even spelled out exactly what I needed in the box asking for such details on the web signup page. When I got to the store with my Mac Mini in hand, they found someone to meet with me who then said they did not support the Apple Server software and perhaps I could hire a consultant.
I also suspect they've had to hire quite a few more people with the increased demand for Macs. THis may have required a lowering of qualifications. Negative consequences of a good thing.
My experience with the geniuses at the Apple store in Southdale/Minneapolis has generally been awesome. THey work in a fishbowl with impatient people standing around staring at them while they try to work on three or four computers at a time and patiently answer questions from people who don't know that you don't hit a hard return each time you get to the edge of the page when typing a letter. I've seen them take the time to be sure that all questions have been answered and problems dealt with whatever it takes.
I can also say that having the three year APple protection plan seems to get me better service.
On the other hand, I was disappointed when I had made an appointment to meet with a "Pro" to help me install and configure Apple Server on a Mac Mini. I even spelled out exactly what I needed in the box asking for such details on the web signup page. When I got to the store with my Mac Mini in hand, they found someone to meet with me who then said they did not support the Apple Server software and perhaps I could hire a consultant.
I also suspect they've had to hire quite a few more people with the increased demand for Macs. THis may have required a lowering of qualifications. Negative consequences of a good thing.
All of us who are here reading and responding in these forums are obviously intelligent enough to do our own homework and have real discussions about products, and get real reviews on what's good or bad. I find I never really speak to salespeople anymore, other than to say "please help me find this". I've learned not to trust anything that salespeople tell you, so it's almost counterproductive -- they'll tell me something, I'll say "Oh really?" and then I have to look it up later to confirm whether he or she was right, anyway. May as well skip a few steps.
I've mentioned in other posts that I have worked in retail (not at an Apple Store though) and I know what is typical of "training", and it is very, very minimal.
I've mentioned in other posts that I have worked in retail (not at an Apple Store though) and I know what is typical of "training", and it is very, very minimal.
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have you ever thought that maybe the people working at the stores sign a confindantly paper that says they are not allowed to tell the customer anything unless its on apple.com??? Its people like you that have no clue what is going on. Just cut them some slack already. I mean really. U know nothing about business.
G4DP said:
have you ever thought that maybe the people working at the stores sign a confindantly paper that says they are not allowed to tell the customer anything unless its on apple.com??? Its people like you that have no clue what is going on. Just cut them some slack already. I mean really. U know nothing about business.
I don't give a "floating screw" about them not telling me if they will be updated. It's the fact they tell you blatant lies. Intel have been shouting from the roof tops about the Penryn chips and will be no doubt doing the same in 6 months when Caneland and Nehalem start production.
If you walked into Computer Shop and a member of staff told you that a Clovertown/Woodcrest Mac Pro with more RAM is going to be better than a Penryn based system, you'd take their word as the solid truth? You think it's good customer service to lie to the people who pay your wages?
Are you a politican by chance? Oh, my mistake you work for a car dealership.
retail land as a mac genius
I was a mac genius for several years.
Any os release we got it maybe 2 days before to play with it.. and it would be installed on the slowest computer in the store and kept under lock and key. we had online training and while it is good training.. it's not playing with it and learning as tech's do.
the genii have it rougher now with more work and the pay is going down.. as the stores grow and businesses grow they will try (and succeed) in getting genii to jump ship.. most of the time beating the pay and giving regular hours.. the store I worked at lost more than half the staff in 6 months due to other businesses growing and currently the longest genius is less than a year being a genius.
I was a mac genius for several years.
Any os release we got it maybe 2 days before to play with it.. and it would be installed on the slowest computer in the store and kept under lock and key. we had online training and while it is good training.. it's not playing with it and learning as tech's do.
the genii have it rougher now with more work and the pay is going down.. as the stores grow and businesses grow they will try (and succeed) in getting genii to jump ship.. most of the time beating the pay and giving regular hours.. the store I worked at lost more than half the staff in 6 months due to other businesses growing and currently the longest genius is less than a year being a genius.