Apple Store Employees

[Kestrel452]

The other day I made a trip to the Apple store on a whim, since I've been looking at laptops to ultimately replace this aging 08 MBP.

I've been an Apple user my entire life, but to be honest I can't say that beyond the slick look of the UI that OSX bowls me over in comparison to windows anymore. So I decided, screw it, I'll just ask the salesman why on earth I should shell out $1,000 more for a similarly spec'd laptop. The guy looked at me like I was nuts. He barely managed to explain the convenience of having a physical store to bring the computer to, and that the operating system is "better". $1,000 better?! What good is a salesman if they cant sell a product, I'm convinced I could have explained this to a customer at least twice as better.

So I decided to play a little devil's advocate with multiple employees and ask about the new MacBook Pros. I said that speaker quality was of a top priority for me, and I asked whether or not it had a built-in woofer (which I knew it did) and what the speaker output was. I had 3 salesmen with me at the time and all 3 denied the MBP having an internal woofer, and couldn't find out the stereo speaker wattage.

I also protested the cost Apple charges for SSDs, and explained I would like to install a new drive. Not one from Apple, but one I could catch on special. He lambasted that saying Apple would void the warranty on the computer, even though I knew very well that HDD replacement doesn't void the warranty on any other part of the machine.

Does anyone else notice how clueless Apple Store employees are? I seem to always get some sort of maltreatment when I go. Whether it was them telling me my Pro-Care didn't get me to the front of the genius bar line, giving me false information about their products, or just downright trying to cheat me out of an exchange of a faulty cable I always seem to have to deal with idiocy whenever I step inside. I've applied to numerous locations myself, but have never even gotten the courtesy of an interview. And keep in mind this wasn't a rinky dink location, this was the store at Woodfield Mall in IL, perhaps one of the busiest stores Apple has. Although this is irrelevant seeing as how every Apple Store seems to have employees that are slow or way off their game.

 

[neiltc13]

Why do people expect something special at the Apple Store?

It's just a shop. If you step inside, you will receive a shop-like experience.

 

[G51989]

It's even worse than a typical PC shop, Apple Store employees are clueless.

The " Genius Bar " is the biggest joke of tech support I've ever seen in my entire life.

3 weeks to do an " In Store " Repair on my 2011 iMac? And it was JUST a ****ING FAN?

 

[aziatiklover]

It's even worse than a typical PC shop, Apple Store employees are clueless.

The " Genius Bar " is the biggest joke of tech support I've ever seen in my entire life.

3 weeks to do an " In Store " Repair on my 2011 iMac? And it was JUST a ****ING FAN?

Thats prolly about having the actual part or parts in store! Most apple stores dont have all parts in stock. Especially new macs! So they usually send it to third party company/warehouses that fix macs such as pc-cts.
And these companies take awhile to just fix a mac.

 

[G51989]

Thats prolly about having the actual part or parts in store! Most apple stores dont have all parts in stock. Especially new macs! So they usually send it to third party company/warehouses that fix macs such as pc-cts.
And these companies take awhile to just fix a mac.

Heh, you would think a company that literally only makes 3 desktops would have a part in stock?

I typically build my own computers, but I cant do that with an Imac.

I just have a feeling, that if I had a Dell, and went to a PC shop. Id have it back in a few hours.

 

[aziatiklover]

Heh, you would think a company that literally only makes 3 desktops would have a part in stock?

I typically build my own computers, but I cant do that with an Imac.

I just have a feeling, that if I had a Dell, and went to a PC shop. Id have it back in a few hours.

Well no if you had a dell, HP, asus or whatever pc you will have to go to the same process, and most likely big PC vendors will send your pc to pc-cts. They will not fix it in site such as apple as long aple store have the parts!

Seems like you DO NOT know how the process of pc repairs. This is not like a honda or toyota dealership where you go up to the service parts and get tour parts right away!

 

[GoreVidal]

It's even worse than a typical PC shop, Apple Store employees are clueless.

The " Genius Bar " is the biggest joke of tech support I've ever seen in my entire life.

3 weeks to do an " In Store " Repair on my 2011 iMac? And it was JUST a ****ING FAN?

How very odd, I received a MacBook Pro repair within 48 hours (brand new 17" Antiglare screen, and they EVEN threw in the missing screws from the bottom of the chassis!)

 

[G51989]

Well no if you had a dell, HP, asus or whatever pc you will have to go to the same process, and most likely big PC vendors will send your pc to pc-cts. They will not fix it in site such as apple as long aple store have the parts!

Seems like you DO NOT know how the process of pc repairs. This is not like a honda or toyota dealership where you go up to the service parts and get tour parts right away!

Really? The local Store called CompuGig will do HP, Dell, and Gateway warranty repairs on the spot.

I mean hell, my PCs ( all of which I built myself expect for my current gaming tower and my iMac...and all my other Macs ). are easily reparible to.

If my gaming tower has a fan fail, I can go to any PC store, or even a Best buy, buy another fan ( even best buy has a HUGE selection ) for like 15 bucks, and be back up and running in a couple of minutes.

But with my iMac, must take those boys WEEKS for 4 screws and a wire

 

[GoreVidal]

So I decided to play a little devil's advocate with multiple employees and ask about the new MacBook Pros. I said that speaker quality was of a top priority for me, and I asked whether or not it had a built-in woofer (which I knew it did) and what the speaker output was. I had 3 salesmen with me at the time and all 3 denied the MBP having an internal woofer, and couldn't find out the stereo speaker wattage.

I also protested the cost Apple charges for SSDs, and explained I would like to install a new drive. Not one from Apple, but one I could catch on special. He lambasted that saying Apple would void the warranty on the computer, even though I knew very well that HDD replacement doesn't void the warranty on any other part of the machine.

So this is your idea of fun? Going into Apple stores and testing their employee knowledge? How is that going for you?

Seriously, this is just very sad. You walk into an Apple store like some entitled Mac owner, and out of sheer boredom, knowing full well every specification to every Mac in the store, you decide it would be fun to test the employees knowledge on such nitpicky concepts like the speaker quality in a laptop. You seem to me a very sad and lonesome individual with nothing better to do with your time than justify your existence as an Apple fanboy by proving your superior knowledge of asinine facts of computer hardware.

Perhaps you should apply for a position as an Apple employee at a retail store and earn your minimum retail wage of worth that you have so eloquently demonstrate here as the child-like being you have shown yourself to be.

 

[aziatiklover]

Really? The local Store called CompuGig will do HP, Dell, and Gateway warranty repairs on the spot.

I mean hell, my PCs ( all of which I built myself expect for my current gaming tower and my iMac...and all my other Macs ). are easily reparible to.

If my gaming tower has a fan fail, I can go to any PC store, or even a Best buy, buy another fan ( even best buy has a HUGE selection ) for like 15 bucks, and be back up and running in a couple of minutes.

But with my iMac, must take those boys WEEKS for 4 screws and a wire

DOnt know if cereal or not!? Your point on a custom pc parts that you can pretty much get anywhere compare to an imac?! Its like comparing an apple with an orange.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

A few years ago, I was in an Apple store where an Apple rep was telling an old couple that a mac mini wouldn't be able to run Photoshop, and you would need an iMac or Mac Pro to run it.

They were happily running it on an aging G4 iMac at the time, I think a mini would have been fine....

....but the mac mini isn't capable of running photoshop

 

[G51989]

DOnt know if cereal or not!? Your point on a custom pc parts that you can pretty much get anywhere compare to an imac?! Its like comparing an apple with an orange.

I'm assuming an iMac either uses a small desktop, or larger laptop Fan ( I think it has 3 fans ), available at any PC store or Best Buy, or online.

----------

How very odd, I received a MacBook Pro repair within 48 hours (brand new 17" Antiglare screen, and they EVEN threw in the missing screws from the bottom of the chassis!)

I remeber back in college, I had a brand new Pismo my first year, I think Mr Logic board ****ed up.

This was before apple turned into a toy company mind you, I sent in a ticket, I got a phone call that said " they'll be a box on your porch tomorrow "

Then there was, I put my pismo in it, UPSed it out ( on Apples dime ), and 2 days later, my Pismo was back in my hands, good as new. I can't say I got the same treatment with my iMac.

 

[aristobrat]

Although this is irrelevant seeing as how every Apple Store seems to have employees that are slow or way off their game.

Depends on how you define "game". At the Apple Store I worked at, the majority of the folks that weren't interested (or good) with technical/hardware questions where the ones that kicked butt on the creative questions.

As a very technical person with minimal interest in the creative stuff Apple sells (Aperture, Final Cut, Logic, etc), I think over the four years I worked there, I ran into people like you less than 10x. However, I was asked creative crap all freaking day long.

I'm pretty sure that if you ran into me in an Apple Store as an employee, I would have had all of your technical answers.

I'm also pretty sure that if someone with a serious Final Cut workflow issue ran into me, they'd be posting a "Apple Store employees are off their game" post, just like you. I was an Apple employee, I should have known more about the creative side of the stuff, but it wasn't my interest, so I just knew the basics. Seems like creative people do the same when it comes to some technical stuff, like how much competing laptops cost, relative costs of SSDs, etc.

You'd do well to find a way to hang out in the store for two solid hours (without being creepy), and listen to the type of mind-numbing basic Apples questions that these employees get, customer after customer. Then imagine yourself doing that 35 hours a week.

Honestly, Specialists that were tech heads (like you, wanting to discuss relative costs of SSDs, etc), didn't usually last long in that position. It does little for some of them.

FWIW, when I left the company a year or two ago, ProCare was done away with. Folks may have had existing memberships to ride out, but no renewals. Not sure the timeframe you were referencing when you said that the employees denied that there's head of line privileges with it.

 

[nuckinfutz]

It's really simple.

If you know your stuff when it comes to technology then the 13 bucks or whatever Apple pays it's employees is a pittance compared to what just about any other company is willing to pay for Tech.

How many guys/gals with certifications or relevant corporate experience are going to work for what retail pays? Not many.

That being said though the talking points about Macs shouldn't be so difficult. Had someone asked me why they should spend $1000 more for the Mac I'd simply tell them they aren't spending a grand more.

If I could get a Macbook Pro 15 equivalent for $699 I would do it in a heartbeat regardless of the OS.

 

[A Hebrew]

I Work at WalMart and if people expected me to know about the products we sold I would cry.

 

[G51989]

It's really simple.

If you know your stuff when it comes to technology then the 13 bucks or whatever Apple pays it's employees is a pittance compared to what just about any other company is willing to pay for Tech.

How many guys/gals with certifications or relevant corporate experience are going to work for what retail pays? Not many.

That being said though the talking points about Macs shouldn't be so difficult. Had someone asked me why they should spend $1000 more for the Mac I'd simply tell them they aren't spending a grand more.

If I could get a Macbook Pro 15 equivalent for $699 I would do it in a heartbeat regardless of the OS.

Indeed, 13 an hour isn't enough for anyone who knows what the hell they are talking about to be working there.

Hell, I know people who just have A+ and Windows certifications clearing 23 an hour working at dumps like Staples and Best buy.

The Talking points about macs are VERY difficult for the average consumer. You have to explain to them why they should buy a base model iMac over a Dell XPS, despite the dell being better supported with a longer warranty, better hardware, and better and longer software support.

Tho I didn't care, I just wanted a New Mac for fun when I bought my iMac.

 

[ruvil]

Heh, you would think a company that literally only makes 3 desktops would have a part in stock?

I typically build my own computers, but I cant do that with an Imac.

I just have a feeling, that if I had a Dell, and went to a PC shop. Id have it back in a few hours.

Well do you really expect all stores all over the world to have all parts in at all the time?

 

[G51989]

Well do you really expect all stores all over the world to have all parts in at all the time?

If a **** hole like a best buy, or a ****** local PC shop can stock fans, heatsinks, hard drives fans, power supplies, ect.

Then yes, I fully expect the largest hardware company in the world that only makes 3 Desktops to be fully stocked.

 

[Shrink]

A couple of days ago I brought my early 2011 MBP into my local Apple Store for diagnostic work to try to figure out what was causing an intermittent wake-from-sleep problem. I had been on the phone with Apple tech support, and after much effort, advised me to take it into the Store for diagnostics.

After a brief diagnostic scan, I was told I would have to leave the computer so they could try to force the problem to occur (as mentioned, it was intermittent, unpredictable, with no replicable antecedents.

I expected that I would hear from them the next day saying they were still trying to reproduce the problem. But about 8 hours later a call to check on it was met with the reply that it was all set for pick up, and that the Logic Board had been replaced. Obviously, they had the LB for an over 1 year old MBP in stock.

I have been to my local Apple Store on 5 or 6 occasions over the past 2 years. The Geniuses (yes, it's a dopey job title!) have been unfailingly polite, friendly and knowledgeable. And always worked to resolve my problem assiduously.

I don't question for a moment others' less than satisfactory experiences. All I can say is my experiences have been more than satisfactory....the techs knew their stuff, necessary parts were available, and I always walked out pleased with the service.

Just lucky, I guess...

 

[shelob8888]

So I decided to play a little devil's advocate with multiple employees and ask about the new MacBook Pros. I said that speaker quality was of a top priority for me, and I asked whether or not it had a built-in woofer (which I knew it did) and what the speaker output was. I had 3 salesmen with me at the time and all 3 denied the MBP having an internal woofer, and couldn't find out the stereo speaker wattage.

I also protested the cost Apple charges for SSDs, and explained I would like to install a new drive. Not one from Apple, but one I could catch on special. He lambasted that saying Apple would void the warranty on the computer, even though I knew very well that HDD replacement doesn't void the warranty on any other part of the machine.

Those are two great questions! But, with all due respect... besides attempting to prove a point, what good would finding out whether or not the MBP had a woofer or not, let alone the output do for you? That type of question is only asked by someone who knows already and/or will not care what the answers are because they will use external speakers (who wants to use laptop speakers as their main motive of listening??? No body).

Next, modifying anything yourself besides RAM will, I repeat... WILL void your current AppleCare warranty. Quite clearly stated on multiple info pages, including this one about warranty breach (bullet point #4). And also reading the warranty on the MBP or any other computer here. That being said, there is a clause about Apple approved DIY where you ship Apple your broken part, they ship you a new one, and they authorize you to do the repair (usually in places where Apple Stores are not located, and shipped repairs are a necessity).

For everyone else chiding about the geniuses and the repair time/lack of parts being in stock... I don't think you are understanding the sheer amount of computers that pass through those doors to be repaired/data migrated in the course of a day, let alone one week (not even mentioning accidental damage repair on mobile devices). It is simply not possible to keep every part (small or larger) in stock for every single device that will be serviced in house (everything 2009 and newer).

Please do your homework before posting, and blanket statements are frowned upon. If you approach the store as something that is there to help you and have a good attitude, you will be treated the same. But just like everything else, if you have a non-positve intent, why should the employees give 2 cents about making your experience better if you already have your mind made up and won't change anyway? They have other customers to deal with that truly need the help and personal attention.

 

[Tinyluph]

So basically you asked the most obscure questions you could think of to see if average Apple store employees could tell you off-hand? Big freaking deal.

I work at a Deli, and while I know a lot of things about the products we carry it's just not possible to know every little detail off-hand. If you really think you're receiving less than satisfactory service from Apple try going into Best Buy or a carrier's store.

 

[Kestrel452]

So this is your idea of fun? Going into Apple stores and testing their employee knowledge? How is that going for you?

Seriously, this is just very sad. You walk into an Apple store like some entitled Mac owner, and out of sheer boredom, knowing full well every specification to every Mac in the store, you decide it would be fun to test the employees knowledge on such nitpicky concepts like the speaker quality in a laptop. You seem to me a very sad and lonesome individual with nothing better to do with your time than justify your existence as an Apple fanboy by proving your superior knowledge of asinine facts of computer hardware.

Perhaps you should apply for a position as an Apple employee at a retail store and earn your minimum retail wage of worth that you have so eloquently demonstrate here as the child-like being you have shown yourself to be.

Well let me ask you what's more childish, getting ticked off by ignorant clerks and trying to clarify certain points that you're pretty sure of but want to confirm, or getting up on your high horse online and lambasting that person?

The audio system is a basic component of a laptop, and I think whether or not it has a built-in woofer is an important aspect of that. The wattage was a vague question, but I figured I'd ask as long as I was in there. More and more manufacturers are making bold claims about the speakers in their computers lately, so I'm not sure you should be so quick to dismiss me as being the only nitpick in that area. However, the point I was making is that it was pretty sad they had 3 or 4 "geniuses" swarming me at that moment but couldn't manage to pull that kind of data up. And it was also disappointing how they tried to tell me that replacement of the HDD voids the warranty. These are a mere 2 examples of how they completely failed to know what they were talking about.

Next, modifying anything yourself besides RAM will, I repeat... WILL void your current AppleCare warranty.

Replacing the hard drive on a post-2008 MBP does not count as a warranty voiding modification, do your research. There are even numerous accounts of people bringing in 2008 and older machines with user swapped HDDs and not being denied service, but I don't know for sure whether it was just an oversight on the pre-2009's or not.

That being said though the talking points about Macs shouldn't be so difficult. Had someone asked me why they should spend $1000 more for the Mac I'd simply tell them they aren't spending a grand more.

If I could get a Macbook Pro 15 equivalent for $699 I would do it in a heartbeat regardless of the OS.

The MacBook Pro I would want is the faster 15", which comes with a reasonable 1GB of VRAM. This machine costs $2,200. To equip a $2,000 laptop with 512MB of VRAM is sheer nonsense. Anyway, to get a similarly spec'd PC laptop, I could buy something like an Asus N56VZ for around $1,200. There are both fancier and more frills-free laptops with similar specs, but the premium for the Mac hovers around $1,100 to $800.

 

[GoreVidal]

Well let me ask you what's more childish, getting ticked off by ignorant clerks and trying to clarify certain points that you're pretty sure of but want to confirm, or getting up on your high horse online and lambasting that person?

There's a difference in your definition of "clarify certain points" and just trying to make yourself feel superior by "testing" employees of their knowledge. Every customer should take it upon themselves to inform themselves of a product before they buy it, what you're doing is just silly.

 

[ixodes]

Thats prolly about having the actual part or parts in store!

What does "prolly" mean? I've seen this word in forums before, but it's not in the dictionary.

 

[aziatiklover]

What does "prolly" mean? I've seen this word in forums before, but it's not in the dictionary.

Porbably!