Apple Store ignorance

[wordmunger]

So, I went to the Apple store in Charlotte to get an MBA and I asked about video connections -- would I be able to connect my MBA to a VGA display?

Yes, said the fellow in the store, but I'd need to buy an adapter for $19.99.

Hmm... didn't seem right to me--I seem to remember folks in the MR forums saying the adapter was included, but whatever.

Then later I'm actually buying the computer I ask about the adapter (separate sales associate). Could I get the adapter right now? He says he'll check, but I might have to buy it from Apple.com.

A few minutes later he returns with my computer (which is GORGEOUS) and says that adapters aren't available yet.

"So there's currently no way to run an external display off a MacBook Air?" I ask.

"That's right."

I roll my eyes and buy the computer anyway. I'm pretty sure it will be fine.

Sure enough, I get home, and both a DVI and VGA adapter are INCLUDED with the computer.

 

[Tallest Skil]

Did you buy the extra stuff, then?

Apple Store employees are 95% unlike the normal salesforce, working on commissions by selling useless crap, but you'll find some who are like that... or just stupid.

 

[wordmunger]

Did you buy the extra stuff, then?

No--since the Apple employee assured me it wasn't available, I couldn't buy it. In the end everything actually turned out fine, but I thought it was amusing how confident two separate employees were that I wouldn't be able to hook up an external display. In fact the second employee told me he had checked with a THIRD employee about it -- so either he was lying or there's a tremendous amount of ignorance in the Charlotte Apple Store.

 

[NC MacGuy]

No--since the Apple employee assured me it wasn't available, I couldn't buy it. In the end everything actually turned out fine, but I thought it was amusing how confident two separate employees were that I wouldn't be able to hook up an external display. In fact the second employee told me he had checked with a THIRD employee about it -- so either he was lying or there's a tremendous amount of ignorance in the Charlotte Apple Store.

That's because it's in Charlotte Joking aside, I find quite a few less than knowledgeable sorts working at both our Raleigh stores too.

I've been in stores and corrected them with customers more than a few times for giving false information to neophytes. Makes you wonder what it takes to be a "genius?" Even funnier when they argue & I get on one of their computers and look up a thread from here which links to another and totally proves them wrong - end of argument.

Best bet is to arm yourself w. info. from here or other knowledgeable sites before going to store and buying.

 

[Santa Rosa]

Just got unlucky with who you got there. He might have been getting confused with the Macbook which I think you have to buy a cable for??

 

[wordmunger]

Just got unlucky with who you got there. He might have been getting confused with the Macbook which I think you have to buy a cable for??

Yep, you do need to buy an adapter for the macbook. Frustrated my daughter in fact, because she had prepared a keynote presentation for class on her macbook. Ended up having to recreate in Windoze because we couldn't get an adapter for her overnight.

 

[hexonxonx]

Yep, you do need to buy an adapter for the macbook. Frustrated my daughter in fact, because she had prepared a keynote presentation for class on her macbook. Ended up having to recreate in Windoze because we couldn't get an adapter for her overnight.

Both the iMac and and MacBook need the mini DVI adaptor. I bought the adaptor at BestBuy along with my Cinema Display.

 

[kockgunner]

but i thought the main criteria for getting accepted to apple stores was the passion for apple products lol.

 

[wordy]

Why blame some employee who's making a little over minimum wage?

You should do your homework before going to store. I understand your frustration with their incompetence, but take some responsibility for your own purchases.

 

[HotAir]

Why blame some employee who's making a little over minimum wage?

You should do your homework before going to store. I understand your frustration with their incompetence, but take some responsibility for your own purchases.

Minimum wage has nothing to do with it. Lousy help is the fault of management. But trouble is, there's not too much "fancy pickins" out there anymore with the state of today's education and what passes for intelligence.

Better to do ones' homework of course. But WHY have HELP in the stores if you can't trust what they are advising you? Might as well be self-serve and pass the savings on to the customer, right?

Maybe that's why I am buying more & more online. Reading reviews and self-education does work best.

 

[aristobrat]

Why blame some employee who's making a little over minimum wage?

Because it was a basic product question.

He asked "Would I be able to connect my MBA to a VGA display?", not "How much L2 cache does the MBA have" or "What's the difference in seek times between the SSD and HD models?".

He essentially asked "What's in the $1799 box I'm buying?"

IMO, to not know that on the "Tech Specs" of each laptop on http://www.apple.com that it lists "What's in the box" is incompetence. Nobody expects everyone to know all of the answers off the top of their head, but to not know that the ultimate answer is only 15 seconds away in Safari is inexcusable. wordmunger, if they send you one of those email surveys, I hope you can express that thought somehow.

 

[wordy]

My point was that no customer service personnel, at ANY store will have more of an interest in what you're buying than you yourself.

Is it ridiculous that an Apple employee doesn't know what accessories a product comes with? Yes, I think so. However, I think it's more ridiculous that the person that's about to drop 2 grand on the item doesn't know it.

Caveat emptor still applies in my book, even if it is Apple.

 

[HotAir]

Yes, the buyer should be aware but buyers turn to sales people (so-called experts) for guidance to help overcome their own lack of knowledge. If you can't get a correct answer out of 2-3, that stinks!!! No matter how much knowledge you do or do not have of a given product.

 

[wordmunger]

Look, it would have been fine if the employees simply said they didn't know. But in fact they were claiming, with some authority, that they knew something that they didn't. That's what bothered me. I don't expect the store employees to know everything about every product -- but they should know what they don't know.

 

[NC MacGuy]

Look, it would have been fine if the employees simply said they didn't know. But in fact they were claiming, with some authority, that they knew something that they didn't. That's what bothered me. I don't expect the store employees to know everything about every product -- but they should know what they don't know.

Word... Exactly. I find the kids acting like they know and spewing forth bs that some take as gospel only because they're wearing the shirt of the day and a tag around their neck.

If they don't know, ante up and say so and then, "but I can find out for you...."

It makes you look better and will make you look less an arse (especially if my less than politically correct butt is in there and prove you wrong.)

 

[n0de]

They don't call them "Geniuses" for nothing !!

 

[aristobrat]

They don't call them "Geniuses" for nothing !!

Chances are that wordmunger dealt entirely with employees called "Mac Specialists". Their job is to be on the sales floor to provide answers to customers questions, as well as ring up sales for customers that want to buy something.

"Geniuses" almost always stay behind the Genius Bar where they fix things. The only time you're likely to see them on the sales floor is when they're entering or leaving the store.

If a Genius didn't know the answer to that question, I'd personally never go back to that Apple store again.

 

[clayj]

Next time you (or anyone else) goes to the Apple Store in Charlotte, ask for Smitty... he works Monday through Friday nights from 5 to close. Tell him Clay or "the Johanson" (that's me) sent you. Smitty's an old DJ* friend of mine who started working there a year or two ago. He will never steer you wrong.

I've been in that particular store long enough to recognize all of the "old-timers" when I go in... I usually talk to one of them if I can. If Smitty's not there, I will usually try to talk to Joe (the manager) or (and I apologize for not remembering his name) the tall black fella who looks sort of like Crab Man on My Name Is Earl. They're both pretty knowledgeable, too.

* Smitty spins at Loft 1523 every other Friday and at HOM on Saturday nights.

 

[krye]

Not to be a big-head, but being a total fanboy I have to think I know more than the average Apple Store employee. And I've been convinced of it more times than I can count. I've listened in on a few conversations at the store and some times I just have to shake my head because I know the employee is so wrong. When they ask me if I need any help, I have to think to myself "You wouldn't know what I was talking about even if I asked." So I usually say "No thanks, just looking."

For $10 an hour some of them just don't care about what they sell. It's just another stupid retail job. For us fanboys it seems like the best job in the world, but to some teenagers, it's just a way to put gas in the car and buy beer. I was talking to this one employee and I had to school her on Time Machine because she had no idea what it was. She said she had "heard of it". Yikes! Another guy I spoke to said he didn't even have a Mac. He used a PC at home and working in the store was the first time he'd seen OS X. So he's never really even used a Mac. Yikes!

People seem to think that the Apple Store is some strange retail phenomenon where all the employees are total fanboys/girls who eat, sleep, and breath all things Mac. The truth is, it's just not like that. The stores are filled with teenagers who don't care about their jobs any more than they do anywhere else at the mall. (Of course, their are always exceptions to the rule.)

For the record, I don't think I've ever seen an Apple Store employee even old enough to have ever owned an Apple II/IIc, let alone even know what it is.