Apple Store staff should really read up on their products...

[BENJMNS]

I disagree... at least not in my neighborhood...

people work for usually the top two reasons: 1) get paid; 2) makes you feel good about what you are contributing to the world.

you get very little of 1 as an apple retail employee (heck, they dont even pay their enterprise sales folks well in comparison to other large companies) and you gotta be an apple geek to have some of #2.

so in a way i don't blame some of these apple employees for not knowing their *****. in a way i feel bad for them because they just didn't grow up with good values to be a strong worker.we're all workers. we work for a living. these bad apples will have their work cut out for them to advance.

like as i was waiting for my rep to fetch my mba, i overheard this one middled aged douchebag customer asking the apple dude "so i have the top of the line macbook air so now how does this new version make me look?"

apple rep could not pitch it which is big trouble since the product makes it an easy pitch. it was just a sorry interaction between two clueless homo sapiens.

 

[TxMacAddict]

Apple Retail like to hire their Store Managers away from Gap and Abercrombie & Fitch or similar... resulting in a lot of the employees coming from that background. They know retail but they don't know Macs. Don't go asking the Apple employees for purchasing advice! I wouldn't be surprised if my parents and grandparents took advice from a part time Apple employee. They are warm bodies with registers there to ring you up, grab you a bag for your new itoy, and send you on your way so they can ring up the next guy.

If the people criticizing Apple retail had any idea what its actually like to manage in retail they wouldn't expect every employee to know every intimate detail of the product you have been drooling over for the last 2 weeks.

 

[chockymonster]

I had pretty much the same experience at Kingston.

I needed to check out the difference in screen size on a hires 15 and a 17" MBP. Only to be told that the 15 only comes in one size and can't have antiglare.

I then asked about the amount of space left on a 64gb MBA to be told that Snow Leopard only takes up 1Gb

 

[pfjellman]

Don't make a quick assumption on apple based on one employee. Maybe the person was new or just got hired. So, I don't see why you should be up on their asses about not knowing how much storage was left on the SSD.

+1

a lot of apple store employees i've dealt with have been quite knowledgable, and when they weren't they were at least friendly and honest about not knowing the answer.

try going up to a pimply-faced best buy computer guy and ask something like, "how much space will i have left on this netbook if i install windows 7, firefox, trillium and office?" note the look on their face...

 

[wirelessmacuser]

This just shows that Apple's employees aren't different from other companies'.

Precisely, a company cannot have perfect employees. It's just not realistic, some will be average, some less than, and some will be excellent. It's just the way it is. I never judge any store simply because of one or two bad employees.

 

[JimmyPop]

Don't make a quick assumption on apple based on one employee. Maybe the person was new or just got hired. So, I don't see why you should be up on their asses about not knowing how much storage was left on the SSD.

Well the store employee actually asked two other colleagues. Likewise when I asked about optical drive sharing, that employee also asked another couple of people. As such I'm not making an assumption based on one individual.

To be fair, I don't think it's an entirely unreasonable question to ask. Apple sell a limited amount of products which I think the staff should be encouraged to know, particularly their new products. It's not as if I walked in to PC World and enquired about one out of a hundred different netbooks! Even if they don't know the answer, I would far prefer they say they're not sure rather than spout a lot of nonsense at me.

You also say they may be new, but that's not exactly an excuse. If your doctor was just new would you be making excuses for them making up a drug dose on the spot? I know that's a bit of an extreme example but if you're being paid to do a job, you should know your products.

 

[scenemissing]

I used to work there wayyyy back in the day. While I would definitely agree that the quality of the retail employees we had were better than the average computer retail type, there are some serious limits to the level of person you can retain in a retail sales gig.

The college age tech nerds were only there part time, and could be expected to move on once something better opened up, such as a Genius bar slot or something. They would be able to quote every stat verbatim. Often they were wayyyyyyyy too hyper though.

Then there were the creatives. 90% of them were young and trying to get a foothold in whatever it was that they did - video production or music mostly. Eventually they found jobs in their industry. Or they went on tour for a while. Either way they were great employees while they were there.

Another group is the retirees. We had a few people that had retired/gotten tired of their respective professions and wanted something to do/loved Apple and wanted to help out. They were low energy, but usually had above average sales. Customers would often seek them out - my theory is that a 45 year old career woman looking to buy a 1500$ computer really doesn't want to deal with a 20 year old hipster, and finds the older salesperson reassuring.

Then you have the career retail sales type. Like the above poster said, many of these came from retail clothing, as they loved to poach managers from Gap. I kind of question the value of these ones, as they were among the most energetic of the bunch, but often didn't know much about computers. Some had never used a Mac.

All in all, a retail operation is a lot of moving parts. It is almost impossible to make sure that all staff know all details. We always tried to teach them that if they didn't know, they should ask one of us at the bar. I have been gone from there for a long time however, so the hiring practices may have changed drastically.

 

[MikePA]

I am quite certain that people who complain about Apple store employees are perfect in all they do where they work.

 

[AppleGoddess]

I had the same experience yesterday.

 

[JimmyPop]

I am quite certain that people who complain about Apple store employees are perfect in all they do where they work.

When did it come down to being perfect in your work? It's purely a case of knowing the (brand new!) product you're selling and if not, then not making up rubbish on the spot!

 

[GoCubsGo]

I am quite certain that people who complain about Apple store employees are perfect in all they do where they work.

There is a huge line drawn between being perfect in what you do and being halfway knowledgable of the product you sell. In my experience, relying on an Apple store employee to give sound advice on most products is about as intelligent as relying on the mechanic at the dealer to tell you that you don't need some sort of service on your car.

I don't mind if someone just didn't know something, but to outright say the only way you can install an app from a DVD is with the superdrive when remote disc has been around for quite some time, is inane. To tell someone that a 64GB SSD would have 63GB left after installing iLife and OSX is equally inane. A 64GB SSD formatted isn't going to have 63GB free, install an OS and some other app suite and you're looking at much less than 63GB free!

I say, know what you sell but as a consumer be informed and aware that not everyone may know every little detail about each product. The basics should be known though.

 

[ssmed]

The problem is..

My experience of asking for simple technical information has been poor on a number of occasions. The problem comes that there is such ridiculous secrecy and then an immediate launch. If the products had been announced at the beginning of October, decent staff training could then have taken place over a three week period and then sales started.

An Applestore in the first few days after any launch, whether it be iPad, iPhone or Macbook Air, is like a war zone and it's all hands on deck - not a time to contemplate the information received about a new product.

I suspect the shop assistants aren't that much happier with the situation than the customers - it can't be much fun.

 

[CaoCao]

At the store I go to the Geniuses are super nerdy, I mean who carries icosahedrons with them . They are very knowledge able and they guy with the d20 must have classed as a bard because he was doing a great job at diplomacy checks

 

[KPOM]

My experience of asking for simple technical information has been poor on a number of occasions. The problem comes that there is such ridiculous secrecy and then an immediate launch. If the products had been announced at the beginning of October, decent staff training could then have taken place over a three week period and then sales started.

The solution would be better training materials for the staff. Put out a one-page "quick hits" for frequently asked questions and make them available to the sales staff as soon as the product launch speeches are over. It isn't like the stores are new. Apple ought to have a good idea what sort of questions people ask (e.g. Is it upgradeable?, What configurations are in stock?, Which model is faster?).

My experience has been hit-or-miss. The "Geniuses" are usually knowledgeable enough. I had a question about a battery on an aging Core Duo MacBook a while back. The first salesman didn't know how to tell if a battery was "dead" but the second one showed me how to find the cycle count under the Apple menu.

 

[linkandzelda]

Lol wow. Thats a fail right there. I would expect more from an apple store employee. arnt they all Apple Geniuses? or at least, supposed to be XD.

 

[cleric]

Go ask at the genius bar, they usually have somewhat of a clue though kool-aid drinkers they are. The people out on the floor are just sales people they just talk up macs and iphones and ipads.

 

[HLdan]

Lol wow. Thats a fail right there. I would expect more from an apple store employee. arnt they all Apple Geniuses? or at least, supposed to be XD.

Yeah, I guess you should expect more from Apple's geniuses when they are paid a whomping $10/hr to stand on their feet all day monitoring an overcrowded internet cafe filled with mindless teens on Facebook.

 

[pfjellman]

Yeah, I guess you should expect more from Apple's geniuses when they are paid a whomping $10/hr to stand on their feet all day monitoring an overcrowded internet cafe filled with mindless teens on Facebook.

i turned down a job as an apple genius because the pay was too low. i'm not gonna work on computers/give tech support for any less than $40/hour.

 

[runnin17]

I think it has something to do with what part of the country you are in to be honest. I am in OKC and the people at the Apple store don't act like they know everything. Also, if they don't know, they will tell you so.

When I was in DC Apple employees there acted like their time was worth more than yours. It was kind of pathetic actually. I pointed out many times things about their products that was news to them.

The knowledge is about the same across the two different stores probably; however, the attitude is what stands out to me.

 

[cambookpro]

Don't make a quick assumption on apple based on one employee. Maybe the person was new or just got hired. So, I don't see why you should be up on their asses about not knowing how much storage was left on the SSD.

To be honest, it is, err, their job

 

[aristobrat]

Yeah, I guess you should expect more from Apple's geniuses when they are paid a whomping $10/hr to stand on their feet all day monitoring an overcrowded internet cafe filled with mindless teens on Facebook.

Again, Geniuses are the tech folks that work behind the Genius Bar fixing people's broken Apple products. They don't go out on the sales floor and interact with people. The employees that you are talking about are called Specialists, and even the part-time ones start at more than $10/hour.

The solution would be better training materials for the staff. Put out a one-page "quick hits" for frequently asked questions and make them available to the sales staff as soon as the product launch speeches are over.

When I worked there, the information made available to the sales employees was the exact same information available to everyone via apple.com. So if a customer came in with a question where the answer wasn't on apple.com (like the OP had), you pretty much had to go ask a Genius and hope that they had done what the customer was asking and remembered.

 

[billy baxton]

my experience...

I originally posted this elsewhere... but:



I despise the people who work at the apple store. they treat you like idiots and its almost like they are trying to pull you into some sort of cult. it was ridiculous. the dude who I was talking to had this smug look on his face the whole time, I was asking him questions about the air, how well photoshop runs. his response was.


him: "oh, it loads very fast"

him: have you owned a mac befor?

me: no...

him: you can sign up with us and we can teach you how to use it.


me: thats ok, I've never owned a mac, but i use them often

me: I was just wondering, how well will the air perform, if you're working on high resolution images, like raw files from your camera.

him: well, this is the mac version of photoshop, all mac software has be optimized for working on the OS, so everything runs really fast.

me: <inside voice> are you f**kin kidding me?

him: do you want to sign up for classes to learn how to use the air? or photoshop?

me: no thanks.

him: apple care?

me: no... thanks...

apparently if you haven't previously owned a mac, you're automatically considered "developmentally disabled"

 

[HLdan]

Again, Geniuses are the tech folks that work behind the Genius Bar fixing people's broken Apple products. They don't go out on the sales floor and interact with people. The employees that you are talking about are called Specialists, and even the part-time ones start at more than $10/hour.

I know the difference between the people on the selling floor and the Genius Bar. I was merely making a point that some of the forum members on here are so thick-headed and riding on their high horse saying that they expect the Apple store geniuses to be "Geniuses". Honestly, some people here need to step into reality. What do you expect from a retail store that pays employees $10/hr to stand on their feet "fixing Apple's broken products" as you said? Repair techs get paid a ton more than $10/hr. They won't even listen to your complaint for $10/hr.

Bottom line, Apple can call their employees any fancy name but in a non-commissionable retail store paying $10/hr no customer should expect much more than polite, courteous employees with very basic knowledge about their products.

 

[darngooddesign]

...I thanked her for her help and made a quick exit....I was pretty shocked as the staff have always been pretty knowledgeable when I've asked them anything in the past.

Rather than exiting in shock, why didn't you ask someone else?

 

[HLdan]

To be fair, I don't think it's an entirely unreasonable question to ask. Apple sell a limited amount of products which I think the staff should be encouraged to know, particularly their new products.

To be fair, aside from the Remote Disk question, in terms of the storage question it was too much to ask. All or most of their demos have iLife, MS Office, Logic, Final Cut and many other programs installed. Even the 11" Air demos I've seen have both MS Office and iLife and iWork, plus hundreds of iTunes songs. It's not common knowledge for someone to know how much storage would be left with just iLife/iWork/OSX installed. You're saying they should read up on their products? Where would you expect them to find the answer to this type of question? Try asking those same questions when you go to buy a PC.