Last Friday evening, my Wife and I were at The Grove in Los Angeles for some other shopping, and had also planned to get her a MBP for the upcoming fall semester if the Apple Store wasn't TOO crazy.
As we walked up, we could see the huge line but could also see that there were not very many customers actually inside the store. We walked up to the front of the store and told the Apple employee at the front that we were there to purchase a MBP (and that we knew exactly which one we wanted), only to be told that we'd have to wait in line with the iPhone customers. I asked if she was sure that was the policy, explaining that it didn't make much sense to make us wait in line with those waiting for an iPhone when we didn't have anything to do with the phone and knew exactly what we wanted, and was told that yes, we would definitely have to wait in line. Yea, no thanks, lady.
I was a little peeved, but knew of the activation problems earlier in the day and figured the local manager was being a little overzealous.
I called around the next morning to a few other local stores and found that almost all had the same policy. Yes, you could come into the store to buy a computer, but you'd have to wait in the iPhone line for god knows how long in order to do so.
I did get a different answer at the Beverly Center store and went there right away. They still had a substantial line, and the inside of the store was just as busy as it was at the Grove the night before, but they simply asked us to wait off to the side for a minute until they could get us a personal shopper. Just as soon as she said that, another employee came over and walked us into the store, answered all of our questions and helped us buy the computer without any issues at all. He even took the time to get our printer and iPod rebates into the system on one of the display computers. During the short time we were in there, I saw a few other non-iPhone customers get the same treatment. All in all, as a result of this particular store's intelligent treatment of their non-iPhone shoppers, they made about $3000 and a dedicated customer in about 10 minutes. I'll be buying another MBP for myself in the coming weeks, and will go straight to the Beverly Center location when I'm ready to do so.
Today my Wife read that the moronic policy we ran into at The Grove is still going on, a week later! Despite a relatively calm atmosphere in the store, they're still making all customers line up outside, regardless of what they're there for. They even made a person wait holding his iMac he brought in for repair! Link here.
I am a fan of the iPhone (my wife and I both have the 1st-gen), but I'm primarily a fan of Apple's great computers and their generally excellent customer service. I am disappointed to see a 100% focus on the iPhone and the iPhone only, at the expense of all other customers. I truly hope that my (and others') experience at The Grove location is merely the result of coincidentally poor decisions by store managers instead of a corporate policy.
I sent my comments to steve@mac.com, but couldn't find any address for general customer comments about Apple retail stores.
As we walked up, we could see the huge line but could also see that there were not very many customers actually inside the store. We walked up to the front of the store and told the Apple employee at the front that we were there to purchase a MBP (and that we knew exactly which one we wanted), only to be told that we'd have to wait in line with the iPhone customers. I asked if she was sure that was the policy, explaining that it didn't make much sense to make us wait in line with those waiting for an iPhone when we didn't have anything to do with the phone and knew exactly what we wanted, and was told that yes, we would definitely have to wait in line. Yea, no thanks, lady.
I was a little peeved, but knew of the activation problems earlier in the day and figured the local manager was being a little overzealous.
I called around the next morning to a few other local stores and found that almost all had the same policy. Yes, you could come into the store to buy a computer, but you'd have to wait in the iPhone line for god knows how long in order to do so.
I did get a different answer at the Beverly Center store and went there right away. They still had a substantial line, and the inside of the store was just as busy as it was at the Grove the night before, but they simply asked us to wait off to the side for a minute until they could get us a personal shopper. Just as soon as she said that, another employee came over and walked us into the store, answered all of our questions and helped us buy the computer without any issues at all. He even took the time to get our printer and iPod rebates into the system on one of the display computers. During the short time we were in there, I saw a few other non-iPhone customers get the same treatment. All in all, as a result of this particular store's intelligent treatment of their non-iPhone shoppers, they made about $3000 and a dedicated customer in about 10 minutes. I'll be buying another MBP for myself in the coming weeks, and will go straight to the Beverly Center location when I'm ready to do so.
Today my Wife read that the moronic policy we ran into at The Grove is still going on, a week later! Despite a relatively calm atmosphere in the store, they're still making all customers line up outside, regardless of what they're there for. They even made a person wait holding his iMac he brought in for repair! Link here.
I am a fan of the iPhone (my wife and I both have the 1st-gen), but I'm primarily a fan of Apple's great computers and their generally excellent customer service. I am disappointed to see a 100% focus on the iPhone and the iPhone only, at the expense of all other customers. I truly hope that my (and others') experience at The Grove location is merely the result of coincidentally poor decisions by store managers instead of a corporate policy.
I sent my comments to steve@mac.com, but couldn't find any address for general customer comments about Apple retail stores.
