I have mixed feelings about the Apple store. When the one near me
first opened, it was great. As was said earlier, the geniuses really
did seem to be geniuses. And they took a look at my Pismo (!) after
what I came to find out was a kernel panic, recommended DiskWarrior,
and I was up and running that very day, all for free (yeah, I bought
the DiskWarrior but it's not like they charged me for looking at my
way-out-of-warranty laptop).
However, fast forward two years. I finally convinced my SO to
switch. We go to buy a bright shiny new Powerbook, i.e., to drop
$1,500-$1,700. I have never been treated so rudely. The salesperson
tried to upsell Applecare (which we planned to buy, but not right
then, thank you). I mentioned that since it was available throughout
the time of the original warranty we were going to hold off because
this was a big purchase for us. He then made this face like, "Well,
if you're willing to risk it, I hope nothing bad happens," as if
somehow we were at some additional risk by not purchasing Applecare
at the time of purchase. Please. But the worst thing was what
happened next. It took him a really long time to get the Powerbook
from the back and when he finally arrived, I asked if the Airport
extreme card was there. (I know they're stock, but I had a friend
who had gotten home and discovered that it wasn't there). He looked
at me like he hated me, raised the box up to my face, tapped his
finger on the side where the spec labels are, and glared at me.
Didn't say a word, didn't say "Yes, of course," "Yes, they're stock,"
"Yes, if there's any problem you can bring it back," "Yes, would you
like me to open it and double-check?", nothing. Just tapped the box
about 6 inches from my face. I have never been treated like that
before, not at BestBuy, not at CompUSA, not at Circuit City, hell,
not even at Wal-Mart. And *especially* not when I was spending well
over a grand. I mean, it's not like I was buying a USB hub and asked
if the adapter was really there.
So after that, I am really, really soured on the Apple store. I
think Apple needs to regroup and refocus regarding exactly what they
want the Apple store to be. Right now it seems like it's a
storefront no different than the other retailers I mentioned, except
that it happens to sell only one brand.
Nancy
On Oct 9, 2005, at 5:49 PM, Bruce Johnson wrote:
On Oct 9, 2005, at 1:05 PM, david wrote:
work part-time for an Apple reseller and your experience is why
I'll continue to strongly suggest people buy their products from
an independent reseller rather than directly from Apple. What you
require is a service my boss offers. When a customer's drive is
damaged/dead, if desired, we'll attempt to transfer data or send
the drive to a data-recovery service if we can't access it.
That's only if your local reseller isn't a bunch of arrogant
elitist pinheads who think that customer service is when they've
whacked all the tennis balls at our head, and its time for us to
throw them back for another go-round.
IMO, from my vantage point as a consumer, Apple gave the resellers
nearly 20 years to get the retail stuff right, then gave up and
created the Apple Stores out of self defense.
And you ARE one of the few who think the Apple Stores are a
disaster in the making. Most of the rest of the world thinks that
they were a brilliant marketing move that's paying real dividends
for Apple in both bottom line sales and mind share.
I have three influential faculty members who are switchers because
of visits to the Apple store. (One is the Dean of the college)
Also, don't forget, the Apple store is geared mainly to supporting
new sales and systems. How many years has it been since Apple
shipped a G4 tower that could accept an internal Zip (don't
forget, neither the Quicksilver or the MDD models could take an
internal Zip. The last one that could was the Digital Audio)
--
Bruce Johnson
"No matter where you go, there you are", B. Banzai
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