Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 288 posts

Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster

#71

Post by tjr »

I've only been in an Apple Store a few times, and have always thought it a cool store, but just not very practical. At best, I buy a new computer every few years. I kept my first iPad for about five years before getting a new one. I buy a new phone maybe every couple of years.

Despite recent design decisions that I find questionable, thus far Apple products remain the best choice for the work I do, so I don't really want or need to go to the store in person to be impressed. I just order online whatever best meets my requirements.

The last time I bought a computer in person was about 14 years ago. I did buy an iPad case at an Apple store recently...

Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster

#72

Post by celticninja »

dangwu wrote: post #53
sombremesa wrote: post #46

I went to buy a brand new laptop at the Apple Store, and despite knowing exactly what I wanted I had to wait for at least 20 minutes - when I walked in, I was told to wait until an associate was free (whereas in most stores I could just grab a product off the shelf and go check out), then I was ping-ponged around at least 2 other people (both of whom I had to wait for - 'just hang around this area and we'll send some…

What B&M store lets you freely grab a $2000+ laptop and bring it to checkout on your own?

In the UK, John Lewis, Curry's, PC world. At the least you can ask someone to get one from the stock room for you and you can have it and be on your way within 10 minutes. I bought my last laptop from John Lewis in about 5 mins of entering the store.

Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster

#73

Post by r_singh »

scarface74 wrote: post #18
wlesieutre wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels like a way for Apple to claw back even more than their 30% cut. Even if you have a successful app, now you have to take some of your money and buy the search ads for it, otherwise somebody else is going to be the first result when potential customers come to the store looking specifically for your app. You can try and drive traffic straight to your store page from outside sources to bypass that search, but t…

While I agree that ad sales are disheartening, App Store search has never been that great.

And let's not forget that it's the same with Apple Music search

Edit: meant that search is bad enough on Apple Music too (not that it has ads)

Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster

#74

Post by chewmieser »

oldjokes wrote: post #19

I went in a few months to get a hardware thing fixed with an appointment set and nobody helped me. I waited for like 10 minutes past by appointment time and everyone was booked up. I tried pestering people but everyone was helping someone else and asked me to wait for another associate. Eventually I gave up and left the store. I'm sure their analytics never even noticed me, their data says I just never showed up for…

I setup an appointment at an Apple Store and walked in about an hour earlier then the appointment. The person at the front created me a walk-in appointment and told me to wait.

An hour goes by without anyone so I ask the person at the front (new person) and neither my scheduled appointment nor my WALK-IN appointment were checked into... How the hell do you check-in to a walk-in appointment?

Definitely not a great experience. He checked me into both and 10-20 minutes later I get two people asking me what I need help with.

Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster

#75

Post by acheron »

the_watcher wrote: post #41
benatkin wrote: post #33

Two things that were features aren't anymore now that I moved to Miami. I'm tired of Face ID. Give me back Touch ID please. My sunglasses prevent Face ID from working when I have them on, and that's quite often here, and I don't want to switch to a light form of Face ID that doesn't check that I'm actually looking at my phone. Sometimes I temporarily take my sunglasses off to use Face ID. The cooling design makes my…

For others who see this and are willing to adjust the settings to use FaceID with sunglasses - just turn off Require Attention for FaceID [0]. Personally, I prefer FaceID (which surprised me!) to TouchID except in bed, when I desperately miss TouchID. [0] https://www.imore.com/how-make-iphone-x-face-id-work-sunglas...

FaceID works fine for me with my sunglasses and "require attention".

I did also have trouble unlocking while laying in bed though. For awhile I thought it wasn't recognizing me without any glasses on, but then I realized that when I don't have any glasses on, I hold the phone much closer to my face, and it doesn't recognize me that way. It unlocks fine without glasses as long as I hold it at the same distance. Still kind of an awkward process.

Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster

#76

Post by ericabiz »

dangwu wrote: post #53
sombremesa wrote: post #46

I went to buy a brand new laptop at the Apple Store, and despite knowing exactly what I wanted I had to wait for at least 20 minutes - when I walked in, I was told to wait until an associate was free (whereas in most stores I could just grab a product off the shelf and go check out), then I was ping-ponged around at least 2 other people (both of whom I had to wait for - 'just hang around this area and we'll send some…

What B&M store lets you freely grab a $2000+ laptop and bring it to checkout on your own?

I can contrast with my recent experience at Best Buy. Last weekend, they had $50 off the new Series 4 Apple Watches. I dreaded going in-store because of my problems with Apple Stores.

But I went in, asked the Samsung guy where the Apple Watches were, and he pointed me to a counter in the middle of the store with 2 registers. I had a brief conversation with a sales guy there, confirmed the $50 off, size, and color I wanted.

I waited about 5 minutes and a different guy brought one from the back, complete with a silly dramatic bow where he handed it to the first guy (made me laugh.) I declined the warranty, swiped my credit card, signed, and was on my way.

The entire process took about 10 minutes, whereas buying at the Apple Store can definitely result in the "ping-pong" effect and can take upwards of an hour. And they were not pushy about the warranty.

I would buy from Best Buy again given this experience.

Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster

#77

Post by CaptainZapp »

tikkabhuna wrote: post #66
CaptainZapp wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, yeah, thank you+) very much, I guess. So same as with self scanning tills at supermarkets I'm now expected to do the work for one of the most profitable companies in the world, since they can't be bothered to have a proper checkout or hire enough people. +) Not you, personally, obviously. edit: reformat

Huh? Self checkouts are great! Rather than having 1 or 2 tills you can have many times that manned by the same number of people. If you don't have any alcohol you can use it without interacting with anyone at all and its much faster. That coupled with contactless payments make it super quick to buy just a few items. A "proper" checkout is still king for large shops but for people I know (late 20s), that is becoming l…

Let's just say that - and that goes especially for the UK [I'm looking at you: Boots!] - self checkout tills and me seem to be in a perpetual war.

Herearound at least you scan your crap and pay. In the UK there's some shitty weight system, which I don't get and the system accuses me after every third item of being a thief and instructs me to call assistance (which cannot be found since, well, self checkout tills).

Look, if you want me to do your work then, at the very minimum, trust me not to cheat or kindly fuck off!

The worst experience I've ever had was in a Tesco in London were the completely rude security dude claimed that there's only self checkout.

My friend wanted a pack of cigarettes. Good luck getting that from a self checkout till.

Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster

#78

Post by scarface74 »

wlesieutre wrote: post #45
scarface74 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree that ad sales are disheartening, App Store search has never been that great.

It's not perfect, but if I search for "GoodNotes" exactly by name it should give me GoodNotes. The fact that the search results dedicate most of my screen to Notability (one of their main competitors) is some bullshit on Apple's part. https://i.imgur.com/4T7sLXb.png It would be one thing if I searched for "notebook" or "handwriting" or "notes," but I searched for a specific app by name and they're sending traffic to…

What’s going to happen when Apple rolls out the game subscription? Will they favor those games over publishers that decide not to be part of it?

I think (and hope) that I read that it will be a separate tab. My heart goes out to the few non scammy, paid up front/pay one time to get rid of ads publishers that might be affected, but honestly if all apps that are dependent on ads, in app purchases of coins, power ups and loot boxes disappeared from the store, nothing of value would be lost.

Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster

#79

Post by ModernMech »

atonse wrote: post #4

My biggest complaint about the Apple Store is the long wait times when your computer breaks. You often have to wait for a few days to even get an appointment. But the award for the most asinine thing about the Apple Store is their insistence on not having a proper area to pay for things. So people just wander around wanting to buy something and not knowing where to pay for it. And they end up wasting a lot more time…

You call it wasting time, Apple calls it "increased product exposure". It's the same reason Target staggers their registers and makes their checkout process slow as hell; they found that the more time you spend waiting in line, the more likely you are to remember something you wanted to buy and return to the store to get it. They don't care how quickly you leave the store, they only care about how much you leave with.

Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster

#80

Post by froboy »

In addition to all these other things, Apple within the past year or so changed the bathrooms in (from what I’ve heard) all the stores from public to “staff only”. What kind of “Town Square” doesn’t have a toilet?
Post reply on HN