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Confessions of an Apple Store Employee

popularmechanics.com

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Re: Confessions of an Apple Store Employee

#31

Post by jodrellblank »

tomkarlo wrote: post #23
daimyoyo wrote: post #20

The thing I found most interesting about this article was actually an omission. The hiring process at Apple retail is the most insane thing I've ever experienced. First fill out the application in store. Then follow up with the manager of the store for weeks on end. Then have a quick interview in store. Then go to a group interview with 50 other people. Then go to a panel interview with 3 others. This process took 6…

Psychologists say the harder it is to gain entry to a group (club, frat, union, guild, company) the more irrationally positive folks feel about it once they're a member. Human nature -- if they went through all that trouble to get in, it must be worth it.

I like Eliezer's take on that regarding science and cults - scientific knowledge is given away so freely it must be worthless, at least with cultish bullshit you have to work hard before they tell you about each bit, so it feels really substantial and valuable.

http://lesswrong.com/lw/p0/to_spread_science_keep_it_secret/

Re: Confessions of an Apple Store Employee

#32

Post by VladRussian »

jrockway wrote: post #18
VladRussian wrote: post #5

>eventually get to the Genius Bar that answers the question that puzzled me a bit about that name. In itself it isn't a bad marketing targeted for customers, yet it happens to be also successful marketing targeted at the employees. That's really genius, pun intended, as usually help/support desk is very unpopular, churning job leading nowhere and here they turned the tables and made other jobs leading to it instead.

I bet the average first-year help desk employee at an investment bank is making a lot more money than the senior "Geniuses" at Apple Stores. Retail is retail.

first-year help desk employee at an investment bank is at the bottom of the bank's barrel, nobody at the bank would want their job.

Re: Confessions of an Apple Store Employee

#33

Post by stevederico »

mbateman wrote: post #19
smikolay wrote: post #2

this all is largely positive - not really a confession, more bragging... be curious how other customers have fared in the store, for me it has rarely been great http://www.mikolayczyk.com/2010/02/quotes-from-apple-store.h... certainly rings true that they get power hungry and very arrogant as a result

The Apple store in Philly just opened recently and they've been wonderful so far. Ex.: A few weeks ago I spilled water on my iPhone, rendering it unusable in important respects. I went to the genius bar (unscheduled), told the genius guy I spilled water on it. He was a bit surprised, said that no one ever admits to doing that, and gave me a new phone, for free.

I bring all my apple products to the apple store for this very reason. Spilt water on my iPod, they handed me a brand new one.

Re: Confessions of an Apple Store Employee

#34

Post by city41 »

mbateman wrote: post #19
smikolay wrote: post #2

this all is largely positive - not really a confession, more bragging... be curious how other customers have fared in the store, for me it has rarely been great http://www.mikolayczyk.com/2010/02/quotes-from-apple-store.h... certainly rings true that they get power hungry and very arrogant as a result

The Apple store in Philly just opened recently and they've been wonderful so far. Ex.: A few weeks ago I spilled water on my iPhone, rendering it unusable in important respects. I went to the genius bar (unscheduled), told the genius guy I spilled water on it. He was a bit surprised, said that no one ever admits to doing that, and gave me a new phone, for free.

I dropped my iPhone on cement and it died. Took it in and told the guy I dropped it. He responded with "what? I didn't catch that, did you say it just stopped working? That must be what you said." and then gave me a new phone for free.

Re: Confessions of an Apple Store Employee

#35

Post by ryall »

VladRussian wrote: post #32
jrockway wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet the average first-year help desk employee at an investment bank is making a lot more money than the senior "Geniuses" at Apple Stores. Retail is retail.

first-year help desk employee at an investment bank is at the bottom of the bank's barrel, nobody at the bank would want their job.

I think that was his point, "genius".

Re: Confessions of an Apple Store Employee

#36

Post by smikolay »

sudont wrote: post #4
smikolay wrote: post #2

this all is largely positive - not really a confession, more bragging... be curious how other customers have fared in the store, for me it has rarely been great http://www.mikolayczyk.com/2010/02/quotes-from-apple-store.h... certainly rings true that they get power hungry and very arrogant as a result

I've always gotten comped stuff: Backlight went out, they replaced the keyboard part of the case (dents), iSight went out, they replaced a lot of worn keys, iPod was broken, it was replaced free. I'm a plain-looking dude with old equipment, I highly doubt the amount of effort put forth for my sake was to impress me personally. Quote from your link: "doesn't that say something about the quality of your products" You w…

I would say it the other way around, they got snippy so I got snippy.

I do think there is a relationship between how over worked the are, and how friendly they are. The Regent's St. store in London is mobbed whenever it's open, hence the poor treatment. The other store I've been to is in Stamford, CT. where my interactions have been much better - not as good as yours with getting comps, but certainly I left feeling happy.

This is too bad really, as the Regent's store is more of a flagship store, and that's where things should really be working.

Re: Confessions of an Apple Store Employee

#37

Post by lsc »

beeeph wrote: post #30
dsuriano wrote: post #3

I was always under the understanding that working retail is a pretty unglamorous job.

You mean you've actually managed to escape working in retail at some point in your life? How did you pull that off?

eh, it's not that hard. For some of us, it's actually easier. I've never had a difficult time finding technical positions, but retail jobs? As a young person, I tried and was rejected. Front-line tech support is appropriate in the same career stage as a retail job. The minimum skills required are not that different[1], however, as far as I can tell, if you are willing to learn, tech support offers a better upward path than retail, so it does make long-term sense to choose level 1 tech support over retail.

[1] The minimum level for both jobs, as far as I can tell, consists primarily of explaining simple things and dealing with angry people. If you want to climb the ladder in tech support, obviously, you need to go somewhat beyond that, but you won't get fired if you can do those two things.

Re: Confessions of an Apple Store Employee

#38

Post by patrickk »

mbateman wrote: post #19
smikolay wrote: post #2

this all is largely positive - not really a confession, more bragging... be curious how other customers have fared in the store, for me it has rarely been great http://www.mikolayczyk.com/2010/02/quotes-from-apple-store.h... certainly rings true that they get power hungry and very arrogant as a result

The Apple store in Philly just opened recently and they've been wonderful so far. Ex.: A few weeks ago I spilled water on my iPhone, rendering it unusable in important respects. I went to the genius bar (unscheduled), told the genius guy I spilled water on it. He was a bit surprised, said that no one ever admits to doing that, and gave me a new phone, for free.

iPhones and iPods have LCI (liquid contact indicators) built into them. It's a little white spot that turns red if exposed to moisture. Often, the LCI can be triggered for all sorts of reasons (not just dropping your phone in a puddle either, think a few drops of rain etc.)

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3425 (applies to macs and keyboards but the same point remains)

People tend to get very hostile when there's some problem with their iPhone and get denied service due to the LCI being triggered, even if that isn't the root cause of the current problem. Hence the genius guy's surprise and over-generous response.

(Disclaimer: former Apple employee)

Re: Confessions of an Apple Store Employee

#39

Post by billswift »

ajarmoniuk wrote: post #27
mirkules wrote: post #15

The Public Computers section is really interesting. Homeless people that come in to do webcasts? Kinda cool. People changing keyboard settings to Russian? Pfft, everyone knows the real evil genius is in setting it to Arabic -- not only is it illegible, but the screens are flipped

Or Hebrew.

If you have ever studied both of them, even briefly, you know Arabic is much less legible than Hebrew. It takes a lot of work even to figure out what the letters are in Arabic (they all look like parts of a doctor's signature).

Re: Confessions of an Apple Store Employee

#40

Post by pmorici »

kgo wrote: post #9

You need a verifiable SSN to get an iPhone?!? Attn drug dealers, you can get BlackBerries and Droids from Boost or Cricket without giving any personal information.

Those are pay as you go services are they not? The reason they are asking for an SSN is so they can do a credit check.
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