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The Coolest Experience I Had as an Apple Store Employee

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Re: The Coolest Experience I Had as an Apple Store Employee

#21
post #8

It's a nice story but the MSRP of that 160GB MacBook was $1,499.00. So the kids paid $22,485. So it's comparing Apples with common everyday oranges. (Pun indended)

How is the price of the laptop relevant at all to the story?

Don't you expect better service when you're buying something more expensive?

Re: The Coolest Experience I Had as an Apple Store Employee

#22
Weird. I worked for a couple of department stores before I was 20, not as a sales clerk, but stocking shelves. I don't remember the sales staff as the sorts who would snub customers. Of course, I wasn't treating them as lab rats in a high school psych course.

I will also point out that retail sales staff get a lot more exposure to anyone and everyone than your average hacker does. One can become jaded and perhaps impatient fairly quickly. Should you? No, maybe not. But it's Friday, your feet hurt, and some kid is social engineering you. Do you feel as if you need that?

Re: The Coolest Experience I Had as an Apple Store Employee

#23
The coolest experience I had as an Apple Store Employee was saving Christmas...no really, we literally saved Christmas. It was about 1:30 AM on Dec. 25th, and a man comes in to the store out of breath. He needs two iPod nanos. "My wife thought I was getting them, and I thought she was getting them..." he explained. Not a problem. We got the nanos, and sent him on his way.

That was fun...

Re: The Coolest Experience I Had as an Apple Store Employee

#24
post #8

It's a nice story but the MSRP of that 160GB MacBook was $1,499.00. So the kids paid $22,485. So it's comparing Apples with common everyday oranges. (Pun indended)

How is the price of the laptop relevant at all to the story?

Retailers that sell more expensive products typically hire friendlier, more capable, and more numerous salespeople. This is why many people prefer to buy at an Apple store rather than Best Buy, even though they both carry Mac computers.

Re: The Coolest Experience I Had as an Apple Store Employee

#25

The coolest experience I had as an Apple Store Employee was saving Christmas...no really, we literally saved Christmas. It was about 1:30 AM on Dec. 25th, and a man comes in to the store out of breath. He needs two iPod nanos. "My wife thought I was getting them, and I thought she was getting them..." he explained. Not a problem. We got the nanos, and sent him on his way. That was fun...

Wow, Apple Stores stay open that late on Christmas? They stay open that late at all?

Re: The Coolest Experience I Had as an Apple Store Employee

#26
Please don't do this. While this author seems to have enjoyed the experience, many retail workers have enough to do without being jerked around by those pretending to care about the experience of people with disabilities. It seems ridiculous to me that the teacher thought it was a good idea to lead these children in an extended "lie" in order to teach them about tolerance and empathy.

Once when I worked in bookstore a man came into the store and faked being deaf. My coworkers and I jumped through all kinds of hoops to accommodate him and spent a lot of time writing notes back and forth to help this customer find a particular type of book he said he was looking for. After half an hour of scribbled notes, fetching books from the stacks, and iterating towards what he was describing the man bust out laughing and declared "Hahaha! I'm not actually deaf!!" and walked out without buying anything.

I felt stupid and annoyed that he had wasted so much of our time. Not only did that man's behavior distract us from other legitimate customers, the experience left me feeling guarded about whether to accept people at face value. I never encountered any other customers with hearing disability while I was at that job, but I'm sure I would have had skepticism from this hoax experience in the back of my mind as I tried to help them.

You are not helping anyone by pretending to have a disability.

Re: The Coolest Experience I Had as an Apple Store Employee

#27
post #2

Perhaps the students were treated better at the Apple store because they were buying 15 macbooks. Surely they didn't spend that much money at all the other mall stores.

In the case of the Apple store, these kinds of sales are the last thing a salesperson wants.

Apple salespeople are not paid on commission, and since the guy was told exactly what the students were buying and that they already had the money distributed to them on gift cards, he knew he couldn't upsell them on a warranty or in-store training. Selling a baseline macbook is easy, people line up to buy them. It is the upselling that determines an employee's performance. So I don't think it had any bearing on this guy's behavior.

Re: The Coolest Experience I Had as an Apple Store Employee

#28

The coolest experience I had as an Apple Store Employee was saving Christmas...no really, we literally saved Christmas. It was about 1:30 AM on Dec. 25th, and a man comes in to the store out of breath. He needs two iPod nanos. "My wife thought I was getting them, and I thought she was getting them..." he explained. Not a problem. We got the nanos, and sent him on his way. That was fun...

Wow, Apple Stores stay open that late on Christmas? They stay open that late at all?

I worked the overnight shift at the 5th Avenue Apple Store. I got to spend two Christmas mornings (and two New Years Eves) in a row with some of the best people I've ever worked with...hell, some of the best people I've ever met!
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