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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

#131

Post by joycer »

jd007 wrote: post #125
snowwrestler wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The kids knew sign language? No, but neither did the author so he couldn't tell they were making signs up. > The kids went and bought stuff (incl laptops) at multiple stores? No, it just says they browsed other stores. > And wasn't there a long line at Apple? How'd they make it to so many other stores? Apple lines are product-specific. If there is a line to buy the new iPhone, you can still go in and buy other prod…

> No, but neither did the author so he couldn't tell they were making signs up. I'm sure a bunch of high school students' pretend sign language would be quite easy to spot for a decently intelligent adult, especially if you have to interact with them one by one. > No, it just says they browsed other stores. Explains a bit about why other stores were not as nice to them then, if they didn't actually buy anything... >…

I had a similar situation while working at a hostel.

A couple walked into my hostel and they were both just beaming these beautiful smiles. They were the kind of people who are just so happy to be on vacation it makes me happy to tell them all of the crazy shit they can enjoy in the city. I stood up and beamed a smile back to them asking them if they were there to check in or if they needed a reservation. They looked at each other, then me, and started to sign.

I panic'd... My mother was friends with a guy who lived in a retirement home because a grenade had taken his eyes in world war two and I often spent time with him and became acquainted with the blind and the nuance of interacting such that we could both make sure we were completely understood, but there have been very few interactions in my life with deaf people and so at this moment in the hostel I was simply unprepared.

The couple saw my panic and laughed and the guy signed using his finger a as a pencil and his other palm as a notebook.

No shit! Write it down. I got us some paper and everything was smooth from there. I got them a room, a deal, and told them where the best place to catch some romance in the city was.

The writer's reaction and feelings toward the interaction mirrored my own quite well. I can believe it, but if it is a fiction, at least it is an accurate one.

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

#133

Post by aluhut »

snowwrestler wrote: post #113
pud wrote: post #56

The kids knew sign language? The kids went and bought stuff (incl laptops) at multiple stores? And wasn't there a long line at Apple? How'd they make it to so many other stores? The kids physically go to the store to buy school computers? The kids are such good actors that they fooled the author & all other salespeople? A teacher would actually allow kids to pretend that they're disabled? No bulk discount or pre-arra…

> The kids knew sign language? No, but neither did the author so he couldn't tell they were making signs up. > The kids went and bought stuff (incl laptops) at multiple stores? No, it just says they browsed other stores. > And wasn't there a long line at Apple? How'd they make it to so many other stores? Apple lines are product-specific. If there is a line to buy the new iPhone, you can still go in and buy other prod…

The most obvious reason would be advertisement.

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

#135

Post by mich41 »

rtrunck wrote: post #89
pud wrote: post #56

The kids knew sign language? The kids went and bought stuff (incl laptops) at multiple stores? And wasn't there a long line at Apple? How'd they make it to so many other stores? The kids physically go to the store to buy school computers? The kids are such good actors that they fooled the author & all other salespeople? A teacher would actually allow kids to pretend that they're disabled? No bulk discount or pre-arra…

Classic Hacker News any more - top comment is a cynic. Even if this isn't true, what would the point be for lying? And what really is the harm done?

Get traffic, make the author look good, make Apple look good, ???, profit.

C'mon.

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

#136

Post by shellehs »

At first, I thought why not take two colors, than make the kids who preferred black stood left and the others on right side. There should be many simple ways to deal with that situation quickly and easily. I

The story looks a little weird, even not true, like I don't quite remember which product had just released that morning,, is it true?

But at the end, I found I was misunderstood and also was touched.

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

#137

Post by kajecounterhack »

zecho wrote: post #115
newbie12 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a cynic, a skeptic. And that's pud, who's a pretty major hacker.

Oh so that explains why it's the top comment on an otherwise benign post. He's a pretty major hacker, whatever that means, so people just upvote him because of that?

People upvote him because they trust him. He's got a track record of being reasonable.

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

#138

Post by jmomo »

Some time in 2007 I went to an Apple event in Scottsdale Arizona. I am a network engineer/system administrator, and my organization was about 50/50 Mac/Windows. We spend somewhere between $200-600K a year on Apple products for employees. I seem to remember that this was shortly before Apple killed off their XServe products, but I could be mistaken about the timing.

There was a break in the presentation, after which I decided I was going to bail. I took my phone, a Blackberry at the time, out of my pocket as I exited the door so that I could check if anything was going on at work.

As I took those first few steps outside, I accidentally dropped my phone.

It wasn't one of those gentle drops. In the process of trying to catch it before it hit the ground, I ended up pushing it with even greater velocity downwards. It hit the concrete pretty hard and a mix of phone, battery cover, and battery went skittering across the concrete walkway.

Three Apple Store employees were sitting outside, also on break. My phone had gone flying right past their feet.

"Oooh!" they said with a wince.

Then one of them said, "Don't worry everyone! It wasn't a IPhone!"

And they laughed.

And that was it. I picked up the parts of my phone, took at a look at the damage, put it back together, and walked away.

There was no offer of help or concern, but they thought it was pretty funny.

Fortunately, the phone survived pretty well off. There really wasn't anything more than minor scratches, despite how I had practically thrown the phone against the concrete.

Ironically, had it been an IPhone (or any modern touchscreen phone), it would have probably been destroyed. I ended up destroying the screen on my Nexus One a year or two later with a much less violent drop.

And, I'm afraid to say, most of my other experiences with Apple store employees here in Arizona has been pretty similar. We regularly have our helpdesk staff go in to pick up parts and do repair runs and I've had to call up our regular Apple rep and comment on bad attitudes, poor service, and outright rejection of service on in-warranty breakages for whatever reason-of-the-day they could make up.

The story linked to is important: You really can make a lasting impression on a customer that they will never forget, positive or negative.

I will never forget the way three Apple Store employees laughed at me as I dropped my phone.

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

#139

Post by Hansi »

snowwrestler wrote: post #113
pud wrote: post #56

The kids knew sign language? The kids went and bought stuff (incl laptops) at multiple stores? And wasn't there a long line at Apple? How'd they make it to so many other stores? The kids physically go to the store to buy school computers? The kids are such good actors that they fooled the author & all other salespeople? A teacher would actually allow kids to pretend that they're disabled? No bulk discount or pre-arra…

> The kids knew sign language? No, but neither did the author so he couldn't tell they were making signs up. > The kids went and bought stuff (incl laptops) at multiple stores? No, it just says they browsed other stores. > And wasn't there a long line at Apple? How'd they make it to so many other stores? Apple lines are product-specific. If there is a line to buy the new iPhone, you can still go in and buy other prod…

I agree, maybe he dramatized it a little bit to make the story more interesting but I can't see the story as a whole being anything other that plausible.

I worked for Apple for about three years a while back and served maybe five or six deaf people over that time opting for TextEdit or a small paper pad for communication in all but one of those situations where the customer's daughter came along and translated his signing for me.

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

#140

Post by Cthulhu_ »

concerto wrote: post #63
pud wrote: post #56

The kids knew sign language? The kids went and bought stuff (incl laptops) at multiple stores? And wasn't there a long line at Apple? How'd they make it to so many other stores? The kids physically go to the store to buy school computers? The kids are such good actors that they fooled the author & all other salespeople? A teacher would actually allow kids to pretend that they're disabled? No bulk discount or pre-arra…

My first thought too. What kind of budget did the kids have on this day out? How do I get my kids into that school?

> How do I get my kids into that school?

Paying $30K - $50K a year in tuition fees should do it.

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