I think the slam of less user-friendly products, higher comparative prices, and worse customer support will make any company lose its luster. Apple's done all three, and unless there's a change in the ship's direction, it'll continue bleeding out cash in stock buybacks and dividends and losing premium customers and great employees.
How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster
21–30 of 288 posts
Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster
#22The in store experience has changed with the staff. Two examples that come to mind. I remember going in to buy an iPhone 8 after new prices announced. I spoke to a rep for 2 minutes for him to then to say: “let me get someone for you.” Then the actual transaction of buying occurred. Are there so many window shoppers that they have staff just to talk to non-buyers? The second was the genius bar. A speaker blew-out on my MBP, I made an appointment and I am trying to get someone AT THE BAR to tell me how long the repair is going to take before I send it in for service. Meanwhile the person to my left is there because they ran out of hard drive space and cant check their emails. And the person to my right has been there for 4 hours about a phone repair only to trade it in instead. I couldn’t believe the genius bar was inundated with those requests. I know I don’t need special treatment but I literally need actual hardware help. /rant
Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster
#23My 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…
The stores are more sterile and the employees and service is more "clinical" and less "hands on."
I miss the original stores' refurbished/discount tables/bin they used to have. You could find great deals on those tables..
Oh.. one other thing that annoys the hell out of me about the stores an service. I bought a new iphone8, I asked if they could transfer the iphone5 data+ apps to my new phone. They said no, do it yourself.. I was pissed. A damn tech company, that sells a portable cpu for $700+ dollars and they won't perform a data transfer?
peace
Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster
#24>[Angela Ahrendts'] overhaul of the Genius Bar has been especially controversial. Customers looking for technical advice or repairs must now check in with an employee, who types their request into an iPad. Then when a Genius is free, he or she must find the customer wherever they happen to be in the store. Ahrendts was determined to get rid of lineups, but now the stores are often crowded with people waiting for thei…
One way is to make the check-in person more than a dumb data enterer. My iPhone suddenly stopped getting any carrier signal one day. I took it to the Apple store that evening because I needed to go out of town the next day, and I had to have a working phone. I checked in at the front of the store and waited 2.5 hours for my turn with a Genius. The fix was to press the very specific "reset network settings button" (which isn't under Cellular settings, it's under General->Reset). I was relieved it was such a simple fix, but it was ridiculous to wait over 2 hours to press the right button. The check-in person should ask what you've tried and do the most basic triage to avoid this kind of problem congesting the store.
Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster
#25>[Angela Ahrendts'] overhaul of the Genius Bar has been especially controversial. Customers looking for technical advice or repairs must now check in with an employee, who types their request into an iPad. Then when a Genius is free, he or she must find the customer wherever they happen to be in the store. Ahrendts was determined to get rid of lineups, but now the stores are often crowded with people waiting for thei…
> If an Apple exec wants to bring back the dedicated area for the Genius Bar, how does one avoid the logistical nightmare of those lines?
Maybe I misunderstand the issue but the problem is not lack of table space but the lack of free personnel. in that case increasing the surface only make for longer logistic times and the risk of being missed if you are outside their field of attention.
Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster
#26For me the apple store has basically come to mean:
- Very long lines/overcrowded store
- It's all full of Apple Watches and stuff like that and trivial luxury accessories
- Not enough Macs anymore
- None of the really cool displays they used to have like a Mac Pro set up for music studio or video work complete with a camera or midi controller or other instrument plugged in.
- For some reason they always smell like BO. Either it's the employees or customers they attract, there is something odd about the design of the store that screws with HVAC, or they're not cleaning well. Very weird thing.
So yah, not much luster. Even when they introduce new products these days I don't really want to go into the store and try them cause the experience is bad enough it outweighs the interest to check out the new product.
It is weird cause they are such copycats but I think the MS stores are better run now.
Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster
#27I think part of it is that Apple doesn’t have many interesting new products. I used it be excited about iPhones or iPads but now they just release variations if the same thing I know already pretty well. Why go to a store? And the wait times for support are way too long.
Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was able to get an appointment next day at an apple store to fix my keyboard . After I arrived I got it done within 15 min
Me too. Same day, even. This is in NYC and I live within five minutes’ walk from the nearest store. Compared to phone support from PC makers (even including the glorious no-questions-asked IBM hardware days), it’s a vast improvement for me.
Yea just to clarify, I'm not trying to compare it to owning a PC. It's still leaps and bounds better. But still the quality in my experience has gone down.
My two local stores are in Bethesda, MD.
Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster
#29I understand what this article's view, and I share the same frustrations, but every time I go there, it's packed regardless.
The apple store where i live is packed too. I think many of those people are in for repairs on their stuff.
Meanwhile, the Microsoft store diagonally located across the mall is usually empty. But some kids are there to play the games on the Xbox side.
peace
Re: How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster
#30I 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…
Their genius bar is just slowing down since they want you to buy new instead of repair what you have. Not always the case but I get that feeling. That and “IT at home” requests seem to flood the bar now.