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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

#31

Post by mikehotel »

CallingIit wrote: post #14

Calling it. They went store to store buying Macbooks. Multiple sets of laptops just for a social experiement? What kind of IT department would allow the KIDS to get the computers they need. And with no bulk discount, what school would allow that? This happened in his dreams.

I don't care if it's slightly embellished or even pure fiction, it could have happened. It highlights the discrimination faced by many groups of people, and encourages readers to act excellently with all types of people. I like the article for that reason alone. The class outing was also a cool idea, it would be fun to try a cheaper variant.

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

#32

Post by cpeterso »

CallingIit wrote: post #14

Calling it. They went store to store buying Macbooks. Multiple sets of laptops just for a social experiement? What kind of IT department would allow the KIDS to get the computers they need. And with no bulk discount, what school would allow that? This happened in his dreams.

I'm also skeptical that among 15 teenagers, including a "rowdy troublemaker", not one would be chatting or giggling during this "experiment"?

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

#33

Post by hkmurakami »

dktbs wrote: post #27
typpo wrote: 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 ups…

Out of curiosity, how do Apple stores track how well an employee upsell products? Is there an expected model that sells for each product line, and if an employee exceeds this level on average (say, the EV is a Macbook Air 13 inch and 10% chance of warranty contract but the employee "averages" a 13 inch MBP + 25% success on a warranty), does she get a bonus?

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

#34

Post by CallingIit »

Gromble wrote: post #19
CallingIit wrote: post #14

Calling it. They went store to store buying Macbooks. Multiple sets of laptops just for a social experiement? What kind of IT department would allow the KIDS to get the computers they need. And with no bulk discount, what school would allow that? This happened in his dreams.

They weren't asking for MacBooks at every store, that would be silly.

Still, KIDS were given thousands of dollars to buy stuff tech for their school. This happens no where. Now if he said it was a coffee shop or such, sure.

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

#35

Post by hkmurakami »

niggler wrote: post #4
typpo wrote: 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.

I'm surprised the school didn't work with Apple's education group (which you have to do over the phone)

Well there was a significant secondary motivation to see how salespeople reacted to the faked "deafness", so in this case contacting the Apple education group would have rendered this secondary purpose moot.

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

#36

Post by hkmurakami »

bitops wrote: post #6
typpo wrote: 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.

What a cynical attitude. Do you think it's justified to give disabled people a bad attitude and poor service just because they're not spending a lot of money on your product?

This is the case whether or not a person is physically challenged or not.

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

#37

Post by PakG1 »

When I was a kid, there was a girl I knew who was deaf and mute. But we always had great fun talking with each other using pen and paper. I don't know why, but it was so much easier to talk with her than it was a lot of other kids. Obviously, some types of people are easier to talk with, but I think something actually switches on in my mind that makes it easier for me to communicate when I'm writing, rather than speaking.

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=19991119

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

#39

Post by mikeash »

jurassic wrote: post #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…

It sounds to me that you simply encountered an asshole who happened to pretend to be deaf, and incorrectly blamed the pretending bit for the asshole bit.

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

#40

Post by DHowett »

Gromble wrote: post #17
mistercow wrote: post #15

That school really should have dealt with the Apple store directly. I'm guessing they would have gotten better than the standard educational discount that way. Also, wow, please don't map "escape" to cause navigation on your website. That's super annoying.

That's a Squarespace thing, can't be helped.

It most certainly can be helped: don't use Squarespace.
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