Apple "people" suck!

In My Humble Opinion
1

Ok, so not necessarily everyone who uses an apple computer.
The Journey Begins
Yesterday, I walked into an “apple only” computer store, where I was a bit apprehensive of going to in the first place. Walking into this place, it at first seemed there was no rhyme or reason to anything they were doing. Upon entrance through the doorway, there is a young girl standing by a numbered ticket dispenser. I walk in and look around me before noticing her, because she looks just like any other customer really, which there are countless hordes of in this all too tinier than even my apartment fourth floor of a building. What I see is lots of people standing around just like me, looking askance at the world around them, perhaps like me thinking, where the hell do I go for help or some type of customer service. (I later found out I was right on the mark). Suddenly the girl approaches me with a ticket and says, “Do you need help?”. Wonderful I think, customer service with a smile. :slight_smile: How wrong I was…

The Apple People
“I need an adapter for…”
“Oh, that stuff is like, over there I think… ummm, yeah, that counter, just wait by that counter.”- she says.
“Thanks!”, I reply so heartily thinking, wow, even with all this discord, no real “stations” to approach for help, or actual “counters” other than the one I was approaching, they must know what they are doing… wrong again.
So I shuffle my way through a line that’s formed beside me to the counter left of them. No one is there, but I see the adapters I need for my humble PowerMac8500 to a PC Monitor. I know which one I need, but patience and a smile I’m sure will bring the help I need to pick it off the shelf behind the counter for me and charge me. NOPE!
Ten minutes later… I approach the girl and ask, “Am I standing at the right place? Or is there something else I’m supposed to do, take a number maybe? I’m not sure, this is my first time here…”
“Oh”, she says, “Ummm, hold on, I think someone will be able to help you there…”
…along comes a man that walks right by me with a big grin on his face, sees me in front of him, mind you directly in front of him, and says over my head and to the line behind me, “Next, anyone need any help?”
Peeved doesn’t describe what I’m feeling at this point.
“I’m right here”, I say, “I’ve been waiting…”
“Sorry sir, there’s a line!”
“I was directed to the counter, and asked if there…”
“Next!”
-enter customer from line approaches behind me.
customer:“I am standing in line sweating for a long time, you cannot cut in front like that!”
me:“I’m not cutting, I’m trying to explain…”
counterperson:“Sir, there’s a line, do you need help or not? Get to the end of the line!”

Apple Nazi?

I’m scorched, so I decide, I’m not taking this crap from some low life counter help doofus that doesn’t know the first thing about a)customer service, b)computers and c)plain etiquette.
“I wanna speak to the manager now!, Your’e all a bunch of idiot, damn freak, I’m standing by the counter THAT (I point my finger) girl directed me to and waiting for ten minutes to deal with you bastards telling me I’m wrong for it and have to wait for more? I know what I want, I want to get it, pay, and leave!”

That was not good. Apple “people” are thick headed lemmings. That’s the best I can describe this counter person as. There are no managers, there is no order here, and everyone looks at me like it’s the end of the world.

“Is there any organization to how this place works? When I ask if I should be standing here, or taking a number, or waiting in line, shouldn’t I be told the correct answer? Or do you welcome all customers like this?”

the girl:“Oh, sorry, I ummmm… I have to go on break”
Seething!!! smoke may as well be coming out from my ears.

The Apple People fear me!
Every customer that was on the line I was supposed to stand in offers me the space before them… :confused:
What are they thinking? I have to go to the front of the line to be recognized now by the counter person? OH sheesh, whatever powers that be, please tell me that isn’t so. Please tell me that no matter what, these Apple Nazi’s are going to just give me what I came for, and let me out of here!
nope…
I’m the first person in line now… The counter person is grinning… I want to kill him. :smiley:
I make plans… It’s my turn finally… and the counter person walks away.

Now, either I’m wearing a sign that says, Pick on (soulsling) today, or these people are really just brainless. AS I’m standing in line, I overhear this conversation from a desk behind me, a desk that is apparently where a store worker is helping a customer who was waiting in the pit of despair all customers apparently wait in before being called up…
worker:Next! Number 74? or anyone before 74? Anyone before 74? Oh, you have… what number? 72? Ok, yeah, I’ll help you…
customer:I need to pick up a laptop my boss dropped off the other day…
worker:Oh, ok, what’s the name? And by the way, it’s not a laptop, it’s a PO-WER-BOOOOK.
customer:oh… ok, sorry, ummm, (mumbles off name)
worker:How are you paying for this?
customer:Credit card…(hands over card)
worker:Did you sign this card?
customer:No, it’s not mine.
worker:Ok, did you use this card ever before?
customer:No, it’s not mine, it’s my bosses, she signed it.
worker:Yeah, I had a feeling it wasn’t yours, I can’t help you with this.
customer:Can’t we fax something in to confirm it?
worker:No. But why don’t you have your boss call me…

I was finally called up to the counter, different counter person of course, I asked for my adapter…
“Oh, I don’t think we have those…”
“YES YOU DO, THEY’RE OVER THERE, I WANT THAT ONE, JUST GET IT, CHARGE ME, AND LET ME OUT OF THIS PLACE”
“Oh, Ok… yeah sure…”

Needless to say, 1 hour 20 minutes later, I’m done.
WTF!!!

This is completely everything I’ve been warned about when encountering “Apple People”, but I never realized it was for real. Are these folks from another planet or something?

This is of course my opinion, not humble in the least, (I don’t believe an opinion can be humble)but I didn’t think it belongs in the pit because it’s not about the boards or mods and I just had to get it off my chest.

Any opinions out there?

2

I notice you’re in NYC. Don’t know where you went, but wherever it is, it isn’t the only show in town. Try TekServe: 155 West 23 Street 4th Floor between 6 and 7 Ave. (although they do use the “take a number” system, there are benches to sit down on, reading material freely available (decent stuff, too), and no Barbie-&-Ken-doll types waiting on you, just geeks with Torx screwdrivers and VRAM modules sticking out of their pockets.

3

)

4

You hit the nail on the head AHunter3.

There was no need for me to wait, I went to where I was directed, and then was told that wasn’t where I should have been, and regardless it being a mistake of one of their employees, I had to suffer for it. It was a 5 minute job deal. Guy at counter could have said, sorry sir, our mistake (as is customer service policy in most places especially if they screw up…I’ve been on that end, I know), let me get that for you right away, then he could have rung me up, and I’d be out in a shake of a lambs tail. And if that’s the way the employees there are all the time, you can be sure I’d rather deal with PC people more often at computer stores. I have more often than not run into PC “people” that know what they are talking about and don’t come off as space cadets, maybe geeks, but not air heads. These people were just plain idiots, and no, they had no clue when I was there. There is no order to things there.

I have no preference, I work with macs, pc’s both windows and linux, and I love them all, it’s the people, really, it’s gotta be a disease or something…

5

Well, don’t ever call tech support. I TOLD the moron on the phone that I thought I could solve the problem myself, but he insisted on doing an hour’s worth of diagnostic crap, only to tell me what I initally suggested doing in the FIRST place. And this is my first mac. Ever. I know next to nothing about them, and yet I was able to diagnose the problem an hour before the tech guy. Moron.

Then there’s my sister’s story. I asked for The Sims for Christmas, and she and her boyfriend went shopping. She had to go to three different stores to find it for Mac, but she said that wherever she went, she’s ask for it, and the counter person would LAUGH and say “Sims for Mac! Sims for Mac!” They would look for it, be horrififed they didn’t carry it, and she would move on to the next store. But to LAUGH at a customer? Sheesh.

If you’re into the mail order thing, go through SmallDog.com. I bought my iBook through them, and they were great. Plus, they have refurbished stuff that they personally warrantee for a year in some cases, that is cheap, cheap, cheap.

6

I read your story, and my question is “Do you actually know a store where they DON’T act like that.”

I am freaking amazed at how many “customer service” people think their job is to educate the consumer to the fact that what he wants is not what he deserves.

It is as if before you even open your mouth, they are thinking, “OK, what does this idiot want?”
A little story…
I recently ordered some eyeglasses. I only see out of one eye. Without getting into details, there are a few things about wearing eyeglasses that are annoying to those of us with one eye. My opthalmologist had tried to say that they were medically necessary in order to get them covered by my vision insurance. Of course, the insurance company denied them. Without these changes, the glasses would be nearly unwearable. If I had to pay full price for these options, it would make the glasses cost more than I wanted to pay, making my vision coverage practically worthless.

The first person I spoke to, treated me like an idiot. No need to go into it, not much different than the example above.

For some reason, though, I called another time to try again. This time, the person I contacted seemed to take another tack. “Is there anything I can think of that will make this person happy,” seemed to be what she was thinking.

It seemed that neither the clerk at the optician, nor I had thought about the fact that if I only had vision in one eye, I would only need the upgrades in one lens. That made a HUGE difference in my share of the cost of the glasses, from about $230. to $70. Now this woman didn’t give me anything for nothing. She didn’t cover anything that wasn’t included in the policy. She just saved me $160. I left happy, and she didn’t have to GIVE me anything to accomplish it.

The important thing, though was that she wasn’t trying to make me get lost. She was THINKING of how she could satisfy me.

Unfortunately, there is too little of that today.

7

Well, my entire office is Mac, my home is mac, all I’ve ever known is Mac and I love Mac.

So I guess I’m an Apple Person, and I don’t suck.

Seems to me that you’re angry at customer service people, who universally suck, every race, creed, computer preference, age, weight and location. I have been to three very nice Mac stores in Chicago. CompUsa is a huge chain store that has a lot of Mac hard and software, and a knowledgable staff, CyberExchange is the same way, and MicroCenter had a very nice Mac section (albeit WALLED OFF from the rest of the store lest we contaminate your precious PCs). I also contacted apple support online regarding a printer question and had my request answered WITHIN FIVE MINUTES.

I find it funny that you call us Apple people NAZI (an insane usage issue that I can’t get into here lest I rant), when PC people are constantly trying to squeeze us out at every turn. SwimmingRiddles speaks of PC people LAUGHING at the suggestion of Sims for the Mac rather than someone just saying “we don’t have it”

I know you said, right at the beginning, that NOT EVERYONE of us sucks, but its still KIND of crazy to blame the majority of us for one bad store experience. Why not blame idiot teenagers, that’s what I always do :smiley:

It’s very hip these days to trash Macs. We’re a small but sensitive community, our computers are brightly colored, Jeff Goldblum is our spokesperson…you can see that we’re easily upset.

jarbaby

8

I’m with jarbaby on this one…

I won’t even go into it, but I have 12 pages of documentation to show you how badly I got reamed (over the course of a year!) by the (NOT) Best Buy people. Over a PC. Basically, I bought a PC, the integrated sound/modem card got zapped. I lived in a town (I had moved) that had NO Best Buy store at the time. Called Tech Support. They send Bubba Techie to my house… to replace the motherboard. Damn thing never booted up again. No restore disk came with new motherboard. I’m sitting on a $2500 computer that only worked for a year.

I now own a Mac because THOSE PEOPLE can fix the damn thing properly when necessary. I can communicate with them. However, I’d rather chew my own foot off than step into a Mac Store. I order online from The Mac Store and deal strictly with Mac certified Mac Techs. Who know WTF they are doing.

My point, and jarbaby’s: You are pissed off at retail people, most of whom know nothing about any platform computer. You are not pissed off at Steve Jobs, Apple, Mac computers, me, or jarbaby.

Customer Service sucks… if you get any at all.

9

::cuddling up to Dogzilla like a monkey baby and her cloth covered monkey mom::

10

I’ll completely agree that CompUSA is wonderful here in Chicago (on Chicago at Rush) for Mac users. We bought our iMac there and get all our peripherals. Lovely service. COuld use a bit more Mac software, but that’s obviously a problem with half the software industry ignoring our needs.

And yes, I’m always amused by the MicroCenter on Elston. I feel a bit like I’m walking into the computer ghetto there. Fine selection, though. If onyl it wasn’t in the worst damn weekend traffic section of of the universe. (Especially with that Target across the street and the Cub foods next door.)

11

No. I never inferred any of YOU suck, that’s your own insecurity coming out.
I said, “Apple People”, and it was in quotes because it refers to the story I told, and the people involved, and the store I went to. Yes, customer service the world over is definitely not “customer” service any longer.
But this place takes the cake, and on a very “Apple People” level. The whole, “Stop bashing us, wer’e just like you” mentality coupled with the insecurity of being anything other than just who they are is completely apparent there.
Lemmings, the only word to describe them… (chuckles)
I’ve been to CompUSA, J&R, and many other places here in NYC, and never in my life have I been through what I went through there. There is always a much more organized, much more disciplined, much more intelligent process going through for my purchases whether Mac or PC related, but this one place was the epitomy of what “Apple People” is.
No signs, no direction, the whole “Think Differently” idea twisted into “Chaos is really what’s in our minds and we don’t think differently, we just don’t think”.

So, quit your bitchin’ about PC vs. Macs 'cause that’s not what any of this is about. And get your tail untucked from between your legs in regards to “stop picking on mac people” 'cause that’s not what this is about either.

12

Then refer to them as “customer service people”

So you’re admitting it’s the store and the people in the store. THE CUSTOMER SERVICE. You were in a BAD APPLE STORE

I don’t give an iguana’s throat fan what computer you use. i don’t care if you hate me or my mac…I’m saying that complaining about apple people will result in apple people defending themselves. If you had said “Customer Service Idiots Suck” you’d have them in here, too.

jarbaby

13

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by jarbabyj *
**

**
That’s too funny.

Yeah.

:rolleyes:

14

I’m totally lost soulsling. Help me. I’m just an apple person. :smiley:

So, you asked for our opinions on whether Apple People are from another planet.

A few Apple people answer that no, we’re perfectly normal, and perhaps THESE particular store workers were from another planet.

You tell us that this is not what this post is about.

I still maintain that it is. I still maintain that people who use OR SELL Apples are perfectly capable of being on par with the rest of humanity.

Are you honestly going to tell me that when you go to buy your pc equipment THAT YOU HAVE NEVER ENCOUNTERED ANY RED TAPE OF ANY KIND? Never waited in a line? Never met someone going on break? Never met a manager who didn’t know jack shit about what was happening? I’m not buying it.

jarbaby

15

<grammar pet peeve> the word you want is “implied” NOT “inferred” </grammar pet peeve>

16

Heh, you think that’s bad, you should see Fry’s Electronics down here in sunny CA. Probably THE best selection in a B&M store anywhere (well, maybe not for their selection of hard drives, but I digress), but good luck finding a computer product that hasn’t been returned (at least) once or a sales associate that isn’t rude as all hell.

And yet we keep going back… :stuck_out_tongue:

17

All at once like this? No. In most computer stores I’ve been to, It’s not strictly PC, that is, they sell Mac as well as PC equipment, software, etc.
This is a STRICTLY APPLE ONLY store, and what I was warned about was the attitude that come along in these stores was exactly what I encountered. I always beleived they would be just like any other, same type of people, same customer service and what you’re calling red tape.
This, like I said before takes the cake. They do have a certain kind of attitude. It’s that very “We are Mac Elite” attitude, and the people there are ALL that way, at least they were the day I walked in. Other customers mentioned things as well while on line about the attitude.

You know the whole Soup Nazi episode from Seinfeld? The idea that someone could treat customers like that? These were Apple Nazis, and yes, they did behave rudely to customers, myself included. For it being my first time, I expected better.
But it was not solely a customer service issue, not in the least. It was the attitude that a company like themselves can have upon customers that was the issue. The same type of attitude I’ve seen from crybaby “Apple People”, the ones that really believe there are people out there who hate them because they use macs. The paranoid freaks that think they are always being picked on about being into and using Macintosh computers. The things I see on usenet, in “macaddict” magazines and the such that are similar that often feature articles on the lack of durability a PC has in comparison to a Mac, or the lack of speed compared to a Mac, making Macs superior.
Who gives a damn!!!???
Who cares what type of computer one uses? Why all the fuss over trying to be elite over another? What the heck kind of pride does one actually gain in having one type of computer over another? These people I encountered were the very heart of all this. They really do care, and yes, actually, I think they are lost. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be making such a big deal of things.

So jarbabyj, why do you take my comments so personally? I don’t know you, I don’t care what type of computer you prefer, but you seem to take my comments about people I met and my experience with them so much to heart…
You would think someone could rise above this and realize this is MY story of something that happened to ME. And in the end, I quote myself:

Yes, I wanted other opinions, about what I went through, or similar experiences perhaps. At my office, several others shared similar experiences with the same place. We are 90% Mac equipped, The rest is PC. I’m the only one besides the second shift Net Admin that knows how to use the PCs. And none of the people at my Design firm, Mac people, apple people, really disagree with me about the existence of this attitude that “Apple People” have.

Still think I’m directing this at you jarbabyj? I’m not, nor anyone else on these boards. Get a grip, this happened, It was proven to me, I’ve seen it, and I’ve told about it. Whatcha gonna do about it?
Cry and complain that “us apple people are too normal!! Waaaahh”?

You crack me up.
Give it up pal, don’t take these things so personally, I’ve got nothing against you. Glad you like the mac, so do I, I own two of them, doesn’t mean I take insult to when people say something about users of macs or pc’s.

18

I think I said earlier that I didn’t give an iguana’s throat fan what computer you used. You compared Apple retailers to a political movement that slaughtered six million Jewish people so I thought I should say something.

I don’t. I simply listed three stores in the Chicago area that give good Mac service as way of voicing my opinion regarding your experience with bad Apple service. ::shrug:: I never once called you a name or said anything bad about PCs…I don’t even know how to use them so how could I?

Gotcha, so in the end, all you wanted was everyone to say “great story soul!” and give no response yay or nay.

Not a god damn thing, pal. I never whined or cried once. In fact, I think I used the BIG GRIN smilie twice.

Great! see ya around! :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

jarbaby

19

Um, yeah, I guess that’s pretty much it…

…oh well…
:wink:

See ya 'round!

20

Perhaps it’d be easier to admit that soulsling could’ve chosen a less “argumentative” subject for this thread. Putting the word “people” in quotes could certainly be interpreted as impolite (especially given how beligerant some die-hard Windows users are to us Macophiles). “My crummy computer shopping experience” would’ve been sufficient, for instance…