Anyone Here Work at the Apple Retail Store?

[kermitology]

My friend Jon works there.

You'd know him when you saw him because he's 6'7" and has a huge mane of hair. We call him Wookie. He does a pretty good Wookie impression too. Ask him to do it for you.

[Yeah_Baby]

Originally Posted by kermitology

My friend Jon works there.

You'd know him when you saw him because he's 6'7" and has a huge mane of hair. We call him Wookie. He does a pretty good Wookie impression too. Ask him to do it for you.

Just make sure he never meets that Hutt from Burger King.

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by kermitology

My friend Jon works there.

You'd know him when you saw him because he's 6'7" and has a huge mane of hair. We call him Wookie. He does a pretty good Wookie impression too. Ask him to do it for you.

I remember him and he doesn't seem like someone who should be around expensive computers.

[Stumptown]

I've been drinking the Apple kool-aid for like 25 years, but I can't stand the Apple stores. My most recent experience didn't help. My old G4's fans crapped out on me over the 4th of July weekend, and I had to get a new machine to be up and running by the next monday (I was planning on a new machine this summer anyway). All the usual Apple resellers I go to were closed for the holiday, so I had no choice but to go to the Apple Store in the mall.

I'm standing in front of the highest price tag in the store for about 5 minutes before someone asks if I need help. All the iPhone gawkers are getting help right away. They have to send someone up from the back to help me with the MacPro - I guess the front-room sales people are all just for the consumer-grade stuff. Whatever, they probably don't sell a whole lot of the MacPros in the mall. Then it takes three other "geniuses" to figure out if I can run my beloved Studio Display CRT monitor off the MacPro. They sell me a cable for $99 that's supposed to work.

Take everything home, get it set up. Monitor no worky. So on my laptop I poke around in the online specs for the cable, and nowhere in the documentation does it say it works with CRTs, only with the first generation LCD monitors. So, back to the store to return it and go to BestBuy to get a monitor (no way I'm paying $1000 for one of Apple's, they're not that good). Return process is fine, but the Apple Store salesperson didn't even know what a CRT was - had to look it up in wikipedia.

I don't even know why they bother selling the high-end stuff through the mall stores, the sales staff are obviously not equipped. They should just stick to iPods, iPhones and the MacBooks and let the resellers deal with the Pros.

So - in short, there's probably not much to learn working in the Apple Store, even as a "genius." You'd spend most of your time helping people install apps on their iPhones and setting up Bootcamp to play games. No idea how much upward mobility there is in that.

[browna]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

You're right. It's much better to pick up a phone and try to get tech support from some guy in India. I can't tell you how annoying it is to have to talk to someone face-to-face and then have to sit there while they literally fix my problem for me right in front of my eyes.

I always leave there wishing I had just spent 3 hours on the phone with some guy who could barely speak English, only to be in a worse spot than I was before I called.

Doesn't take too much to wind you up regarding Apple and launching a post entirely made up of sarcasm, does it?

My point was that they could use a much less audicious term for thier support people than "Genuises". And given the poster who I was quoting's issue needing an appointment and then 3 trips to get them to do a relative simple task, not sure if that term is entirely accurate.

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

Yeah, good points. My plan (as it stands now) is to finish the first year at DeVry and then transfer to UofC and finish my degree through them. As for the Apple Retail -> Apple Headquarters thing... That's in the back of my mind too. I'm going to talk to them about that on Sunday. I think your Usher -> Player analogy thing might be pretty accurate, so I want to make sure first.

Aside from all of that, though, thanks for actually commenting on the topic.

No prob, always here to help if you have any Q's. The person you are meeting Sunday, its real easy to for them to feed you crap about "sure it will help!" but the reality is, when you get hired in a tech job, you are probably going to be interviewed by a tech guy. HR might screen you through certain words on the resume and when your graduation date is and whatnot, but its ultimately going to be project leaders or similar that will do the hiring. As far as I know, project leaders don't associate with mid-level marketing, so despite what they tell you, my best bet is your chance of getting the foot in the door is zero.

I'll bet writing iPhone apps or something like that would be far more attractive to a perspective employer.

Also look at where Apple does their recruiting and consider them as schools. Whats UofC's connection to the valley? I know as far as UofA went, there were a few companies but not nearly as many as Waterloo (for instance). Does Apple even seek internationals for low level jobs? For instance in my situation, I know Maxim is friendly to Canadians but Cisco doesn't appear to be.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by browna

Doesn't take too much to wind you up regarding Apple and launching a post entirely made up of sarcasm, does it?

My point was that they could use a much less audicious term for thier support people than "Genuises". And given the poster who I was quoting's issue needing an appointment and then 3 trips to get them to do a relative simple task, not sure if that term is entirely accurate.

You must really get upset when your order at subway gets screwed up by a "sandwich artist".

[Phaneuf3]

Originally Posted by Russic

You must really get upset when your order at subway gets screwed up by a "sandwich artist".

If it was a $2000 sandwich that I had to make an appointment for and three trips to get right... darn right I'd be mad.

[mykalberta]

Mmmm $2000 dollar sandwich.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by browna

Doesn't take too much to wind you up regarding Apple and launching a post entirely made up of sarcasm, does it?

My point was that they could use a much less audicious term for thier support people than "Genuises". And given the poster who I was quoting's issue needing an appointment and then 3 trips to get them to do a relative simple task, not sure if that term is entirely accurate.

the best part is that when i asked the "Concierge" why they didn't accept appointments by phone because their website sucks, she said "Our system isn't designed for that". so a simple spreadsheet is beyond Apples grasp?

if this ipod bricks again i'm going to warranty it by mail. i'd rather be without it for a few weeks then step foot in that place again

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

if this ipod bricks again i'm going to warranty it by mail. i'd rather be without it for a few weeks then step foot in that place again

Awesome. So, in other words, you'll be doing the only possible thing you'd be able to do if you had any other mp3 device on the market today.

Of course, instead of being glad that you at least have the option of getting face-to-face support with your iPod, you'd rather be pissed off about having to put all the effort into actually going to the store to get that support.

Whatever. Some people are just like that. Fortunately for everyone else, for every one of you, there's 1700 other people who are happy to get in-person tech support. Unfortunately for everyone else, though, you're the only type of person who ever feels the need to let the world know how they feel.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

Awesome. So, in other words, you'll be doing the only possible thing you'd be able to do if you had any other mp3 device on the market today.

Of course, instead of being glad that you at least have the option of getting face-to-face support with your iPod, you'd rather be pissed off about having to put all the effort into actually going to the store to get that support.

Whatever. Some people are just like that. Fortunately for everyone else, for every one of you, there's 1700 other people who are happy to get in-person tech support. Unfortunately for everyone else, though, you're the only type of person who ever feels the need to let the world know how they feel.

I'll admit I'm apple-leaning, but the man has a point. Many of you are complaining about a service that is extremely rare beyond apple.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

Awesome. So, in other words, you'll be doing the only possible thing you'd be able to do if you had any other mp3 device on the market today.

Of course, instead of being glad that you at least have the option of getting face-to-face support with your iPod, you'd rather be pissed off about having to put all the effort into actually going to the store to get that support.

Whatever. Some people are just like that. Fortunately for everyone else, for every one of you, there's 1700 other people who are happy to get in-person tech support. Unfortunately for everyone else, though, you're the only type of person who ever feels the need to let the world know how they feel.

my first mp3 players was an iRiver i bought from Memory Express. they have their own 1 year in-store warranty, employ people that actually know what they're talking about (for the most part), and i don't feel the need to wash myself of the douchyness after going there

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

my first mp3 players was an iRiver i bought from Memory Express. they have their own 1 year in-store warranty, employ people that actually know what they're talking about (for the most part), and i don't feel the need to wash myself of the douchyness after going there

Yeah MemEx is actually a great store. I give them full props for sure.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

Yeah MemEx is actually a great store. I give them full props for sure.

i've only lived in Calgary for 7 years, but in that time they've managed to go from a single store on MacLeod trail to 3 Calgary locations, 2 Edmonton stores and one in Winnipeg. they've gotta be doing something right