Stupid Apple store employees

[quiksan]

totally agree with brianleahy here.

in related news - i had a great experience with an apple store employee the other day:
i was looking at an FM transmitter for my new ipod mini, and was asking which worked the best (signal strength, etc). instead of just telling me his opinion on the best, he took it out to my car with me, and let me decide. that's customer service! i would have accepted if he hadn't known for sure, but the fact that he went that extra step to demo it in my car, that's just cool.

[dlloyd]

Yeah, that is pretty impressive! I'm always amazed when I find someone like that, because it's not the norm. Imagine what Apple could do if they tried to become the 'consumer's company. e.g. making that company policy

[Giaguara]

Many, many people - not just Apple Store employees - have a hard time to tell 3 simple words = "I don't know". (and an answer to the previous question - part time works at Apple start at $ 7-10 / h)

[MacMuppet]

I'll double check anything I'm not sure of - nothing's worse than when someone follows your advice, and you turn out to be wrong.
Thanks for the info though Giagura - I've applied and hope to get a Saturday job - after all its not really about the money is it, I could work a 6th day a week contracting or similar and rake it in but it wouldnt be any fun and I'd rather have the day off.
Could quite happily be paid anything to hang around in the apple store on Saturdays showing off cool things - at least I'd get a t-shirt!

[dlloyd]

MacMuppet, that's sure right. If I give incorrect info, I always feel awful...

[evildan]

It's funny you say that, and I'm not trying to speak to all Apple Store employees. But I had the opposite happen to me.

I was in Chicago and I mistakenly grabbed the wrong iTrip (one for first generation iPods and I have a 3rd generation iPod). The employee who was ringing me up warned me that this would not work with the new iPods. I looked closer to realize the photo of the iTrip showed exactly what the connection looked like.

The two versions of the iTrip are significantly different from one another. I'm surprised as well, and if you were questioning it, didn't you see the picture on the box? I'm not trying to insult you, but perhaps it was a miscommunication?

[Macsith]

Originally Posted by brianleahy

I think a distinction needs to be made here: it is one thing if the employees don't know about the products and admit that they don't know..

Have you ever told a customer "I don't know"? In my broad experience when you say "I don't know" they look at you like you have just hit their family pet with your car!

It takes 'two to tango' and also keep in mind and accept that they may not know. Will you accept I don't know??? If you do you will be on person I have never served...

[Giaguara]

Originally Posted by Macsith

Have you ever told a customer "I don't know"? In my broad experience when you say "I don't know" they look at you like you have just hit their family pet with your car!

It takes 'two to tango' and also keep in mind and accept that they may not know. Will you accept I don't know??? If you do you will be on person I have never served...

It may take a lot of honesty to tell "I don't know". But I rather get an answer "I don't know, but let me try to find it out .." than some answer that is improvised - and that is just plain wrong.

I don't mind if people tell me they don't know. And sometimes the questions are such that you can't lie if you odn't know - one example is "how is the US Spanish keyboard layout?" I know what the standard US and standard Spanish Spanish are - but an improvised answer e.g. in that case just would not do. So many times it is very helpful if the employees can at least know where to find the info fast. If they don't have the US Spanish keyboard in the store (they never had had one), at least they should know where to find a picture of the layout.