Former Apple retail head Angela Ahrendts upset 'finely tuned balance'

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Comments

  • Reply 41 of 89
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member
    sflocal said:
    Every company has disgruntled employees. But not every company is Apple where employees can snitch to Mark Gurman and get a write up in Bloomberg. The biggest complaint about Apple stores seems to be that they’re too crowded. But if Jason Snell is right the new person heading retail is tasked with pushing sales. That might have been one reason Angela left.
    I think Angela left due to ego.  She was vested, and being an ex-CEO, she probably wanted to be back in the top chair again.  Can't blame her.

    I'm still in a holding pattern with how she handled the retail remodeling.  In my personal experience here in San Francisco, it's not better or worse.  Just different.

    I am going in tomorrow to have my iPhoneX repaired/replaced.  It's been a while since I ever needed any kind of Apple service so I'm curious to see how it is.
    I find it curious that she left shorty after the decision was made last fall to push iPhone sales in store. Maybe the timing was just a coincidence but I do wonder. I doubt she created Today at Apple as a vehicle to push iPhone sales. Recently I was at an Apple store to have a cracked iPhone display replaced. I just did a walk-in. It took maybe 15 minutes to get checked in and been seen by a store employee. They told me to come back in an hour to pick up my phone. It was a very slick process especially considering I was just a walk-in. Seems to me the complaints are mostly around stores being too busy. I’m not sure how much can be done about that outside of building more stores.
    Today at Apple, along with integrating the online store with in-store pickup, is one of the best things she implemented. Teaching people how to get the most out of the Apple devices that they bought is a great example of intersection of technology & liberal arts.
    I agree. I think she unfairly gets a bad rap. I wonder too how much is miscommunication from other parts of Apple to the retail stores, especially over battery and keyboard issues.
  • Reply 42 of 89
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member
    I feel it’s time for Apple to bring in a person who is willing to shake up Apple from the inside again, like Jobs. Tim is more concerned with keeping the ship sailing on smooth waters, which is a perfectly admirable quality, but it won’t lead to radical changes or product breakthroughs.

    Trillion dollar companies don’t do radical changes.
    StrangeDays
  • Reply 43 of 89
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    asdasd said:
    lkrupp said:
    Oh here we go again. Apple is the ONLY, repeat, ONLY tech company where a customer can walk into their store and get service on their devices, get questions answered, make purchases and this thread has already been hijacked by the perpetually bitching crowd that hammers away at anything Apple. Fire Cook, fire Ahrendts, fire Federighi, fire Schiller, fire ‘em all!
     
    1. When very crowded, my local store had a stale air smell in it (better ventilation system?). 

    2. -- Poorly trained staff:  "Ask five people -- get five different answers
    -- An emphasis on sales over service
    -- Being pushed to make online appointments for service -- which the Apple store essentially ignored (You got treated the same whether you had an appointment or just walked in)

    3. Spent 25 minutes with a friend trying to buy
    iPhone a month or so ago. Waiting for someone to serve us. 

    4. Apple stores used to be a fun destination/experience - I hope it returns to that with the new VP!

    5.  My belief is that Steve would have never allowed AA within a 100 yards of an Apple employment line.

    6. I agree with the majority here, and have been carping on this for years here.

    What a load of unadulterated bullshit. What must it be like to go through life bitching about everything, never satisfied, always disappointed, always negative and throwing shade on everything and everybody. 
    What must it be like spending your entire online presence being so defensive about a multi billion dollar company you get angry about genuine problems people have? 

    All of those reports are from people who visited the stores, ie Apple customers. They have problems. They are explaining their problems. 

    The customer base of Apple ultra fandom for Apple is probably just you and a few others. They sell to hundreds of millions, some will have problems. If Apple depended on its ultra fan base who thinknit can do no wrong it would collapse. 
    And those people are anecdotal examples, not proving a thing about the quality of Apple stores in general. Everybody has to have something bitch about. But I can sleep at night knowing that the opinions and comments expressed in tech blogs are meaningless, irrelevant, and skewed to the negative. The entire internet is vocally negative because someone with an axe to grind will shout it to the rooftops while those who are happy with their experiences keep quiet. So the blathering negativity of tech blogs don't affect reality one single iota. It’s all pissing into the wind. Ever since Mr. Jobs passed away we have seen this absolute bullshit escalate. The people who want Cook fired today are the same one who hated Jobs to the core when he was alive. Now, all of a sudden, he’s some kind of godhead.

    So here comes a screed from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the very definition of negativity when it comes to Apple, and tech blog comment sections are apparently ready to jump all over it as the gospel truth because it trashes the company. And you call ME and ultra fanboy? How hypocritical is that?  Has Bloomberg and Gurman  ever written a single word in support of Apple? Nope, nothing but criticism and negative spin. So calling me an ultra fanboy because I don’t say negative things about Apple is no different than calling me a racist if I don’t support reparations. If I don’t trash Apple enough that means my motives are suspect?
    edited May 2019
  • Reply 44 of 89
    Joe4740Joe4740 Posts: 1member
    I find this article fascinating, simply to hear that others are seeing the changes I have seen for years. I started working for Apple in 2013, and left in 2016. I started in AppleCare doing basic technical support, and ultimately was a trainer in the AppleCare department. When I started at Apple, the atmosphere was incredible. Everyone I worked with was very technically advanced in all operating systems/services. We helped everyone, no matter what the issue was. We offered exceptions (CS Codes) multiple times per day to please customers of all backgrounds. Our managers were as helpful as could be, and would help out anytime one of us didn't have a solution for a customer's problem. It would not be out of the ordinary to spend a couple of hours with a difficult customer, simply to solve their issue the right way. I remember the day Ahrendts started at Apple. She sent a massive memo to all employees essentially lining out her plan to dismantle the Apple Retail Stores, and turn them into Burberry-esque "Apple" stores. I can't remember a single person, internally, that was happy with her being at Apple. Her ideas transcended into the other arms of Apple. Our SOPs (standard operating procedures) quickly changed from customer satisfaction, to red-tape laden BS, that was more fine tuned to "sounding good/looking good" to the customer, rather than helping them. Our managers became used car salesmen overnight, and turned our teams into Apple cheerleaders, rather than technical support agents. The new hires I saw on the training side were abysmal. Our training material was 90% cosmetic, and 10% technical. Case and point, in the old days, when a customer would call Apple, an agent would listen to their problem, and immediately begin working on a solution. The new system was, "listen to the problem, then acknowledge the problem, relate to the problem with your own understanding, assure the customer you can fix the problem, then probe to see if you can sell other services/goods that relate to the customer" and after all of that, then try to fix the customer's issue. I can't tell you how many fed up customers I dealt with, having to listen to "robotic-speech" from the non-technical drones Apple was hiring. I finally left Apple after joining yet another team with an imbecile for a manager. Apple's internal hiring process was 100% based on your looks, and your level of fake, over-hype ability. If you had tattoos, gauges in your ears, and could scream for half an hour about how the new Apple Watch was the greatest product on planet earth, then you could be a manager at Apple. If you were technically educated, and dealt with people in a rational manner, you were barley good enough to clean the bathrooms at my campus. 

    Ahrendts is not the only one to blame for this evolution. Myself, and many others I worked with had a silent disdain for Tim Cook. As intelligent as he is at running Apple's finances, he lacks the creativity, and charisma needed to be the face, and leader of the company. I dare someone to think of an exciting new product, or service that has come about under the Cook administration. Apple's idea of "new and exciting" is slapping a larger, or smaller screen size on a version of iOS. When Apple got into the watch industry, and bowed down to every celebrity that would slap an Apple Watch on their wrist, I knew the days of the old Apple were long gone. Under Cook, Apple has slowly gone down the same path Samsung, and Microsoft have. Gone are the exciting days of product launches, shrouded in secrecy. Gone are the days of going to your Apple Store to pick up a shiny new product on launch day. Gone are the days of calling AppleCare and getting a real human on the line who doesn't speak like an Ahrendts/Cook robot. Gone are the days of educated, passionate people being the face of Apple. Now, it's all about how many tattoos you have, and if you own a pair of sneakers and skinny jeans. In my opinion, the Apple Store decline is only the beginning. There is a storm brewing around Apple that will ultimately end in their demise, as long as Cook is at the helm. 

    Just one former employees opinion. 
    1stcanukstormelijahgentropysLatkocolinng
  • Reply 45 of 89
    GeorgeBMacGeorgeBMac Posts: 11,421member
    lkrupp said:
    asdasd said:
    lkrupp said:
    Oh here we go again. Apple is the ONLY, repeat, ONLY tech company where a customer can walk into their store and get service on their devices, get questions answered, make purchases and this thread has already been hijacked by the perpetually bitching crowd that hammers away at anything Apple. Fire Cook, fire Ahrendts, fire Federighi, fire Schiller, fire ‘em all!
     
    1. When very crowded, my local store had a stale air smell in it (better ventilation system?). 

    2. -- Poorly trained staff:  "Ask five people -- get five different answers
    -- An emphasis on sales over service
    -- Being pushed to make online appointments for service -- which the Apple store essentially ignored (You got treated the same whether you had an appointment or just walked in)

    3. Spent 25 minutes with a friend trying to buy
    iPhone a month or so ago. Waiting for someone to serve us. 

    4. Apple stores used to be a fun destination/experience - I hope it returns to that with the new VP!

    5.  My belief is that Steve would have never allowed AA within a 100 yards of an Apple employment line.

    6. I agree with the majority here, and have been carping on this for years here.

    What a load of unadulterated bullshit. What must it be like to go through life bitching about everything, never satisfied, always disappointed, always negative and throwing shade on everything and everybody. 
    What must it be like spending your entire online presence being so defensive about a multi billion dollar company you get angry about genuine problems people have? 

    All of those reports are from people who visited the stores, ie Apple customers. They have problems. They are explaining their problems. 

    The customer base of Apple ultra fandom for Apple is probably just you and a few others. They sell to hundreds of millions, some will have problems. If Apple depended on its ultra fan base who thinknit can do no wrong it would collapse. 
    And those people are anecdotal examples, not proving a thing about the quality of Apple stores in general. Everybody has to have something bitch about. But I can sleep at night knowing that the opinions and comments expressed in tech blogs are meaningless, irrelevant, and skewed to the negative. The entire internet is vocally negative because someone with an axe to grind will shout it to the rooftops while those who are happy with their experiences keep quiet. So the blathering negativity of tech blogs don't affect reality one single iota. It’s all pissing into the wind. Ever since Mr. Jobs passed away we have seen this absolute bullshit escalate. The people who want Cook fired today are the same one who hated Jobs to the core when he was alive. Now, all of a sudden, he’s some kind of godhead.

    So here comes a screed from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the very definition of negativity when it comes to Apple, and tech blog comment sections are apparently ready to jump all over it as the gospel truth because it trashes the company. And you call ME and ultra fanboy? How hypocritical is that?  Has Bloomberg and Gurman  ever written a single word in support of Apple? Nope, nothing but criticism and negative spin. So calling me an ultra fanboy because I don’t say negative things about Apple is no different than calling me a racist if I don’t support reparations. If I don’t trash Apple enough that means my motives are suspect?
    I doubt that anybody would have commented if you had merely not said "negative things about Apple".   They were responding to your comments trashing those who did.

    Honestly, I haven't heard anybody here trashing Apple.  But they are registering legitimate criticisms when Apple did not live up to their expectations and think that they could do better.  Which, ultimately will hopefully help Apple because a 'positive feedback loop' without criticism is, frankly, doomed.
    elijahgmazda 3s
  • Reply 46 of 89
    1st1st Posts: 443member
    store currently got the feeling of busy bees most act like traffic police.  Miss the store lectures (schedule easily filled up), leather seat dark room on the second floor of san fran, - worth empty stomach to skip lunch to attend.  not mention the line up for store opening t-shirts (collect items, like my Intel clean room doll).  Talk to staff was delight to know what would be the best upgrade path and utilize limited budget (such as Mac mini plus projector might be more of value for travel package than MBP).  currently, the staff might be over loaded (although they are more heads move around), the attention is thin.  definitely got different feel.  although got closely watched, but less info recieved within the same time spent.  (stop going there for now... may be until my Mac get into trouble).  
  • Reply 47 of 89
    robbyxrobbyx Posts: 479member
    I've never really cared for the Apple Store.  It was (and probably still is) great if you're a less experienced user who needs some hand-holding, but not so great if you're experienced and just want to get your problem solved.  Getting rid of the Genius Bar was an idiotic move.  Same with the stupid "no cash register" thing.  Not every employee can check you out, so you find yourself wandering around until you find an available person who can (which can take a long time).  If you're just looking to buy something and know what you want, the Apple Store is the worst place to go.

    Without the Genius Bar, you know longer know where to go for service either.  Service and sales people wear the same shirts, so you have no idea who is who.  If the check-in person isn't on their game, the whole experience degenerates rapidly.  I recently visited an Apple Store with my dad because his iPhone had died.  Despite the store not being very busy, we waited for over an hour after our appointment time.  The place was buzzing with staff, but they always seemed to buzz right by the people growing old at the tables waiting for help.  The whole Apple Store experience feels utterly confusing and miserable now.
    edited May 2019 elijahg1st
  • Reply 48 of 89
    Speaking as an ex-genius I can say that under Angela I always got the feeling that she resented having support staff dirtying her gorgeous retail environment.  Training time disappeared.  The highly trained Geniuses got annoyed at spending hours being little more than check-in receptionists.  The new design of the store created an environment so loud, that you and your support customer had to literally shout at each other to be heard over the din.

    The Genius position, once so valued and given responsibility, became little more than an iPad to customer interface.
    GeorgeBMaccolinng
  • Reply 49 of 89
    elijahgelijahg Posts: 2,753member
    lkrupp said:
    Oh here we go again. Apple is the ONLY, repeat, ONLY tech company where a customer can walk into their store and get service on their devices, get questions answered, make purchases and this thread has already been hijacked by the perpetually bitching crowd that hammers away at anything Apple. Fire Cook, fire Ahrendts, fire Federighi, fire Schiller, fire ‘em all!
     
    1. When very crowded, my local store had a stale air smell in it (better ventilation system?). 

    2. -- Poorly trained staff:  "Ask five people -- get five different answers
    -- An emphasis on sales over service
    -- Being pushed to make online appointments for service -- which the Apple store essentially ignored (You got treated the same whether you had an appointment or just walked in)

    3. Spent 25 minutes with a friend trying to buy
    iPhone a month or so ago. Waiting for someone to serve us. 

    4. Apple stores used to be a fun destination/experience - I hope it returns to that with the new VP!

    5.  My belief is that Steve would have never allowed AA within a 100 yards of an Apple employment line.

    6. I agree with the majority here, and have been carping on this for years here.

    What a load of unadulterated bullshit. What must it be like to go through life bitching about everything, never satisfied, always disappointed, always negative and throwing shade on everything and everybody. 
    I think you need a bit of a timeout mate. You're utterly obsessed and can't handle the slightest criticism nay suggestion of Apple, that's not healthy for you or Apple. Get over it, Apple isn't perfect.
    mazda 3s
  • Reply 50 of 89
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    There seems to be a rush to blame AA for all the iOS at the Apple retail stores.   Sadly I can’t blame her 100%, it got worse no doubt but I never like shopping at my local store.   The store was always too crowded and of late was so focused on iPhone you had to wonder if Apple made computers anymore.   After a massive screw up with a laptop repair I ended up buying an HP and installing Linux. That may sound extreme but long ago it became obvious that Apple doesn’t care about Mac customers.  Was AA part of this change - probably but as noted the decline started before her arrival.  

    Ive never been a big fan of buying online so the future doesn’t look that bright (for a Mac purchase) for Apple’s local store.  What is sad is that they also screwed up an iPhone purchase made last fall.  That was due to the person handling the transaction being a complete idiot.  You know the type, a person you would simply walk away from in a social setting due to their inability to grasp anything.   Took the new phone to the local AT&T shop and the young gal squared it away in no time at all.  Miss AT&T obviously had some training and an interest in her job.  

    In a nut shell service at Apple stores is generally a horror story.   
  • Reply 51 of 89
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    sflocal said:
    Every company has disgruntled employees. But not every company is Apple where employees can snitch to Mark Gurman and get a write up in Bloomberg. The biggest complaint about Apple stores seems to be that they’re too crowded. But if Jason Snell is right the new person heading retail is tasked with pushing sales. That might have been one reason Angela left.
    I think Angela left due to ego.  She was vested, and being an ex-CEO, she probably wanted to be back in the top chair again.  Can't blame her.

    I'm still in a holding pattern with how she handled the retail remodeling.  In my personal experience here in San Francisco, it's not better or worse.  Just different.

    I am going in tomorrow to have my iPhoneX repaired/replaced.  It's been a while since I ever needed any kind of Apple service so I'm curious to see how it is.
    I find it curious that she left shorty after the decision was made last fall to push iPhone sales in store. Maybe the timing was just a coincidence but I do wonder. I doubt she created Today at Apple as a vehicle to push iPhone sales. Recently I was at an Apple store to have a cracked iPhone display replaced. I just did a walk-in. It took maybe 15 minutes to get checked in and been seen by a store employee. They told me to come back in an hour to pick up my phone. It was a very slick process especially considering I was just a walk-in. Seems to me the complaints are mostly around stores being too busy. I’m not sure how much can be done about that outside of building more stores.
    It is good to hear that somebody has had a good experience with Apple service.   Sadly my experience has been very bad.   I do not trust anybody at the local store anymore.   I will not buy my next iPhone at the Apple store and I dropped off the Mac platform due to store screw ups.   Every single time I’ve trued to interact with the local store I’ve been left disappointed to royally pissed off.  Basically they are batting zero.   
  • Reply 52 of 89
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    lkrupp said:
    Oh here we go again. Apple is the ONLY, repeat, ONLY tech company where a customer can walk into their store and get service on their devices, get questions answered, make purchases and this thread has already been hijacked by the perpetually bitching crowd that hammers away at anything Apple. Fire Cook, fire Ahrendts, fire Federighi, fire Schiller, fire ‘em all!
     
    1. When very crowded, my local store had a stale air smell in it (better ventilation system?). 

    2. -- Poorly trained staff:  "Ask five people -- get five different answers
    -- An emphasis on sales over service
    -- Being pushed to make online appointments for service -- which the Apple store essentially ignored (You got treated the same whether you had an appointment or just walked in)

    3. Spent 25 minutes with a friend trying to buy
    iPhone a month or so ago. Waiting for someone to serve us. 

    4. Apple stores used to be a fun destination/experience - I hope it returns to that with the new VP!

    5.  My belief is that Steve would have never allowed AA within a 100 yards of an Apple employment line.

    6. I agree with the majority here, and have been carping on this for years here.

    What a load of unadulterated bullshit. What must it be like to go through life bitching about everything, never satisfied, always disappointed, always negative and throwing shade on everything and everybody. 
    Actually some of this I’ve experienced myself.   It isn’t bitching to complain about poor service, idiots working for the company or frankly long wait times.  I can’t even remember any good experiences at the local Apple store.   That isn’t bitching it just reflects reality.  
    elijahgGeorgeBMacmazda 3s
  • Reply 53 of 89
    canukstormcanukstorm Posts: 2,693member
    Joe4740 said:
    I find this article fascinating, simply to hear that others are seeing the changes I have seen for years. I started working for Apple in 2013, and left in 2016. I started in AppleCare doing basic technical support, and ultimately was a trainer in the AppleCare department. When I started at Apple, the atmosphere was incredible. Everyone I worked with was very technically advanced in all operating systems/services. We helped everyone, no matter what the issue was. We offered exceptions (CS Codes) multiple times per day to please customers of all backgrounds. Our managers were as helpful as could be, and would help out anytime one of us didn't have a solution for a customer's problem. It would not be out of the ordinary to spend a couple of hours with a difficult customer, simply to solve their issue the right way. I remember the day Ahrendts started at Apple. She sent a massive memo to all employees essentially lining out her plan to dismantle the Apple Retail Stores, and turn them into Burberry-esque "Apple" stores. I can't remember a single person, internally, that was happy with her being at Apple. Her ideas transcended into the other arms of Apple. Our SOPs (standard operating procedures) quickly changed from customer satisfaction, to red-tape laden BS, that was more fine tuned to "sounding good/looking good" to the customer, rather than helping them. Our managers became used car salesmen overnight, and turned our teams into Apple cheerleaders, rather than technical support agents. The new hires I saw on the training side were abysmal. Our training material was 90% cosmetic, and 10% technical. Case and point, in the old days, when a customer would call Apple, an agent would listen to their problem, and immediately begin working on a solution. The new system was, "listen to the problem, then acknowledge the problem, relate to the problem with your own understanding, assure the customer you can fix the problem, then probe to see if you can sell other services/goods that relate to the customer" and after all of that, then try to fix the customer's issue. I can't tell you how many fed up customers I dealt with, having to listen to "robotic-speech" from the non-technical drones Apple was hiring. I finally left Apple after joining yet another team with an imbecile for a manager. Apple's internal hiring process was 100% based on your looks, and your level of fake, over-hype ability. If you had tattoos, gauges in your ears, and could scream for half an hour about how the new Apple Watch was the greatest product on planet earth, then you could be a manager at Apple. If you were technically educated, and dealt with people in a rational manner, you were barley good enough to clean the bathrooms at my campus. 

    Ahrendts is not the only one to blame for this evolution. Myself, and many others I worked with had a silent disdain for Tim Cook. As intelligent as he is at running Apple's finances, he lacks the creativity, and charisma needed to be the face, and leader of the company. I dare someone to think of an exciting new product, or service that has come about under the Cook administration. Apple's idea of "new and exciting" is slapping a larger, or smaller screen size on a version of iOS. When Apple got into the watch industry, and bowed down to every celebrity that would slap an Apple Watch on their wrist, I knew the days of the old Apple were long gone. Under Cook, Apple has slowly gone down the same path Samsung, and Microsoft have. Gone are the exciting days of product launches, shrouded in secrecy. Gone are the days of going to your Apple Store to pick up a shiny new product on launch day. Gone are the days of calling AppleCare and getting a real human on the line who doesn't speak like an Ahrendts/Cook robot. Gone are the days of educated, passionate people being the face of Apple. Now, it's all about how many tattoos you have, and if you own a pair of sneakers and skinny jeans. In my opinion, the Apple Store decline is only the beginning. There is a storm brewing around Apple that will ultimately end in their demise, as long as Cook is at the helm. 

    Just one former employees opinion. 
    I agree with your sentiment regarding Tim Cook
  • Reply 54 of 89
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    robbyx said:
    I've never really cared for the Apple Store.  It was (and probably still is) great if you're a less experienced user who needs some hand-holding, but not so great if you're experienced and just want to get your problem solved.  Getting rid of the Genius Bar was an idiotic move.  Same with the stupid "no cash register" thing.  Not every employee can check you out, so you find yourself wandering around until you find an available person who can (which can take a long time).  If you're just looking to buy something and know what you want, the Apple Store is the worst place to go.

    Without the Genius Bar, you know longer know where to go for service either.  Service and sales people wear the same shirts, so you have no idea who is who.  If the check-in person isn't on their game, the whole experience degenerates rapidly.  I recently visited an Apple Store with my dad because his iPhone had died.  Despite the store not being very busy, we waited for over an hour after our appointment time.  The place was buzzing with staff, but they always seemed to buzz right by the people growing old at the tables waiting for help.  The whole Apple Store experience feels utterly confusing and miserable now.
    I completely forgot about the stupidity of the no cash register move.    It turns a simple  purchase into a huge hassle.  
    mazda 3s
  • Reply 55 of 89
    macguimacgui Posts: 2,350member
    I'm in an Apple triangle of three Apple store nearby, including the Palo Alto store. One of the stores is very convenient, so I go there more often than not.

    It's been relocated within a mall, and is much larger than the little nook it previously occupied.


    I don't know what changes are to be attributed to AA. My experiences have always been good, but I've noticed a few things that may or may not be a result of her reign.''

    1) No Genius Bar proper. I see her desire to eliminate queues. They're unattractive and lend a Southwest Airlines cattle car atmosphere. My personal preference is to sit down at a proper bar/table and not sit on an ottoman talking to a Genius who had to track me down by the logo on my hat.

    2) All the Stores are always crowded. Always. Getting help has been a frequent issue. A significant number of times everybody seems to be helping somebody else, and you have to wait. Most of the time, things can move quickly enough. But the waits aren't few and far between, which can be annoying.

    The flip side is that I can drop in and wander playing with all the different Apple Iron to my hearts content with only the occasional 'Can I answer any questions' interruptions. Zero pressure to buy.

    3) The staff while always friendly polite, is too frequently not knowledgeable enough. While I try to read up on a product or products before going to the store, it's not my intention to show I know more than they do. But sometimes that's the case. I ask a question about something I don't know and get an answer that I knew was incorrect. 

    None of this was the case years ago. I have no idea who's responsible for this, and like to see my nits corrected. On balance, this is still a quite small percentage of my anecdotal but actual experiences.

    I enjoy going to the store to browse and that hasn't changed from my first time when the Palo Alto store opened. I just wish they weren't so crowded. If they weren't, my other nits might even fix themselves.
  • Reply 56 of 89
    fastasleepfastasleep Posts: 6,408member
    wizard69 said:
    robbyx said:
    I've never really cared for the Apple Store.  It was (and probably still is) great if you're a less experienced user who needs some hand-holding, but not so great if you're experienced and just want to get your problem solved.  Getting rid of the Genius Bar was an idiotic move.  Same with the stupid "no cash register" thing.  Not every employee can check you out, so you find yourself wandering around until you find an available person who can (which can take a long time).  If you're just looking to buy something and know what you want, the Apple Store is the worst place to go.

    Without the Genius Bar, you know longer know where to go for service either.  Service and sales people wear the same shirts, so you have no idea who is who.  If the check-in person isn't on their game, the whole experience degenerates rapidly.  I recently visited an Apple Store with my dad because his iPhone had died.  Despite the store not being very busy, we waited for over an hour after our appointment time.  The place was buzzing with staff, but they always seemed to buzz right by the people growing old at the tables waiting for help.  The whole Apple Store experience feels utterly confusing and miserable now.
    I completely forgot about the stupidity of the no cash register move.    It turns a simple  purchase into a huge hassle.  
    You can literally pay with your phone and walk out the door.
  • Reply 57 of 89
    robbyxrobbyx Posts: 479member
    wizard69 said:
    robbyx said:
    I've never really cared for the Apple Store.  It was (and probably still is) great if you're a less experienced user who needs some hand-holding, but not so great if you're experienced and just want to get your problem solved.  Getting rid of the Genius Bar was an idiotic move.  Same with the stupid "no cash register" thing.  Not every employee can check you out, so you find yourself wandering around until you find an available person who can (which can take a long time).  If you're just looking to buy something and know what you want, the Apple Store is the worst place to go.

    Without the Genius Bar, you know longer know where to go for service either.  Service and sales people wear the same shirts, so you have no idea who is who.  If the check-in person isn't on their game, the whole experience degenerates rapidly.  I recently visited an Apple Store with my dad because his iPhone had died.  Despite the store not being very busy, we waited for over an hour after our appointment time.  The place was buzzing with staff, but they always seemed to buzz right by the people growing old at the tables waiting for help.  The whole Apple Store experience feels utterly confusing and miserable now.
    I completely forgot about the stupidity of the no cash register move.    It turns a simple  purchase into a huge hassle.  
    You can literally pay with your phone and walk out the door.
    That’s not the issue. The problem is a lack of dedicated check out staff. Not everyone can check you out. You have no idea who can and who can’t. And if the store is busy and the staff are running around trying to keep up, good luck flagging someone down in order to pay for something. It’s idiotic. I’ve left the Apple Store and gone elsewhere because it was so chaotic and I couldn’t find anyone to pay. I’ve also been dragged around by an employee who couldn’t take payments while he tried to find someone who could. There’s no defending this stupid system in my mind. It might work in high end fashion retail but it doesn’t work for consumer electronics. 
  • Reply 58 of 89
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member
    wizard69 said:
    sflocal said:
    Every company has disgruntled employees. But not every company is Apple where employees can snitch to Mark Gurman and get a write up in Bloomberg. The biggest complaint about Apple stores seems to be that they’re too crowded. But if Jason Snell is right the new person heading retail is tasked with pushing sales. That might have been one reason Angela left.
    I think Angela left due to ego.  She was vested, and being an ex-CEO, she probably wanted to be back in the top chair again.  Can't blame her.

    I'm still in a holding pattern with how she handled the retail remodeling.  In my personal experience here in San Francisco, it's not better or worse.  Just different.

    I am going in tomorrow to have my iPhoneX repaired/replaced.  It's been a while since I ever needed any kind of Apple service so I'm curious to see how it is.
    I find it curious that she left shorty after the decision was made last fall to push iPhone sales in store. Maybe the timing was just a coincidence but I do wonder. I doubt she created Today at Apple as a vehicle to push iPhone sales. Recently I was at an Apple store to have a cracked iPhone display replaced. I just did a walk-in. It took maybe 15 minutes to get checked in and been seen by a store employee. They told me to come back in an hour to pick up my phone. It was a very slick process especially considering I was just a walk-in. Seems to me the complaints are mostly around stores being too busy. I’m not sure how much can be done about that outside of building more stores.
    It is good to hear that somebody has had a good experience with Apple service.   Sadly my experience has been very bad.   I do not trust anybody at the local store anymore.   I will not buy my next iPhone at the Apple store and I dropped off the Mac platform due to store screw ups.   Every single time I’ve trued to interact with the local store I’ve been left disappointed to royally pissed off.  Basically they are batting zero.   
    That’s too bad. I’ve only had one bad experience at an Apple store - and that was an employee not ensuring my Apple Watch was properly backed up and unpaired before I set up a new iPhone in store. I lost all of my activity data. Other than that one time I’ve never had a bad experience. 
  • Reply 59 of 89
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member
    wizard69 said:
    robbyx said:
    I've never really cared for the Apple Store.  It was (and probably still is) great if you're a less experienced user who needs some hand-holding, but not so great if you're experienced and just want to get your problem solved.  Getting rid of the Genius Bar was an idiotic move.  Same with the stupid "no cash register" thing.  Not every employee can check you out, so you find yourself wandering around until you find an available person who can (which can take a long time).  If you're just looking to buy something and know what you want, the Apple Store is the worst place to go.

    Without the Genius Bar, you know longer know where to go for service either.  Service and sales people wear the same shirts, so you have no idea who is who.  If the check-in person isn't on their game, the whole experience degenerates rapidly.  I recently visited an Apple Store with my dad because his iPhone had died.  Despite the store not being very busy, we waited for over an hour after our appointment time.  The place was buzzing with staff, but they always seemed to buzz right by the people growing old at the tables waiting for help.  The whole Apple Store experience feels utterly confusing and miserable now.
    I completely forgot about the stupidity of the no cash register move.    It turns a simple  purchase into a huge hassle.  
    Did Apple stores ever have cash registers?
  • Reply 60 of 89
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member
    Joe4740 said:
    I find this article fascinating, simply to hear that others are seeing the changes I have seen for years. I started working for Apple in 2013, and left in 2016. I started in AppleCare doing basic technical support, and ultimately was a trainer in the AppleCare department. When I started at Apple, the atmosphere was incredible. Everyone I worked with was very technically advanced in all operating systems/services. We helped everyone, no matter what the issue was. We offered exceptions (CS Codes) multiple times per day to please customers of all backgrounds. Our managers were as helpful as could be, and would help out anytime one of us didn't have a solution for a customer's problem. It would not be out of the ordinary to spend a couple of hours with a difficult customer, simply to solve their issue the right way. I remember the day Ahrendts started at Apple. She sent a massive memo to all employees essentially lining out her plan to dismantle the Apple Retail Stores, and turn them into Burberry-esque "Apple" stores. I can't remember a single person, internally, that was happy with her being at Apple. Her ideas transcended into the other arms of Apple. Our SOPs (standard operating procedures) quickly changed from customer satisfaction, to red-tape laden BS, that was more fine tuned to "sounding good/looking good" to the customer, rather than helping them. Our managers became used car salesmen overnight, and turned our teams into Apple cheerleaders, rather than technical support agents. The new hires I saw on the training side were abysmal. Our training material was 90% cosmetic, and 10% technical. Case and point, in the old days, when a customer would call Apple, an agent would listen to their problem, and immediately begin working on a solution. The new system was, "listen to the problem, then acknowledge the problem, relate to the problem with your own understanding, assure the customer you can fix the problem, then probe to see if you can sell other services/goods that relate to the customer" and after all of that, then try to fix the customer's issue. I can't tell you how many fed up customers I dealt with, having to listen to "robotic-speech" from the non-technical drones Apple was hiring. I finally left Apple after joining yet another team with an imbecile for a manager. Apple's internal hiring process was 100% based on your looks, and your level of fake, over-hype ability. If you had tattoos, gauges in your ears, and could scream for half an hour about how the new Apple Watch was the greatest product on planet earth, then you could be a manager at Apple. If you were technically educated, and dealt with people in a rational manner, you were barley good enough to clean the bathrooms at my campus. 

    Ahrendts is not the only one to blame for this evolution. Myself, and many others I worked with had a silent disdain for Tim Cook. As intelligent as he is at running Apple's finances, he lacks the creativity, and charisma needed to be the face, and leader of the company. I dare someone to think of an exciting new product, or service that has come about under the Cook administration. Apple's idea of "new and exciting" is slapping a larger, or smaller screen size on a version of iOS. When Apple got into the watch industry, and bowed down to every celebrity that would slap an Apple Watch on their wrist, I knew the days of the old Apple were long gone. Under Cook, Apple has slowly gone down the same path Samsung, and Microsoft have. Gone are the exciting days of product launches, shrouded in secrecy. Gone are the days of going to your Apple Store to pick up a shiny new product on launch day. Gone are the days of calling AppleCare and getting a real human on the line who doesn't speak like an Ahrendts/Cook robot. Gone are the days of educated, passionate people being the face of Apple. Now, it's all about how many tattoos you have, and if you own a pair of sneakers and skinny jeans. In my opinion, the Apple Store decline is only the beginning. There is a storm brewing around Apple that will ultimately end in their demise, as long as Cook is at the helm. 

    Just one former employees opinion. 
    I don’t think Angela was responsible for AppleCare support was she?
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