Mac Dealers vs Apple
So what do you all make of this?
Apple dealers biting back Mac sellers say computer maker cuts them out in favor of its outlets -- and they're fighting mad
On the face of it seems Apple is not playing fair. I read some comments that some of these dealers are among the worst in terms of sales and service. That they are the reason Apple "had to" go into retail?
Any opinions?
Apple dealers biting back Mac sellers say computer maker cuts them out in favor of its outlets -- and they're fighting mad
On the face of it seems Apple is not playing fair. I read some comments that some of these dealers are among the worst in terms of sales and service. That they are the reason Apple "had to" go into retail?
Any opinions?
Comments
...apple is kinda an a$$ to their resellers, but they almost have to when they dont want public to know of a system coming and all that stuff
There are also alot of mac dealers that probably shouldn't exist in the first place and were setup by people who were just mac geeks who wanted to sell macs and really had no idea what they were getting into.
However, Apple does play dirty pool and dished out alot of crap that we shouldn't have to put up with. One thing Apple is doing that is really unethical is trying to steal away corporate customers from Apple Specialists, those few corporate customers are the little lifeblood that Apple specialists can still depend on.
In addition to bad mouthing us to our most important customers they also offer deep deep discounts to them on their first order that are usually far below dealer cost. Call us assholes then offer them $1000+ discounts.
Thanks Apple!
Another problem is margins, a common and totally justified complaint about Apple is how high their margins are, well while Apple is porking on their massive margins, dealers have to try to keep our heads above water on margins so thin that you are losing money selling at MSRP.
Now, Apple says that your supposed to make up for the thin margins with service revenue. Two problems there.
1. AppleCare pays us so little for repairs that it is barely worth doing AppleCare service.
2. Apple service parts are so expensive that most people don't repair broken macs.
Not to mention Apple continues to reduce the number of machines dealers are allowed to service.
Another nice Apple policy we have to live with is sales quotas, you have to sell certain amounts worth of macs at each tier level, there are two problems with this.
1. When Apple has a hot product it is difficult enough to get enough systems to meet demand, the original G4, iMac and the 9600 are prime examples. When those things were staggering out of the factory we had almost a million dollars worth of their shit on backorder at one point, and they were giving us crap because we were not selling enough.
Hey Apple, we can't sell what you don't ship us!
2. This also causes problems when no one wants their junk, iMac and Power Mac sales were horrible most of last year, it's not OUR fault no one wants them. We can't make faster G4's or cheaper iMacs. Again, Apple is complaining that we aren't selling enough.
Fortunetly for us, we are not exclusivly Apple, if we were we probably would have gone out of business this past year. We are also a Compaq (HP) dealer and we do alot of corporate AV business.
Although it doesn't impact me to a great extent (outside annoying leadtime for new products) the AppleStores are seriously hurting Apple dealers in major cities. And although Steve Jobs likes to tripe on about how Apple specialists are valuble partners, The Applestores are brutalizing many retail Apple dealers. I was talking to a friend of mine who runs a dealer in the North East, and the local applestore has tons of new hardware on the sales floor that you can walk out the door with, whereas he is still seriously backordered, customers cancel orders with him, and just goto the AppleStore and walk out the door the same day with their new system.
I wouldn't join a lawsuit like this, because I don't want to be dropped by Apple, but I wish them luck, Apple needs a serious sledge hammer to the groin these days.
It's more a case of retailers not admitting one thing, Apple's not shipping as many Macs as it used to. It's really not the fault of the Apple retail stores. It's just declining marketshare. They're in denial, and it's stupid of them to claim Apple is playing favorites.
The lawsuit brings up RICO, which was originally used to prosecute mafias and crime-lords...
If the independent retailers shape up and make their retail experience more comfortable and better than Apple's then they'll be fine. If they just whine about Apple, they're not going to get anywhere.
Of course the Apple Stores get dibs on new products. That should be expected. Pretty much all the other claims are frivolous.
What did you think of those quotes about being charged for not returning parts, that Airborne had Apple employee signatures for receiving? Ring any bells?
Can you tell us WHY you are still in the AASP/Apple Specialists, busting your ass and raising your blood pressure for the pleasure of losing money?
The folks I used to work for got out in 1997 and the people dumb enough to buy them out lasted till 2000. I still thank my lucky stars I don't have to deal with being an AASP anymore.
[ 02-03-2003: Message edited by: FormerLurker ]</p>
because we have contractual commitments to several large customers till 2006. Otherwise we probably would have quit back in 2001. Although the degree of hostility between us and Apple is getting pretty serious, so I wouldn't be all that suprised about Apple dropping us.
as for service, yeah those stories sound familier.
however I don't anticipate apple fixing the problems anytime soon... if ever.
Ofcourse, they don't see it as a problem.
It's really sad that it came to this since independent Mac retailers were the ones keeping Apple alive in the mid 90s. They were the ones making sales pitches about why it was better to stay with Apple rather than ditch the Mac for a cheap Windows box. They were the ones selling machines despite a major lack of software and an unbelievably foggy future (especially in terms of the OS).
It's not fair that Apple Stores get hundreds of new machines before Independent Mac dealers get any. In regards to selling new machines, do we really want to see Apple become like Dell?
I always bought my Macs from a chain of stores that operated here in NH called ComputerTown.
ComputerTown went out of business a few years ago because they couldn't deliver the computers that people bought from them. Apple literally didn't ship them enough computers to sell so they went under. They made a comeback for a little while and had one store going in Salem, but Apple put a retail store there and that was the end of them.
There's another independent Mac dealer right down the road from where ComputerTown used to be and that's called the MacEdge. I honestly don't know how they are staying in business either. I was in there a few weeks ago and while they have a good setup, they had no customers.
The iMacs, iBooks, and Power Macs were overdue for an update, and the new PowerBooks weren't due to be delivered for months. It looked like they were selling iPods well but how can that keep you afloat?
I seriously hope Independent Mac dealers don't go away because of all of the good experiences I have had in dealing with them. Dealing with Apple directly, on the other hand, has been a nightmare for the most part- an ugly side of Apple I wished I had never seen. Maybe Apple will see this as a wake up call instead of an attack and independent dealers will start getting the same 'treatment' as Apple's own retail stores and some computers to put on their shelves.
However, given what I have seen of Apples attempts at direct corporate sales I think it would hurt Apple alot more than it will have hurt the resellers.
Businesses expect individual attention from vendors who know their environment and workflow inside-out. A telemarketer in Cupertino or wherever Apple has those clowns can't offer that.
Neither can the clowns in the Applestore, they can tell you all about the cool stuff you can do with iMovie. I don't expect they can tell you how to setup a web portal for a Filemaker Pro database or use inexpensive Linux based PC's as fileservers.
Originally posted by Stagflation Steve
Although it doesn't impact me to a great extent (outside annoying leadtime for new products) the AppleStores are seriously hurting Apple dealers in major cities. And although Steve Jobs likes to tripe on about how Apple specialists are valuble partners, The Applestores are brutalizing many retail Apple dealers. I was talking to a friend of mine who runs a dealer in the North East, and the local applestore has tons of new hardware on the sales floor that you can walk out the door with, whereas he is still seriously backordered, customers cancel orders with him, and just goto the AppleStore and walk out the door the same day with their new system.
I wouldn't join a lawsuit like this, because I don't want to be dropped by Apple, but I wish them luck, Apple needs a serious sledge hammer to the groin these days.
I for one am glad the Apple Store is hurting Apple retailers in the Bay Area(not the whole country). Here, the CompUSA(the largest, afaik, Mac retailer in the BA) sucks. The Mac corner is tiny, and its a corner. It used to be in the center of the store, but now its in the back with broken computers. Last time I was there, the only iBook out was missing 5 keys.
Also, most major Apple retailers I've bought anything Mac from(or tried to) have employees that are assholes. They ripped me off $500!
Back to the point, the Apple Store shows people what a Mac is really like, such as the dual-display setups and the Powerbook hooked up to a digital camera.