NYC362

Madbum said:

Joe Biden needs to go. I am sorry but I am not usually political but this guy is ridiculous 

As already said, but it will be need to be said about 100 trillion times, this insanity started during the Trump years. 

I'm relatively new to retail, working at Apple for just over two years.  No, it is not the easiest of jobs, but it could be so much worse.   

Maybe I'm really lucky.  My management at my store has been great to me and encouraging of others.  Sure, there are some people who whine about everything, but I'm convinced they'd do that anywhere.  Customers here in NYC come from all over the globe.  The overwhelming majority are nice, polite, and appreciative of our efforts.

During the pandemic, the company not only didn't lay anyone off, but they kept on seasonals who were supposed to leave at the end of March 2020.  We were paid throughout the shut down and many of us- including myself- had the chance to work at home doing phone support for sales, orders, and trouble shooting.

We've been provided with masks (designed by the company and so popular, customers constantly ask if we sell them), with COVID tests- first it was PCR tests FedEx'ed to our homes.  I had results in generally 48-60 hours. Now, it is rapid tests that we do on the first day of our work week and we've been told to add 20 minutes to our clocked in time for that test.  We get discounts on merchandise.  We get stock at 15% off the market price at the beginning or end of a purchase period- which ever is lower.  (On January 31, many employees will be buying shares at about $123 a piece.). I get one sick hour for every 30 hours I work- so around 4 per month.  Have good attendance like me, and it piles up pretty quickly. 

There are many chances to move within the company.  Career experiences let you try other positions.  In my short time, I've seen dozens of retail employees move up the at ladder within the store or to business sales or to corporate and development roles.

Is it perfect?  No.  We are on our feet all day.  We are have to deal with survey results that make you want to hunt the customer down and find out what they were thinking.  (Like the review a colleague of mine received- a 2 [out of 5] because he didn't smile.  Obviously, customer idiot didn't realize we can't see smiles through masks.).  We are always conscious of metrics like connected phones, AppleCare+ sales, business intros, etc.    In store zoning could be better.  Standing "On Point"- welcoming customers into a store and finding out what they are there for- for over two hours at times is mind numbing.  I've said several times, that zoning should never be more than 90 minutes, unless someone wants to be there. 

But does anyone think that any other large retail company is any different?   I may be new to retail but my wife worked in high end retail for over 30 years, I knew exactly what to expect, and overall, I haven't had many issues to gripe about at all.

Finally, to the poster who claims the average Apple store employee is making $13 an hour.  I'd like to know where they got that info.   Salary does differ by market.  Here in NYC, I started at $20 an hour two years ago.  A starting Specialist here makes a bit more than that now.   I've been told that a neighboring market in New Jersey, the pay is about a dollar an hour less.  No idea if that is actually so though.  In any event, I really doubt anyone at Apple is making just $13 an hour.

Apple isn't perfect, but if you do your job it is pretty damn good.  

Remember, the grass isn't greener on the other side of the fence.  The problem is, everyone is looking at a green fence. 

I'm an Apple Specialist and it is just incredibly how many people 1) use simple number sequences for their iPhone/iPad passcode. (1111, 0000, 1234, etc). Even worse how many times when I've asked someone to enter their Apple ID password in their phone, they open up the Notes app and there is every password and PIN number for their entire life.

I try to inform them how unsafe that is, but few listen.  I even show them password books (like an address book) that cost about $5.00 on Amazon.  While even that might not be the safest thing if a home is burgled, it is still better than having an iPhone whose passcode is 0000 and then having all your user names and passwords to every website under the sun in Notes is just courting disaster.  (Often these are the same phones that aren't backed up anywhere, so when it gets lost, the information is gone as well.)

I don't remember using ICQ all that much.  But you also mention IRC in the article and that had the capability to be amazing.

I will never forget getting into a chatroom the night of Princess Diana's fatal car accident (August 31, 1997) and there was one poster who was putting up information 15 minutes or so before all the news services at the time on TV and radio.  As the news was not good, people were cursing him.  I got into a private chat and he told me that his brother-in-law worked in the hospital she was brought too.  His server information did show Paris, and when he told me (he didn't want to post it publicly) that she had died, sure enough ten minutes later, the BBC (being simulcast by CBS here in the US) had the official bulletin.

That was the moment I realized just how powerful the Internet was going to be.

So here's the deal... and this doctor is an idiot.. or just trying to scam Apple.   Former Expert here who dealt with stuff like this about ten thousand times. 

You buy an iPad Pro, it costs $999.  You're eligible for the education discount, so now the price is $899.  That is a year round deal.  But since the back to school promo is going on, you also get a $100 gift card.

When you look at your receipt you'll see that you were charged $799 for the iPad, and $100 for the gift card.  The total is $899.  The same as without the gift card, but you do have a $100 gift card to spend.  

Why does Apple do the transaction this way?

Simple, customers would take advantage of the deal, then try to return the iPad.  If they weren't charged for the card, and the value of the card wasn't take off the product, you'd still have that gift card.  Now, you try to return the item, if you come in both product and UNUSED gift card, you get your full $899 back.  What if you used part of the gift card?  What if you didn't have it?  Well, now you get your $799 back and you get to keep the gift card- after all you paid for it.

Going back to the summer 2020, I worked at home doing post order service for Apple, and the back to school deal wasn't a gift card, but AirPods.  I cannot even guess how many people tried to return the product thinking they'd get to keep free AirPods.  No, silly people... you paid for those AirPods, but we'll gladly refund you the reduced price of the product you bought to get them

It's all pretty simple except I guess for doctors who can't do arithmetic.

I'm sure this article will be accused of drinking the Apple Kool-Aid, but it everything said here is true.  Apple has resources like pretty much no other company on the planet and no matter what happens concerned the pandemic, Apple will see it through.

Today, Goldman Sachs issued a rare sell recommendation on Apple stock and sure enough the stock is down a few dollars in a market that is otherwise very positive today.  Either they were looking to just move the price downward to pick up shares a bit cheaper, or they are highly mistaken about Apple's future.

Sure, stores are closed and sales will be down for this and almost certainly the next quarter, but people need Apple services and products.  The intro of the new iPhone SE is actually perfectly timed.  There are a lot of people who need to upgrade their old iPhone 6 and 7.  At $399, the new SE is perfect and doesn't break the bank for many people.  (Monthly payment plans will be around $16 a month.  People spend more on a Netflix subscription.)

Finally, all the charitable stuff that Apple does is truly incredible.  They have the resources, the pull, and the money.  Good to see some of go to good causes.

Several months ago, I had a customer who had bought a new iPad for her young autistic son. The old one was working, but it was old- had battery issues, etc. He used it to communicate with his parents and teachers through a program that had phrases associated with various icons on the screen. I forget the name of the program. For whatever reason, the program did not back to iCloud and getting the set up to the new machine was an issue. Re-creating the various words and phrases would be time consuming enough, but they also had to be in the same location on the screen or it would completely confuse the child. The parent could not figure out how to transfer the set up to the new iPad and was truly worried that her son was going to lose his means of communication. It took a little bit of digging around but I was able to figure out how to save the set up as a file, then AirDrop it to the new iPad and then get the app to use that as its default file. In any event, it was amazing to see how these devices truly can change a life. I think that often gets forgotten around here or other Apple related tech sites as we nitpick about various features or specifications that most of the public doesn't really care about.

Roderikus said:

If you can’t maintain a virtual store while upgrading, you shouldn’t be in the online business.

You have no idea how Apple works.  Having the store "down" is a marketing ploy.  They know very well people and a lot websites just like this one are watching.  So when the store goes back up, everyone is looking for what's new.

In short, "We'll be right back." drives traffic when they do get back.  

I often leave comments on this site using my past experience as an Expert at an Apple Store for about 4½ years.   Here I can use my pre-Apple experience- 32 years as a public high school teacher.

What Eton is doing is a good thing.  Students are WAY too connected to their phones.  Some years back, I had to take one from a student who just refused to put it away.  A few minutes later, another student tells me that first kid was now cutting herself.  Yes, she was using some relatively sharp to make straight line bruises on an arm.  If the object was any sharper, she would have been bleeding all over the place.

That might be an extreme example, but you get the idea. 

The constant connection to the internet and to each other takes away from learning. Simple as that.  If they are paying attention to their phone, they are not paying attention to the lesson at hand.  

A number of years ago, an MIT professor tried a small experiment in his lecture.  He had half the class operate as normal, meaning they had phones, tablets, and laptops out.  They were all multitasking- listening to him and watching whatever online.  The other half just had pen and paper, or maybe a computer, but agreed to not use the internet.  The professor gives a lecture, a rather basic one, and then gives everyone a short quiz on it.  As you might expect, the students that were not multitasking did quite a bit better than those who were. 

Finally, if I am a parent and I'm paying tens of thousands of pounds for my son to go to Eton, he damn well better be paying attention to the instructors and not his phone.

I still find it hard to believe that Apple is going to let the Mac Studio sit with an M2 all the way up to the point when an M5 chip will either be announced or just weeks away.   No matter how small the market may be for Mac Studios and Mac Pro, to let them sit for almost two years between updates these days just makes no sense at all.