macdude's Profile

There is all sorts of incorrect information being spewed from all sorts of people here in regards to Apple Stores, the employees, and Store policy and procedures. And a whole bunch of whining and bullshit too. The return policy is CLEARLY marked on the receipt. If your vision is too bad to read it, get some glasses. If you care, you should ask. It is, and always has been, 14 days. Employees are supposed to explain it to you. If they don't, ask! Bose products are 30 days no questions asked. Dead pixel policy is UP TO NEGOTIATION as per the Store Manager. If the pixel in question is in an area of the screen that makes the machine annoying to use, Apple is VERY sensitive to this and will make the customer happy. If you are an A-hole, you don't deserve to return a display with one out of one million pixels dead. Apple does not have the best customer satisfaction by accident. Those of you with bad experiences at the Apple Store need to give them another chance. Or not, does not matter to me. Apple is doing quite well. One visit to an Apple Store does not make you an expert on that Store or any other Apple Store. The Stores are understaffed most of the time. That is a problem. Don't take it out on an employee because they can not do anything about it! Call Apple, mention it to the Manager. If that does not do it for you, then go get a Dull and like it. You are probaby coming from Windows and can go back for all I care. The guy with the broken key on the Powerbook: You are full of it. Apple replaces keys for FREE at any Apple Store. Does Dell do that at the Dell kiosk? No. Does CompUSA do that? Probably not. CompUSA guys get commission to sell you a PC, not a Mac. Do they transfer data from your Mac to your shiny new Dull at CompUSA? Install software for free? No. Free services at the Apple Store are an amazing service. Free workshops. Every day. Every store. FREE. Do any of these other stores give FREE technical support? No. Oh, you had to wait a bit for some FREE tech support from Apple? Sorry we could not drop everything and help just YOU! These Stores are an amazing place where you can play with all of Apple's gear, use the internet ALL DAY LONG for free, and test lots of awesome software. You can't do that anywhere else. As far as the experience and quality of the typical Specialist....it can vary, as people vary! Some of you apparently expect that a Store employee is supposed to know every one of your answers about every peripheral, every upgrade card that Apple does not sell, and every third-party software solution. Keep in mind that Apple is paying slightly more than minimum wage to it's specialists. Some don't care what they get paid since they are there because they really enjoy working for a cool company with cool products. Some of the people they get are folks who are in college and are doing the Apple thing part time. Some other people are changing careers. Don't assume anything about the Apple Store employees. They are not supposed to assume anything about you. The Genius staff is trained on Apple computers. They are not trained/paid to be experts on Windows nor your Dull PC. They will try to help of course. Do you think the "Dell Dude" is going to help you with your Dell Display and your Powerbook? I don't think so. They probably don't even know their display can work with an Apple computer. Is the Store perfect? No. Could there be improvements? Of course. Apple has never been perfect and probably will never be. Get over it. Life is not perfect. Somebody here said their mother was told she need Virtual PC to open Word files. Well all I can say is there must have been some serious miscommunication there, which happens ALL THE TIME. Usually it is a result of the customer not CLEARLY indicating their needs. Sometimes it can be an employee who might not understand what the customer is trying to do. These things happen. Just like when the Windows people tell potential Mac customers that "Mac's don't do Office and can't get on the internet or do email." We all know that is not the case. The Mac OS vulnerable like Windows? Right. ZERO viruses for a reason. Admin password is required to install critical software. Not so on Windows. ZERO spyware as well. These are facts. Of course, facts are not easily swallowed by idiots. "I heard" it is because of the market share of Macs! Ok idiot. How many OS X attacks where a customer/user lost data? ZERO. How many corporations/universities/government branches shut down because of OS X vulnerabilities? ZERO. Get over it and find something legitimate to complain about. No batteries in the BOSE headset in the APPLE Store? Oh wow! That has got to be the most chicken-shit problem in your day. They won't put new ones in? Did you bother asking the Manager? Probably not. Not all the employees there have the authority to just walk down the street and buy some batteries for a Bose product that you are "just looking at" anyway. A little tip: The Bose headsets are just average. I would bet that MOST of the complaints on this site involved people who never mentioned any of their experience to Apple management. They just complain about it to a bunch of people on the internet, thereby accomplishing nothing. Most customer issues are due to unreasonable customers. You may not want to hear that but it is true. These people will never be satisfied and need to STFU and RTFM. You can get VERY far at the Apple store if you have reason and logic and don't start yelling because you are too stupid to read the manual or the back of a receipt. Lots of customer have no idea what they bought. Like AppleCare. "Do you have Applecare?" "I don't know!" Jeez.