Posted on 11/24/2007 3:29:27 PM PST by RayChuang88
LOS GATOS, Calif. (AP) - Not a cash register is in sight. The electronics on display are all powered up and ready for use. Personal trainers, specialists and newly minted concierges in aqua blue shirts make the Apple Store feel part salon, part Internet cafe - just without the espresso.
Over the past year, Apple Inc. (AAPL) has revamped its 201 stores, changing the layout, adding services and increasing its staffing. The "concierge" service that Apple launched last week is only the latest initiative designed to draw more visitors and bolster already record-breaking sales.
"Apple indeed does things differently from the rest of the retail gang," said Kurt Barnard, president of the Barnard Retail Consulting Group.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
Not bigoted at all, but I am honest, and I honestly don't care for liberals, and do you honestly think it's evenly split 50/50 for mac users. I'd say it's probably 80% liberal 20% conservative realistically not some bogus poll.
Out of your example I still see 4 or 5 typical annoyingly trendy/moronic types, yet you still call me bigoted. Let me count them for you, 1)Teenage kids texting/myspace, 2)The Bush Lied People Died nutcase, 3)Valleygirl types (no explanation needed), 4)the 12 year old kid messing with the computer would be annoying to me hit random notes (you call it impromptu music) and I play music. I'd expect his mother to say, "Don't touch that Rashequa, we can't afford to buy it if you break it". Plus he'd be getting glares from people wanting to get in and out of there having to deal with the din of music of some kid messing around.
What do YOU find wanting in this demographic, Blue? Could it be the carefully crafted and disseminated anti-Apple FUD that Mac users are gay liberal graphic artists?
you answered your own question. Gays, liberals, and graphic artists are probably 99% Mac owners. 100% if a person is all 3 (gay, liberal and a graphic artist).
Now if you were asking me what the percentage of mac users were gay, liberal or graphic designers, I'd still say a good 80-85%
Re: your smarmy and ignorant interpretation of the second picture.
First of all, if that Asian gentleman had made an appointment at the “Genius Bar” to discuss a networking problem (unlikely, modern OSX Macs network quite easily with Windows PCs whether they’re NT4.0, XP, or Vista), his appoinent would be with an Apple Certified Networking Specialist... It’s likely nothing in networking would be “beyond” him. Secondly, Genius Bar specialists are not sales people, they are all trained Apple Certified Specialists. Thirdly, Apple does not pay commissions even to its sales people so there would be no reason for him to “go on the offensive” and talk the customer into buying a replacement. Finally, Apple does not take trade-ins of used equipment.
Next, your rapper wanna-be is unlikely to have brought in a stolen Mac notebook because he actually is the owner of a major chain of clothing stores. That is his Lamborghini computer he uses on drives. Also, if his computer had been hijacked to porn sites it has to be only on his Windows partition because, to date, there are no browser hijackers for the Mac... just as there are no viruses, adware, or spyware on OSX.
As for your next sexist and racist comments, shall I just ping a few of our tech savvy female and non-Asian IT freepers to this thread to ream you a new one or just point out your error?
Now, as to your having to pay $80 an hour to reformat your hard drive, you may have to pay the “Geek Gang” or “Windows-R-Us” to do it, but never the Genius Bar... It’s free. No cost. If something is physically wrong with your computer and it’s out of warranty, it may have to be repaired and that will cost you... But the Genius Bar people have been known to give you a brand new item right on the spot... even for out of warranty items.
You are just demonstrating your ignorance, again, Blue. And your Windows experience pain. And your smugness.
Blue, you ARE being disingenuous. Your post was comparing your little Flash drive based MP3 Sandisk to a $299 (you said $200) 30GB (not 40GB if we’re listing errors) HD based iPod (as though thst were the only model available) not the original 2001 5GB model. That IS being disingenuous.
The Sandisk Companion YOU cited was only released for sale in April of 2004 for $135 US for the 512K model (Cruizer $55, Companion $80 -I looked it up!) so you could NOT have purchased it contemporaneously with a 1st Gen iPod anyway. In 2005, the 30GB iPod was selling for $299. The first “pack of gum” lanyard style iPod 1GB Shuffle was released almost three years ago on January 11, 2005 for $149.. 512k for $99. When you say you bought your Sandisk in 2005, its competitor was the Shuffle not the HD iPod!
Yes, Apple did replace the Shuffles that failed under warranty... Less than 1% failure rate of the over 10 million that were sold in the first nine months.
Re: the review - it was the first and only review that came up on a Google search among a host if sales sites. It must be getting the most hits.
The only thing I’m going to say about your insulting and very bigoted post Is that the 12 year old kid was truly talented... and I have been a trained musician (instrumental and voice) for over 50 years. He impressed me. He layed down five or six tracks in the space of five minutes and it was good. You really don’t know what you are talking about.
Oh, sorry I misread the April 2004 price list for the Sandisk Cruzer 512. I cited the list price for the 128K model. The 512K model Cruzer Micro plus Companion was $250!!!! That’s $169.99 for the Cruzer plus $79.99 for the Companion. Wow, what an over priced product.
RE.#85, Now who is being disingenuous, I bought the Companion in 2005 and I didn’t buy it with 128Mb or 512Mb of memory. I already had an array of San Disk Micro Cruzers which were running in the $30 range for 512mbs. at the time. So $40 for the Companion and $30 for the Micro Cruzer. Still cheaper. You also forget I NEVER pay retail. RETAIL IS FOR SUCKERS! I usually only buy stuff that is a black friday deal only any time of the year (I’m good like that (to quote you)). Your glaring ommission that the shuffle has no display so when you have 2 gigs worth of songs, you’re at the mercy of the player to randomly “shuffle the songs”. I guess playback of audio books of mp3’s arent going to happen unless you make one huge file.
You still don't get it. Did the kid have permission to be playing this music? Where were his parents? How loud was this music? If I were to be in line would I hear it a few feet away? If so, I'd probably ask him to turn it down or find his psrent and ask them to keep a closer eye on their son. Lastly what kind of music was it? Jazz, Classical, Rock, Techno (can't really call THAT music), Hip Hop (same as techno)?
There's a disturbing amount of anti-capitalist opinion on this supposedly conservative website. I often post on medical-related threads and have often been called a shill for Big Pharma just because I defend vaccines.
The “geniuses” at my local Mac store are incredibly friendly and helpful. My favorite is a lady who looks to be about 60. Sure, they dress in black t-shirts but I kind of like the style. I get better service and assistance there than any other retailer I visit. What’s wrong with that?
Funny how you consider me smarmy and that is exactly the type of customer I was describing when you called me bigoted. You still haven't explained how I am bigoted for calling out the obvious.
First of all, if that Asian gentleman had made an appointment at the “Genius Bar” to discuss a networking problem (unlikely, modern OSX Macs network quite easily with Windows PCs whether they’re NT4.0, XP, or Vista), his appoinent would be with an Apple Certified Networking Specialist... It’s likely nothing in networking would be “beyond” him. Secondly, Genius Bar specialists are not sales people, they are all trained Apple Certified Specialists. Thirdly, Apple does not pay commissions even to its sales people so there would be no reason for him to “go on the offensive” and talk the customer into buying a replacement. Finally, Apple does not take trade-ins of used equipment.
Wow you really sold me on the expertise of these highly trained Mac Geniuses. *HUGE SARCASM TAG* I wonder if you believe the hype yourself or do you think anyone would be stupid enough to not see through the fluff. The way you are describing them either they crap out semi-precious metal or you have a thing for them, and would be part of the criteria for being a mac owner; ie. being gay/lesbian. I am not calling you gay/lesbian, so please do not get offended, I am just saying the possibility exists.
Next, your rapper wanna-be is unlikely to have brought in a stolen Mac notebook because he actually is the owner of a major chain of clothing stores. That is his Lamborghini computer he uses on drives. Also, if his computer had been hijacked to porn sites it has to be only on his Windows partition because, to date, there are no browser hijackers for the Mac... just as there are no viruses, adware, or spyware on OSX.
You totally missed the humor there. I wasn't saying that it was Eminem, but some idiot wannabe white rapper kid. Does calling him or someone like him an idiot make me a bigot? Or did I miss your response and you know this kid personally and know he owns a chain of clothing stores and has a custom Lamborghini laptop.
Here is a question for you regarding bigotry. How would you classify Ann Coulter? She is a deity around here and I am assuming you are a conservative because you are a regular on this forum. But your attitude doesn't seem very conservative to me but if I am wrong I apologize. Would you call her a bigot? I sure wouldn't, but I know liberals attack her and call her out as one. The politically correct and victim mentality exists in many a liberal. Are you one of them?
As for your next sexist and racist comments, shall I just ping a few of our tech savvy female and non-Asian IT freepers to this thread to ream you a new one or just point out your error?
Now, as to your having to pay $80 an hour to reformat your hard drive, you may have to pay the “Geek Gang” or “Windows-R-Us” to do it, but never the Genius Bar... It’s free. No cost. If something is physically wrong with your computer and it’s out of warranty, it may have to be repaired and that will cost you... But the Genius Bar people have been known to give you a brand new item right on the spot... even for out of warranty items.
You are just demonstrating your ignorance, again, Blue. And your Windows experience pain. And your smugness.
I have no Windows experience pain, I love Windows.
My point is the “genius” title is a joke. I may go out of my way to a Mac Store within reason, to see how knowledgeable these people are. I will eat crow if I am wrong, but if they are a kid fresh out of high school that maybe read “Apple imac for Dummies” for their training, Im going to call them out on it. I’ve done it to the Geek Freaks before so it’s not unlike me to do the sale to the “delicate geniuses” at the “Genius Bar”.
Barton Creek is a very nice store.
I agree with you, with one tiny tiny minor exception. Free Enterprise sounds better better because Capitalism is a Marxist term, and you may not want to be defined by the enemies terms.
Takes a Genius to figure out a loose hard drive in MacBook Pro
Genius Bar "genius" not so Genius Scroll to about 3:30.
Apple Rant about price and OS naming scheme from a high-talking emasculate kid
We’re a five Mac family. Excellent machines except that my son’s Powerbook suffered a major system failure. The genius fixed it good as new and even managed to salvage his data which he foolishly neglected to back up. Outstanding service. I’d tell you about my comparable experience with Dell’s “tech support” a few years ago but I’d be banned from FR for bad language.
Correct, Dell’s customer service is about as bad as it gets. Getting past the language barrier, it doesn’t get much better after repeating ad nauseum your problem they run through the script till they eventually tell you they need to escalate you to a tier 1 or 2 technician. If they are American it usually fares a little better, but still a PITA. That said, I did get them to send me a replacement front bezel to my Dimension desktop when I was needing the floppy disk bracket that they did not include with the new computer for some stupid reason. They goofed but I kept it anyways since I used one bezel to modify for a front mounted fan and I had the backup in case I screwed up cutting the bezel open.
Good morning :)
I just sat down with my coffee. Thanks for the info about the ScanSnap. We will definitely check it out this week!
Acrobat is sort of a nemesis on my pc because it often locks up my screen. It sometimes takes close to two minutes to even start. Myself, I’d love to bid it farewell.
It took Dell 18 months before they admitted that the reason my laptop kept freezing was a bad hard drive. I went through all the pain you did and more. There’s an old aphorism that businesses don’t lose customers by making mistakes, they lose them by not fixing the mistakes. Dell proved it to me. We’d probably have five Dells instead of Macs if they’d just fixed my problem quickly and efficiently.
I’m sitting here on a Dell Dimension 8200. Whenever I have needed to call Dell for computer assistance, I doubt that I have ever spoken to an American. That said, these support personnel always appear to me to be looking at a flow chart on their end of the line. “If the customer’s computer does this, tell them to try this.” That’s not the kind of help I am looking for at that point. I’d like to know that the support person assigned to me is a thinker and not sitting in a New Delhi cubicle reading some novel, in between my working through each step in their flow chart manual.
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