The Apple Store is a glorious place to visit. I love technology and I really appreciate their knowledgeable staff. Buying, returning, and repairing Apple products in their store has never been a smooth process for me though.
Each time I go into the Apple Store, whoever I am talking to is completely unable to help me. I understand the "greeter" or the person "on point" isn't suppose to ring up products, and the person ringing up products isn't a "genius" who is able to do tech support, but at times it feels even more disjointed than that.
On Monday I went to the Apple store with three simple goals:
- I needed to return a 15-inch MacBook Pro that I had purchased a few days before
- I needed to replace a cracked screen on an iPhone 6.
- I needed to special order a 13-inch MBP with special specs.
I walk in the store and notice that it's relatively empty. "Maybe I can get my iPhone fixed without a reservation," I hoped.
Three Apple employees were chatting with each other towards the front of the store. The girl with the strange hair cut, nose ring, and iPad greeted me. I explained my three goals, and she pointed me to the Apple Genius Bar gatekeeper (the guy you have to get through before you can have things repaired). This guy was helping another customer with something and I patiently waited. After a few minutes the Genius Bar gatekeeper asked me if I had a reservation. No, as always, I didn't have a reservation, but I was hoping that since I just wanted to drop this phone off and pick it up in a few days, and the store was empty, it wouldn't be a problem. Of course it was a problem. "The next available walk-in slot is in one and a half hours." I look around and notice that five employees are now standing around chatting with each other. "I can't just leave this phone here and pick it up later? I don't need to speak with anyone, I just want the screen replaced but I already have another phone so I don't need this one, you can take as much time as you need." I tried to explain but it didn't work. "Only Apple geniuses can check-in your phone."
I then went back to the group of three employees at the front of the store and said that I would come back later to replace the iPhone screen, and I just wanted to return the MacBook Pro and order a new one. Nose ring girl then begins relaying messages on her C.I.A. headset that someone needs to return a MacBook. She informs me that someone will be with me in a moment. I then stand off to the side and watch five Apple employees chat with each other for at least five minutes.
I've returned stuff at Apple Stores before and I know just how easy it is. I know for a fact that every single one of these employees was capable of returning my MacBook but it wasn't their current "duty" so they were able to ignore the situation.
A new guy came from the back and told me that he was unable to return my MacBook but someone else would be able to shortly. He then went over to the nose ring girl and said that he was going to "take point" so that she could return my MacBook. She argued that she was on point and was not allowed to return my MacBook. He explained that he was relieving her of said duty and she was now free to return my MacBook but she still refused. Meanwhile four other Apple employees were also standing around the immediate area and not a single new customer had walked in the store since I had arrived.
After losing the battle for "point man" he walked back over to me and said that he would in fact return my MacBook. In classic Apple Store fashion he was able to return it in less than one minute by using his fancy iPhone scanner. By this point I was late and I had to leave without ordering my 13-inch MBP. Back at the office I ordered the new computer online and I made a reservation to have my iPhone screen replaced the next day.
The next day I enter the store, this time empowered with a Genius Bar reservation. I am pointed once again to the Genius Bar gatekeeper (this time a woman). She informs me that they are approximately 25 minutes behind. I explain once again that I don't need to speak to anyone, I just want to drop my phone off and pick it up days later. "Only Apple geniuses can check in products for repair, sir." I wait for 25 minutes and am finally able to leave my phone for repair.
I want to be fair and say that Apple Store employees are some of the best retail employees in the business. They are polite, knowledgeable, and genuinely excited about their job. I also understand that in an attempt to make the store run smoothly, each employee has very specific duties. But these ultra-specific jobs seem to be hurting more than they are helping. By having customers standing around waiting on specific employees to do extremely simple tasks, the Apple Store is creating bottlenecks that wouldn't exist if they simply gave their employee's permission to use their judgment.
Maybe I'm crazy (I'm sure the comments will let me know if I am), but I think that every Apple Store employee is capable of ringing up and returning products and should be given the permission to do it. Apple has done an amazing job of hiring great workers, they just need to allow them to actually work.
I used to work at an Apple Store in the Genius Bar. I do like Apple. I definitely don't agree with everything Apple does though, especially the company's obsessive need to control *everything*. That being said, I think a few comments on your article are in order.
1. Here is a fact: all apple store employees are trained to do returns. They are all happy to do them. I do believe there was some shifting of roles (i.e., people needed to get going on timed breaks, or otherwise some reason why duties needed to be shifted around at the time you walked in the store). This is very normal, as a slow moment can turn into a waterfall of people in an instant, and it's important that employees think about what could happen in the next tens of minutes, and not just at the very present moment. Therefore, sometimes some shifting around is done so that not only the immediately present customer can be helped, but also the next 10 that walk though the door.
2. The tone of your article is very condescending and rude. I understand you didn't have a good experience at the Apple Store, but, to me, your tone suggests that you are being less than objective about the facts of your experience in the store. This is highlighted by your claim that more than 4 employees were standing around chatting in an empty store, and none of them were helping you. I do believe some shifting around happened when you asked to be helped with your return. I do believe it took a minute or two for you to be helped with your return. I do not believe for a second that 4 employees stood around watching all of it happen. I think you are exaggerating in order to support your claim that you were wronged by Apple.
3. The fact is, you need to speak to a specially trained employee at the Genius Bar for many reasons. First, it's not as simple as "dropping your phone off and coming to pick it up." Someone well-trained needs to (a) make sure you have a backup, as data loss is a real risk that happens with any repair, even a display repair (and a vast majority of people come in for repairs without making a backup), (b) make sure your phone is unattached from your apple account (people attach their phones for security reasons - if it is attached, then if someone steals your phone, you can locate it or render it useless), because if any repairs damage your phone and it needs to be replaced, this will need to happen (multiply that by hundreds of thousands of occurrences each week, and the entire operation would grind to a halt, so this needs to happen for each and every repair at check in time), (c) make sure you understand and assent to the two prior points so that you know what you are signing on the form when you leave your device. It's not like a mom and pop shop that only does a few screen repairs a day and basically isn't worth suing if they brick your phone or lose your data. Due to the massive volume of repairs done at the Apple Store, and the sensitive nature of of what's on customers' devices, and the need for security, you need to see a trained person just to check in / drop off your phone.
4. The hour and a half long *wait* is actually an hour and half long line of people (that the store is keeping track of and sending texts to when it is their turn) that did essentially what you just did - walking in an hoping to be seen right at the moment. However, if you did that, then what you would be doing is cutting in front of tens of other people who are in line and patiently waiting, even if they aren't standing right in front of you. You are essentially saying, "Hey, I'm so much more special than every one else that I deserve to be placed immediately at the head of the line."
5. If Apple operated all the time the way you wanted them to when it came just to you, this is what would happen: (a) you would have to wait in a physical line for that hour and and half just to get your phone checked in for repairs, (b) loss of important data for a huge chunk of the iPhone using population on a regular basis, maybe even including you, (c) hundreds of thousands of people would have to return to the store a second time just to disengage the security features on their device, and then perhaps have to come back a third time to finish everything up, maybe even including you.
6. The Apple Store is not a mom and pop shop and can't run that way for good reasons, so it is inappropriate to expect them to be able to provide service that way. It's not even like most other retail stores. The range of services provided is vastly more complex that something akin to exchanging your Dockers at Penney's, so it would be useful to reset your expectations. While it's not nearly as complicated as say healthcare for example, the number of things that can go wrong with even a *simple* display repair makes it necessary to run the service department more like a professional office (like a doctor's office), with reservations and a walk in queue. If it didn't happen this way, if the Genius Bar was simply run as first come-first serve / stand in line / no reservations / no specialized training for employees - then believe me - your service, and the service of millions of other people would be abysmal. Having to wait for a professionally trained person, who also has tens of other people waiting on him or her that got there before you, to ensure your complex device gets the proper service and your data doesn't get lost and you don't have to make an extra trip, when you *don't* have a reservation and have to wait in line (a line where you are free to leave an come back, I might add), is not abysmal service. It is basically the only way things can be done.
If you're so smart, you should write Apple and ask for a job implementing all your great ideas for servicing hundreds of thousands of devices each week while keeping the lines non-existent.