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Former Apple Store employee here! You would be surprised by how people become blind from all the smokes and mirrors of the Apple branding and advertisement. I
by aguzzi94 7y ago
Former Apple Store employee here! You would be surprised by how people become blind from all the smokes and mirrors of the Apple branding and advertisement.
I remember one day, there was a 40-something years old man, that came in with an iPhone X and switched it for an XS, adding 500 euros.
Only to return 1 week later to switch the XS for an XR with better storage, adding 250 euros.
Only to return 2 weeks later, to switch the XR for an XSmax adding 400 euros more or less.
This gentleman was so brainwashed into FOMO by Apple that threw 1000+ euros out of the window.
One other time, there was another gentleman that clearly couldn't afford an iPhone X. He was so torn when deciding if to buy or not. I tried to give him hints that it was better if he let go of it ("maybe wait next year, your iPhone 5 is still doing the job"), but no, in the end he decided to go for it and we tried to do a 6 months payment plan. His card got rejected. Then we tried with a 10 months payment plan. Rejected. Then we tried with 20 months one. Finally, accepted. He wasn't even happy about that. Was probably thinking about what he was going to have to renounce for that iPhone. I tell you, the whole process was physically painful.
- coldtea 7y ago>I remember one day, there was a 40-something years old man, that came in with an iPhone X and switched it for an XS, adding 500 euros. Only to return 1 week later to switch the XS for an XR with better storage, adding 250 euros. Only to return 2 weeks later, to switch the XR for an XSmax adding 400 euros more or less. This gentleman was so brainwashed into FOMO by Apple that threw 1000+ euros out of the window. Sounds like quite orthogonal to Apple, and relevant to personal issues the single anecdotal example person had, overcompensating by constantly buying gadgets, etc... There are tons of people with 2, 3, 4, 6+ year old Macs, iPhones, and iPads (my iPad is from 2014 or so and works just fine)...
- icemelt8 7y agoThose "tons" are a minority, most people immediately upgrade.
- aguzzi94 7y agoYes, what you said is completely true. I am not saying that Apple is evil, I personally own Apple products and I think they're great (but overpriced). I just wanted to point out the length some people go just to have Apple in their pockets. Apple is not evil, but they know what they're doing, and they know that the prestige of their products is used by people to try and neutralize the sense of worthlessness they feel inside. This manipulation is even more evident now that they are selling phones that are almost identical to the previous generation, bring nothing substantially new to the table, if not new smokes and mirrors. I'm sure that in their headquarters, they now spend less and less time innovating and more and more time refining their selling skills.
- zepto 7y agoAnd you are also a founder of a fashion company which is even more about selling a temporary sense of worth than what Apple does. How can you criticize Apple when you are doing the same thing?
- hu3 7y agoDid you really resort to scavenging OP's online presence in an attempt to discredit his anecdote against Apple? To me this behavior reinforces OP's point.
- zepto 7y agoI didn’t resort to scavenging anything. I just looked at his HN profile. Why have profiles if not for us to look at them? I honestly expected to see him engaged in something that was against the kind of preying on insecurity he claims Apple is doing, and was curious to see what it was because I want to see examples of marketing that doesn’t do this. I was genuinely surprised to see what business he was in, and find it bizarrely hypocritical of him, since he is doing exactly what he accuses Apple of doing. Can you explain how this reinforces his point?
- bluedino 7y agoYou should try working at a car dealership. People do this with brand new vehicles, just multiply the euros by 20!
- aguzzi94 7y agoApplying just now ;)
- sk5t 7y agoRight on, it sounds like the customer here was hooked on the unboxing experience or something like that, or was seeking out a distraction from life.
- aguzzi94 7y agoProbably so.
- kmlx 7y ago"This gentleman was so brainwashed into FOMO by Apple that threw 1000+ euros out of the window" for some people, a dinner out costs $2k. that is why you should never judge your clients. same thing for the other gentleman. you don't know their stories, or their backgrounds.
- paggle 7y agoI know that nobody should be stretching themselves financially thin for a newer iPhone. Unless it’s something like an app developer needing to buy a test phone, which this clearly wasn’t.
- richardknop 7y agoHow do you know he was stretching himself financially? Perhaps he was rich and 1000 euros was not much money to him.
- Jonnerz 7y agoHe signed up to a 20 month payment plan?
- yskchu 7y agoThe 20 month person was a different guy
- gutnor 7y agoThat's another guy. There are 2 person in the story. The first one throw money out of the window. The second one is the one struggling for money and need the payment plan.
- DangerousPie 7y agoThose were two different people.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- agumonkey 7y agoTypical consumerism. I have siblings who did the same for a fancy bed. These people are mostly helpless. And you're only an employee.. I'm sure it's not great to try to turn a customer away from a sale right ? Even as a sibling, unless I'm ready to start a family war there's no leverage. ps: the 40yo man might have sold or made use of the other iPhone. I hope he did not just pile them up in a drawer.
- aguzzi94 7y agoFor me personally, working there was a perpetual moral internal debate. I was good at convincing people that were on the edge of buying. On one hand, the more you sell, the higher the commission you get, for you and the whole team. On the other hand, you have to sell tech that is one of the best, but for the time being, totally overpriced. Therefore, you have to manipulate a lot, and tell half-truths if not blatant lies at times, which is not great either. This becomes much harder when you have to manipulate a person, that is clearly struggling in their decision because of financial reasons, into buying a phone priced 1000+ euros. On the inside, I was always screaming "what in the world are you doing!" The way I operated was this: when a manager was nearby me, I had to act the part, but when I was alone I tried, in a not so explicit way, to clear the fog in their brain and make them get back some reason in their heads. I prefer being able to sleep at night, instead of getting a few more bucks in my check. To be clear, I like Apple products, and I personally own them ,because I was able to get them used (but brand new) with huge discounts in price, but they are not for everyone. About the 40yo man, he gave us back his phone each time. The way it works is this: if you bring back a phone, you get an evaluation which is at best (even in perfect condition, got out of the box just a week earlier) half of the initial price tag. You can get a new phone, give back your old one and pay the difference.
- lelima 7y ago> "Then we tried with 20 months one. Finally, accepted" The social pressure for having "an old phone" most have been incredibly high. Something like that happen to me on university, I had a 5 years old phone with no Whatsapp/Blackberry chat. It made me feel so left behind and even sad sometimes.
- aguzzi94 7y agoThe cool thing now is that you can have a brand new 2019 phone with the latest tech for 300/400 euros. So if you want to keep the pace, you can do it without selling your soul. I think it's more about the temporary sense of worthiness that an Apple product can give you.
- kozak 7y agoEven for 100 Euros, but non-tech people don't always know that. Many of them think that to stay current they need "an iPhone", and 100 Euro iPhones simply don't exist.
- zeusk 7y agoyou can even get an iPhone 7/8 for reasonable price right now, if Apple is a requirement. I'm still on my 7 from late 2016 and will stick to it through this cycle as well.
- aguzzi94 7y agoGood choice!
- WilliamEdward 7y agoIt's kind of sad really. Businesses prey on the human condition and there's nothing we can do about it because, well, Apple's not really breaking the law and we all like good cellphones.
- aguzzi94 7y ago100% agreed.
- lieux 7y ago+
- kmlx 7y agoNo mention of self-control.
- helpPeople 7y agoI find marketing pretty unethical. Manipulation of emotions and the brain to sell stuff. Commodities seem harmless, but brainwashing people to buy moderate quality products at luxury prices is horrifying.
- rythie 7y agoApple stuff lasts, this is not an Apple issue, any of those phones would have been good for several years. I'm only my 3rd iPhone in 9 years (soon to replace it though). Also 3rd iPad in 9 years. My Macbook Air is from 2012. Apple do software updates going quite far back. A lot of Apple's hardware looks exactly the same from generation to generation, so even if you updated, how would anyone know? If customers want to chop and change that's on them, Apple is not forcing it really.
- aguzzi94 7y agoWhat you said it totally true. But to say that Apple is not forcing is a white lie. It's true that they're not pointing guns at us, but they are smoothly pointing us in that direction. There's a psychological pressure to have the latest tech, otherwise not only your phone, but also you yourself, are outdated and uncool. No kind of manipulation was ever forceful. That's what makes it a manipulation. You think you're doing it, but another person/company slowly brought you to do it. A lot of people are intelligent and strong enough to resist this brainwash, but a lot of others are not.
- snowwrestler 7y agoBlaming Apple for the general human desire to demonstrate status to one another seems like a bit much, and IMO grants them a level of implied power over society that they haven’t earned. I mean... is your theory that if Apple didn’t exist, people wouldn’t buy things to look cool? > A lot of people are intelligent and strong enough to resist this brainwash, but a lot of others are not. Speaking of signaling status... somehow comments like this are always posted by folks who sort themselves into the first category. Maybe people buy things you don’t want to buy just because they like them, not because they’re too dumb to resist “brainwashing.”
- FussyZeus 7y ago> Speaking of signaling status... somehow comments like this are always posted by folks who sort themselves into the first category. I mean, I can't think of a person who'd be aware enough of it and be willing to state this as a member of the second category?
- schuke 7y agoThat's bad. But imagine these guys chose similarly priced Android phones instead.
- aguzzi94 7y agoI thought it couldn't get any worse, but thank you for reminding :)
- b3b0p 7y agoHere I am with an iPhone 6 still. It plays music, like my iPod did. As well as podcasts. I don't use any apps otherwise that don't come with it from Apple. On the rare occasion someone decides to call me it answers, sometimes (it's slow to answer, but after 3 retries, sometimes the first). I try to answer text messages on my Mac with Messages.app. It's easier to type. Not sure I want to upgrade. I was planning on it. I can afford it. Kind of just trying to see how long I can keep it going for fun. I think I've had it for close to 5 years now.
- aguzzi94 7y agoMy iPhone 6s, with its weird turning off and on randomly at times and other funky behaviors, was (and will always be) my favorite phone I ever owned! I'm not joking :)
- SKADAD 7y agoSame, still have mine since release. My only issue is the battery but that's cheaply replaced. I'm still deciding if i should upgrade or try to push another year or two with it.
- woat 7y agoWhen my 6 broke, I decided to switch carriers (from prepaid) to try out the new (at the time - earlier this year) XR. For the 1 week I owned it, there was something strange about it that I just can't describe. It wasn't buyers remorse, but it just felt wrong in my hands. I genuinely asked myself if spending 1k + 100/mo was worth it. Ended up returning the phone, returned back to my old carrier, and ended up going with a 6s making my purchase at 250 + 30/mo. No qualms.
- sk5t 7y agoWas it your first job dealing with people? People are funny, and it can be hard to account for their motivations and ways in which they want things and make changes. Ascribing these anecdotes to Apple's advertising/brainwashing program is a little bit silly.
- aguzzi94 7y agoNot really. I worked at a movie theater before that. I saw all kinds of crazy people and funky behaviors there. So I was used to it!
- steveisdead 7y agohttp://steveisdead.net http://steveisdead.net