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Yeah absolutely. Every time I’ve been in my local Apple Store, I’ve basically been talked out of purchasing, or it becomes a huge hassle of upselling and extra
by gizajob 3y ago
Yeah absolutely. Every time I’ve been in my local Apple Store, I’ve basically been talked out of purchasing, or it becomes a huge hassle of upselling and extra worrying charges, and quite frankly, stupidity and lack of knowledge from the pseudo-smart staff. All they can do is toe the party line and what they’ve been trained to say and do, which kind of falls apart when faced with someone who has used Apple computers and products for some 25 years now. Most recently I walked in and basically said “I would just like to buy this phone right now” when I wanted an iPhone Pro Max in a rush, and the hassle that I got led to me walking out and going to John Lewis (uk department store) next door, where I said “I would like to buy an iPhone Pro Max” and had one in my hands 90 seconds later and was paying for it, at £60 cheaper than Apple.
Apples pricing structure is also annoying nowadays too. As soon as one specs out and bumps a laptop, one suddenly finds that they may as well get a different laptop, ie once you bump up a MacBook Air, you may as well just buy a Pro, until all of a sudden your £999 purchase idea has turned into £3000 and a debate about AppleCare.
Ballache.
- amelius 3y agoIs this a new sales tactic, playing hard to get?
- gizajob 3y agoI think part of my comment was broadly about their softly-softly approach to hard selling not actually working at all when someone simply walks in and says "I'd like to buy this right now"
- ewchris 3y agoBack in 2009, buying a MBP, the salesman questioned why a CS student would want a mac over a pc. Luckily for him I wasn't considering his thoughts. I definitely didn't need that powerful of a computer and glad I switched to an air a few years later.
- wredue 3y agoWhen I bought my windows XP computer, the salesman said “you really want a candy OS? Windows 98 is where it’s at” Yeah. How’d that turn out, guy?
- crooked-v 3y agoI've never had the kind of experience you're talking about at an Apple Store, so I'm very confused about those anecdotes.
- gwill 3y agosame here. i was able to skip a fitting for an apple watch when i told them i already measured. also with buying iphones outright i've never been hassled or up-sold. i've been going to my apple store in a medium sized american city for the past 10 years.
- dan-robertson 3y agoI’ve not had such a terrible experience but I’ve had the experience of being confused trying to work out how to buy something and the shop assistant being almost surprised that someone wanted to buy something instead of just looking at things. It was smooth enough after that but I would typically order online after that (which was mostly fine except for an annoying case where they would only deliver if I showed up in person)
- HPsquared 3y agoThat situation has the makings of a comedy sketch.
- fennecfoxy 3y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAG39jKi0lI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAG39jKi0lI
- rvnx 3y agoThey are designing it as a show-room where you can buy items, not a self-service shop. More like a car dealership.
- jameson71 3y agoBecause everyone loves buying at car dealerships?
- dcchambers 3y ago> Apples pricing structure is also annoying nowadays too. As soon as one specs out and bumps a laptop, one suddenly finds that they may as well get a different laptop, ie once you bump up a MacBook Air, you may as well just buy a Pro, until all of a sudden your £999 purchase idea has turned into £3000 and a debate about AppleCare. Their pricing structure on basically all of their product lines is absolutely perfect from a capitalism/business perspective. They are so good at getting people to buy more than they need. It's impressive.
- gizajob 3y agoWell, it's not exactly perfect because I was in the mood to simply buy a basic Air, until I was pretty well talked out of it by sales staff, so instead of an easy £1099 in the till, in their attempt to turn that into £2500, they got £0. That isn't good business. Also, the tedium of nowadays knowing that all the products will be bumped in spec in 9-12 months means that instead of excitement, buyer's remorse has already kicked in before reaching the store, for the savvy consumer midway though the product cycle. Again, not the result effective capitalism should be going for.
- jerojero 3y agoI wonder how representative you are of the average consumer though? I imagine their pricing structure works well to upsell people on average, which is why they have maintained it for long. Also, why would someone like you even go to the store; I had no issues whatsoever buying a macbook from their website. No reps, no nothing, I set my specs and clicked buy and a few days later had my product. I think most people with your profile probably buy online, and most people with the profile that fits store-goers are successfully upsold by the reps. It is often that I see people on hackernews post as if the world was designed for them. When, in reality, they are most definitely the odd-man out.
- bluepod4 3y ago> It is often that I see people on hackernews post as if the world was designed for them. When, in reality, they are most definitely the odd-man out. sewing thread emoji
- tap-snap-or-nap 3y agoJust say ""I appreciate your efforts, but no upselling, please.""
- CydeWeys 3y agoWhat a miserable experience! Meanwhile I had the opposite experience in a Google Store recently. I picked a phone case off the shelf in 10s, told the nearest employee I wanted to buy it, and he immediately whipped out a credit card scanner and I bought it right there in 30s. Didn't even need to go to the checkout counter or anything. It probably helps that that store is less crowded than the Apple store, but their training at least seems to involve making the purchasing flow as efficient as possible.
- luma 3y agoThere's gotta be a lesson here: if your customer is ready to hand you money, best you just go ahead and take it without further delay.
- midoridensha 3y agoIs that the lesson though? It seems people are falling over themselves to buy stuff at Apple stores despite these annoying and awful experiences, and Apple is the most valuable company in the world. It seems the lesson is to treat knowledgable customers like morons using patronizing staff and try to upsell them as much as you can, even if it makes them leave the store in disgust.
- codyb 3y agoWell, to be fair, they don’t know who’s knowledgable and who’s not? I just order my stuff online, walk in, and pick it up. Not sure that it’s super frequent I have a “I need this hardware in 30 minutes or less” situation
- blowski 3y agoIt’s a brave commenter who tries telling Apple they’re doing retail wrong. I’d guess Apple wants to avoid their shops feeling like a supermarket, to avoid commoditisation. They want it to be like buying a work of art, where each one is unique and special. You need a knowledgable curator to guide you. I know that for us on HN it’s all bullshit, but it’s a very, very successful strategy.
- JCharante 3y agoNot necessarily. I already have a MBP but I wanted something lighter to bring to coffee shops or use in taxis, so I bought a nicely specced MBA. Yes I could have gotten a MBP for the same price but they’re literally different form factors and bigger isn’t always better.
- bradgessler 3y agoI've given up on simply walking into an Apple store to just buy something for the past few years. The closest you can get to this is by ordering online ahead of time, then walking into the store an hour later and picking it up. I've walked into an Apple Store and told the person triaging people walking in, "I know EXACTLY what iPhone I want". They send me to the iPhone area where I have to wait in a queue behind 5 other people who need to be sold the damn iPhone. The customers I'm waiting for are either deliberating between a few different models or have no idea what they should get, so the people working in the store are busy talking to them for much longer than I care to wait. I wish Apple would add a step to their triage to handle people who walk into the store and say, "I know EXACTLY what I want, _________"
- mstolpm 3y agoDoesn't Apple have this step already? I'm talking about the online store with optional pickup in your Apple Store. I've ordered online whenever I exactly know what I want. No sales talk, no waiting. Pickup in store was fast and hassle free, but that might depend on store and time. Best of all: I know exactly that the item I want is available for me.
- bradgessler 3y agoYeah, but as I said it takes about an hour, under optimal conditions, for Apple to fulfill the order.