What is Digg?99 Comments
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -6/+71No digg for unnecessary pagination.
- cawpin, on 10/11/2007, -13/+48I'm a PC guy recently acquiring Apple skills. Every genius I've dealt with has known their schitt.
- newbill123, on 10/11/2007, -2/+33To save some clicking, here's a summary of each page and my judgement of whether I thought it worth reading.
1 - skip - surprising success of Apple Store concept
2 - skip - 70% are accidental non-warranty damage. Remember to backup.
3 - read - Dealing with drunk and loony people
4 - skip - Selection and Training provided/required
5 - read - The Goings-on when not dealing with customers.
6 - read - Being hounded by a customer
6Footnote - Not much of a market for full-time Mac IT pros outside of Academia
All in all, not a bad article, nothing extremely great or insulting. Most of these areas could have been fleshed out more. But it answers some of the questions about what it must be like to work for the cult of Mac and be considered a high priest or priestess. I was expecting more dirt though :-) - LegendOfLink, on 10/11/2007, -10/+31@smackywentz
Even though your comment was humorous and witty, the religion of Apple has hereby digged you down!
Let this be a sign for others that the religion of Apple does not tolerate dissent!
Your repentance will be for you to comment on Microsoft stories with, "Buried as oxymoron...Microsoft Works". - Jakerius, on 10/11/2007, -10/+30"We even had some hardcore gamers, enough so that we ran our own Battlefield 1942 and Halo servers after-hours, and fragged each other relentlessly."
Lol. - rdrr, on 10/11/2007, -2/+20I have had a mixed experience with the Genius Bar. When I had a problem with my Rev A 15" PowerBook, the Apple Genius was very helpful and knew his stuff. The second time I was with a buddy who brought his in for the white spot recall, and I had to walk the Genius through adding an account that had Admin privileges. :(
- madk, on 10/11/2007, -7/+241. Wake up
2. Put on tight pants and converse allstars
3. Equip man purse
4. Tell myself that I am better that everyone
5. Head to starbucks
6. Continue to the apple store - Topher06, on 10/11/2007, -6/+21My experience with an Apple "Genius". My brother in law had the 23" Apple display, works great with a Mac, but on his Windows box (i.e. the box he earns money from as a freelance web developer), it would never display the correct resolution even when the video card was set to the proper resolution. I already told him it was probably just a driver issue, Windows needed a proper driver for the Apple display, it was using generic display. We happened to be in a mall with an Apple store in it, so he decided to ask an employee. The "genius" told him the reason why the Apple display didn't work with Windows was that Windows wasn't a high definition OS. Microsoft apparently only made Windows to optimally run at 800 x 600, every other resolution is just scaled up or down from 800 x 600 so Windows would never look good on an Apple display. Of course, OS X was a high definition OS that would properly display high resolutions on the Apple display. Despite our rolling our eyes at his explanation, he then continued to spread FUD about Windows and tried selling us a Mac. We thanked him for his "help" and walk out. I got my brother in law to run Windows Update, it downloaded a driver for the Apple Display, and it worked perfectly.
I can't blame the Apple "Genius" too much, I am sure they are all automatons brainwashed into spreading FUD about Windows and only know everything under the sky about Apple, but honestly. I have dealt with Apple users that couldn't find how much free space they had left on their hard drive, which is probably the extent of problems Apple employees are expected to know how to fix, but if you don't know anything about Windows, just say so and don't make sh*t up. - BrendanM14, on 10/11/2007, -4/+18Day in the life?? More like talking to a couple of people about being an Apple Store Genius. Nothing truly in depth except for the training piece. 1/2 a digg?
- buhatkj, on 10/11/2007, -0/+13honestly, 99% of this could have been a day in the life of any tech support guy anywhere, with the names and places changed. I have a good friend in CA who was a geek squad tech, and she relates the same sorts of experiences, with the added bonus of goofy company cars. I worked tech support in university for work study, same deal, just replace "customer" with "professor" and there's my story practically. Just shows, tech support is the same no matter what platform or where to practice it from. Lots of crazy questions and very confused users. That's the job.
- ahhell, on 10/11/2007, -12/+23Wow, what a completely useless and uninformative article.
- twatwaffle, on 10/11/2007, -2/+12I can top that one.
I used to work for Apple, and am quite particular about representing the products appropriately.
I caught an Apple Store employee by the name of Drew Robertson at the Crabtree Valley Mall Store in Raleigh NC. Tell someone .mac mail was more secure than Gmail because Gmail stores emails in 'conversations'.
Then he got mad at me because I called him out on the ***** in front of the customer.
Seems to me if you call the Apple Store employees out more often on their *****, they will stop spreading baseless moronic and idiotic FUD so much.
Holding people accountable for what they say and the information they propagate is a great way to control ones reputation. - anansie, on 10/11/2007, -11/+21Did anyone else notice the first thing he said regarding customer issues was that it is most of time the users fault. Sounds to me less like an observation and more like a genius bar mantra. The geniuses at the bar never take user knowledge into account and they start any conversation off by talking down to the user and then quickly point to user error. I took my MBP into the genius bar at the Cambridge, MA apple store and the first thing I noticed was the genius tone I received. After a three minute inspection it was ruled that my display issues were related to user error. The machine was less than two weeks old and I have been a mac user for more than ten years so I know how to handle my gear. It was a display issue with a bruised effect on my screen. As for the apple tech knowing their ***** I think they only know how to blow of the customers needs!
- AxeSwinger, on 10/11/2007, -1/+11@hammer
You do realize that you can have ads interspersed along with the text for the entire article on single page? This is just annoying and being done for click rates not advertising. - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -1/+9Maybe I shouldn't base my opinion on 'Geniuses' on one experience, but it was bad enough to never try them again:
Went to the SF Apple Store to speak with a 'genius'. I was there 15 minutes BEFORE my scheduled time, only to wait 50 minutes before my name was called (not an exaggeration - I timed it). Long story short, I waited 50 minutes for a 'genius' to suggest to me all of the things I had already tried, only to end our session by saying "I don't know what else to try".
...a memorable experience I shall never forget. Thank you, Apple Genius Bar. - cwgannon, on 10/11/2007, -2/+9"...fragged each other relentlessly"? Wow, that's fruity.
- kaje, on 10/11/2007, -9/+16"When will the BS about Apple end?"
When you disable the Technology > Apple section? - natenovs, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7if mac's were so easy to use, why is there so much user fault?
I'm of course, being facetious.
on a serious note, apple markets the fact that their machines are easier to use, more reliable, and simpler than windows PCs. this may very well be the case, but the computers are not without their problems. as apple's market share increases, the OS will be under alot more scrutiny than it is now. now, i understand that computers screw up, and I'm alright with the bugs in mac osx, or windows for that matter. the problem is, that the person convinced by the ads that macs are infallible, and then paid a premium for this feature, are going to be very disappointed when it fails and they walk into a Genius Bar and hear, "user fault"
ima just sayin... - natenovs, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7i asked one about viruses and security of macosx compared to windows. this is his answer, and im not ***** you
"Mac's are Unix based and not susceptible to viruses like PC's since PC's are Linux based."
i wish is was kidding. this absolutely floored me when i heard it. - strossos, on 10/11/2007, -8/+14"Derr and our anonymous Genius were happy to give us the download on what kind of problems people bring to Apple Store support technicians"
"Give us the download"
Seriously?
I hope it's a virus. - brufleth, on 10/11/2007, -4/+10How were you even able to make an appointment to SEE an "Apple Genius" at the Cambridge, MA store? My girlfriend tried for several weeks on-line, by phone, and going into the store and was never able to get any service out of them. They kept short hours, sent her to hold hell, and claimed they were booked up over and over again.
That store gets a zero for customer support from us. - shmatt, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7Jesus, you are the ultimate example of PEBKAC
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7He didn't blow smoke up your ass? He made you wait for 50 minutes and couldn't tven perform a small sexual favor? Outrageous.
- norman619, on 10/11/2007, -2/+7Dude it would be funny if you fixed the issue infront of this guy. I ran into a similar issue at Fry's. I over heard some clueless rep feeding a customer a line of BS so I interrupted him and answered the customers questions honestly. I got a dirty look from the Fry's guy. He even questioned my knowledge. After informing him I have a degree in computer science and have over 15 years of experience in the IT field supporting networks, hardware ans software he just said "Oh" and wandered off. I advised the customer to complain to somene higher up about that rep lieing to him and trying to get him to buy something he didn't need and wouldn't have resolved his issue. If you work in these places you shouldn't just make ***** up if you don't know. Be freaking honest and say "I don't know but let me see if I can find someone who does." How freaking hard is that?
- cawpin, on 10/11/2007, -15/+20Yeah, the first guy that made that joke is already well buried. Have a nice trip.
- bking, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5You need your computer for work and school?? Oh my, what a special butterfly you are. I can completely understand your anger when you discovered that those ***** didn't toss everybody else's repairs aside to work on yours.
You must be the ***** that tries to cut in line at Taco Bell. - brufleth, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4I could have sworn I saw an article about a day in the life of a Watch World employee...no? Okay never mind.
- bertram, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4hooray for inflated page views - good job, MacLife! I'll continue to not go to your website, and I'll continue to flip through your magazine at Borders and not pay for it!
- shmatt, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5well... one thing about working retail is that all those people you deal with can really wear you down. All it takes is one ***** with a big mouth and a chip on his shoulder to ruin your day, and dread the next customer. Combine that with tech support, in person at that, and I can see how easy it would be to catch a genius on one of their bad days.
- tizz66, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4You can't even select the correct 'your' to use in a sentence, so I'm not sure you're really 'genius' material.
- ahknight, on 10/11/2007, -2/+5Because those are not comments about this article. They're comments about life. Can't have that here.
- natenovs, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4number 6 could be replaced by a lot of places these days.
- WinnerS, on 10/11/2007, -2/+5Apple fanboys will applaud anything Apple related. They are desktop support, that's it. Apple Desktop Support sounds a LITTLE more accurate.
Buried as who cares! - natenovs, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3no offense to anyone that works at one of these bars, but it doesn't take a Genius to work costumer support. it takes someone who is competent in computer skills, took the training course, and like twatwaffle, is honest and upfront to the costumer. if i ran into more apple reps like that, then i might have some respect for the company.
by the way, twatwaffle, great name. - twatwaffle, on 10/11/2007, -3/+5If they were only proficient enough to assemble laptops correctly, especially the displays.
http://notquiteleet.com/2007/05/23/apple-refuses-to-fix-macbook-pro/ - MacParrot, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Not that it means anything outside of the three Apple Stores I've used, the geniuses in the Tyson's Corner, Pentagon City, and Clarendon have been great. Fixed problems in three different machines (iBook G4, iMac G5, Intel iMac) and had no real long wait (1/2 hour at most past the appointment time).
Sure wish I could say the same about other electronics retail stores. - Wander2000, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4Keep moving, nothing here...
- Elranzer, on 10/11/2007, -3/+57of7 making a blind anti-Apple statement? Imagine that.
- dougmc, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2`I think the Internet provides more information to us than the Genius Bar.'
Really? You think?
At best, the genius knows his Mac stuff inside and out -- but can't know everything about everything. The Internet -- it knows everything about everything. And then some. And if it doesn't know something, it'll probably make it up for you.
(Now, if we can get this genius on the Intraweb ... look out! Of course, it's less impressive to be looking stuff up on the Internet while people are watching you. Even though that's often an incredibly effective way of solving problems.) - norman619, on 10/11/2007, -3/+5It's simple abuse of the digg system. One of the reasons I don't think everyone shouldhave to power to digg down or up any old post. Most seem based on personal bias. It's pretty sad.
- NSResponder, on 10/11/2007, -3/+5I've sat at the Genius bar at Apple's valley fair store, and I would agree with him. Actual hardware problems were easily less than half of the cases I saw.
-jcr - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4Best post I have ever read! You seriously made me almost fall out of my chair!
- joelhardi, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I would have put a few more "skips" on ... this article reveals amazingly little after 6 pages. The crazy customer stories aren't anything special ... anyone who has worked retail or tech support knows that customers are sometimes nice, sometimes deranged.
Good questions would be, are these guys actual experts in anything, or just slightly better trained in-store tech support monkeys? Is their training about the internals of Netinfo and how to trace a circuit, or is it how to change wallpaper and lefty-loosy, righty-tighty? What does Apple pay these guys? What's turnover like at these jobs?
Yeesh, I have learned more by reading the digg comments. - shmatt, on 10/11/2007, -4/+6*****, Apple has several certifications specific to their hardware and to OS X. So you were already certified for all those, despite your belief that Apple makes "half-assed garbage?" You are definitely not a "Mac Person" as you say, so why the hell would you have your Apple Certified Dersktop Technician credential??
I smell FUD - torgos, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3This genius points and clicks all day and runs anytime he sees the dreaded "#" prompt.
- kethraal, on 10/11/2007, -6/+8JohhnyXmas,
You are so full of ***** it's unbelievable.
First, you don't get an "All expense paid trip to Cupertino."
Secondly, there is no company policy that you must "love all things Apple."
I could go on, but it's not really worth it. - DrStephanHeimer, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1@JohhnyXmas
I'm sure that lots of people out there would be happy with a "disgusting" wage of $37000 a year - Shaman760, on 10/11/2007, -0/+170% of genius bar appointments were due to damage incurred by HUMAN ERROR such as dropping, spills, etc.
Seems like Apple would do good to offer a 2nd tier to their Applecare plan in order to cover such "human" behavior. I would gladly pay $500 for such a plan. - zdiggler, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Damn must have a lot of problem they got genius to fix their problems.
- Balanced, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1What you do with you all-stars, man-purse, and slightly inflated ego is none of our business. I don't think your choice to visit the Apple store is particularly relevent, however.
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