I’ve never had a problem with the staff at the Apple store…until yesterday. Over the weekend my first generation iPhone 2G (as opposed to 3G) crapped out on me. I did get a few missed calls and swore I never heard the phone ring. I thought maybe I was in a noisy area when they called. Eventually I realized that the speaker was extra quiet when the phone rang. Upon further testing, I was able to confirm that the speaker was “blown”, or at least sounds like a normal blown speaker.
I had decided that I was not going to get the 3G or 3GS when they were announced due to their power consumption and small/weak battery. However I rather have a battery depleted phone than a phone with no sound. So yesterday I dragged myself to the Apple store after work to get a new white 16GB iPhone 3GS.
As usual I was greeted by way too many of their staff member. I strolled over to the display of cases specifically looking for the Incase Power Slider since I wanted more battery power, they didn’t have it in stock. I then told the staff (lets call him “Rick”) I wanted a white 16GB iPhone. Apparently he was unable to sell me one and directed me to the front corner of the store where it was roped off. I was instructed to wait there and someone would help me with the iPhone purchase. There were a few more people in front of me purchasing iPhones, but the family right in front of me was getting 2 and had way too many question. Just when I thought they were finally done with the transaction, they had to ask the staff (lets call him Sam) where the cases were. He told me he would “be right back” and walked off to help them.
Being the patient guy that I am and also not wanting to lose my place in the mini line, I waited…and waited….and waited. Twice another staff came over and said someone would be right with us. About 10 minutes passed, a couple was brought over by a staff and was helped with their iPhone purchase in front of us (Some had been in line for 10 minutes, I’ve waited 30 minutes!) we all mumbled our complaints loud enough for the other useless employees to hear.
You are probably thinking I’m just that angry guy who happened to have had one bad experience. NO! here’s what truly pissed me off. I’ve been in the store for almost 40 minutes at this point and who come strolling over the assist me? Remember Rick? Yeah, that incompetent Rick I spoke to 30 minutes ago who said he can’t help and directed me over to this stupid roped off area (reminds me of this WAMU commerical with the roped off bankers).
Rick took me through the entire step of “pre-qualifying”, verifying information, picking a plan, paying and activating. If he was able to do the entire process, what stopped him from helping me to begin with? and what the hell ever happened to “I’ll be right back Sam”??? I still don’t know why Apple is so set on having customers activate the phone in store. When I got my iPhone 2G, I activated it at home with no problems. My main concern with activating in store is that they touched my phone…Yes I’m very anal. I didn’t even touch the phone after I got it. I put it back in the box at the store, went to get the case I wanted, got home, washed my hand, put the phone on a clean microfiber cloth, put on a screen protector, wiped off all the dust from the phone, carefully put on the case…NOW I get to play with the new toy. Yes I’m disturbingly anal when it comes to my “gadgets”. My iPhone 2G has never been “naked” except when I remove the case to wipe off dust weekly. If not for the blown speaker it would be in perfect condition.
Another weird thing about Rick is that I don’t think he knows his Apple products very well. I mentioned that my speaker was blown on my iPhone 2G, he asked “Which one, left or right”….shouldn’t he know that there’s only one speaker on the left and that the right side is the mic?
I was later able to get the Incase Power Slider from a Target for $50, Apple retails it at $99.99, Taget has lowered their price to $79.99, but the one I got was an open box item missing the USB cable so they marked it down to $50! It’s a great battery case…if you don’t mind having a phone that’s 1.5x thicker. I just really wanted more battery power throughout the day.
