a trip to the Apple Store

[sandbox]

Lil mini,

I visited our not so local Apple Store today 25 miles away across 8 miles of water and it could have been a better visit, seeing that there were about 20 young kids there at the time being tutored on the Art of Mac as well as a line of adults at the genius bar.

I wanted to see the difference in the Intel Mini on Leopard and the PPC Mini on Panther that I have here. I also wanted to look at the iPod Touch and get some rubber feet for my iBook.

I had already decided to keep this Mini but I do want to upgrade a laptop and a desktop so I dragged myself to the International mall in Tampa for some hands on experience.

The Mini was connected to a 24 inch glassy monitor, not quite sure I would like one in my office reflecting every light-beam from the Florida sun and indoor lights into my eye sockets, but that wasn't why I was there. The new mini is far more responsive, which I had expected it to be, it has 5 USB and 2 monitors sockets that I hadn't expected
and although I had put it through the test running many aps at once, including a visit to TS to see what the site looked like in glass it didn't seem to heat-up.

I then moved on to the iTouch which was also fascinating. I don't intend to bother with the iPhone but the iTouch seems like a useful tool. I couldn't get much attention from the employees, they were very busy with all those kids. As I was leaving I did ask the person at the front counter if I could buy some little rubber feet for my iBook, (since I took it apart the old feet haven't wanted to stay in), but I was told, with what seemed like almost distain, that Apple Stores Don't Sell Parts. If You Want The iBook Repaired You Should Make An Appointment At The Genius Bar.

This little dipsh!t acted as if my question was beneath him, at first I was shocked, and then I just wanted to lick his forehead and stick him to the wall, but I smiled and got a rollyeye look from the employee standing next to him, indicating that she got the message and he was a jerk, so I smiled back at her. Then the professor from Eckerd Collage who was looking at the 15" MacBook next to me earlier had return to the front deck to ask for a sales person to make a purchase had overheard the exchange and said to me "it’s a little early to be having a bad day" I nodded and walked away.

That was my third trip to the Apple Store and the worst experience I have had in any retail outlet in quite sometime. I stopped in a Café on the way out of the Mall to get a coffee for the trip back to my island and Jack the guy from Eckerd was walking in as I was leaving and said, that he could get the same educational discount online so he decide that today wasn't a good day to buy a Mac. We concluded that the problem was the kids and all the chaos that had the employee on edge, and that the store needed to manage those events a little better.

The trip nor Apple Store didn't ruin my day, I opened up the iBook while driving home, turned on iStumbler and watched all the open wifi networks load as I drove back from Tampa. With the exception of about 6.5 miles of the 8 mile trip over water, I could get wifi coverage just about anywhere around here. I think the iTouch will work out well.

This is a good article.
http://lowendmac.com/musings/09mm/2009-mac-mini-value.html

[Xairbusdriver]

I doubt that they would even let you pay for the rubber feet, I've had several replaced free. An appointment is almost required nowadays, however, since there are so many customers, even when no special events are scheduled. Of course, the 'staff' are somehow ever younger and usually without much customer-friendly training. I think they mainly do a terrific amount of product training and then get shuffled onto the crowd on the floor! Perhaps this will change when MS starts opening their stores, often next door or around the corner.

Sorry you had a bum visit, but our store is always crowded with 'lookey-loos!' And they attempt to make things so 'casual' leads some to see only a conglomeration of randomly moving people, I fear. I can still remember my first visits to a Nordstrom! I even got directions to a local store that had the special items I needed from a concierge! And I didn't even buy anything from them! Those people know how to make and keep a customer!

[kimmer]

Our so-called apple store has to order everything. No appointment needed though. Just plenty of patience while they order and wait on the slow boat to deliver.

Sounds like a fun experience, SB. Wonder if those kids know how to write checks and/or spell their last name? Hmmmm ....