Can I buy something? Please?
Fedex delivered my iPhone a couple days ago (ironically the day the whole AT&T network was down for the entire state of Hawaii), an early Christmas present from eGeekette. I’d been fending off the iPhone jones for a long time, but the wealth of available applications finally won me over, especially the Twitter and Facebook apps. Woo hoo! Always connected!
Since I carry my phone with me everywhere, I figured I’d better get a case to protect my shiny new toy so I headed over to the Apple Store. The variety of cases available for the iPhone (for every iProduct, actually) is pretty mind boggling so I spent a long standing in front of the display. I have the good fortune to be going to Macworld Expo in January so I finally settled on a basic silicone jacket, figuring that I’ll look for the case of my dreams there at Mecca of all things Apple.
Clutching my case, I headed to the back of the glowing cavern but discovered there was only the “Genius Bar” there. Oookay… looking around it took me a couple moments to realize there were no registers anywhere in the store. A passing Apple employee in a blue shirt took pity on me and let me know that anyone in a blue shirt could help me check out – except her, since she was helping someone already.
I headed towards the nearest blue shirt, but he was setting up an iPhone. There were a few other blue shirts scattered around the store, most of them hustling back and forth busily. Trying to catch someone’s attention was like a three year old trying to play professional soccer. Unsure what to do, I followed blue shirt that looked like he was actually checking someone out and once he stopped moving, hovered hopefully. Once he finished that sale, I would buy my case and be on my merry way.
But no… After a couple of minutes waiting, he too hustled away, not even acknowledging my presence. Was I supposed to follow him? Wait there for him to come back? Find another blue shirt and start stalking all over again?
Aren’t stores supposed to sell you stuff? It doesn’t work if you’re so “innovative” that you confuse your customers and make the process as difficult and demeaning as possible.
I gave up and walked out. I’ll stick to shopping at places that actually want to let me buy something.
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By the lone gunman, November 24, 2008 @ 8:49 am
Sadly I also had a semi negative experience @ that Apple Store… I just went there for information on my iPod Touch and discovered that they didnt’ know all that much, or were kinda bad at explaining things… At least the two girls that I talked to were not that good. I was all like, talk to me like I’m old!… Frick, I guess I am old… I eventually got the info I was looking for… but it was difficult.
By Derek, November 24, 2008 @ 1:27 pm
Hmm, I had a similar experience myself. I have low tolerance for lack of customer service, so there I was standing where the registers used to be, crying out, “DOESNT ANYONE WANT TO SELL ME SOMETHING!” But it still took a while for a ‘droid to help me.
By the lone gunman, November 25, 2008 @ 10:27 am
Did I tell you about the time we went to the Big Island Steakhouse on the Big Island? I think I had mentioned this to Not the LG. We got seated by the hostess, BUT after we were seated… no one… and I mean NO ONE came by… not even to get us water! After about 20 minutes, we stormed out and bitched at the hostess on the way. We ended up at Roy’s, with no reservations, eating at the bar. Which, I gotta tell you, was not a bad experience… Actually kinda entertaining. There’s a lot of action at the bar… You have to be pretty skilled to be a good bartender… Two of the more memorable things that happened at the bar… 1. they had to clear broken glass from the ice bin… They did that in, like, 10 minutes. 2. They had to figure out the mixture for an obscure drink that was actually not listed in the Bar Drink Bible. It was way more fun eating at the bar… Food and service were still good. The trade off is that the bar stools are a little less comfortable. I should write this on WOMF…
BTW, do you guys WOMF?