A Tale of Two Company Stores
I have had occasion in the past few weeks to visit two different technology company stores: an Apple Store, and a Microsoft Store. The two stores are in the same mall, practically facing each other. They are similar in size and basic layout. But oh, were they so different in the way they treat their customers.
I visited the Apple store because Apple got caught red-handed monkeying with the batteries and power levels in the firmware in 'older' iPhones, and are offering - for a brief time - a reduced-cost on a replacement battery for those affected. It was frankly a hassle to get an appointment to do this, but I made my way through the poorly-designed web interface to do so, and they followed up with an email letting me know that I was in the queue for an appointment, and eventually called me to set up an actual time and date.
When I arrived at the store for my appointment (five minutes early), I was ignored by the phalanx of Apple store employees in the front of the store. They were too busy talking amongst themselves. It wasn't until I reached the middle of the store that someone noticed me. When I explained I was there for a battery replacement appointment, I was shown over to a table with six stools. It quickly became apparent that this was the 'battery replacement purgatory' containment area, where people there for the same reason I was were shunted over and ignored as much as possible. An employee did eventually come out and see me, about ten minutes after my appointment was to have started. She was nice enough, introducing herself and confirming that I was who I claimed to be, and that I was there to get my battery replaced. She asked to see my phone, which I had in a protective case. She promptly set about trying to remove it from its case, yanking on the bottom (where there are several holes for ports and things), not the top (which is basically solid)...and cracked the case. Which was bad enough, but then she promptly blurted out "Oh darn! I was supposed to have you remove any case so we wouldn't be liable!"
*blink* *blink*
Oh really now? Seriously, that's your reaction, not "oops" or "I'm so sorry!", but "I wasn't supposed to do anything that would make the company liable?"
I gently pointed out the obvious - that she *did* break it, and what could be done to rectify the situation? She said she'd have to go talk to a manager, and vamoosed with my now-caseless phone. She returned about another five minutes later with another employee in tow, saying her manager had approved replacing my case, and that this other person would help me with that. She then vanished again, this time for good - I saw her leaving the store with coat and bag not two minutes later. Apparently her shift was over, and she was out of there.
The other employee never bothered to introduce herself, or say anything, or even meet my eyes. She stood there with her face practically glued to her phone for well over ten minutes - closer to fifteen, really. Finally she heaved a huge sigh and said that the inventory for cases for 'such an old phone' was impossible to determine, so she'd have to go back into the stock room and see what was available. And did I want leather, or acrylic?
*blink* *blink* *blink*
First of all, my iPhone is less than two years old. They're still selling this model in the store. Secondly, the broken case is a rugged plastic case designed to protect the phone as much as possible from all the daily wear and tear of my commute, my job, and so on. Why would I be interested in a flimsy leather case, which might look nice but would not protect it nearly as well?
I didn't say either of these things. I just politely indicated that I strongly preferred an acrylic option, whatever would protect my phone the best.
Off she goes. I sit and wait. And wait. And wait and wait and wait.
Finally she returns with seven boxes. She plops them down on the table in a heap, and says that this is all there is to choose from for my phone, so I can choose between the acrylic or the leather in any color they have.
Except all seven boxes are *leather* cases. They're all clearly marked as such. They're all the same case. Several of them are the exact same color.
When I point this out, she scowls, pokes at each different box, sure that I'm wrong and that some of them are acrylic. Finally she shrugs and mutters that this is all there is, they don't really carry cases for outdated phones.
At this point it's been so long in the store that my phone is due to be done in about fifteen minutes. Regardless, I was starting to feel irked enough that I didn't want to keep sitting there with this person who clearly didn't want to be there, didn't want to see me, and definitely didn't want to 'help' any more than she had. So I chose a leather case, left the store, and walked around the mall for 15 minutes until it was time to return to pick up my phone.
The store was far less busy when I returned - in fact there were very few people there who weren't employees or customers with appointments at the 'genius' bar - but I had the same experience as the first time. Plenty of employees at the front of the store, all of whom ignored me; only one employee who approached me once I'd crossed the middle of the store; and shunted off to the 'problem battery child' table once he learned I was there to pick up a phone from a battery replacement. While sitting there, I overheard another employee talking to a customer at my table, also there for a battery replacement. The employee disparaged all these people who 'were just panicked by one bad report' and who wasted their time by making these battery replacement appointments, because there was nothing to it anyway, and anyhow lots of them didn't even bother to show up. Which, okay, I can see how the latter would be annoying, but seriously, dude, you're putting down the very customer you're talking to, not to mention all the rest of us stuck at this table. He couldn't have made his disdain any more clear.
Finally an employee comes out with my phone. He assures me that the battery has been replaced, and that I won't be charged for the 'new' case, just for the battery replacement. He then wants me to sign the 'hold you exempt' paperwork for working on my phone - paperwork I never saw dropping off the phone, when it would have been, y'know, relevant - and seems surprised when I point this out. But I pay my bill and finally get out of the store, and out of the mall, almost two hours after I arrived to 'drop off' my phone.
Verdict: Apple clearly disdains their customers, and wants nothing to do with them as soon as they've bought something. You are simply a money source to them, and not a valuable one at that. When Apple does something wrong, like 'protect' you by artificially depowering your phone with firmware updates, they won't admit wrongdoing, and they'll charge you to fix the problem they caused. And they'll make their disdain for your relatively-new hardware obvious in multiple ways, even though the device is less than two years old, because it's not the latest model, and you're not lining their pockets by paying for their overpriced latest phone. Needless to say, when my iPhone - the first I've ever owned - does wear out, I will not be replacing it with another iPhone. Sure, it has some nice features, but I certainly have no reason to trust Apple.
A week later, my laptop - which is at least seven years old at this point, battered and worn, and still running Windows 7 - suddenly stopped letting me log in with my user profile unless I was in safe mode. The user profile service wouldn't come up correctly in normal mode. I ran hardware and memory checks on the machine, all of which passed. I could have kept trying to troubleshoot the issue, but hey, there's a Microsoft store over at the mall, and they have a helpdesk. It's probably worth a visit. I hope.
I arrive at the store. I am promptly greeted at the front door by one of the two employees working the area. I explain why I'm there, and she escorts me right back to a table where another employee is checking in customers and working with another pair. He acknowledges me at once, quickly explains that he's helping two others, but he'll get to me as quickly as he can, and in the meantime, would I like some water or coffee? The woman who escorted me has returned to the door to help other customers, but when I thank him and acknowledge that water would be welcome when there's time, he uses his headset, and another employee brings me a bottle of water to drink while I wait.
The man at the check-in table finishes helping his other customers quickly. They all seem happy with the service. He then turns to me, apologies again for the delay, and asks me what's brought me in. I bring out my old laptop and explain the problems I've seen. He's immediately aware this is an old laptop - really there's no hiding it - but instead of being repulsed by it, he's excited to see an old machine still running. He also takes my description of the problems I've seen, the tests I've done, and the remediation steps (safe mode with networking) I've tried at face value and indicative of a potentially deeper problem, not something that always happens when you're female. He uses his radio to summon a tech from the back, and together the tech and I go over the issues together, confirming that it's not possible to create a user profile, log in as the administrator or as a user profile in normal mode, and so on. She (and the check-in desk employee, who listens in and kibbitzes between customers) are clearly intrigued, and excited by the challenge. She concludes that yes, this is going to take some deeper investigation, and that I need to leave the laptop with them. She then immediately asks if I have a recent backup?
She's delighted when I confirm that yes, I do; and that I have all my relevant software, should they have to do something drastic, like re-image the machine. I also have my power supply, which is greeted with a cheer. She has me fill out all the appropriate paperwork, which is well laid-out and honestly doesn't take that long, and advises me that it might take up to ten days for them to finish the work, depending on what they find. They'll call me when it's done, and I'll have up to a week to pick it up after that. No problem.
...Except there is a problem, in that I'm going out of town in seven days. I call to check in on the progress on Friday, to find out how things are going and let them know I won't be available for a few days, and would it be possible to pick up the machine on Saturday if it's ready? The person on the phone checks the work log, and thinks it *might* be ready by Saturday, but to call or check in that day to be sure. I do, and it isn't, so I make sure they know that I won't be able to pick it up until the next Saturday at the earliest, and please don't give away my old laptop in the meantime. Not a problem.
And it isn't. They call me on Wednesday and leave a message that my laptop is ready, and that I should call and make an appointment to pick it up. I call back, and making the pickup appointment is super-easy and quick. Saturday morning I walk in for my appointment (five minutes early, as is my habit), and immediately greeted at the door, just as before. I'm escorted back to the check-in table, where the check-in employee quickly takes my information and sends a radio message to the tech. She comes out right away, with my old laptop nicely wrapped in a bubble wrap folder to protect it, the power supply neatly coiled and labelled so it didn't get lost in case it was separated from the laptop during its stay. The laptop has been cleaned, surface-wise, within an inch of its life. The tech takes it out and explains that yes, there was some low-level OS corruption, and that they'd had to custom reinstall the OS. They'd patched it with all the latest Windows patches, restored my Office 2010 software, and all my folders and data files, no problem, but did let me know with regret that I'd have to reinstall any other software that had been on the machine, reconfigure my profile with a password, and so on. All in all, it's fairly clear that they've done hours and hours of work on my poor old laptop to get it up and running again as best as possible.
And the cost?
Nothing. NADA. Not a cent. It was Microsoft's Windows OS (an old OS, no longer sold, but still theirs) that had failed, and so they fixed it. Plus cleaned and shined up my old laptop, not technically a Microsoft bit of hardware, just because.
*blink* *blink* *blink*
But wait! I hear you cry. You're technologically knowledgable and in the industry, and so they did things for you they wouldn't do for others, right? They were nice to you because you're of the tribe.
No, not really. I've seen them treat others that way, too, right down to not charging for their services when something needed to be fixed. I've seen the roster of classes they've offered to my mother, to help her understand her computer, all free of charge.
Verdict: Microsoft certainly has had its issues in the past, and probably still has issues now, but in their stores at least, they completely value their customers. If you have a device with Microsoft software on it - not even a device that you bought from them - they'll help you, and treat you well while doing it. When the time comes to replace my old laptop, I know where I'm going to be looking. And thanks to these particular Microsoft store employees, I have time before I have to go looking.
And the next time someone tries to tell me how much better Apple is than Microsoft, I'm going to laugh and laugh and laugh.
I visited the Apple store because Apple got caught red-handed monkeying with the batteries and power levels in the firmware in 'older' iPhones, and are offering - for a brief time - a reduced-cost on a replacement battery for those affected. It was frankly a hassle to get an appointment to do this, but I made my way through the poorly-designed web interface to do so, and they followed up with an email letting me know that I was in the queue for an appointment, and eventually called me to set up an actual time and date.
When I arrived at the store for my appointment (five minutes early), I was ignored by the phalanx of Apple store employees in the front of the store. They were too busy talking amongst themselves. It wasn't until I reached the middle of the store that someone noticed me. When I explained I was there for a battery replacement appointment, I was shown over to a table with six stools. It quickly became apparent that this was the 'battery replacement purgatory' containment area, where people there for the same reason I was were shunted over and ignored as much as possible. An employee did eventually come out and see me, about ten minutes after my appointment was to have started. She was nice enough, introducing herself and confirming that I was who I claimed to be, and that I was there to get my battery replaced. She asked to see my phone, which I had in a protective case. She promptly set about trying to remove it from its case, yanking on the bottom (where there are several holes for ports and things), not the top (which is basically solid)...and cracked the case. Which was bad enough, but then she promptly blurted out "Oh darn! I was supposed to have you remove any case so we wouldn't be liable!"
*blink* *blink*
Oh really now? Seriously, that's your reaction, not "oops" or "I'm so sorry!", but "I wasn't supposed to do anything that would make the company liable?"
I gently pointed out the obvious - that she *did* break it, and what could be done to rectify the situation? She said she'd have to go talk to a manager, and vamoosed with my now-caseless phone. She returned about another five minutes later with another employee in tow, saying her manager had approved replacing my case, and that this other person would help me with that. She then vanished again, this time for good - I saw her leaving the store with coat and bag not two minutes later. Apparently her shift was over, and she was out of there.
The other employee never bothered to introduce herself, or say anything, or even meet my eyes. She stood there with her face practically glued to her phone for well over ten minutes - closer to fifteen, really. Finally she heaved a huge sigh and said that the inventory for cases for 'such an old phone' was impossible to determine, so she'd have to go back into the stock room and see what was available. And did I want leather, or acrylic?
*blink* *blink* *blink*
First of all, my iPhone is less than two years old. They're still selling this model in the store. Secondly, the broken case is a rugged plastic case designed to protect the phone as much as possible from all the daily wear and tear of my commute, my job, and so on. Why would I be interested in a flimsy leather case, which might look nice but would not protect it nearly as well?
I didn't say either of these things. I just politely indicated that I strongly preferred an acrylic option, whatever would protect my phone the best.
Off she goes. I sit and wait. And wait. And wait and wait and wait.
Finally she returns with seven boxes. She plops them down on the table in a heap, and says that this is all there is to choose from for my phone, so I can choose between the acrylic or the leather in any color they have.
Except all seven boxes are *leather* cases. They're all clearly marked as such. They're all the same case. Several of them are the exact same color.
When I point this out, she scowls, pokes at each different box, sure that I'm wrong and that some of them are acrylic. Finally she shrugs and mutters that this is all there is, they don't really carry cases for outdated phones.
At this point it's been so long in the store that my phone is due to be done in about fifteen minutes. Regardless, I was starting to feel irked enough that I didn't want to keep sitting there with this person who clearly didn't want to be there, didn't want to see me, and definitely didn't want to 'help' any more than she had. So I chose a leather case, left the store, and walked around the mall for 15 minutes until it was time to return to pick up my phone.
The store was far less busy when I returned - in fact there were very few people there who weren't employees or customers with appointments at the 'genius' bar - but I had the same experience as the first time. Plenty of employees at the front of the store, all of whom ignored me; only one employee who approached me once I'd crossed the middle of the store; and shunted off to the 'problem battery child' table once he learned I was there to pick up a phone from a battery replacement. While sitting there, I overheard another employee talking to a customer at my table, also there for a battery replacement. The employee disparaged all these people who 'were just panicked by one bad report' and who wasted their time by making these battery replacement appointments, because there was nothing to it anyway, and anyhow lots of them didn't even bother to show up. Which, okay, I can see how the latter would be annoying, but seriously, dude, you're putting down the very customer you're talking to, not to mention all the rest of us stuck at this table. He couldn't have made his disdain any more clear.
Finally an employee comes out with my phone. He assures me that the battery has been replaced, and that I won't be charged for the 'new' case, just for the battery replacement. He then wants me to sign the 'hold you exempt' paperwork for working on my phone - paperwork I never saw dropping off the phone, when it would have been, y'know, relevant - and seems surprised when I point this out. But I pay my bill and finally get out of the store, and out of the mall, almost two hours after I arrived to 'drop off' my phone.
Verdict: Apple clearly disdains their customers, and wants nothing to do with them as soon as they've bought something. You are simply a money source to them, and not a valuable one at that. When Apple does something wrong, like 'protect' you by artificially depowering your phone with firmware updates, they won't admit wrongdoing, and they'll charge you to fix the problem they caused. And they'll make their disdain for your relatively-new hardware obvious in multiple ways, even though the device is less than two years old, because it's not the latest model, and you're not lining their pockets by paying for their overpriced latest phone. Needless to say, when my iPhone - the first I've ever owned - does wear out, I will not be replacing it with another iPhone. Sure, it has some nice features, but I certainly have no reason to trust Apple.
A week later, my laptop - which is at least seven years old at this point, battered and worn, and still running Windows 7 - suddenly stopped letting me log in with my user profile unless I was in safe mode. The user profile service wouldn't come up correctly in normal mode. I ran hardware and memory checks on the machine, all of which passed. I could have kept trying to troubleshoot the issue, but hey, there's a Microsoft store over at the mall, and they have a helpdesk. It's probably worth a visit. I hope.
I arrive at the store. I am promptly greeted at the front door by one of the two employees working the area. I explain why I'm there, and she escorts me right back to a table where another employee is checking in customers and working with another pair. He acknowledges me at once, quickly explains that he's helping two others, but he'll get to me as quickly as he can, and in the meantime, would I like some water or coffee? The woman who escorted me has returned to the door to help other customers, but when I thank him and acknowledge that water would be welcome when there's time, he uses his headset, and another employee brings me a bottle of water to drink while I wait.
The man at the check-in table finishes helping his other customers quickly. They all seem happy with the service. He then turns to me, apologies again for the delay, and asks me what's brought me in. I bring out my old laptop and explain the problems I've seen. He's immediately aware this is an old laptop - really there's no hiding it - but instead of being repulsed by it, he's excited to see an old machine still running. He also takes my description of the problems I've seen, the tests I've done, and the remediation steps (safe mode with networking) I've tried at face value and indicative of a potentially deeper problem, not something that always happens when you're female. He uses his radio to summon a tech from the back, and together the tech and I go over the issues together, confirming that it's not possible to create a user profile, log in as the administrator or as a user profile in normal mode, and so on. She (and the check-in desk employee, who listens in and kibbitzes between customers) are clearly intrigued, and excited by the challenge. She concludes that yes, this is going to take some deeper investigation, and that I need to leave the laptop with them. She then immediately asks if I have a recent backup?
She's delighted when I confirm that yes, I do; and that I have all my relevant software, should they have to do something drastic, like re-image the machine. I also have my power supply, which is greeted with a cheer. She has me fill out all the appropriate paperwork, which is well laid-out and honestly doesn't take that long, and advises me that it might take up to ten days for them to finish the work, depending on what they find. They'll call me when it's done, and I'll have up to a week to pick it up after that. No problem.
...Except there is a problem, in that I'm going out of town in seven days. I call to check in on the progress on Friday, to find out how things are going and let them know I won't be available for a few days, and would it be possible to pick up the machine on Saturday if it's ready? The person on the phone checks the work log, and thinks it *might* be ready by Saturday, but to call or check in that day to be sure. I do, and it isn't, so I make sure they know that I won't be able to pick it up until the next Saturday at the earliest, and please don't give away my old laptop in the meantime. Not a problem.
And it isn't. They call me on Wednesday and leave a message that my laptop is ready, and that I should call and make an appointment to pick it up. I call back, and making the pickup appointment is super-easy and quick. Saturday morning I walk in for my appointment (five minutes early, as is my habit), and immediately greeted at the door, just as before. I'm escorted back to the check-in table, where the check-in employee quickly takes my information and sends a radio message to the tech. She comes out right away, with my old laptop nicely wrapped in a bubble wrap folder to protect it, the power supply neatly coiled and labelled so it didn't get lost in case it was separated from the laptop during its stay. The laptop has been cleaned, surface-wise, within an inch of its life. The tech takes it out and explains that yes, there was some low-level OS corruption, and that they'd had to custom reinstall the OS. They'd patched it with all the latest Windows patches, restored my Office 2010 software, and all my folders and data files, no problem, but did let me know with regret that I'd have to reinstall any other software that had been on the machine, reconfigure my profile with a password, and so on. All in all, it's fairly clear that they've done hours and hours of work on my poor old laptop to get it up and running again as best as possible.
And the cost?
Nothing. NADA. Not a cent. It was Microsoft's Windows OS (an old OS, no longer sold, but still theirs) that had failed, and so they fixed it. Plus cleaned and shined up my old laptop, not technically a Microsoft bit of hardware, just because.
*blink* *blink* *blink*
But wait! I hear you cry. You're technologically knowledgable and in the industry, and so they did things for you they wouldn't do for others, right? They were nice to you because you're of the tribe.
No, not really. I've seen them treat others that way, too, right down to not charging for their services when something needed to be fixed. I've seen the roster of classes they've offered to my mother, to help her understand her computer, all free of charge.
Verdict: Microsoft certainly has had its issues in the past, and probably still has issues now, but in their stores at least, they completely value their customers. If you have a device with Microsoft software on it - not even a device that you bought from them - they'll help you, and treat you well while doing it. When the time comes to replace my old laptop, I know where I'm going to be looking. And thanks to these particular Microsoft store employees, I have time before I have to go looking.
And the next time someone tries to tell me how much better Apple is than Microsoft, I'm going to laugh and laugh and laugh.