I had to laugh when I read the following article by Business Week on their perception of the Apple stores. I have been in 7 different Apple stores and I will tell you what my perception is. They hire a bunch of prissy bastards that are unwilling to help customers make informed choices.
I had vowed to never buy a Apple computer but thru input from many readers of this site I lowered my barriers and decided to buy a G5 with a wide screen LCD monitor. As near as I could figure it was about a $5000.00 dollar purchase. The most I would have ever spent on a computer.
As I visited the local Apple store in Honolulu and started asking Geek type questions on the G5 the salesman then started asking questions back. When I indicated I had only ever owned Windows bases PC’s in the past all I got was attitude. Little did he know I had my check book in my back pocket and was ready to plunk down some serious change. This asshole pissed me off and I walked.
I have visited 3 other Apple stores in various states over the past 6 months and found similar attitudes. These punks do not want to sell computers they want to sell attitudes and if you are not a previous Apple owner they stick their noses out at you. Well the icing was on the cake at the Mall of America last week. I went in resolved to buy a G5 and told the salesman I wanted a G5 shipped to Hawaii. I was on a tight schedule and wanted to wrap up the transaction in under a hour. This jerk, jerked me around to the point I walked out. Maybe I have had a bad consumer experience in expecting to be treated nicely but it seems Apple must have several requirements when hiring people to sell computers.
1. Religious Zealot Apple Users
2. Hire only people with the biggest Attitude
3. Hating any Windows user that walks in the door.
Well I have my mind made up. I will never ever buy a computer from Apple, that is the real reason Apple is loosing market share. [Business Week]