Some time in 2007 I went to an Apple event in Scottsdale Arizona. I am a network engineer/system administrator, and my organization was about 50/50 Mac/Windows. We spend somewhere between $200-600K a year on Apple products for employees. I seem to remember that this was shortly before Apple killed off their XServe products, but I could be mistaken about the timing.
There was a break in the presentation, after which I decided I was going to bail. I took my phone, a Blackberry at the time, out of my pocket as I exited the door so that I could check if anything was going on at work.
As I took those first few steps outside, I accidentally dropped my phone.
It wasn't one of those gentle drops. In the process of trying to catch it before it hit the ground, I ended up pushing it with even greater velocity downwards. It hit the concrete pretty hard and a mix of phone, battery cover, and battery went skittering across the concrete walkway.
Three Apple Store employees were sitting outside, also on break. My phone had gone flying right past their feet.
"Oooh!" they said with a wince.
Then one of them said, "Don't worry everyone! It wasn't a IPhone!"
And they laughed.
And that was it. I picked up the parts of my phone, took at a look at the damage, put it back together, and walked away.
There was no offer of help or concern, but they thought it was pretty funny.
Fortunately, the phone survived pretty well off. There really wasn't anything more than minor scratches, despite how I had practically thrown the phone against the concrete.
Ironically, had it been an IPhone (or any modern touchscreen phone), it would have probably been destroyed. I ended up destroying the screen on my Nexus One a year or two later with a much less violent drop.
And, I'm afraid to say, most of my other experiences with Apple store employees here in Arizona has been pretty similar. We regularly have our helpdesk staff go in to pick up parts and do repair runs and I've had to call up our regular Apple rep and comment on bad attitudes, poor service, and outright rejection of service on in-warranty breakages for whatever reason-of-the-day they could make up.
The story linked to is important: You really can make a lasting impression on a customer that they will never forget, positive or negative.
I will never forget the way three Apple Store employees laughed at me as I dropped my phone.
When I read the "It wasn't an iPhone" bit, I thought they meant it as in "Don't worry, it wasn't an iPhone, so it will probably survive the fall!". Which puts a more positive spin to it :)
There was a break in the presentation, after which I decided I was going to bail. I took my phone, a Blackberry at the time, out of my pocket as I exited the door so that I could check if anything was going on at work.
As I took those first few steps outside, I accidentally dropped my phone.
It wasn't one of those gentle drops. In the process of trying to catch it before it hit the ground, I ended up pushing it with even greater velocity downwards. It hit the concrete pretty hard and a mix of phone, battery cover, and battery went skittering across the concrete walkway.
Three Apple Store employees were sitting outside, also on break. My phone had gone flying right past their feet.
"Oooh!" they said with a wince.
Then one of them said, "Don't worry everyone! It wasn't a IPhone!"
And they laughed.
And that was it. I picked up the parts of my phone, took at a look at the damage, put it back together, and walked away.
There was no offer of help or concern, but they thought it was pretty funny.
Fortunately, the phone survived pretty well off. There really wasn't anything more than minor scratches, despite how I had practically thrown the phone against the concrete.
Ironically, had it been an IPhone (or any modern touchscreen phone), it would have probably been destroyed. I ended up destroying the screen on my Nexus One a year or two later with a much less violent drop.
And, I'm afraid to say, most of my other experiences with Apple store employees here in Arizona has been pretty similar. We regularly have our helpdesk staff go in to pick up parts and do repair runs and I've had to call up our regular Apple rep and comment on bad attitudes, poor service, and outright rejection of service on in-warranty breakages for whatever reason-of-the-day they could make up.
The story linked to is important: You really can make a lasting impression on a customer that they will never forget, positive or negative.
I will never forget the way three Apple Store employees laughed at me as I dropped my phone.