How the Apple Store Lost Its Groove

jimthing

    May 15

Microsoft stores… what are they?

Yours sincerely, Europe (lol!)

The difference is Apple has vastly more devices that need servicing or dealing with; hence are busy.

At least here in this the US, one of the big reasons for Apple’s revival after the prognosis of certain death was Apple Stores and the rapid, efficient and effective Genius Bars, as well as an excellent and peerless product experience, superior sales help, and fun training and entertainment. I posted a link not long ago about Samsung opening two test stores that sound like clones of Apple Stores, except they will not sell direct to consumers. They are emphasizing rapid service at a time when Apple Stores have been getting quite a bit of bad publicity.

MS is still largely a software company, that sells a handful of devices itself while the majority are from third-parties.

The MS Stores feature lots of hardware from many PC manufacturers, as well as Xbox and controller models, Surface, mice, keyboards, whatever they call their smart watch/fitness bands (and those made by licensees), whatever they call Cortana speakers and smart devices, Hololens and other stuff. They’ve got plenty of stuff but not many visitors.

So comparing one with the other is a rather chalk and cheese comparison.

It’s more like apples to azure.

1 Like

Assuming that a lot of students use Apple hardware, it would be interesting to know what most of them do when it needs servicing. Do they all go to the Apple Authorized dealer, and does that dealer have the capacity to deal with them all smoothly? Or do people send their hardware via the postal service (or UPS or something) to a service center?
While I agree that the specifics of inconveniences in physical Apple Stores may not be interesting to someone for whom no Apple Store is conveniently located, the general topic of how aftercare is provided is potentially interesting to any user of Apple hardware.
Perhaps an interesting sub-topic here would be alternatives to using physical Apple Stores. I live 100km from the nearest store and would like to know of other options and their pros and cons.

I know my wife has used the Authorized place a couple of times for repairs. By all accounts they’re pretty good. The only time I went there was when my daughter wanted a keyboard cover for the MacBook she used then.

I almost always order things (many things) from the online Apple Store. The one time I needed a PowerBook serviced they sent a box and I shipped it off (UPS, I think) and the turnaround was fairly quick. My main machine these days is a cheese grater MacPro (2010 model) so whatever repairs/additions needed I can do myself (so far; if it dies I don’t know what I’ll do), but I haven’t had any need for any actual repairs on any Apple device in quite a while.

I don’t spend much time on campus at all, but I think the campus store also runs a computer sales place where you can get the usual educational discounts for various manufacturers including Apple. I don’t know if they do any repairs.

Many larger school districts and universities/colleges have in house authorized Apple service setups so they can do many types of repairs in and out of warranty with parts sourced directly from Apple.

Not sure about Penn State. I thought they did (I go to a conference there once a year) but based on Paul’s comments, maybe not.

ricklavin2001
Rick

    May 16

Assuming that a lot of students use Apple hardware, it would be interesting to know what most of them do when it needs servicing. Do they all go to the Apple Authorized dealer, and does that dealer have the capacity to deal with them all smoothly? Or do people send their hardware via the postal service (or UPS or something) to a service center?

I know of some larger colleges in the US that sell Apple hardware and accessories in their bookstores, which will also ship out stuff to Apple for repair.

While I agree that the specifics of inconveniences in physical Apple Stores may not be interesting to someone for whom no Apple Store is conveniently located, the general topic of how aftercare is provided is potentially interesting to any user of Apple hardware.

However much I have moaned and groaned about the current service in Apple Stores, I’m still glad that they exist. I’ve heard a lot of worse horror stories from PC and Android users trying to get repairs and dealing with horrible experiences with shipping and receiving, often having to ship back and forth due to unsatisfactory repairs. Many years ago in the early days of MacBooks when Apple Stores were probably just a gleam in Steve Jobs’s eye, my husband was convinced by a MacMall salesperson to pay for their repair service rather than Apple Care. When he did have to ship it out it not only took over three weeks to get it repaired, they shipped someone else’s MacBook instead. My husband’s was password protected, but the other guy’s was not. It took another week to complete the switch, and MacMall tried to stick us with the postage.

Perhaps an interesting sub-topic here would be alternatives to using physical Apple Stores. I live 100km from the nearest store and would like to know of other options and their pros and cons.

Friends who live in a rural area have taken their Macs to Best Buy and didn’t have complaints other than they wished they had an Apple Store within a reasonable driving distance.

One of my cousins worked for many years as a financial analyst for the bookstore company the NY City University system contracted out to. It was, and I’m sure still is, one of the largest among the many companies colleges cut deals with. In fact, almost all colleges do. I’ll bet these companies cut deals with Apple for servicing their customers as well.