View Full Version : Frustrated with Reseller
My mom lives across the country and I recommended she visit her local Apple reseller (she only has one in her city) to purchase an iMac. The owner of the store told my mother to buy a PC because they're less expensive.....she then told my mother that iMac's are harder and more complicated to use....so Apple lost a customer today because of this reseller.
Does Apple monitor reseller activity? What is the best way to report this store?
Apple lost a customer today because of this reseller.
Did the reseller sell her a PC?
Tell her to return it, and try CompUSA, or if necessary, 1-800-MY-APPLE or amazon.com
thegeriatric
2007-09-12, 05:15
I had a similar experience a couple of years ago, with PC world in the UK.
The conversation kinda went like this.
(Me) Hi i've been using PC's for years, and am interested in switching to a Mac.
(Sales person) Sharp intake of breath Apple mac's hmm the only person in the store who knows anything about them is off this week, anyway you'd be better off sticking with a PC.
(Me) What makes you say that?
(Sales person) Well everyone has a PC, they are easier and better to work on.
(Me) Ok thanks.
As i was intent on changing to Mac i went elswhere.
I had a bit of an opposite experience one time not too long ago.
I went into a Sony store to look at a Viao TX sub-book (I know, but I was just looking, I swear).
Anyway, I can't remember what I asked but the sales rep said, "To be honest, I'm not really sure. I'm a Mac user now - just switched last month. I'll never look back..."
:lol:
Souflay123
2007-09-12, 12:42
That is classic, Next door to Moscone center in San Francisco, where macworld is held, there is a huge sony store and sony game store. I kinda felt bad wandering though there with my macworld badge.
autodata
2007-09-12, 13:15
Does Apple monitor reseller activity?
I don't think so. Our local reseller has a decades-long reputation for having the worst customer service of any store in the area. I've only gone there in emergencies and, no joke, there is invariably an altercation between the sales staff and a customer going on every time I go in there. Honestly, I'm surprised they are still in business now that there are multiple apple stores in the area. One of the main problems is that they do (or, at least, did) warrantee repairs and they'd try to tack on additional charges and hold computers hostage if people protested.
Really, though, no one should be getting information from retail staff unless the person is a notable specialist or craftsman in his or her field and the store is that person's independent specialty shop. I'm really surprised that so many people somehow believe that retail sales staff are a legitimate source of information.
Your mother should return the computer.
julesstoop
2007-09-12, 14:10
My mom lives across the country and I recommended she visit her local Apple reseller (she only has one in her city) to purchase an iMac. The owner of the store told my mother to buy a PC because they're less expensive.....
The reseller is sorta right. :)
The PC is less expensive for him so he'll most probably make a larger profit selling it instead of a Mac.
Especially knowing that anyone asking for a Mac is ready to shelve out a little more money than the average customer.
My mother did return the computer at my immediate suggestion.
These people were just rude and I wanted to "report" them for my own sanity. At one point the sales lady actually laughed at my mother, mocking her lack of computer knowledge.
How about ordering via apple.com?
One of the main problems is that they do (or, at least, did) warrantee repairs and they'd try to tack on additional charges and hold computers hostage if people protested.
Seriously? That wouldn't last long here.
Fahrenheit
2007-09-13, 15:16
My local reseller (Cancom) denied me any sort of higher ed reduction for a mighty mouse - they said they "weren't allowed to do that anymore"
Grr.
Many local resellers wont offer education discounts, its silly, and annoying.
I was always under the impression that only Apple owned stores could give edu discounts.
I've never seen a 3rd party reseller that offered edu discounts, anyway. Not even the store-within-a-store 'Apple Shops' at FNAC do.
MicroCenter will match the edu discount, but they won't call it that because "saying it's a student discount involves paperwork"
> Many local resellers wont offer education discounts, its silly, and annoying
As an Apple Reseller, I would love to offer education discounts... unfortunately, Apple's vendors don't give us an educational discount, so we cannot give you one. As an Apple Reseller, if I were to give you an educational discount, I would literally be paying you to buy a computer.
I agree, it is annoying, but the blame is with Apple, not with the reseller. (At least in the Latin America region.)
That is classic, Next door to Moscone center in San Francisco, where macworld is held, there is a huge sony store and sony game store. I kinda felt bad wandering though there with my macworld badge.
The Metreon SF is such a shithole. Someone was shot and killed outside of it a couple of days ago...
I've never seen such a large building with so little retail space...There's the SonyStyle store on the first floor, a food court, a movie theater, and a couple of other no-name shops... There used to be a Microsoft Store like 10 years ago, but yeah...who would shop there?
The theater is also in bad shape because most of the moviegoers are punks. There's usually an armed guard posted where they check your ticket.
> Many local resellers wont offer education discounts, its silly, and annoying
As an Apple Reseller, I would love to offer education discounts... unfortunately, Apple's vendors don't give us an educational discount, so we cannot give you one. As an Apple Reseller, if I were to give you an educational discount, I would literally be paying you to buy a computer.
I agree, it is annoying, but the blame is with Apple, not with the reseller. (At least in the Latin America region.)
From day one Apple seems to have tried its best to screw its resellers (and independent developers) at every opportunity. While Apple makes a superior computer, there is little good that can be said about the way it conducts itself. It is a reflection of the bi-polar nature of Steve Jobs, the inventive megalomaniac.
The recent focus on iPods, music stores, telephones and Starbucks, along with the gigantic overhead of retail stores, is going to destroy the computer company. The name change was pretty significant. Apple never supported its dealers, and now it has lost its identity.
If Apple couldn't give the discount to resellers who paid their own overhead, then how can Apple give the same discount in a high-rent location? The numbers don't add up. My daughter just got a MacBook, along with $300 in rebates. They are pumping up their sales figures. The iPhone rebate does the same thing. Now they can show $80 million in new purchases (sales growth) plus another 800,000 in visitors, but it is all make-believe. They will take the same $80 million as a write-off in another column, along with my daughter's $300 rebate, but nobody notices that; they only notice the growth in gross sales.
I have never met a reseller that liked Apple. So naturally, PC resellers don't have anything good to say either. Why would they? Apple's only strength is their products. With the constant changes for 9 to X to Leopard, and from PowerPc to Intel (and I think Leopard is going to obsolete a lot of hardware and applications,) Apple makes themselves very difficult to maintain. (There is a report that even Adobe CS3 won't run on Leopard.) And it is always for a small market.
While Apple computers are much more pleasant to use, their business relationship is like trying to keep a high-maintenance bitch happy. Just as the record companies balk, so too have developers and resellers always balked. There are valid reasons why Mac's are in the minority; Apple created the bad blood.
Of course, I have no intention of switching to a PC anytime soon. :) I'm a realist, not a masochist.
ShadowOfGed
2007-09-18, 10:25
That is classic, Next door to Moscone center in San Francisco, where macworld is held, there is a huge sony store and sony game store. I kinda felt bad wandering though there with my macworld badge.
Nah, don't feel bad about that. It's in the Metreon (spelling?) and I gawked at the Sony store just because they try so hard to copy Apple Retail. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Those Sony stores are such a shameless duplication, I can't help but laugh inside.
;) :lol:
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