Comments on: Apple, you can’t say you weren’t warned about your new retail boss

By: Suhail Ishaq

Suhail Ishaq — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 04:28:57 +0000

Let’s not forget that Tim Cook came from Compaq before he was hired by Apple. He adopted the Apple culture very readily. Whose to say that Browett won’t do the same?

By: Liddell

Liddell — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 10:35:02 +0000

Napoleon is famously quoted as calling Britain ‘a nation of shopkeepers’, a disparaging comment about the country being unfit for war against France. Today in Britain, it is remarkable how many ‘pile ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap’ retail executives manage to scramble their way to the top of significant firms; e.g. BT, C&W/Vodafone. You could argue that it is because of their organizational skills, running large teams of people. But within the country there is a tremendous heritage of science, engineering and design – yet these are the very people who are rarely seen in positions of authority? Why is that? The Apple brand that I know from living in the US is a ‘total’ experience of quality, technical support and expertise. Soup to nuts, Jobs would have insisted on the experience being ‘insanely great’. Here in the UK I, echo many of the comments made; the stores are poorly staffed yet still crowded. For such a valuable brand as Apple to be fooled into this appointment is indeed a mistake and it needs to be quickly rectified.

By: Oran Juglad

Oran Juglad — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 02:13:56 +0000

You can take advantage of free wifi at any fast food store, coffee shop, or crappy motel in the country. That’s not a compelling argument for the Genius Bar

By: AZBlue

AZBlue — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 22:06:00 +0000

Those of you who have an opinion on this, please send an email to tcook@apple.com and voice your concerns.

By: enzos

enzos — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 12:26:38 +0000

> who goes to the genius bar to download software and have it installed and then complains that it doesn’t work<

Who? I did for the free fast WiFi (which I didn't have at the time) to DL Mountain Lion (4.5 gigs) and another 3 gigs of pent-up updates (Aperture, iPhoto, iMovie, iTunes, etc.). The "Genius" also (upon enquiry) showed me how to make a standalone OSX installer from the 16GB flash drive I 'happened' to have with me so I can (legally) install it on my family members' MBPros. No waiting, no worries. Must be suck-ier service in the UK if the whinging here is any guide.

By: midorosan

midorosan — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 01:40:42 +0000

ANyone from UK knew that the appointment of Browett was not good, he is what we used to call a spiv what americans would call a hustler, in business that’s someone who destroys a perfectly good system in thhe interests of cutting costs while at the same time making themselves look good.
Apple’s margins and sales per square foot of retail space are the envy of every business in the world and this clown comes along and tries to mess with it, bad call by Cook let’s hope it is the last.
On another note who goes to the genius bar to download software and have it installed and then complains that it doesn’t work, surely any half bright 12 year old can do this. Does anyone do anything for themselves nowadays.

By: Steelyd

Steelyd — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 00:43:42 +0000

I know he said not to, but with so many missteps as of late, it’s perhaps a good time for them to start asking “what would Steve do?”

By: winski

winski — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 00:42:05 +0000

I’m with csharp1 about recent Apple retail stores over the last 4 months. Both experiences have been with the Genius bars. The first was a siuation with trying to buy a memory upgrade for my MBP. AppleCare told me the store would sell it to me AND help me do the upgrade….NOT. I almost got physically thrown out of the store … I finally got the memories and left…UGLY. The second was tryin to use the Genius bar to do a ML upgrade. The physical download/install was clean. BUT, ML screwed up my contacts and mail. That took almost SIX HOURS of genius time to get stabile.. Here, four weeks later, it’s still not right…

Browett may have looked good on paper, but in reality, the folks working for him turned into a nightmare.

By: csharp1

csharp1 — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 23:10:41 +0000

Honestly, I’ve been incredibly disappointed with Apple customer service in their stores the last several months. Very poor retail experience. I can never find anyone to even check me out, and Genius appointments are terribly hard to get. Very sad.

By: Russell Barton

Russell Barton — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 20:08:27 +0000

Apple has always been about the best customer service that you can have. I have had many apple computers over the last 20 years. Only 1 was a lemon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook_5300) & I wrote a note after owning it for a year. Steve Jobs wrote a personal apology signed by him & promised it would never happen again. He also sent me a new & improved powerbook 5300cs with an additional year of warrantee. I still have it & still works, just too slow for my current needs. How many other computer companies have ever done something like that.