“It was the Apple Store in New York City before there was such a thing as an Apple Store,” Rick Rojas reports for The New York Times.
“Before iPods and iPads and iPhones, before Apple started selling and servicing its devices out of a glass cube on Fifth Avenue, the eclectic Tekserve store on West 23rd Street in Manhattan was where customers went for upgrades to their PowerBook laptops or to have their computers fixed,” Rojas reports. “But times have changed, Tekserve’s managers said, and on Wednesday, they announced that the company was closing its retail and customer-service operation.”
“The service center will remain open until July 31, and the retail store will close on Aug. 15. About 70 employees will lose their jobs, the company said,” Rojas reports. “Resellers like Tekserve, once among the few places where customers could get Apple products, have been the victims of the technology company’s growth. But also, Tekserve said in a statement, swiftly rising rent has not helped.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The end of an era. Good luck to those affected.
Going the way of Egghead Software, Comp USA and Encore Computers. Even though those were primitive days they were a hell of a lot more exciting.
Gotta disagree. I think the semi “direct to you” model that is the App Store is way better than dealing with the markup that Egghead and Creative Computers added to their software.
Best of the best, since 1987. Kinda folks I could call at 6AM my time and buy a MacBook Pro, have them fire it up and put it on the network so I could load a client’s software and data, and have them deliver it to his hotel by 11:30AM.
With Apple Store, I’d still be sitting on hold.
If your motherboard or RAM goes, your hard drive should be fine. Any third grader in the 90’s should have known that.
My experience with tech repair people in the 90’s was that they were far more experienced than screenwriters.
The legitimate ones at least.
I tick people off, but:
The #1 Rule of Computing: Make A Backup
AND If you don’t, you get what you deserve!
That last part is what ticks people off. There should be a test before anyone is allowed to touch a personal computer. If they don’t know the #1 Rule of Computing, they FAIL and have to come back and retake the test another day. No computer for you!
“Sorry Carrie, but we’re confiscating your computer until you learn Rule #1.”
Here’s a link to the story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/30/nyregion/tekserve-precursor-to-the-apple-store-to-close-after-29-years.html?_r=0
yep. Apple blamed “the channel” for all of its problems in the 90’s. Few of the thousands of resellers have still hung on, but they are dying left and right. Where will people go for actual help now? Unless help means trying on some Beats headphones or a new watch band. Who will answer your Quark problems?
All of the dedicated All Mac dealers who lived and breathed Apple, the ones that would do anything anytime for anyone, who hosted MacUser groups and endlessly evangelized the Mac message were completely screwed over, over and over by Apple’s disdain, even while Apple went down the tubes with boneheaded moves like Performa (given to superstores that had never sold Apple) and the Apple Catalog. I knew things had gone over the cliff when at a large Reseller conference where Apple announced again which new way they were going to threaten our livelihoods, no one blinked. No one threw tomatos or epithets as in previous meetings. No one argued. It was the worst. We quit caring. The big chains started carrying Windows machines, and I found a way to rent time on my Mac demos.
I proposed a joint venture with Apple for an all Mac regional center, but the mid level Apple people thought that was ridiculous. All the models all the time all Mac with training and seminars? Who would come to a place like that?
Apple becomes the competition and their computers are not cost effective to repair for third party repair companies to be able to make a profit. MacHeaven in the DC area was the best for us but fell to the same problems effecting Tekserve now. They both will be missed.
This is a tragedy.
Tekserve has been a bastion of good service longer than Apple has. Apple stores layouts and service model (take a number / sign in / get comfortable / wait your turn) are clearly loosely based on Tekserve’s model.
Who’s got Cook’s ear? Apple should buy Tekserve & operate as a for-loss out-of-warranty service shop.