Apple today overhauled and adjusted certain retail services:
• Personal Shopping: The best way to learn about, and test drive new products, is with a face-to-face shopping appointment at the Apple Store. Pick a time online, come into the store, and we’ll be here with all the help and information you need. Personal Shopping is a whole new way to shop at the Apple Store. A free service where you and a dedicated Mac Specialist explore and test-drive products to find out which ones are best for you. We know the store can be busy, so when you’re ready to talk, Personal Shopping is a way for us to give you our undivided attention.
• One to One: There’s no better way to learn more, or learn it faster, than with One to One personal training sessions at the Apple Store. Our trainers — experts in all things Apple — create a program customized to your level of experience. You can choose individual sessions covering everything from getting started on a Mac to making more out of your memories. Or explore any topic you like. All for just $99 per year. Personal training sessions are designed to move at your pace and provide the support and guidance you need, whether you’re new to Mac or ready to master the latest pro software.
• ProCare: Priority support at the Apple Store. Get the service you need, when you need it most. ProCare membership starts with a complete setup of your Mac. Then stay up and running with premium benefits like same-day service at the Genius Bar, Rapid Repairs, yearly tune-ups, and more. All for just $99 per year, for up to three computers. Ask a Mac Specialist about ProCare. Your Mac will thank you.
How ’bout overhaulin’ my .Mac that I just re-upped for?
And my son’s ’83 Mustang?……
Pro care sucks Applecare Rocks (only if you take it to the store and have patience to wait at the genius bar).
“only if you take it to the store and have patience to wait at the genius bar”
well book then
procare has been rather helpful for my computer illiterate mother. and by extension, me.
Procare sucks?? Tell me where else you can get all those services for $1.90 per hour!!
I switched my neighbor last year and procare was a hugh selling point for her.
I’ll sign up if the person training me at those private sessions is a hot 18 year old woman…..who also happens to be a nymphomaniac.
this all great unless the closest store is 2 hours away…
pssssh.
I’ve seen many people at the GB that should have had Procare that didn’t.
Crest ProCare is good for your teeth.
“…procare has been rather helpful for my computer illiterate mother. and by extension, me…”
As I was reading about these programs, I thought, what a great solution for my Mom, AND me.
I’d gladly pay $99/year to have another patient person describe yet again the concept of the desktop and all the other metaphors we use to navigate the cyber landscape. How many times have I answered the call from Mom to be her personal Mac help line. Let the one-2-one, pro-care person field the question “why isn’t it simple, it’s supposed to be so simple?!”
Ah, the patience of Job(s)…
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yeah, ProCare used to be good (even though you still need to wait…I understand that, lots of new customers). Between ProCare and AppleCare, usually the problem was figured out. ProCare was also good because you could talk to a person for training One on One OR talk with the Genius Bar. So you got ‘training’ and ‘genius bar’ together…for $99. Yes, you could go in once a week (like the new version now…which, originally, you used to be able to go in as much as you liked) and get a One on One, but really how often did that same person ‘need’ the Genius Bar (hardward help)? And if you need help re:hardware, that should be something that ‘doesn’t’ have to come up often. I think Apple should have left well enough alone. I won’t be re-upping now because NOW you need to pay 2 X $99 for One on One & Genius Bar! You can get good info by way of Web and I will say the Apple website itself is excellent re: info. Thank you Apple for that. Anyway….sorry to see you change things this way….Why, Apple, Why????
Apple is losing money on my sister’s ProCare plan. She has a regular weekly visit scheduled to help her. A weekly private tutor. An when I visited her last weekend, she asked me “So how do I turn off the iPod again?” I love her, but I pity her Genius.
Wow, we’ve come a long way folks. Remember when a Mac demo was a shoddy display of a beaten up Performa pushed to the back of a shelf at Sears, represented by a sales person that didn’t know how to operate it? “Sir, what you really want is this Packard Bell, it runs Windows.” To the complainers, you must not have been around then.
Wonder how they are going to get people to be the trainers for minimum wage.
ahahahahah, trainers for “min. wage”. Yeah right.
“Wonder how they are going to get people to be the trainers for minimum wage.”
They pay way over minimum wage, but so what if they didn’t? They could hire youngsters to do it. That’s a hell of a lot better than carrying 120 pound bundles of shingles up a ladder in August. The entitlement mentality from people who have never worked hard a day in their life sickens me.
The fine print that a lot of you have missed is that the One-to-One training is now NOT included in ProCare. It is its own $99/yr program. That means to get all the services of the old ProCare now will cost you $189/yr.
Yep, Apple strikes again. Having established the ProCare program and getting everybody on the hook for $99, now they split it in two so you can have the same benefits if you spend $198 for TWO programs that comprise the original program.
So now the ProCare program is nothing more than extortion; if you own Macs and they break down and you want them repaired in a timely manner, fork over $99 annually to be allowed to “cut in line ahead of every Mac owner who DOESN’T pay the $99;” that’s what the “First On Bench” policy is, basically.
There are defining moments in companies’ growth that determine the long-term outcome of their success, and I believe this is one of those moments for Apple.
Loyal customers like myself have been touting ProCare to potential Mac purchasers, and those people (first-time computer buyers and Windows switchers) bought those Macs because of the value of the ProCare. So now, long-term customers such as myself won’t be able to recommend Macs based on the ProCare value proposition, and that makes Apple just a step closer to HP, Dell, etc.
The one-one training is for lazy people, and people who just don’t want to be bothered with reading. I used to support my mom for any little problem. finally, I just told her she is smart, she reads a 600 page book every evening…. you can go online and read about what you want more info on. How do you think most techs and geniuses learned? That’s right… reading. She now supports my grandmother with her computer problems and my tech calls have come from hundreds a month (between grandma and mom) to about 1 a month on average.
So my advice to anyone who keeps calling your son, daughter, in-law… whatever… do some reading, due diligence please. After you have honestly tried to remedy it yourself…. then give a call.
The Dude abides.
Well, its not even up at the online store yet, but this will actually make compluters through them cheaper. Some (if not most) of the computers have charges of 169 and up. Now you get to choose just one for a flat fee of 99.
My gawd, opening retail was a genius move for Apple. Not everyone wants WallMart quality and Walmart service. But in the commoditized PC world, there usually aren’t a lot of alternatives.
And customer experience and productivity means doing the last mile, one on one with the customer to actually make it work.
The other great thing is that this can build the kind of high quality marketshare–users who you really have a relationship with–who are going to be successful with their macs, and who are NOT going away.
This need has always been out there, but in a world competing on price, it’s been tough for retailers to really offer it. But since Apole controls every piece of their value chain beyond the commoditized components themselves, they can create the value and know they’ll get paid for it.
The ipod was largely an accident. Retail was a bold and risky move that has turned out to be genius. And not something that the commoditized pc vendors can duplicate because they DON’T get paid for that value chain (MS gets most and everyone else fights for a bit of margin.)
And maybe I can quit being my mom’s “procare” =)