“‘The saying goes: Don’t fuck with the person that serves your food,’ a former Apple Genius tells me over IM. ‘Don’t fuck with the person who repairs your computer.’ He — we’ll call him Ronald — spent six years as a member of Apple’s Genius squad in a busy Southwestern store,” Sam Biddle reports for Gizmodo.
“It was a model store: shiny as the best of them, teeming, making money,” Biddle reports. “But in back rooms and in plain sight, the employees ran wild: giving away computers, stealing phones, drunkenly destroying customer property. Ronald saw (and did) it all.”
Biddle reports, “You might think twice before your next visit to the bar.”
Read more in the full article here.
According to The Dallas Observer‘s Eric Nicholson, “The Most Corrupt Apple Store in America” is in NorthPark, Texas: “Where might that store be, you ask? NorthPark. And how did the NorthPark Apple store earn such a notable distinction? Well, allegedly, according to some anonymous guy (so you know this must be the real stuff)… For irritating customers, they would pour whiskey into customers’ Macs, erasing their hard drives, or use the hard drives as skateboards,” Nicholson reports.
“I’ve been in an Apple store exactly once, and it was the one in NorthPark,” Nicholson reports. “The Genius who helped me was an asshole. None of this surprises me.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This exposé is not a feature; it’s a bug.
If true, hopefully this is a very isolated incident for Apple Retail. If true, how could this go undetected by Apple corporate for so long and/or allowed to continue?
If you work in Apple retail (or just want to send us a link or some info), let us know via our contact form here or email: webmaster@macdailynews.com.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Reagan J.” and “Thom Jackson” for the heads up.]
Sounds like more “tipsters” and “reliable sources”. Normally MDN likes these. Could it be there were terrible things going on in Apple stores under Ron Johnson and Steve Jobs? “Tipsters” says yes. What’s up MDN, not up for trashing Apple Retail today?
I am very sure some in Apple board are ashamed having to admit mistakes in manpower allocation and this are trying their best to demonize the workers
Standard dastardly tactics.
The next action is to
Introduce checks and counterbalance that will
Over all
Save the Apple store money by cutting employees.
Greed wins !
What the hell are you talking about? That doesn’t even make any sense. Apple’s Board doesn’t get involved in staffing retail stores.
No company can always hire the best people all of the time. There is a certain percentage of knuckleheads out there who can BS their way through a job interview and get hired.
It’s hard to believe that simple accounting practices would not expose this situation at the end of the first quarter of these shenanigans.
I call bullshit.
This garbage is from Gizmodo. Don’t feed us this nonsense.
Remember Gizmodo, the jerks who bought the stolen iPhone test sample.
Yep. Gizmodo. ’nuff said.
I think that disclaimer should be the first thing in the article. Got worried for a moment.
It’s all unravelling on the visionless caretaker CEO and, now, he’s stuck himself with a certified moron as SR VP of Retail who is bound to let this go FUBAR, too.
Ah, ‘Anon’. You know what they say about opinions. Opinions. Assholes. Everyone has one.
Load. Of. Crap.
Totally believable… “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
… in many cases … but … where is whisky so inexpensive that a store clerk can afford to pour it into a customer’s Mac? When whisky is that low-cost, it tends to be low quality as well. And sold only to the desperate. Who would have to be falling-down-drunk to consider wasting it that way.
Add me to the “BS” callers.
PLEASE!)
Please do not become the FOX News of Mac News. This is bullshit and you fell for it. Please remove it as soon as possible. Please take the high road if you want to be taken seriously.
Please don’t become the DailyKos of MacNews. Or the CBS which manufactures memos. Or the NBC which blows up cars in its investigative pieces. Or the New York Times which is an organ of the DNC.
Or, perhaps worst of all, ABC “News” which blamed the Tea Party for Batman massacre in Aurora, CO.
Just like the MSM tried to blame the Tea Party and conservatives for the shooting of Democrat Representative Gabby Giffords back in 2011.
Aren’t you tired of such a slanted and broken mainstream media?
Aren’t you tired of being regarded as nothing but pliant pawns of the Big Government Tax and Spend Left?
‘Aren’t you tired of such a slanted and broken mainstream media?’ – No, I’m just tired of political diatribes taking place on tech-related websites.
You’re not tired of such a slanted and broken mainstream media?
Why not?
Because I don’t follow mainstream media.
Give me the Financial Times and the rest can GTFO.
Unfortunately for you and I, most of our neighbors do follow mainstream media and some of them even bother to vote.
And ‘most of our neighbors’ don’t rely on tech websites to get their latest/greatest political updates, nor do they broadcast their misguided/naïve opinions on them.
So, First 2010, Then 2012, a simple yes or no question: are you still beating your wife?
Remember, yes or no.
Gizmodo is a criminal
If nothing else, this one phrase proves it to be pure BS:
“use the hard drives as skateboards”
I doubt that is even physically possible. Even a “large” 3 1/2 drive is much to small to use as a skateboard — let alone the more common 2 1/2 drive. Besides the surfaces of a HDD are not at all conducive to sliding on floors.
BS is right. The ball of one’s feet is larger than the surface of the drive, and the friction that comes from its rough surface makes skating most unlikely..
Looks like Gizmodo’s trying to horn in on Mike Daizey’s action.
-jcr
Onion?
Very close. Gizmodo.
The onion without a self sense of satire.
Thanks for spreading the FUD (Fear-Uncertainty-Doubt)
MDN has really gone down hill lately… WTF is going on over there?
Google finally sent him the cheque for those Adwords ads they run?
Jizzmodo is 100% bullshit!!!
This story is horseshit!
Just because you don’t like the message, don’t shoot the messenger.
Just because you believe this article doesn’t make it accurate.
Nothing coming from Jizzmodo is a message. They publish pure unadulterated lies and anti Apple slander.
If this comes from a real news source that doesn’t reference back to that pile of excrement, then we’ll talk. Meanwhile, it’s rubbish.
That store is horrible, and it is an anomaly. It is located a very upscale, old money mall which may account for–not excuse–some of the Geniuses’ acts.
A few miles down the freeway is a stand alone Apple Store which is, IMHO, the best store we have in North Texas. I drive 50 miles one-way to go to that store when I have an issue.
It’s funny because I have often referred to the Geniuses at NorthPark as “Evil Geniuses” without knowing all this scoop.
In the end, no company is perfect and aberrations like this happen when management is not more careful.
My family and I have purchased 2 MBPros, an iPad, and an MBAir at that store. My daughter has been to the NP store on several occasions for help and received more than expected help.
I tried to purchase an i7 MBAir (250 SSD) the day after introduction in July of ’11 at the one choc mentioned but they did not have one so I went back to the NP where we had done previous purchases and got nothing but outstanding help. IF anything was out of the ordinary, my wife was even offered a “educational/student” discount on her MBPro because we do have some connections with an educational institution in the area, although neither of us were teaching at the time.
Sometimes, sorry things do happen – everywhere – and I would not put it totally past Gizmodo to take maybe one incident, inflate it and build on it. That is what lousy and today’s reporting ethic does!
When it all unravels on the visionless caretaker CEO, you’ll thank MDN for being the first to sound the alarm.
There was only one Steve Jobs.
The day Tim Cook and what’s left of his team invent a totally new product class and revolutionize an industry without following Jobs’ instructions is called “never.” Hopefully, Jobs left a ton of notes for them to follow, but even those will get old quickly.
Good luck, Apple. You’re going to need it to avoid topping out and then going into a slow, sad decline.
I love how this BS story escalates into a doomsday prophesy for Apple. What an imagination you have.
Jizzmodo has as much credibly as Obama with his birth certificate.
And you loose all credibility throwing your biased political doesn’t-belong-here OPINION into the mix.
Jizzmodo has as much credibly as Obama.
That’s all you needed to type.
Didn’t you mean to say “Titt Romney and his tax returns”?
Ooh, “Titt.” You’re so creative and insightful.
Now for some real insight:
Using a state-by-state analysis of unemployment and per-capita income, academics Kenneth Bickers and Michael Berry of the University of Colorado project that Romney will win 52.9% of the popular vote and 320 electoral votes.
Their forecast suggests that President Obama will lose in almost all of the swing states, including North Carolina, Virginia, New Hampshire, Colorado, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida.
Applied retrospectively, the model predicts the correct winner in every presidential contest going back to 1980.
1980.
Read it and weep, misguided Lib:
http://www.colorado.edu/news/multimedia/cu-study-says-analysis-election-factors-points-romney-win
Have a nice election season. Enjoy the Romney-Ryan landslide!
And I’m sure this model takes into consideration Akin, the effect on women’s vote, the fact that a recent gut check poll showed that 52% of Americans think Obama cares about them more, vs. 30% for Romney Hood, etc.
No it doesn’t. Get your head out of your ass. Enjoy the Romney defeat (and it will be close no doubt). Misguided conservative ultra-right-wing righteous jerk!
It’s the economy, stupid.
The tax issue is exactly why I hate the Democratic party and why they deserve to permanantly lose all power in government.
Most people will never be rich, let alone like Mitt Romney, but nearly every American aspires to be. What’s the democratic party’s answer to this dream? Find all the rich people, take all their money, and then dole it out as government checks turning America into a modern vassal serf slave state.
No thanks ass hole.
Eat shit and take a hike. That’s not the America my ancestors fought and died for. Mitt Romney makes a lot more than you or me, but I’m fine with it and you are a miserable wanking jealous loser.
He pays more in taxes per year than you probably make in your lifetime. And you want to take more.
What are the democrats going to squander all the money they are hoping to pry out of Romney with a crow bar? You never hear about that, it’s all about class warfare and jealousy.
The Democratic party is pure evil.
Choose to believe me or not, buddy works there now, 75% of it is true. Current mgmt at the store is crap as well. He was hired by the woman that was mentioned in the article who got fired.
Things have changed, but at one time, it was the wild west, he talked to some folks from that time period and they substantiated some parts of the article. Practices have changed, we have even heard about some of the changes like replacement policies and the like.
If you have ever worked retail, there is an ugly side, there are always ways to cheat the system and there are always currupt and corruptible people. My wife worked at a target where they busted a gift card scam.
Let’s hope Apple looks into the allegations!
“a former Apple Genuis tells me over IM”
An instant messaging conversation … Sounds reliable. Never going back to an Apple Store again.
I for one, am glad to see the ‘corporate regional manager’ called out. She was the most evil person I’ve ever worked for; and I worked for her directly. To this day, when I reach for that popular root seasoning use in Asian cooking, I cringe.
Otherwise, I’d tell you there are countless isolated stories at Apple just as there are at Best Buy, Target, etc. Store are staffed be people, who do stupid things, and make mistakes.
Must be a particular type of inbred Texans like Arnold Ziffel & breeze on this forum.
Hey! Just for the record, we Texans take our inbreeding very seriously.
Texas… figures.
Some reliable anonymous source has told me over an IM chat that Obama raped Santa Claus and eats white babies for breakfast.
I know it’s shocking but must be true, I mean you never know!
I’m surprised Gizmodo hasn’t accused Apple of rape. They seem to get away with everything else. Oh crap hope they don’t read this.
When is some judge like Alsup going to enquire about the money trail to these criminals.
If you take entitlement thinkers and put them in a retail setting, you get work-place conduct inversely proportional to social norms.
Weird. I’ve been to Northpark, and that was one of my best experiences. I had no issues, and they were super-helpful, like all Apple Store experiences.
I will say, back in 2004, I went to the Galleria Apple Store in Houston, and there was a snobby, mean employee there. I asked him to help me checkout and he refused (he was behind the checkout counter). Still, it was one guy; the rest of the staff were fine.