Very thoughtful post, but I think I'll wait until word of mouth is more generous on Apple's response to customer needs. You ask me to help as you work from the inside? Do you work for Apple? Also, I tried, but could not find your name on this site. Is this carelessnress on my part or have you chosen not to tell people who you are and where you are coming from?

[repeated comment - http://redcouch.typepad.com/weblog/2006/10/shel_hell_dampe.html#comment-23610214]

Shel, I too am uncomfortable with the anonymity. Here's the dilemma:

- don't participate in the conversation
- participate transparently with a fear that the income to support my family could be a risk
- participate with anonymity

Is the bigger question, as you point out, why don't some employers trust their staff to join and add value to the conversation?

My thoughts have been to "extend the membrane" from the inside with the hope of demonstrating value and effecting a change in approach. Am I misguided on this ... is transparency and authenticity a prerequisite?

I sense I'm not alone with this dilemma. I will post further on this issue as I think it is important to many of us. What is do you think? I'd be very interested if this issue resonates with any of your constituency.

Interesting post. Masked, I think you are at least giving it a try and that's good, however, it does suck that you've to be masked to do it. However, some of the best uprising happen because of situations like this, so maybe you will make a difference... in time.

P.S. I live in Toronto, Canada and I'm not sure if Sainbury' is a nationa chain or located in only one part of the US, but if it is, be carefully when mentioning locations, it can give away who you are. I'll be watching and reading.

Duane

Masked - Very appreciative of what you're about here. I can't help but say as both an Apple prosumer and a Select Developer... I've found Apple's ability to resolve ANY and ALL of my concerns in a timely manner quite acceptable and consistently above my expectations. I lease three XServes, an XServe RAID, have two PowerBooks (a 15" and a 17") and a 30" Apple display. Oh... and two iPods. I've barely had any issues. But, when I have... instant satisfaction every time.

Just my $.02.

Also, please, ask your spouse about this sticking your neck out deal.

A most thoughtful and sincere blog. We at Dell do, in fact, hear you and are working hard to get customer support "100% right".

That is why we announced and are delivering significant changes in terms of customer support -- fixing problems and focusing on solving problems right the first time. If you want to understand more about our initiatives, feel free to check the corporate blog: www.direct2dell.com for more detailed explanation of all we have underway. However, this getting customer support right is why we invested $150 million in our customer support activities in last couple quarters, hiring more people, retraining and opening new customer support cenmters, including ones in North America and launching DellConnect. Its why we have a team dedicated to solving customer issues we find on the 'net and in blog posts. No other PC maker is making this kind of investment in its business that I am aware of.

While we still have a ways to go and aren't perfect, we have begun to see both external and internal data that indicates we have turned the corner. Customers are more satisfied, would recommend Dell and would purchase from us again.

Our focus on customers is why I would suggest Dell is not simply a sales organization. However, we are an organization that is very focused on our roots, the one-to-one, direct customer relationships and the benefits our customers gain from customizing industry-standard technology to meet their needs, as well as building out more customized services.

Its our direct connection with customers that underpins our corporate blog, it underpins our customer support on the web and its why I am here today -- to participate in discussions and listen to what we hear. The Sainbury's Supermarket story has great relevance as we work to deliver better service (solve problems), faster, effectively, and on a larger scale, yet still ensure personalization. And, just as the "original web" offered opportunities for Dell to extend the direct connection with customers (from the phone and in person, to on the web), we are finding "web 2.0" does the same, and even more.

So sorry that the masked blogger must operate from behind the mask....but also understand the dilemma and situation. Wish you were here to join us, everyday, in the dialogues we are having on behalf of Dell. We find it helpful and informative and, yes, sometimes tough and challenging. However, its great to connect with people, provide perspective and hear theirs. At least, even from behind the mask, you can personally enjoy similar benefits, even though Apple does not benefit from them. Good luck with it.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am a long time user of Windows, and Linux, so one could concieve that I might be biased in this discourse, but my contention is that I am not. I have a MBP, and save for a few issues, which I will touch upon, love it dearly. There is no quesiton that aesthetically, it is a superior product. I am also impressed by the amount of effort Apple has gone into the subtleties that make a piece of hardware great, such as their great implementation of haptic specific feedback.

My biggest turn off, and issue with Apple, and the community...is in fact the community itself. I have never been a part of such an ostentatious and pretentious community in my life...one that harbors such an arrogance and contempt that it honestly makes it uncomfortable. One need only grace a few blogs such as "Macalope" to see the extent of the asininity that consumes most of the "news sources" that Mac zealots use as primary sources.

This same arrogance is mirrored in the Apple stores, the salesmen, and the support staff (Genius Bar) to the umpteenth degree. I live in the North Dallas area, and reguarly find myself at the Mac Store at the Willow Bend Mall...I wish I could say I was there merely to peruse the great selection of merchadise, but honestly, more than not, I am there to inquire about specific issues with my MBP. When I inquire about specific issues related to my MBP, I am typically met with condescension from a severe Apple apologist, that or am told that the issues are "normal", or I am lying.

I always leave bewildered at how Apple could have kept their reputation as being so friendly for so long.

The list of issues with my MBP is quite extensive. Just to touch upon a few, I have had issues with my screen, my ac adapter, my battery, my right speaker (multiple times), whine, and heat. I know that I am not alone with many of these issues...in fact quite the opposite, it seems that some of them are quite ubiquitous in nature.

I had inquired about the heat issue with my MBP, and if there was anything I could possibly do to mitigate some of the effects. I was told in return that in fact the MBP was acting in normal capacity, and that the Intel processor was to blame. When I pointed out that other laptops with the same processor by different manufacturers didn't seem to have the same issue, I was snubbed, and told that I didn't understand computers completely, and that the MBP had..."more power running through it than the other laptops". Right...so actually, that lead me to conclude that in fact, I had accidentally purchase the "Tesla Coil" version of my MBP, and that obviously it was my fault. I mean...silly me to think that the MBP could be used as a "laptop". I mean, the moniker "MacBook" is derivated from the term "notebook", which is commonly utilized technical vernacular and is widely considered synonymous with a "laptop"...but yet someone I made a fallacious assumption that I should be able to utilize my $3,000 portable "MacBook" on my lap? I mean, it is hot enough to leave me without the ability to have children, and burn my legs...or at the very least, even with minimal usage, leave me with swamp crotch because my nether-regions have been subjected to apolcalyptic conditions. But then again...my bad...I forgot my "MacBook" is the Tesla/So Much Power version.

Every single time I came in, you could have just taken the above statement of events, and pretty much just replaced the issue and the excuse that was given with something just as ridiculous.

For all of my issues except for the AC Adapter one, I was told that I would need to send in my laptop, and would be out of a laptop for at least 3 days. Personally, that is "great support" that I can't afford to accept. I am constantly traveling, and given that the MBP is my primary laptop, I just can't accept being without my computer for that long.

I have had multiple Dells, and each time I had an issue, no matter how trite, either the part was available for me the next day, a repairmen was there the next day, or a replacement was sent right away, precluding the necessity of me not having a computer. I send my computer back, and there is no downtime.

This seems to be a level of service unbeknownst to Apple, at least it certainly wasn't offered to me at any time, even when explaining my situation. The general attitude is...too damn bad. To think that I paid a premium for something that is supposed to be top caliber, and am not even supported in the like sense really makes me regret my purchase.

At this point, I am letting the issues with my MBP build up until I absolutely have no choice but to get it taken care of, just because I can't live without my laptop. It is sad to me when it has to come to that level. That and there are so many issues, that I want to get everything taken care of in one fell swoop, crossing my fingers that I won't be one of the unlucky individuals that I have read anecdotes from who have had to return to get their MBP's repaired a ridiculous amount of times because their issues either were never fixed, or keep reappearing.

So all in all, no...I am not happy with Apple support...but I think the larger issue lies with the community as a whole. It is very uninviting to moderate and unbiased users...and to those that may have an affinity for PCs...good luck even putting in your two cents without getting e-gangbanged by the "fanbois" that inundate the community. The only other group that I have found to be so outrageously biased is the Ruby/Rails crowd. I lovingly refer to them as followers of the Church of 37 Signals, who can do no wrong. The words that pass DHH's lips are like succulant precepts or edicts, which must be treated as gospel. Anyone that is daring enough to disagree suffers from an ignorance so profound that the only due course of action is insult.

I honestly love Apple...and the community...I just wish they loved me back.

I'm a former Apple employee and current customer. I have spent about $30K with Apple in recent months for my company, and their service has directed me away from purchasing tens of thousands more.

First, my company has a service contract with Dell. For approximately $100 extra per machine, we are guaranteed next-day service on desktops and laptops, in-house.

With our Apple machines, we have to send them to Tennessee, and explain to our executives that we have to buy another machine in order for them to stay up and running. That's crazy!

Second, in my tenure at the Apple Store, in a scant 6 months, the focus turned from "Customer Service at Almost Any Cost" (Nordstrom style) to "Why Aren't You Attaching Applecare to Every Single Machine."

I don't believe Applecare is in my best interest, particularly with the number of machines I buy. Is it in anyone's interest? Sure, but primarily that interest is Apple's. Now, because I refuse to add Applecare to my purchases, I LITERALLY cannot find anyone at the Apple Store, save one brave individual, that will sell me a machine.

Apple has trained their employees to eschew "naked" sales and customer service in favor of a higher profit margin product. I guarantee, however, that their lost income from my business will total much more than whatever meager amounts they would have claimed from selling me AppleCare a few times.

My prediction is that at this rate, the iPod "Halo Effect" is going to backfire wildly in a year when customers figure out that Apple isn't there for them in the long run.

As a fan of Apple, I hope they shake this hubris before it comes back and stifles any hope of growth (or worse). Because if their employees are scared to sell computers to businesses like mine, good luck cracking into any businesses.

@Brandon Hays: I smell something fishy here. If you are a former Apple employee and current customer and you claim to have purchased so much equipment, shouldn't you be aware of Apple Pro Care?

http://www.apple.com/retail/procare/

When you made all those claims and then mentioned Applecare instead of Pro Care, it raised some eyebrows for me.

I LIKE TO FONDLY STEVE JOBS.

HE'S COOL DADDY-O

The attach rates at Apple Store for both AppleCare and ProCare are very much pushed, every day you work there pushing the extra services is pushed. The mandated goals are 60% AppleCare, 40% .Mac and 20% for ProCare. In fact, at the store where I worked, our hours were cut because we weren't selling enough and our attach rates were low! And that was three weeks AFTER we opened. I quit soon after- but not before I used my employee discount and got a new computer and iPod. Another thing to keep in mind is that no one in the Apple Store gets a commission on ANY sale- it's not really worth your time trying to sell a computer either way. The only people who really make money or get benefits at an Apple Store are the Managers, the Geniuses and Creatives and the few full time Mac Specialists. Everyone else is given little incentive to sell and are beaten for NOT selling.

I am an Apple fan and have had a Mac for 12 plus years and now I have an iMac and Mac Book. You have to keep in mind that the Apple Store and Apple HQ are totally separate, although they are the same company, and they are run completely differently. The main problem with Apple Stores is the fact that the managers they get for them have little to no experience with computers- they are usually poached from other electronics stores or high end clothing stores like the GAP. Apple management in Cupertino doesn't know what goes on in the stores and that is a big problem. Also, the iPod Halo effect is mostly bogus since the majority of people who came into the store were mostly interested in iPods and accessories and didn't give the Macs a look. Those who did were mostly interested in just checking their MySpace, messing around with the computers and just seeing what they can do with them...and then they are given a half-hearted sales pitch by someone who probably doesn't really know too much about a Mac and what to do with them.

The Apple Stores aren't all they're cracked up to be and I think in the long run, they won't be very good for Apple.

If you value your job, shut the hell up.

You know the rules.

You are on thin ice, step off it, or drown in the chill water bud.

Bully for you, for having the intestinal fortitude to comment on thigns at Apple. I hope you continue to do so.

Thanks for the ponderous thoughts.

CC

As an Apple employee, even if you are masking your identity. Becareful what you say and how you say it. We can all tell that you are obviously an Apple Retail Employee and in the UK. There are only 6 or 7 stores there and that means you can easily be identified. Just becareful is all.

Hey Masked,

If you need a proof reader, contact me. Nice one for speaking out against Apple. Big companies need to be approached like this from time to time. It stops them from becoming Microsoft.

NOGG3R5

Why is the website registered to a marketing company?

Whois.net comes up with a Rob Smeaton from Signals limited as the registered owner: http://www.whois.net/whois_new.cgi?d=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.activeconversations.com%2F

It ain't an apple employee at all!!

Or maybe he/she is intelligent enough for not registering the domain name with his own name, don't you think so, the_OM ?

If I wanted to remain anonymous, I would register my domain myself, I would pass by a friend.

It really is too bad more Apple employees (former or current) don't speak out. But then again, the draconian policies of keeping your mouth absolutely shut makes this understandable since saying the wrong thing can get you fired faster than anything else at Apple. However, it is still possible to do (if employed) so long as you are careful to not be too specific about current things.

Apple Retail is what I would call the bottom of the chain when it comes to corporate contact and communications. Mac Specialists need to be especially careful since you would be considered the most expendable. It can be tough for those who want to be very helpful but end up getting reprimanded for saying something wrong that goes against policy. Even at corporate HQ, the majority of employees there are left out of the loop and learn about information like most everyone else, when Phil Schiller's group or Steve Jobs says something.

I think most employees who work on Apple's product side in Cupertino have gotten their hands slapped at one time or another for saying something they shouldn't have with what little information they may have to begin with. Thus employees learn quickly that rumors and any non-shipping product or yet to be officially announced initiatives are best left unsaid and that can be tough because workers would like to be able to shoot the breeze in similar fashion as what exists on some of those Apple sites but they really can't (not surprising since Apple has a policy about employees taking part in forums; do it anonymously and cover your tracks if you plan to do so). This too affects the desire to blog about it especially if still employed with Apple since saying the wrong thing can result in trouble (unless you do it anonymously and by that, using whatever means possible including the use of tor).

This lack of internal communication and ability to communicate with customers can also be challenging for many employees trying their best to do their jobs. Take for example the sales organization for say education or the enterprise. Majority of the staff receive little new information and cannot comment on stuff not yet available. Customers trying to get an idea of a roadmap have a difficult time with Apple which is why the Enterprise is a difficult area for Apple since the secretiveness does not go hand in hand with directors who need to make long term plans. Customer service and technical support (AppleCare) is yet another area where employees also are disconnected which can cause frustrations for both techs and customers. Often times, there are issues affecting customers but when they call AppleCare, it seems they don't know about it. The reality is often they don't because that issue is still unbeknownst or not qualified by Apple Engineering as an issue. The end result is that technical support is handtied in what they can do. But to the customer (who seems to know more based upon discussing with others on various bulletin boards including Apple Discussions), it seems like Apple doesn't have a clue or doesn't care about these issues. What this translates into is a less than optimal customer service experience for those unfortunate to have a major issue.

Of course, this is just glossing the surface of something which is part of Apple's secretive corporate culture under Steve Jobs. The adage is only those who need to be in the know will know. Everyone else including employees who just aren't privy to strategic plans has to pretty much live by the same rules and learn about it when it is announced by those authorized to do so. And Apple in some sense think they can get away with this because they know most of their hardcore users will not jump ship to Windows.

Me, I don't think that way since if you eventually screw over your customer base enough times, their loyalty will dwindle and they'll eventually search for greener pastures. It happened once before in 1989 under Sculley's tenure with Allan Loren (Apple America sales head) and Jean Louis Gassée (Apple product development head) when they decided instead of sacrificing margins during a time of increasing DRAM prices (caused by the surge in demand for PC compatibles at the time) and keeping prices flat (or lowering it to compete more effectively against ever lowered prices of PC compatibles), they both authorized price increases to maintain profit margins. This act drove off many customers (especially lucrative business and education ones).

Apple has had other periods of arrogancy and total disregard for their customers, partners, and developers over the course of the 90's. Various transitions added into this mix also didn't help. This is probably why developers have been leery over the years to jump on board quickly because Apple has a track record of promoting technologies only to end up dropping it later. This is one of the main reasons why Carbon needed to be developed since originally, Apple tried to sell Objective-C (rebranded as Cocoa) to developers but companies which had their projects extensively in environments like Code Warrior pretty much just blinked and answered back with silence. That was back in 1998. With the Intel transition in 2006, customers are feeling the effects of this as not only was Carbon enough but that developers entire code base needed to be moved to Xcode in order to effectively generate Universal apps from their code base.

I know Adobe (Mac) customers are frustrated at the lack of Intel native apps but just how much of this is also due to Apple's secrecy? Go back to WWDC 2005 when the Intel transition was announced. Apple's roadmap was initially to begin the year after (July 2006). Instead, it happened at the beginning of 2006 and Jobs probably only notified key partners like Microsoft and Adobe just prior to Macworld SF 2006. Anyone who has worked at large development houses knows the sort of bureaucracy (as if corporate bureacracies weren't bad enough) which exists so MS and Adobe probably already had worked out their own transition plans based upon the WWDC 2005 guidance provided. It isn't as easy as reassigning developers and development teams on a dime to push up the release of those universal versions.

Which again brings everything full circle as to how Apple does things and how it seems to ultimately affect customers in some way or another. I've personally met many previously passionate Apple customers who thought it would be a dream to work for Apple only to end up being disillusioned at the reality of how it ends up feeling like a tour of duty where you put in all for the company but end up feeling totally drained in a short period of time. It can be rewarding in some cases so long as it is realized early on that one understands they are for the most part a bit-player in the larger scheme of things and that they won't be any more privy to the secret stuff Apple is working on since even people within those teams tend to only work on a small part of the whole and normally don't get to see the entire widget until it is unveiled to the public.

This is why it is often humorous to read the rumor sites since after the OS X Tiger and Asteroid lawsuits, the internal Apple leekers are becoming much more rare given that procedures and measures have been put into place to make it more riskier for those who want to leak info. And when someone says a retail employee heard something, that is even more farfetched since retail is left so far out of the loop that corporate doesn't even trust to ship locked down shipments (you know the ones with the corporate note saying not to open this except when authorized to or else...) of higher profile (computer) product to stores in advance so that they'll be immediately available for sale when announced.

I had been thinking for awhile about setting up some kind of Apple watchdog site but ended up feeling like the headaches weren't worth it. Japan has a national BBS called 2ch which allows anonymous postings and there are individual threads where employees of companies can vent about issues. The site has developed so much clout over the years that Japanese companies often need to relent due to pressure from many sides (especially from the public and so long as the details are true and not slanderous or false; there is a self-policing mechanism of sourcing information via a variety of means). Such a site that operates the same way in principle to cover Apple isn't the easiest to setup because establishing trust in such a site, allowing anonymity, and being able to have some means of verification would be a difficult hurdle to overcome (2ch works in Japan because of the cultural norms there which does not look highly on discontent with the status quo; so when it was first started in the late 90's, it quickly became the established place for people to vent in a way that they normally wouldn't in public plus years of trust was built up).

Hopefully this blog will get more coverage and that more current Apple employees will take part. There are two ex-Apple employees who occasionally write about their experiences at Apple; John Martellaro's Hidden Dimensions column at http://www.macobserver.com/columns/ and David Sobotta's Applepeels at http://viewfromthemountain.typepad.com/applepeels/ If you read both of their archives, you will see some common themes which should hit home.

Hit save comment too quickly.

I just wanted to concur that I feel the same way as E.T. Cook about the Apple community. Some portions of it are the Mac platforms worst nightmare in turning off many fencesitters. The "Apple can do no wrong" mentality is one of the main reasons why the company can often get away with the sort of poor customer service some are experiencing. So far, I have yet to see poor service at the Apple Store's I've visited but have heard about some places where the condescending style of attitude exists.

As for getting rid of the hubris before it is too late, unfortunately, that arrogance is built into Apple's corporate DNA. The whole iPod phenomenon is indeed showing the sort of corporation Apple would be when dominating a particular market. This is why I view Microsoft's entry with Zune as a good thing since competition will require Apple to answer back. The consumer electronics marketplace is always finicky and all it takes is a series of missteps to change opinion. Yet many Apple fans are quickly dismissing Zune. I wouldn't since all one needs to look at is the Xbox. The first version of Zune seems like a quick stopgap to throw a wrench into Apple completely dominating the content portion on portable devices. Microsoft can throw money at this and I wouldn't be surprised if they take on the hardware design inhouse on future versions since the first version leaves much to be desired in terms of the fit and finish of the actual unit.

In regards to switchers to the Mac platform, what Apple is probably underestimating is they are going to be dealing with customers who have no prior baggage and blind loyalty to the company. Apple is going to have to earn that from these newer customers as the customer service expectations are going to be wholly different since many aren't going to be as patient and forgiving as some longtime Mac loyalists are. If anything, that also accounts for why Apple ranks high in customer satisfaction as many longtime users are satisfied with the way Apple handles it (even though it really isn't that great given the hoop jumping some have to go through). If more of these switchers have problems at the start, the likelihood of them having a less than satisfactory experience increases because of Apple's policy with regards to repair versus replacement/DOA which is often times a far cry with the hassle free replacement policy with other companies like Dell or HP.

Very good point, Masked Blogger. Even an email feedback form would be a start - it's so frustrating that it's near impossible to actually contact the organisation from the outside.

Oh, and by the way, can you suggest to someone that they should call the iTV the 'AirPlay'? It fits with the whole 'AirTunes' thing, and has a bit of a pun in it too. Hmm...unless telling someone to call it Airplay is enough for them to realise that this is your blog...

Hmm. Oh, I know. I suspect there are quite a few Apple employees reading this anyway. So come on - 'i' is getting tired. AIRPLAY. Please.

yeah even i wouldnt redgister the domain on my name....but what the person says on corporations learning to have a transparent relationship with their employees makes a lot of sense

are you going to share some secrets of apple here? :)

Hey, it'd be great to see Apple open up to their customers, but it ain't gonna happen. There's just no way to coordinate all the lies they tell to their customers and the media while keeping their story straight if you have dozens of people telling it, each with varying lying skills.

Best of luck staying anonymous, Masked Guy, 'cause I think we all know what'll happen if Apple finds out who you are -- you'll be fired in an instant, because Apple can't handle the truth.

My daughter bot a new iPod with her own money. It went out of warranty. It broke. I filled out the forms on the internet site. Result said it would cost me $295 to fix her iPod. Called tech support and he told me that yes, Apple is really telling you to throw it away and *Buy* a new one. Imagine telling my 15yr old daughter that the $300 she spent ( of her own money ) was now just a throw away toy.....

So, I ended up taking the cover off, and reconnected the hard drive. Works fine now. Pretty simple task, but one Apple felt would cost them $300.

j

Wow, there's nothing like a bit of intrigue is there! As a relative newcomer to the blogosphere I am fascinated by the interest generated from this post, and even more convinced about the importance of the medium in the business world.

I believe there is a real value in opening up a communication community within any organisation that services a customer base and Apple should be no exception. In my experience Apple users are fiercely passionate about the products and I have had many a PC vs Apple debate, where I take delight in winding up the Appleites (personally I think the're all just computers and as long as they do the job I bought them for I don't have any loyalty one way or another).

But as Apple do have such a loyal and passionate user base they should trade on that and encourage a dialogue that builds on that loyalty. It can only do them good.

P.S. It's not me, I registered the domain, but I don't work for Apple.

I’m probably going out on a limb here but I’ve got to give my own 2 cents on this.

I work for Acer. My office is not in the corridors that count but I have walked down quite a few.

The questions (and frustrations) put forward by Masked Blogger ring more than a few bells and illustrate just how many companies are stalling in their approach to blogging (through FUD?) and consequently failing to get anywhere near a open, two-directional message flowing.

Having said that, I think if we’re honest, the issue of “supporting the user” is a problem shared by all the major vendors and no matter how you publicize your own particular solution and no matter how many millions of dollars you pour into resolving the problem, the bottom line remains: if your front end sucks, the customer can only get burnt.

While I am in no position to speak for Acer, I refuse to believe that Dell is the only PC vendor addressing this issue on such a large scale, and despite the apparent silence, I also refuse to believe that Apple is so blinded by the iPod “Halo Effect” that it’ll just sit on the fence and watch the converted switch back.

At the Global Press Conference a few weeks ago, Acer’s EMEA Vice President (Acolla) dedicated a vast portion of his own presentation to illustrate just how far Acer had gone to reduce repair turnaround times and improve overall customer satisfaction, so the *issue* of after-sales support is clearly one of primary importance. If you want to read the CRN article have a look here (http://www.pcmag.co.uk/crn/analysis/2164891/acer-sets-service-record).

Right now Acer doesn’t have a blogging policy one way or the other but that doesn’t mean it’s not listening. The same, I am sure, holds true for everyone else.

Out of curiosity, if you are an Apple employee trying not to rock the boat too much then why did you choose dasBlog, a blog engine that only runs on Windows?

Masked, good luck on your blog venture! From the comments, it looks like you got Dugg.

Here's hoping you'll explore both sides of the customer equation - it seems that as users demand cheaper and cheaper computers, they demand better and better service. How do we (Apple AND the customers) solve that?

Your Sainbury's example also shows a little of that customer-entitlement thought process (hint: if you speak to the "most junior and probably the lowest paid employee's" like they're valuable people, they're more inclined to work with you to get a "special break" from the "more senior and higher paid" folks).

What a lot of people don't understand about Apple's passionate user base is that it's a double-edged sword. Those users can, and do, simultaneously laugh at Windows and snarl at Apple for (insert new-product glitch here).

The signal-to-noise in the Apple Discussions forum is sometimes insane ("your Mac crashed? Hey, MY Mac crashed too! When's Steve going to recall our computers??") and can obscure the real issues. In that respect they DO have a dialogue (does MS have official forums?), and I can see how it could make them leery of making it more "public."

You're even seeing it here - My guess is that the guy whose daughter broke her iPod is a longer story than his three sentences would imply.Some of Shel's hell is certainly of his own making. (Disclosure: I worked in technical support for almost 8 years, not for Apple).

Again, here's to a true exploration.


(This is my fourth time attempting to post this comment - either you need to inform us that you moderate your comments, or something's wrong with your blog software.)

It must be really hard to spend $10k per year at Sainsbury's. As far as I know Sainsbury's - being located in the UK - doesn't except Dollars. (And BTW, in the US we don't call it the "High Street" That's a UK term and most Americans would think it was the name of a street not a generic term similar to the American meaning of "Main Street".

So next time you try to pull the wool over our eyes, do a little research first.

@ari,

I love ProCare, and own it. It's actually the best value out of the 3 (AppleCare, ProCare, and .mac). HOWEVER, they don't let me use it to get priority service on all of the machines in my business, only my two or three personal ones. Plus, I still have to ship off my laptops 3000 freaking miles to get service.

Because of these woes, we just cancelled a plan to roll out tens of thousands of dollars in Xserves.

Also, the Apple Store has switched to 60/30/30 with AppleCare/.mac/ProCare. And my friend walked out without buying a machine because they hounded him so much about AppleCare.

I believe the Masked Blogger works for Apple, but they do not have the power to make the kind of changes that will eventually save the company. That's up to Stevie J.

However, thanks for opening up this conversation. It will either change the future of Apple, or stand as a signpost on the road to their next downturn.

Michael's comment was spot on. I used to be head of Corporate Communications for a big brand IT outfit and if I was doing the job now I would be in a state of panic. To allow blogging or not? I 100% see all the advantages (we paid a fortune to get into dialogue with customers) but I also see the disadvantages. Put a foot 'wrong' with earnings statements or product and service claims and information and watch the class action suits follow. Imagine having John Cleese's character from the Video Arts training film 'Who sold you that then?' as a bogger!It is shareholders, investors and 'market makers' who will punish the company.

I am all for open dialogue but equally I can see why corporations have to be cautious. It takes years and millions $/£(tens for a global one) to build a brand but only a short time to damage it. A misplaced comment, unexpected joke or aside and the consequences for a company can be huge. (Check out what Ratner did in the UK.) Such a big bet needs careful consideration, planning and processes to manage. Once out the bottle the corporate blog-genie will not go back easily!

MB - keep up the internal dialogue. I am sure Apple have a good reason for keeping a lid on things for now. Nothing to hide but a lot to lose if it goes wrong.

You really need to think about the self-scan system. All you're doing is spending the same amount of time scanning the produce in before they reach checkout as the cashier would do scanning it in. Except, as you found out, sometimes it's a waste of time and you have to un-pack everything and it has to be checked.

So, best case: the supermarket benefits by taking your money quicker, but you don't as you've spent the same amount of time scanning your own stuff in as you would have spent watching the cashier do it. Worst case: you've spent all that time scanning it in and then have to up-pack and re-pack everything.

You, as has everyone that uses self-scan, have been taken for a ride.

Oh, and good luck with the blog. I hope it lasts

Wait a minute, you spend $10,000/year a Sainbury 's ??
So over $800/month at a grocery store ??

What the fark are you eating ??
Roasted almonds covered in diamond dust ?

plz learn to shpell ur meakin me hed hurt

sounds great all you say...but more than 1000 consumers dont think the same.

apple got serious problems in quality control...maybe for trying to get more money from the products manufacturing in china as u say...

which apple care its better to deliver my macbook?...the mexican one or the 5th avenue on NY?...why?

Odd that an Apple employee with a website uses aspx instead of php ?
Is this the enemy on the inside ?

Kozure, we're talking the UK. If he's a Londoner, $800 a month isn't even that far fetched. The UK is freaking expensive compared to North America. My local Safeway is selling chicken breast for $3 per lb. According to Sainsbury's web site, they're selling chicken breast for $9.7 per lb (and it's on special!). Do the math.

I like this blog, it certainly has potential to be very interesting.

But I do find it slightly odd that someone who purports to live in the UK and shops (a lot!) at Sainsbury's doesn't even know how to spell it correctly (you need the extra 's') and quotes currency in dollars (or is that just for the benefit of US readers?).

Maybe it's all to try and hide the poster's real identity but it does make me suspicious. Why even mention the specifics of the supermarket at all?

Anyway, I'll be reading for now, at least. Keep it up.

Francis,

My supermarket replaced two regular lanes (only one of which is staffed 100% of the time) with 4 self-check lanes (that are open 100% of the time). The actual scanning time isn't the problem. It's the waiting in line that drives me to self-scan.

Given the choice between an empty self-scan aisle, and an empty cashier, I'll take the cashier. Given the choice between 5 people in the cashier line, and 2 in the single line feeding to 4 self-check stations, I'll self-check.

I don't really think I've been taken for a ride.

I reckon Apple will track you down and sack you within a week. Good luck.

Anyway, we used self scan at Waitrose for a while, years ago. After a few months, we observed that whenever we bought a really large, critical load, say just before Christmas or when friends were coming to stay, we got called over for a second check. Which is obviously crap; if we were failing to check stuff through then we'd have a lighter than usual checkout rather than a heavier one. We concluded that their sense of whether their customers were trustworthy was faulty, and stopped doing the self scan.

I have been an avid, unpaid Mac evangelist for almost twenty years. As an artist, composer, designer, writer, etc., I cannot imagine life without a mac.

In the past year, I have assisted several people in buying new Macs, as well as a new dual-intel mini for me. Three out of four of the these computers have had to go back and have motherboards replaced. My son's iBook had to have both the hard drive and motherboard replaced ... different occasions ... but he was mac-less for a few days each time.

What has happened? Macs used to be so reliable. My little iBook from 2000 I took to Europe and on the road for a couple years ... never turned it off. It worked great.

And when I did bring my mini in for service (in the middle of a HUGE deadline), they jammed me to buy ProCare to "put my mac at the head of the line."

This is scary. It's bullshit. It's contrary to everything I have believed Apple stood for. Fuck the iPod, if this is the result.

I have been a mac user since my first personal computer purchase in 2000. I've generally had very good experiences with support, but do find it discouraging to hear so many reports of newer Macs having so many problems. This is definitely a change from how things were just six short years ago.

On another topic, I accompanied my mother to the local Apple Store when she made the switch and bought a new MacBook. I was very disappointed with the sales person. He didn't really mention the advantages and new technologies of the MacBook he was pitching, but instead incessantly pushed to upsell us to buy AppleCare, ProCare, or .Mac. It was very annoying and in the end I was really disappointed with the experience.

There has definitely been a change in the weather at Apple and it's not a good change.

As for the masked blogger, be careful and good luck. We might end up with another HP leak scandal on our hands!

Alison Scott wrote:

>I reckon Apple will track you down and sack you within a week.

And why do you think that? This person is pretty much just stating an opinion, soliciting feedback, and trying to stimulate conversation. They haven't mentioned anything that is forbidden under their employment contract.

This is the problem with some Mac users. If anyone questions or says something about Apple and it is not 100% positive, the messenger automatically is considered bad in some way. In a similar way, any competitor that attempts to challenge Apple is also no longer considered a "friend" and endless snide remarks are made about how they are just copying Apple.

Well I have news for you. Apple isn't necessarily free from engaging in their own photocopying. Some ignorant Mac fans think iTV is revolutionary and that no one else has thought of the idea. Well D-Link came out with their wireless media streamer back in January of 2004. Don't believe me (scroll all the way to the bottom):

http://www.dlink.com/products/pressRelease.asp?pid=318&sec=1

Since then, they've also come with an HD version:

http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=1&pid=438

Netgear also beat Apple to market as well:

http://www.netgear.com/Products/Entertainment/DigitalMediaPlayers/EVA700.aspx

Yet Steve Jobs made it sound like no one has done it before and plenty of Apple fans ate it up (just like with his gapless playback bull which has been done years before as well). The main benefit iTV will bring is it will work with a Mac since no other vendor is making their wireless media players compatible with Mac OS X (they all work with Windows Media Center Edition only).

This Apple can do no wrong mentality by a portion of the Mac community smacks of so much irony since you end up realizing that many are just a bunch of lemmings no better than the ones in the 1984 commercial. All they are doing is marching to the beat of a different drum.

Not questioning the company and how it does things also leads to complacency. Non-institutional individual Apple shareholders back in the early days were no different especially if they were Apple fans. You even see that today and that is dangerous because these fans end up placing too much blind faith into the company. Need more examples? Go onto Mac sites like Macrumors or Macnn and read the forums where someone posts they are having problems with their Mac. You will always come across a few members saying how they are sorry about those problems (some even apologizing for Apple; WTF is up with that?). And then you wonder why some customers have to end up making a whole lot of noise in order to get Apple to finally address there is an issue.

This is why there needs to be more constructive critiquing of the way Apple does things because believe it or not, not every Mac user out there is a blind loyalist like how many in the online world make it out to be. Some of us choose not to participate on various Mac sites because it is honestly downright sickening how some of those communities are in being ignorant of anything which isn't Apple/Mac friendly.

Knox Bronson wrote:

>Macs used to be so reliable.

Statistics. Apple is now selling more units (especially in the portable arena). More units need to therefore be manufactured. This also means more units which are marginal will fall through the QC cracks along each point of potential failure. Apple's QC is also no longer as anal as it was in the past either. By the time it reaches the customer, there is naturally going to be a higher number of issues.

It also does not help when Apple tends to push form over function. Take the Cinema Displays for example. No vents for heat. Apple instead decided to use the entire back as a passive heatsink as opposed to putting in vents either because a) it would ruin the aesthetic appearance or b) it would be more costly to have to have the case manufactured with vents. Time will tell if longetivity of components are affected by this but based on my own experience of poorly designed hard drive enclosures, the failure rate of drives was always proportional to how well the case was ventilated. I had one of those OWC Neptunes and lost at least three drives in it due to heat failure. I then experimented with another drive of the same type and cracked the case partially open and placed a small vornado in front of it. Never had problems after that. After this, I've stayed away from most external cases and only use ones with both a passive sink and fan.

The same is true of the mini and MacBook's (including the Pro) where everything has to be crammed into a tiny space. Poor ventilation results in a catch-22 cycle of heat building up which eventually reduces the lifespan of components. Add to this Apple's desire for quiet machines and running the fans as slow as possible. It shouldn't be surprising why the laptops feel so hot (when similar Core Duo laptops from other vendors run much cooler both internally and externally). Of course, it could also be argued that this is also planned (but one can't really say until there is enough data in the future to see if there is a trend to bear that out).

>they jammed me to buy ProCare to "put my mac at
>the head of the line.

I suppose this is Apple (retails) mantra. The iPod has little to do with this though. It is more about getting customers to cough up for tiered level service. Apple has probably run the numbers as to what percentage will actually make use of their AppleCare/ProCare and if a sizeable amount never make use of it, it ends up representing gravy. The flipside however is customers making use of it and taxing Apple's technical support and service personnel. When you have heat related complaints and random shutdown issues with the MacBook, it is going to be costly internally to address these.

The whole Genius Bar service thing is eventually going to cause customers to become disgruntled due to the fact that wait times will only go up unless more resources are added. And with tiered service like ProCare, they'll eventually run into a situation where there won't be enough geniuses around to handle a bunch of ProCare customers who all want to be taken care of first. And knowing Apple, they are going to run this area by the seat of their pants rather than overinvesting in having too much geniuses on staff. If I were managing Apple retail, I would create a fulltime hybrid Mac Specialist/Genius position where they are normally specialists but when needed, they can also switch hats. Their pay scale would also change for the time logged at the Genius Bar. Whenever I'm at an Apple Store, the specialists are normally underutilized. Pinhead decisions also don't help since there are conflicting goals. The retail stores were established to allow a place for customers to freely browse without any sort of sales pressure. Therefore, specialists were there mainly to be a first line of assistance. Since no pressure to push sales of computers, no commissions. However, it seems that management made it such that it is no longer different than what associates at places like Circuit City or Best Buy need to do which is to push the service contract. In Apple's case, specialists receive conflicting signals since the experience is meant to be hands off yet they are expected to meet sales goals internally in terms of pushing things like AppleCare, ProCare, and .Mac. I guess it is no wonder that some stores have such a high turnover rate with their specialists as some probably quit because the job isn't exactly as they thought or end up being released because they aren't meeting the objectives.

glad cow wrote:

>We might end up with another HP leak scandal on our hands!

The Masked Blogger is doing nothing even amounting to leaking anything. He/she is just blogging anonymously and for good reason if this person is actually an Apple employee as questioning how Apple does thing may result in consequences by his/her manager or others in the organization. At Apple, you play ball for the entire team. Making waves or trying to invoke change (especially if you are the peon near the bottom) isn't going to win plenty of friends in the upper levels of the company. And whether or not this blogger is actually an Apple employee or not is inconsequential since it is stimulating some conversation which would not have normally happened.

You know, I've been using a Toshiba A75 for the past couple of years now.

The Heat Thing: I've taken it for granted that I need something between me and my laptop. I bought a fan pad specifically for that reason. BTW, not much of a difference between the fans running and not running, once they stopped working, the pad works just as well.

I'm getting ready to by a MB or MBP in the next couple weeks. I'm ready to make the leap. I haven't decided if I care to wait on the Duo Core 2 or not. Do I want to pay more for the little bit of faster, and is it going to make a damn bit of difference with what I use it for? Nope. But I got to tell you, I'm not thrilled about reading about all the heat sink, discoloration, and yeesh, melted wire and dangerous battery issues.

Can someone like me, thinking about buying a MB this week, trust that Apple has fixed the issues, or am I rolling the dice?

"You, as has everyone that uses self-scan, have been taken for a ride."

Maybe you just mean these systems where you walk around with a scanner, but my experience with self-checkout systems is much different. Any local stores that have them, I use them every time I can. We (This is in San Diego, CA) don't have ones with a scanner you carry around, it's a self-serve checkout lane, where you scan it much like an employee would've. The reason I use them is that I rarely have to wait to use one, and I when I do use them, I get out in less then 1/2 the time it would've taken had I waited in a line for a manned checkout.

The problem with the manned checkouts is you tend to have people with huge loads of groceries compared to my smaller loads (I'm single), and there seem to always be very slow people in front of me. The "slower" people seem to avoid the self-checkout lines.

These self-checkout lines don't have any kind of secondary check, and rarely do they require assistance from an employee (they usually only do when an items isn't properly in the system with the correct weight.. they tend to sense the weight of the item added to the bag to stop one from slipping things into a bag without scanning).

The only items that don't work in the self-checkout lines are produce that you bag yourself, as they lack any kind of barcode. So I try to buy such produce at smaller stores that have better produce anyway.

I've never inherited from a custom Page base class and never will. I try to develop controls that do not depend on some functionality that may or may not be on the Page. Sometimes, I have to develop special containers (which usually inherit from Panel) to provide services to contained controls. Sometimes, I develop special NonVisual service controls that you can get at and that get automatically and lazily added to the page using a page singleton pattern. That keeps everything cleanly separated and my controls can always be reused in any Page.

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The customer service should be a very important department but some companies do not really care and that can cost them dearly in the long term run... They will have a great boom at first and then Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.