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'Speculating gets you fired' says Apple Store employee

Mat Bettinson

by Mat Bettinson
Monday, February 21st 2011 at 6:51AM

'Speculating gets you fired' says Apple Store employee

An Apple Store employee says the staff are 'completely in the dark' about future Apple products and that staff are forbidden from 'speculation'.

'Confessions of an Apple Store Employee' published by PopularMechanics reveals exactly what it's like to work inside one of Apple's famous retail chain stores. The unnamed Apple Store employee starts off by saying that staff resort to keynote presentations to learn about new products.

"They have a really lenient attendance policy. You have to be late like 15 times before they'll fire you. But if you talk to the press or speculate to a customer about the next iPad? That's the end of you," they said.

The anonymous staff member also told of a familiar retail phenomenon, the 'badly behaved customer', claiming that 'complete meltdowns' were part of the repertoir of behavior which got customers what they want including getting two-year old iPhones exchanged.

"People can be horrible. Sometimes it's like working at McDonald's, with better pay. I've never been treated so badly in my life."

The employee also cited the difficulty the firm faced in upselling the MobileMe phone-finder service for the iPhone while also claiming that undercover security guards are "everywhere".

Also revealed is the competetive culture of selling along with published sales metrics with the ultimate carrot being a job on the 'Genius Bar' customer help desk that features within every Apple Store.

"I wanna work my way up, get promoted and eventually get to the Genius Bar which is where you want to be. Who doesn't want to be a genius?"

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Tags: Retail, rumours, apple store

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