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An Apple store found a new low recently when a Sydney, Australia father was not able to purchase an item because the Apple staffer would only process his payment using Apple pay. In a move the buyer recounts as being 'stupidity', a staff member repeatedly tried to get the customer onto Apple pay instead of just processing the payment for the item. Things went downhill after the staffer asked the customer if he had an iPhone. The customer got the impression that he would need to use the Apple Pay app to buy what he wanted, when what he really needed was to pay and leave. After trying, and failing, to find a staff member who would just process his payment, the customer left the store, walked across the street, and purchased the same item from a JB Hi Fi store.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Immerman on Wednesday February 06 2019, @04:33PM (33 children)
On the plus side, he only paid half as much for the same item at the Hi Fi store.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @04:45PM (32 children)
Doesn't matter. Enough people still buy their overpriced products and they still make billions. They do buybacks and at the end of the day their stock still goes up.
I have a smart cousin. He loves Apple. He wastes money on Apple products and makes it right back on Apple stock.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday February 06 2019, @04:53PM (31 children)
Doesn't sound all that smart. Why not waste money on better, less overpriced kit and still make money on the stock?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @05:00PM (1 child)
He's not that smart
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @09:33PM
Reminds me of this business meeting I was in with a big company execs we were trying to integrate with. Our Data Scientist just got a new Apple watch, they were fairly new then, so kinda novelty item. One of the execs complimented her on it with a usual White Supremecist smirk. She thanked him him and said a bit about how it works. She wanted to say a lot more, but then she noticed the jackass had the $10K gold version on his own wrist. Really makes you think.
(Score: 2) by Apparition on Wednesday February 06 2019, @05:02PM (28 children)
Depends on the Apple product. For better or for worse (probably worse), Apple makes the best tablet computers. Have you looked at Android tablets lately? They're all terrible at best.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @05:19PM (6 children)
Of course, that statement is not a subjective, qualitative opinion from a fanboy.
(Score: 2) by Apparition on Wednesday February 06 2019, @06:01PM (5 children)
Of course it is subjective. But fanboy? Hardly. iPads are the only Apple products that I have ever used. I am currently typing this on an Android smartphone. I am just calling it as I see it.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @08:50PM (4 children)
Yet you are stating it as if it is fact.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Wednesday February 06 2019, @11:32PM (3 children)
Sorry AC, you're deliberately misconstruing Apparition's comments in order to start a platform war. Apparition just confirmed in his post that he was making a subjective statement, so you just look foolish replying without reading properly.
Here - try me instead.
I, Mykl, make the following statement of fact: Android tablets are all terrible and iPads are the only logical choice for a tablet purchase.
There you go - enjoy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 07 2019, @12:38AM (1 child)
different ac. Ipads are very nice. Some android tablets are OK. Wouldn't blame anyone for getting a used ipad, tho.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 07 2019, @07:03AM
Different AC? FFS
how am I supposed to tell you apart? Which is the apple fanboi amd which is the mainline android realist?
--
AC6474648
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 07 2019, @03:05AM
You seem to be the one who is doing most of the misconstruing:
1. you misconstrue that I am trying to "start a platform war""
2. you misconstrue that the latter, weak, qualifying statement by "Apparition" excuses his/her earlier unqualified expression of an opinion as fact.
3. you "construe" that "Apparition" is a male.
That's a real funny joke, but just stating a subjective opinion as a fact does not make it so.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday February 06 2019, @05:54PM (10 children)
I recently purchased a Samsung tablet and am quite pleased with it. I got one with a built-in spot for the stylus and it is quite nice for drawing as well. I mostly got it for my wife to try out drawing.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @06:00PM (9 children)
It is probably the same for all voice assistants, but Samsung lost a lot of faith when my new phone had their proprietary voice assistant that turns itself back on after I force it to stop, and it is recording audio at all times. I'd check your tablet for such crapware like Bixby.
On that note, any recommendations for an Android fork to reflash the phone?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Apparition on Wednesday February 06 2019, @06:04PM
That is one point in Apple's favor. One of the first things I do when I get an iPad is disable Siri. It stays disabled.
On my Sony Xperia Compact smartphone, I have to periodically disable Google Assistant after it re-enables and updates itself.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @07:08PM (7 children)
LineageOS (formerly CyanogenMod) is the probably the most common non-Google Android ROM:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LineageOS [wikipedia.org]
https://www.lineageos.org/ [lineageos.org]
You can easily install Lineage without any of the Google stuff.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday February 06 2019, @08:17PM (6 children)
Easily install, yes. Easily use, that's another story. You do lose a bit of convenience but whether your convenience is worth that much and your privacy is worth that little is a decision for you once you've tried it out and can make an informed decision.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @08:27PM (4 children)
AC questioner here, I used CM and the only convenience lost was with the shitty wifi manager that I hope has been changed, and removing Google services kept me from being able to use Uber or some other services that require Google's map API.
You can still keep Google services, and there are plenty of options out there for cloud backups and the like. Only if you're totally locked into Google's ecosystem may you possibly lose convenience, but again you should be able to retain that crap if you want.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @08:42PM
You can book Uber/Lyft with your phone's web browser. I do so with Ubports OS -- absolutely no "Google services" on my non-Android/non-IOS phone.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday February 06 2019, @11:05PM (2 children)
"without any of the Google stuff" was the qualification in the comment I replied to, so that's what I answered. I assumed that meant background services, playstore, and the like as well as the standard gapps. The background services are the ones that will cause you the most headaches if they're missing, though not enough that I install them.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 07 2019, @12:46AM (1 child)
All the stuff, none of the fluff: https://microg.org/ [microg.org]
I can't believe you're not using microg. Then luckypatcher to pirate everything.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday February 07 2019, @01:17PM
Kind of defeats the point if you're still using Google services. The library you use doesn't matter if the point of not installing Google shat in the first place was to get away from Google tracking your every move.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @08:44PM
With Lineage OS, you choose whether or not to install the Google crap. In addition, you can always add it (or desired portions of it) later.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @08:03PM (2 children)
They're all terrible at best.
I buy used ones and lick the screens for the cocaine
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @08:32PM
But it was also shoved up the hooker's...
Nah. You don't want to know.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 07 2019, @07:05AM
MDC, did you forgot to log in?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday February 06 2019, @08:13PM (5 children)
Nope. Mine's a windows 8 tablet. Don't judge, it was given to me because the giver didn't want it either. Works fine for porn when I'm not at my desktop, which is all the use I have for a tablet.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @08:18PM (2 children)
"Given to you" oh pleeeease
We realize you know better, just come out and admit you're doing this to get back at the snooping bastards who think they'll get some blackmail worthy video :P
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 07 2019, @08:13AM (1 child)
I believe her. It's the porn part that sells it.
Is teh windoze mobility dervice betters or worses for pr0n than otherz?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday February 07 2019, @01:24PM
The same. It plays videos. I'd install Linux on it but it's a pain what with only supporting a 32bit UEFI image and having a 64bit processor. After I got that working it turned out I'd have to recompile the kernel to include a storage device module that wasn't already built in, so I said screw it rather than set up a cross compiling environment or trying to compile on a badly underpowered tablet.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 07 2019, @03:34PM (1 child)
How do you use a tablet one handed? It seems PC is better for that. Even my old blackberry could be operated one-handed, but a tablet? I don't know anyone that I want to help nor will help whilst I engage in porn watching on a fondleslab, as the register calls them. maybe you have a helmet with an extendable arm to hold the tablet at an optimum viewing angle and distance?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday February 07 2019, @04:45PM
Tell anyone of an engineering mindset to do something impossible and it'll probably get done. I mean they built big honkin pyramids and Stonehenge when most folks today couldn't figure out how to do either with the same tools if their lives depended on it.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @08:22PM
Then the time-old real question is... do we NEED these new gadgets in the first place?
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @04:53PM
That's what you get from "geniuses".
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @05:12PM (8 children)
At our local Sears, which was always understaffed (especially at the registers), the cashiers would always try to get people to sign up for a Sears card. And if you didn't want one they made the checkout process slow. They did this because they earned an extra little bonus ($5 - $10) per person they signed up for a Sears card.
First, they would ask if you had a Sears card. If you said "yes", they would tell you the checkout process would be faster if you used your Sears card. If you said no, then they would bestow upon you the virtues of obtaining a Sears card and ask you if you wanted to sign up for one.
If you chose not to use your Sears card, or not to sign up for one, they would slow down the payment process. If you chose to use a non-Sears credit card, they would ask for ID and compare the signature on the back of the credit card, the signature on your ID and the signature that you scribbled on the pad. If all three didn't match they would reject the form of payment. If you chose to pay in cash they would hold each bill up to the light, inspect it, then use the counterfeit pen on it. Each and every bill. They always commented to the customer, and to the people waiting in line, that things would have gone faster if they had just used a Sears card.
The kicker was, if anyone chose to sign up for a Sears card the cashier would enter their information right there while everyone else was waiting in line. They would ask all of the questions out loud and expected the customer to tell them name, address, phone, DOB, SSN, etc. It was even slower for everyone, and it was not secure at all.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bradley13 on Wednesday February 06 2019, @06:52PM (1 child)
A lot of companies apparently do this: give their cashiers the job of signing customers up for a customer card, credit card, or whatever. Too often, the cashiers are given quotas that they have to meet, "or else".
I've always felt sorry for the poor cashiers. It's bad enough having to deal with nutty customers, without having to irritate them on top of it. On top of which, the vast majority of customers do not need and do not want yet-another-card to keep up with - so meeting those quotas has got to be a nightmare.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Thursday February 07 2019, @01:15PM
Add on to that the practice of upselling: asking the customer "do you want to swap your medium for a large, it's only 30p more", or " can I interest you in also buying one of these things the manager put next to the tills". Plenty of large retailers put a lot of effort into getting their existing customers to spend more (increasing "basket value" ), without much concern about the number of customers who go elsewhere to avoid the hard selling.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @08:38PM (3 children)
Radio Shack did a similar thing, forcing their cashiers to try to get the name and address of every customer, even if they were just buying batteries. I know this because the last time I was in a Radio Shack, I simply refused to give the guy any info, and he declined to sell me a pack of batteries for cash. Which was why it was the last time I went to a Radio Shack. Now nobody goes to a Radio Shack, because they went out of business.
It always astonishes me when a business makes it difficult for me to give them money.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by thewalkindude on Thursday February 07 2019, @03:01AM
It's not the paltry $5 or $10 for a package of batteries they want, it's the money for your information that they can sell in the future that they want.
That being said, I was extremely impressed the last time I was in a Radio Shack about 3 years ago looking for an 'N' type to PL259 connector adapter. The clerk, who I guessed was about 21 or 22 years old, behind the counter actually knew what I was talking about and found the correct adapter, in a dusty package, way back in the corner of the store. Unfortunately, she spent the next 10 minutes trying to sell me on a bunch of other crap that she was 'required' to try to sell. Outside of that she had to problem with taking cash, so I had no problems there.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by kazzie on Thursday February 07 2019, @01:18PM (1 child)
At least one UK retailer (Argos) has started asking customers if they'd like their (warranty) receipt e-mailed to them when they pay. A good way to build up a mailing list!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DavePolaschek on Thursday February 07 2019, @02:34PM
Home Depot does this too. "Would you like an emailed receipt?"
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @08:46PM (1 child)
Yeah. Didn't they file for bankrupcy ?
Piss off your customers, go tits up. This has been a fundamental rule of commerce for like forever. And yet, I'm sure Sears' CEO behind this policy will be well off with a generous bonus.
Note to investors and shareholders: If you keep rewarding administrators for screewing you over, they will keep screewing you over. You want to know what's wrong with America ? That's what's wrong with America.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday February 07 2019, @12:27AM
Another questionable policy is pissing off your merchandise, as Google is currently doing with Google plus.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday February 06 2019, @05:15PM (10 children)
I sympathize with the father from the story. I would have done the same thing, or never even attempted to go into an Apple Store at all.
Apple as a brand reeks of pretension. It is the closest thing to a techno cult there is and its customers are the closest thing to brainwashed zombies (yes, yes, I can hear the jokes about BSD already). That makes it an excellent investment, but a poor choice for a consumer.
The father should have known all that, and known better before wasting time and money on their products.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @05:55PM (6 children)
This may come as a shock to you, but not everyone knows or cares about electronics manufacturers. Apple's sleek image works so well because what else is an ignorant shopper going to judge them on? "Apple's stuff looks good, people rave about it, their store is fancy and futuristic, and not to mention my kid just wont fucking shut up about wanting an iphone!"
Some people HAPPILY go about their lives not caring about such particulars. At least the story ended well, Apple loses a sale, gets bad PR for their stupidity, and the dude got a cheaper and better product most likely.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Wednesday February 06 2019, @06:23PM (2 children)
You forgot "it just works, or the nice boy in the store will help me set it up", which is far from a small thing for my mom's friends.
And, as much as I hate Apple, their update policy, and their unwillingness to share their precious spy data with others, is better than their competition.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @08:41PM (1 child)
Indeed. I hate Apple. I have two iPhones, a Macbook, and two iPods (still working). Because while I hate Apple, I hate all the other companies even more.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Wednesday February 06 2019, @10:49PM
I have a small business and on the backend I use linux servers for all our data needs -- on the front we use macs. I can run Apple's Darwin Calendar Server on my linux machines and the calendar is a key application for my business. I've tried other calendar systems in the past (last time probably six or seven years ago to be fair) and the options then were somewhere between non-existent and terrible for a shared calendaring system. I suppose there is Outlook but I gave up windows totally by 2002 or 03 and didn't want it.
Anyway, I do find the mac marketing image annoying but the fact is, about all I have to do when we get a new employee is say something like "just use the clover key instead of the ctrl key and you'll be fine." The hardware lasts a very long time and because I usually buy from the refurb store, it isn't ridiculously overpriced, just maybe sorta overpriced. ;-) The value of not having to mess with it though, as well as the longevity, makes up for that initial outlay.
Also being able to iconize bash scripts with Platypus ( http://sveinbjorn.org/platypus/ [sveinbjorn.org] ) makes it easy automate certain tasks so they are performed in a consistent and predictable fashion by tech-inept users (like getting documents from a front end machine to a server without every having to ask "why'd you put it there, what did you call it, etc. etc.). That's very handy.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Wednesday February 06 2019, @06:24PM
The trouble is, even if I knew (and cared) nothing about the technology, I've never personally liked Apple's aesthetics. Something about the sparseness, the light colors, the excessive thinness, style over substance. The endless rounded rectangles. It's hard to put a finger on it, but it just doesn't appeal to me. Give me a chunky, black, full tower gaming rig with loads of drive bays and ports and I'm in love! I guess I never have been and never will be the target market.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @07:31PM (1 child)
yes and these same lazy minded, willfully ignorant suck ass slaves also love paying income tax and voting for the seditious tough on crime sheriff so foreign kids can get bombed by a drone for going to their uncle's funeral and the neighbors son can get kidnapped by pigs for a fucking plant. am i supposed to feel sorry for these stupid whores?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @08:23PM
This story is as old as humanity, you must be young.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @07:15PM
Pretentious is right. When the Apple Watch first came out on the market, I was at an Apple store (in the Seattle area) and asked one of the employees if they would ever make the Apple Watch compatible with Android. I kinda figured they eventually would, as (at the time) roughly 40% of smartphone owners were Android users and, let's face it, that's a lot of consumers. I was, however, astounded at his response: he looked at me, scoffed and said, "I hope not." I don't even remember what he said next, because at that point I no longer had any respect for anything he could possibly have to say. It's one thing to choose to not support competitor's products. It's quite another to be so damned pretentious and insulting to consumers.
(Score: 3, Funny) by maxwell demon on Wednesday February 06 2019, @08:10PM (1 child)
Did Apple already register as religion? I mean, they wouldn't miss an opportunity to save taxes, would they?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday February 06 2019, @09:32PM
No, but that would be a brilliant move.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by pkrasimirov on Wednesday February 06 2019, @05:16PM
Perhaps they were after something called Average Purchase Value or whatever the equivalent name is. If that's what the mothership tracks then better no deal than low-cost deal for them.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday February 06 2019, @05:17PM
Only a retard would try to get into the walled garden, then refuse to be walled off from the world! If you want to be part of the world, just get your ass out of here, back into the world! THIS IS APPLE!! NOT SPARTA!!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Knowledge Troll on Wednesday February 06 2019, @05:31PM (16 children)
With the way that some salespeople act I can only assume the average person has the constitution of a wet rag and most people cave to the most outlandish shit. I was helping a friend buy his first car. We wanted to look at the cheapest Kia that existed as a baseline but the sales guy didn't like the commission from that. He tried to push us off into anything else and I just got tired of it after a minute.
"Look this is really easy. Your cheapest Rio. We are paying cash. That's it. Nothing else."
That didn't get the point across at all. So I looked at my friend, nodded at my car, we turned around at the same time and walked off. We must have shocked the guy because nothing happened for 30 seconds. Then he yelled out "Hey! Get back here!!!!"
I kept walking towards my car but gave him the bird. Then we left.
Greedy idiot.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday February 06 2019, @06:00PM (1 child)
I did that:
had a salesman following me asking "Can i help you find something?" "Are you looking for a car or a truck?" "What price range?" etc etc.
I kept telling him i was just looking.
Finally i said "I'm just looking...if you don't stop following me i'm leaving." He stood in one spot for a while watching me walk away to look at more vehicles, then finally went inside.
I looked around a while, saw what i wanted to see and then left.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Informative) by Immerman on Wednesday February 06 2019, @07:45PM
I remember reading somewhere that car salesmen typically have a very poor income, and work on rotation - someone comes on the lot, the next salesman in line gets to deal with them. Then they're back to waiting in line until their turn comes up again.
Strong motivation to hound the customer - the salesman doesn't actually care if you buy anything unless they're the one to sell it, and the moment you walked on the lot they lost the chance to try to sell to anyone else for a while. So if there's any chance of selling anything to you, they're probably going to chase it as hard as they can.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday February 06 2019, @06:39PM (3 children)
Maybe I'm getting old. Most of my life, I delighted in doing outrageous shit. Stuff so far off-the-wall that there was no appropriate answer. I often left salespeople with insults, or left purchases on the counter after they pissed me off. (Pizza Hut zombie couldn't sell me a pizza if I didn't give her a phone number - which translated into KFC for the family that evening.) It's been a good long while since I left the house, intent on shocking someone/anyone.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @06:51PM (1 child)
So you come here? What's the matter, Runaway, they still won't unlock the door? Do you know the difference between "the house" and "The House"? As in the Big House for the criminally insane? I thought they banned shock therapy. You are projecting, not irrational for someone in your situation.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday February 06 2019, @07:23PM
Again, *yawn*
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Knowledge Troll on Wednesday February 06 2019, @09:15PM
Long long time ago when I was around 22 or 23 I bought my first set of floor standing speakers. I went to the store and I listened to every single set of speakers on display to find the ones with the characteristics I liked. This did not make the salesdroid happy as I was quite thorough and it was time consuming.
I found a set I liked, asked the droid to grab a set, he came back with them then started talking extended warranty. You see, these are outstanding speakers, very good choice sir, but they are just going to fall apart in 3 years. Especially those surrounds - fall apart. Just total garbage. Definitely need to get the extended warranty or you'll just get ripped off and very much regret it.
I looked him square in the eyes and said "BUDDY! If I thought there was a grain of truth to anything that you said I wouldn't want anything to do with these speakers. Now are you going to ring them up or continue to talk yourself out out of a sale?" I could have walked off but then I'd have to go to a different store and spend more time. I thought it was worth it with the look of shock on his face.
I haven't had much tolerance for sales shit ever.
(Score: 3, Informative) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday February 06 2019, @07:38PM (1 child)
It's called the Up Sell. And that guy did it perfectly. He didn't want to sell the Rio. That's the one that brings folks in. Then he sells them the other one. The one that makes the money. He didn't sell to you. And that's O. K. He has it on the lot. So he can put it in next week's ad. Bring in a bunch more buyers. Up sell them. And make himself a good living.
I'll tell you, I'm the master of the Up Sell. Trump University, we had that one down PERFECTO. We'd bring folks in for the Free Seminar. And nobody dozed off during those. Because we set the thermostat below 69 (beautiful number). We showed them a little of the magic. Put our table by the door -- with the brochures and the sexy young people. And said, we'll give you a discount on the big league courses. The best being Trump Gold Elite. And that one, with the discount, was $34,995.👍
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 07 2019, @04:24PM
How did he do it "perfectly" when he lost the sale? I spend many years in the service sector. You have no idea what an "up sell" is.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday February 06 2019, @08:06PM
You're my hero. Well done.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Wednesday February 06 2019, @08:41PM
Never underestimate the power of being able to simply walk away from a store.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2, Insightful) by progo on Wednesday February 06 2019, @09:30PM (1 child)
I remember one time in recent years I bought shoes, with a bank card at a store in person. The cashier asked "may I have your phone number?" Calmly, confidently and without hesitation I said "no", and something about my delivery derailed her mental script where the next lines was "okay, move on..."
She obviously wasn't used to buyers of shoes refusing to give their phone number. That was strange.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Knowledge Troll on Wednesday February 06 2019, @11:00PM
Radioshack wanted to collect name, address and phone number for all sales. Since Radioshack was usually the easiest place to buy a transistor with out any warning I got very used to saying no. Not everyone behind the register understood that not every customer wants to provide such information though.
One time I told the guy it's a cash sale. He kept asking my last name. I kept saying cash. He kept asking. Then I finally said Cash. My name is Johnny Cash.
God damn.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 07 2019, @07:52AM (1 child)
I needed a car, wanted a hyundai, liked the price, liked the car type, good warranty, so I just needed to buy one. I went to the local yard to find that the model I liked back then was retired. Okay. In the lot they had the next model up, for a bit more, and it was a year old. I did know about cars being cheaper the older they were on the lot. The ticket price was 15K. I would have paid that or bargained down to 13.5 or 14. Given 15 was the original price, I thought there would be room to bargain. Last one of its line left.
After sitting in the car, asking questions, and thinking about it I decide I would buy it. The moment the salesguy knew I had decided he started in on me. I was thinking to negotiate the price down. He told me the paint, yes the nice paint job on the car, was going to cost an extra $400.
I could not get rid of him. I tried going into the office to talk to someone else but he blocked the way physically. Eventually I walked off the lot, skeg a few minutes thinking, and walked back on. He came almost running out to meet me.
I went around the car again and then left. It just was not worth it. I just wanted my first new car. I finally had money.
In the end I purchased the type of car I wanted second hand. For 5K less. The new car would have been better.
asshats. All of them.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Thursday February 07 2019, @01:33PM
When a friend moved out after a family split, she wanted to buy a brand new car (for cash), so she'd know it's service history, and wouldn't have to worry about buying a second-hand lemon. The salesperson tried to talk her out of her choice of colour (electric blue isn't very popular in Canada, but that makes it easy to find in a car park) and the fact that she wanted a manual transmission. She'd been driving manuals for the last decade, and would prefer to spend $400 on fitting air-con instead. But the salesperson kept going on about how a conventional colour and an automatic gearbox would "increase the resale value" of the car, instead of listening to what the customer wanted. After all, she'd be driving the thing for years before she'd be thinking of selling it!
(Score: 1) by SomeGuyOnTheInterwebs on Friday February 08 2019, @07:36PM (1 child)
Well, two things there. One is that you wanted the cheapest car. And the other "problem" was that you wanted to pay cash. Interest on the car company's car loans is no small amount of their revenue. I once bought a new Honda CR-V with cash. The finance guy was just this side of hostile about the deal, since Honda wasn't going to make dollar #1 off a car loan on the sale.
-- Just SomeGuyOnTheInterwebs
(Score: 2) by Knowledge Troll on Saturday February 09 2019, @12:42AM
I don't think it's really that different than buying a car with a loan already secured from your bank which is how I bought my last truck. Let them get near hostile about it - who cares? The worst they can do is make you wait really.
When I bought my truck I traded in my car. This was all relatively low hassle and low bullshit to this point (means I didn't try hard enough to get some money off but what ever, buying cars takes a lot of practice). I'm in the finance office and I get handed the stack of paperwork for signing. That's when I told him the really bad news: I read every word of things before I sign them. That means we are about to settle in for around an hour while he watches me read things.
He was to say the least not pleased. First sheet in the stack of paperwork was the form to sign ownership of my trade in over to them. I took it off the top, set it aside, and said this is in the wrong order - that gives you control of my trade in before I can validate all the rest of the terms we've agreed to. Yeah I have no respect for them.
The absolutely choice part though was when I saw a discrepancy in the odometer value stated on the paperwork they provided and the reading I saw on the truck at the end of my test drive. I told them the value was wrong and they needed to go read the odometer and get the right value before I would sign it. The finance guy started to rant. There is no way that value is wrong. If that value was wrong it would be an extremely big deal and very bad for us. Well turns out that just because it is really bad for your business if you are incompetent it doesn't mean you are not blatantly so in a way where it is absolutely trivial to validate. So we take a walk out to the truck and there it is. I think the guy decided to stop digging himself into holes because he was just silent the whole time after that while he watched me patiently digest every word.
Fuck em.
(Score: 3, Touché) by ledow on Wednesday February 06 2019, @06:04PM (4 children)
"and purchased the same item from a JB Hi Fi store"
I'm sure Apple are really hurting, then, from him buying it from a third-party rather than direct from themselves where they'd have to process returns in the case of faults, etc.
What an idiot.
If the company teach/allow their staff that they don't want your money, take the hint and spend twice as much on a competitor that does.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Rivenaleem on Wednesday February 06 2019, @10:06PM (3 children)
What's he going to do with 6 phones?
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday February 07 2019, @10:27AM (2 children)
A Galaxy Note 9 is £1100, an iphone xs is £1450 -- both 512GB.
Not an enourmous amount in it.
(Score: 2) by ledow on Thursday February 07 2019, @01:02PM (1 child)
Just one is 25% more than the other.
In case you haven't noticed, 25% on a price is a significant discount/increase.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday February 07 2019, @02:08PM
But it's not 3 times the price.
People tend to compare iphones with crappy cheap androids (the type that give android a bad name).
(Score: 5, Insightful) by istartedi on Wednesday February 06 2019, @06:14PM (6 children)
You know the history of this company? They were the hippies going up against the system. A lot of those people went "full circle" and are quite conservative now. Whenever I see the Apple logo next to the world "Pay", I think about that. What better way to inadvertently state that you are now all the things you once rebelled against?
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 3, Funny) by bob_super on Wednesday February 06 2019, @06:27PM
Now I need to get stickers shaped like commas, to add between the logo and the word pay.
Should I get a period or an exclamation point to put after ?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @08:24PM (1 child)
Apple Pay means YOU pay Apple, while Apple NO pay taxes around the world.
YOUR taxes would be lower if these giant conglomerates paid their fair share.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday February 07 2019, @10:03AM
It means that apple keep (most) of the 2% transaction fee, rather than the credit card, but the amount of taxes apple pay doesn't really come into it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @08:48PM (1 child)
And I know exactly when this change happened. It happened when Steve Jobs died.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday February 06 2019, @09:09PM
It happened before that.
Not exactly when, but approximately the time that Steve Jobs came back to Apple.
What doesn't kill me makes me weaker for next time.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @08:48PM
Heh. In Apple's famous "1984" commercial, Apple is now the figure on the large screen, oppressing the mindless people bowing down to them.
There is no one throwing any hammers anymore.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @10:17PM (5 children)
Yesterday I walked into the Apple Store in Bellevue Washington. Walked up to a salesperson and asked them for the item I wanted. They gave it to me. I handed him my credit card, and he processed it on his handheld device. I got a receipt via email. Not once did he ask me to use Apple Pay. Or if I even had an iPhone (I do, but that didn't matter). Easy and quick.
That store and sales person in the article isn't the norm in my experience.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @11:54PM
How did he get your email address?
(Score: 2) by Knowledge Troll on Thursday February 07 2019, @01:14AM (3 children)
E-mail receipts might save paper but it comes with the need for me to share personal information with a company just to engage in a financial transaction with them. That's not always something I'm interested in doing.
I'm seeing more and more places offer email receipts but not yet have I had a place require me to provide my email to get any receipt.
Is Apple so hip and forward looking they only offer email receipts now? You know, to save the environment, because they care so much, not to get a list of personal information from people. Nawwwww.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday February 07 2019, @09:58AM
If it is email only, it's more likely it's that they don't need to keep printers working on the shop floor. If I want a receipt I'd prefer it emailed, set up a junk account for them (or have wildcard email and give them "rcpt-apple@mydomain.com"), but I appreciate not everyone prefers that. Having the choice is great, however they should still give you the option for a paper receipt
(Score: 2) by ledow on Thursday February 07 2019, @01:17PM (1 child)
You can have as many emails addresses from me as you would like.
To send me junk? To sign up for this "compulsory" thing? To get a receipt?
Sure. And I'll get the email. And it will tie into absolutely NOTHING because it will be a unique email for that purpose. And when you use it for the very first time for something I don't want to receive, I just turn it off or send it straight to spam.
If you don't want to be giving out "your email", then buy a cheap domain of your own and give out millions of forwards and turn off those that spam you.
Email receipts aren't a thing where I live. I've never seen them or been asked for them. It's stupendously cheap of them to not afford a $40 thermal printer and receipt rolls that are literally pence each. I can understand "if you can the barcode with your phone, you can get an electronic copy of this receipt so you don't have to carry this around"or whatever, but email instead of paper, or email-by-default? That's just silly.
To be honest, phone numbers are pretty much in this throwaway category now. I'm very tempted to just buy a range of DDIs on a SIP account and start handing them out to companies that DEMAND a number, and just have them go to a voicemail. Obviously, the people I really want to hear from will get my real phone number, or it'll recognise their CLI and let them call through to my real phone number without revealing it.
Hell, my home router lets me plug in two analog phones and can route all incoming and outgoing over SIP or PSTN to them, do the full switchboard service, while also letting me dial into the SIP account on my mobile and answer calls / pick up the messages.
It would probably cost less per year for a phone number than an email domain nowadays. And who cares if it rings and rings but never gets answered if you're only using it so you don't have to give out your real one?
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Thursday February 07 2019, @01:36PM
Ah, but with their (other) customers' e-mails, they can contact them and encourage them to spend more even after they leave the shop!