My trip to the Apple Store

(written by Lawrence Krubner, however indented passages are often quotes)

The Apple Store on 14th St and 9th Ave in Manhattan, New York:

I go into the Apple store and say “Hi, I need to upgrade my Mac from 10.5 to 10.6″.

The first sales rep says: “You need to go to our online store. We only sell that online.”

I explain that the previous day I went to the online store and engaged in live chat with someone on the store and they explained that software could only be bought through the app store and 10.5 did not have the app store, so I needed to go to a physical Apple store and buy it there.

The woman looks puzzled. Then she says, “Well, all our software is on the back wall, so look there.”

I go to the back wall. I look for the upgrade. It is not there.

I go find the first sales rep. I tell her I can not find the software. She helps me look. She can not find the software.

She takes me to a 2nd sales rep and asks the 2nd sales rep to help me.

The 2nd sales rep can not find the software.

The 2nd sales rep takes me to a 3rd sales rep. He says I can only buy the upgrade online. I explain, again, about my encounter with the online store.

He takes me to a 4th sales rep.

The 4th sales rep seems to be more senior and more technical. He says, yes, they sell the upgrade, he will get it for me.

I wait a long time.

He reappears with a (slightly smudged, almost dirty) manilla envelope. He says there is a thumbdrive inside. This smudged package looks more like the kind of thing you would get in an alley off of Times Square circa 1960 than something you would get from a company famous for its shiny, glossy, beautiful products. All the same, I am happy to have it. He says it costs $69 and will upgrade me from 10.5 to 10.7.

He is so senior that he does not sell stuff himself, so he hands me over to a 5th sales rep who will ring me up. The 5th sales rep is doubtful the thing I have will work, so she goes and meets with the 1st sales rep. They want to get confirmation that what I’m buying will really work. The 2 of them then take me to a 6th sales rep whose judgement they trust. The 6th sales rep says , with great confidence, that what I have in my hand will not work. He says that what I have in my hand will only upgrade me from 10.6 to 10.7. One of the sales reps takes the manilla envelop away from me. I ask the 6th sales rep where I can get the upgrade I need.

The 6th sales rep takes me over to a computer and starts doing searches on Amazon. He explains that I face a serious problem because Leopard is over 6 years old and no one supports it any more, no makes software for it anymore, and Apple no longer sells upgrades for it. He does various searches on Amazon trying to find the lost upgrade that I need. Then he realizes he is all confused. He was thinking of Tiger, not Leopard. Everything is much easier with Leopard. He finds an upgrade for Leopard on Amazon and suggests that I go home and find it on Amazon and buy it.

I say thanks and I leave.

In retrospect, it seems possible that the 4th sales rep was right and the 6th sales rep was confused, so I should have bought the manilla envelope anyway. But it would have been gamble. For sure, no one at the Apple store really knows the truth about Apple products.

Off-topic: this store was insanely busy. There was a long line by the door. I went up to one of the people in the line and asked what the line was about. He said this line was for folks who had reserved an iPhone 4S the night before.