Bring PC laptop into Apple Store to compare?

Is this ok? (I just got a Windows laptop and really want to compare side by side with a last-gen MacBook)
If I did should I expect a significant sales-talk?

 

They won't understand what you are trying to accomplish. If you just got a PC laptop, uh, enjoy it.

What is there to compare? They both have... uh.. icons? Windows? ... clocks?

 

While it is unorthodox, it's your property, so you can do as you like (provided you don't act all sketchy and haxorz-like). And yes, expect not only significant sales talk but also potential confrontational talk from just about anyone. You can always ignore the sales person or politely tell them that you're just comparing and if you have any questions, you'll ask.

Though, besides the screen differences, I can't imagine what particular quality requires a side by side comparison that one wouldn't be able to judge from memory. What exactly are you looking to compare?

 

I suppose you could. It'd probably be in bad taste from the store's point of view, but the customer is always right, at least in the US.

 

I have done it a few times just to see how brand new models screens compare side by side to some of my older and existing gear to figure out if it is worth me updating some of my Apple side, last time I did that was the introduction on the rMBP 13".

as for the sales crew they WILL normally be all over you trying to convince you that their product is far superior, ok atleast in my personal experience with the 3 Apple Stores semi close to me

 

I don't know about Apple stores where you are, but here the stores are so busy they are not going to invest more than five seconds 'trying' to sell a Mac to anyone. They have 100 other people actively looking to buy an Apple thing.

 

Why not? You aren't trying to sell something in there anyways... Not what you would see everyday, but certainly not wrong.

 

Pick a non-busy time. Be low key and polite. I bet they won't give you any trouble. My experience is that when I say nicely that I just want some time to myself to, say, compare screen sizes and think about which is right for me, that I am left alone to get the hands on time that I need. That's one of the reasons I very much enjoy stopping by an Apple store when happen to be traveling near one.

 

Virtually every time I have gone to the Apple Store I've seen some PC users there. Why? Using iTunes for Windows with their iThing. Apple will happily help someone set that up.

 

I would actually request a sales pitch from them. If you seem legitimately interested (even if you aren't) they will likely be helpful.

Tell them that you just bought the PC and are thinking of returning it if a Mac suits you better but are not planning on making any purchases that day. The sales people will probably be very accommodating.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

Eh, it's not like they'd provide you with information you couldn't already get on Apple's website.

Personally, I find all types of salesmen to be annoying, especially those at tech stores. Almost as bad as car salesmen.

 

I have to cosign this. I actually got irritated when I went to buy my MacBook Pro. I went in there, told the sales guy exactly what I wanted, and made it clear that I was extremely computer savvy. That still didn't stop the sales guy from giving me a "demo" on how you can see things so much clearer with the Retina Display, running down the specs on the machine, trying to up-sell me on accessories/services that I wasn't interested in, explaining to "Marty" (the Apple Store rep who actually brought me the rMBP) how I was getting a "great machine", and then running down the rMBP specs ALL OVER AGAIN. It didn't help that I was running late for something and was literally looking to go in, pick up my rMBP, and leave as quickly as possible.

I definitely appreciated the fact that the guy was friendly and all that, but dude didn't know when to back off, and he clearly didn't understand the type of customer he was dealing with. Plus, I kind of felt like his friendliness was coated in a bit of sleazy "up-sell this guy expensive and unnecessary crap-ness", lol. I could be wrong, but that is the feeling that I got that day.

 

I as well. but their trained scripts are to welcome and assist people of the lowest common denominator, the most basic user. I have even lost my cool a couple times telling the nice little sales associate that I was using a Mac before he was born and have torn into, repaired and blown up more than possibly all of the geniuses behind the bar combined. ( there was only 4 )

 

No, I don't think you'd be wrong. Ideally for Apple, they'd want to see as many rMBPs as possible, since that's a very high-margin product for them to sell and its also a product that most people have at least some interests in owning (I don't see a lot of Mac Pros flying off the shelves, probably because of the price tag and even higher margins).

I've had similar experiences at BestBuy, first with their usual Wintel machines but also whenever the local store introduced their mini-Apple store thing inside (they've since done the same with Samsung products). Though instead of a larger Apple sales team, it was just one guy who may or may not have been on Apple's payroll (I don't know exactly how the BB-Apple store concept works). I've also briefly toured one of the Apple stores in NYC while I was there (the one entirely made of glass, iirc) and they acted exactly like the car salesmen I've seen at our local dealerships (I'm been with my parents to a Nissan, Toyota, and GM dealerships and experienced how pressuring they are). At least at BestBuy and Apple, they don't try to trick you with the infamous Four Square .

Personally though, whenever I still shopped at such stores often, whenever I encountered a pushy salesman I would first politely decline their advances *once* and if they continued I'd just simply walk out the store. Had this happen more than a few times and, considering how small the town I live in is, they've probably recognized me by now since they haven't bothered me again whenever I browse there.

I've came pretty close to loosing it a few times as well, before I implemented the "screw you, I'm going home" tactic. Though I'd usually do what Illustrator76 did and make it clear I knew what I wanted/knew. Sometimes I'd even play along whenever I had time to kill and questioned them on the technical aspects that I figured they couldn't answer without buzzwords (like, "Why should I consider the 4GB version of this GPU instead of the 2GB version?").

 

My husband ( Crazycanuk ) is infamous for going in to retail shops and playing dumb customer for quite awhile then letting the poor sales people have it by asking technical questions that tend to stump every one of them until they realize they are dealing with someone whom is a bit more familiar with the tech than themselves. I will give one young lady at the last Apple store we were at credit , she admitted she had no clue and went and got two geniuses in which he then proceeded to stump on issues with one of my rMBP's. ( which as of yesterday os now shipped to a repair center )

 

I wouldn't necessarily play dumb like that, but I have stumped MANY of sales reps at places like Best Buy and Circuit City (when it was around). Those people are probably the absolute worst at actually knowing technical details about the stuff they are trying to sell you. When I was looking for HDTV's I would ask all about details like black levels, contrast ratio, back lighting, etc... while those cats would literally just point me to a more expensive model of TV, and say: "Well this one costs more, but you will get a better picture because of the higher price tag", which we all know isn't always the case. I have had numerous people just walk away after a while when I started counterpointing their ridiculous statements and they realized I knew way more about what the hell I was talking about than they did. Some of these reps have gotten my wife a few times though, as she has came home with gifts for me that a "brilliant" Best Buy sales person up-sold her on because: "The price tag made it a better product". My head still hurts from some of the face palms I did, lol.

My classic battles have been with the clear Mac fanboys that work at Best Buy who would always try to sell me a Mac because: "It can do things that a PC can't", or "Because it has more RAM". Once I started breaking down how PC's actually had more software (and how Macs couldn't natively run some that I needed), how pretty much every program was/functioned the exact same cross-platform, how you can ADD more RAM to a PC (If it can accept more RAM), and how it came down to personal choice, etc... those dudes (most of the time) would go running for the hills.

I realize those people don't get paid much, but they should either follow KCETech1's example and go get someone with some real knowledge about their products, or take some time to learn a little bit about the products themselves. They probably don't have much incentive though, because I am sure they keep way more fish than they have to throw away, so they could care less.

 

Unfortunately the sales people at such stores really don't have much incentive to learn about what they're selling. Management really only cares about them selling the product, period, and especially wants them to upsell people on the items with massive profit margins (cables, warranties, etc.). Not to mention that the pay is too low for someone who actually knows and cares about these things, as anyone with experience would avoid these stores and instead go work where their skills are actually used, like an IT shop or something.

I've had basically the same experience with Apple's actual stores and their in-store BB stuff as what you describe. "Macs are better, because they have a higher CPU GHz!" and other silly things like what you describe illustrator76. Though i never really stock around for more than a few minutes since i never seriously intend on purchasing anything.

That sort of lack of knowledge is fine imo for stores that sell everything under the sun, like WalMart. However, if you sell mainly one type of item like BestBuy does (ignoring their side business of appliances and car audio, etc), I expect the salesperson to know what they're talking about, or i expect them to leave me alone if they don't.

 

Don´t worry, in Spain is exactly the same, in this kind of computer super stores you would hardly meet someone that really knows about what he is walking

 

Oh God, don't even get me started on cables. I have to admit when I was a young pup and didn't know any better, I allowed myself to be up-sold some expensive a$$ Monster cables at Best Buy. Once I did my research a few months later and realized I had been duped, I almost lost it, lol. I think I still have nightmares about that. Buying expensive cables (unless under the most extreme circumstances) are the biggest racket going today at places like Best Buy. Hell, buying expensive accessories period to be honest with you. My $8.99 screen protector does just as good a job protecting my iPad as the one that my friend paid $50.00 for.

What a complete joke.

 

Tell me about it... First time we were tricked by them was when my mom sent GeekSquad our XP desktop to remove malware from it. Took a week or two to do what I can guess was maybe an hour of real work and a few days of searching p0rn and searching our hard drive for valuable stuff to sell/use. And when we got it (and the huge bill) back, it never really worked the same as it did before that whole mess. Then later on I decided to by myself headphones after being paid for yardwork and ended up paying way to much for some garbage headphones (Sony MDR-NC7); when I later found out I could get them for significantly less on Amazon, I was pretty ticked off and that's when I decided I wouldn't ever buy anything of value from them again.

Oh wait, no. I did go in about two years back to see if I could get a new car radio as a birthday present. Picked a reasonable, inexpensive radio from BB's stock (~$70-ish) and asked them how much the total cost would be to install it. They quoted me for something between double and triple the radio's cost, which caught me off-guard and I demanded they explain why it would be that much. Of course there's a labor charge, but they also wanted to replace the entire assembly around the radio (the plastic facade? whatever that area of a car is called) and the wiring as well. The guy even brought out that hunk of plastic to show me it's needed and such. I just left the radio's box on the counter and walked out on them, and now I'm still driving around with my stock radio. I still want a new one that can handle AUX, but I'm **definitely** not going back to those scumbags to do so. Speaking of which, I need to find a decent garage around here to buy/install it...

Speaking of cables, the last time I was in BB back home, I saw they were selling 3ft HDMI cables for $60 a piece. Surprising part was that they weren't Monster, but they were branded with Xbox360 and PS3 colors/markings. Got a good laugh from that.

 

Yeah, Best Buy's markup is insane for things like radio installs, and places like Mickey Shorr (local to Michigan I believe) and ABC Warehouse aren't much better. Unfortunately, even less people would rather open up and operate on their car than they would their computer, so that's probably why they continue to get away with it. I grew tired of arguing back-and-forth with guys from Best Buy about Monster and other expensive "branded" cables like you spoke of. I have had them tell me that expensive HDMI cables are better because they are optimized for peak performance. No matter what I said, the "Sales Associates" just didn't want to hear that a $6.00 HDMI cable from Amazon would work just as well as the $60.00 garbage they were selling. Then again, why would they believe me? People like Dr. Dre have been making a fortune off of selling severely overpriced and average performing products to tons of gullible people forever.

Ugh. Stuff like this is why I haven't been to Best Buy in years. I do almost all of my "tech" shopping online now and my mental state thanks me for it, lol.

 

Well cars are helluva lot more expensive than computers, and even an OEM tire valve stem cap could cost $20 to replace. I mean really it's just plastic that probably costs like 10 cents a piece.

And it might be something to do with there being less technical documentation compared to computers. I mean, if I had the right tools for the job and assuming I could source the parts, as long as I had a detailed teardown guide I totally wouldn't mind doing it myself. The great thing about laptops is that usually if you dig around enough you can find a service manual or detailed teardown guide. Though the problem is once I started tinkering with my own laptops, I don't think I could ever trust a tech shop to "fix" something for me again. Certainly not the likes of BB or GeekSquad anyway.

Which reminds me, GeekSquad charged my parents $160 and took a week to remove some malware from their laptop. I could've done it in an hour and for free.

 

I'm not saying that people SHOULD be messing around with their cars. Your point echoes exactly what I am saying. Due to the complexity and expensive nature of cars, people would open up their laptop and mess around with it before they did the same to their cars. That is why all of these aftermarket radio installers have customers by the...well, you know, lol...

 

That's needlessly mean, and IMO, makes him no better than the sales people he is ridiculing.

 

.. When the store managers ask him to come in and give attitude adjustment, he tends to accept. our local BB, Staples and Future Shop use him and another fellow as secret shoppers. granted he does take a bit of a strange pleasure in it.

 

I don't understand how that works though. Retail stores don't exactly pay their people living wages. You pay some kid $10/hr or whatever to work the electronics section, you are not getting an MCSE or CCNE. You're lucky if you get someone with A+ who has used PCs *and* Macs. To walk in and destroy them with techspeak is like walking into McDonalds and talking down to the kid at the counter cuz they are not the head chef at a five star restaurant.

If BB paid their electronics sales guys $40/hr, they'd get much better technical people. And their markups would be 10x what they are now.

 

That's the biggest problem I have with stores like BestBuy and other tech-oriented brick-and-mortar sellers. Their management is too cheap to pay for anyone who actually knows what they're talking about and this lack of knowledge really shows. To add in the aggressive sales pitch for warranties and other profit items is just rubbing salt in the wound. Personally, this is why I don't bother with any serious purchases at BB and the like anymore, as I can not only get much better advice online on places like NBR, but also the prices happen to be much better as well (Newegg, OEM direct sales, etc.). On top of that, those sellers offer unique incentives to shop there (Newegg reviews, OEM haggling and knowledge, etc.) whereas B+M stores only have one advantage, and that is that they cater to impulse buying.

I might be generalizing harshly here since I haven't been to stores like Mircocenter and I hear great things about them, but at least for the more "common" B+M stores, they all pretty much suck imo. I'd love it if they paid for decent salespeople with real knowledge on the subject, and personally I wouldn't really mind too much of a price hike (if it means that it'll cater to both my impulsive purchasing *and* thoughtfully answering any questions I have), but then again the sleazy MBA-types will probably hike the prices substantially and pocket the difference for their golf games or whatever those leeches do in their free time.

 

Welcome to the era of big box stores I find :-/ as much as we may wish, it seems that many of us still need to do our own research and teach ourselves, which I will admit is not exactly a BAD thing.

 

What you stated in your first few sentences is my biggest issue with places like Best Buy in particular. I go in to Best Buy already having done tons of research and knowing exactly what I want to buy, only to have one of their uninformed salesmen try to upsell me on something else or dupe me into buying accessories, warranties, etc... I try my best to let those cats know they have the wrong guy, but they rarely let up, and when they start spewing the lies and misinformation (some even get upset), I am left with no choice but to "set the records straight". If Best Buy (and stores like them) sales reps realized they were "out-knowledge" (for lack of a better word, lol) by someone they approached and then backed off, then all would be good. It's their persistence and not realizing when they are wrong that gets those guys in trouble (with me at least).

Granted, these people could just be doing what they are told by their managers, but they also have to realize when they are outclassed and learn to either back off or face the potential consequences. People don't like being hounded, lied to, misinformed, or told they are wrong even when they are right. If I wanted to deal with all of that, I might as well have gone in to work that day instead of their store.

 

are you trying to cause a nuclear fusion?

 

I don't think that it should be a problem. You might get some unwanted attention.

 

make a youtube video about it and enjoy the money from youtube ads and that should co-fund your macbook purchase

 

At least at the Apple store I've been to, the ratio of customers to salespeople was high enough that you had to seek out attention from the salespeople. I didn't have my PC with me then, though - I was just looking over the external monitors when debating which one to get for my desktop (wound up going with a Dell).

Micro Center is the only brick-and-mortar computer store I go to. They actually have people working there who have been working there for decades, really know their stuff, and presumably are making quite a bit more than your average retail employee these days. Sure, there are employees with less tenure as well, but even they tend to be more knowledgeable than your average electronics store employee. I suspect that's a combination of the people who already know their stuff preferring to work for MIcro Center than Best Buy or other competitors, and perhaps slightly better starting wages (and slightly tougher qualifications to be hired) as well.

 

^^^ That wouldn't surprise me. I looked into a BestBuy help wanted for laughs and what they were asking for and what they were paying were both pretty pathetic for a store that tries to bill itself as such a great electronics store.