Which ones? I know of the Biltmore.....but thats the only one i know of. (I live in Peoria btw)

Chandler Mall, which is at the intersection of the 101 and Chandler Blvd. Pretty much the other side of the planet from you.

I used to drive 45 minutes to the Apple store in Austin, TX to just hang out and socialize with the rest of the Apple crowd. It's cool the way the store is almost like a social club. People are mellow and just hang out. Most of the employees are faily knowledgable about the products. Probably because most are comp sci majors at the Univ. of TX.

I was happy when I heard San Antonio, TX (my town) was getting an Apple store - 3x the size of the Austin - Barton Creek store, but the atmosphere is totally different. The employees are either too eager or too laissez faire, laissez passer, so when I do have a question I either can't find someone or I find someone with an attitude.

The crowd is the biggest difference. The San Antonio store is located in a very up-scale shopping center. Most of the clientele on the weekends are wealthy people from Mexico who caravan up to the states to drop serious money on the most riduculous things.

So now, even though I've got a huge Apple store in my own city, I'm still driving up to Austin to hang out with the real Mac enthusiasts.

I think that's somewhat like I've found at our local stores. The Biltmore Centre is a yuppie idiot-fest, and the store there isn't as interesting as the one in Chandler, where normal people live.

You can valet park at the Biltmore store; that should be warning enough.

hmm

maybe apple markets their stores differently according to location.

My local store is in the plaza, where the rich yuppies of KC dwell. Expensive department stores and high class resturaunts. The apple store is smack down in the middle and it sucks.

I wonder if Yellow's is the same? I wonder if all the sucky apple stores are because of they have to deal with yuppie rich idiots and maybe you have to treat them differently?

The Emeryville, CA, store is fairly high pressure. I've been in there several times with clients, and no matter what we get they want us to buy MORE! And they take their time explaining exactly why we should get more. If we say we don't want more of this then they say what about more of that. It's rare to get out of there in less than an hour.

The best experience was one day when a client and I were in a hurry. The store wasn't busy so we got a sales person right away. I said, "We'd like a 15 inch Powerbook to go, no mustard, no mayo." The sales person understood exactly what I meant, went back and got a base model Powerbook 15" and rang it up. No fuss, no muss, no extra sales pitches. We were out of there with the Powerbook in well under 1/2 hour. The client was both amused at what I said and amazed at how well it worked.

Yikes.

I've had the complete opposite experience at my local Apple Store, in the Palisades Mall in NY.

It's just very relaxed in there, people usually don't bother you unless you are staring at an iPod like you don't know it's supposed to play music.

I've tried to get a job there for the past two summers, but sadly they didn't even call me back.

As far as knowledge goes, I haven't had much experience with the Apple Geniuses, but the salespeople there are kind of lacking. I remember how appalled i was when i went in there the day after the switch to Intel was announced, and one salesman had no idea the announcement -- or the keynote -- had even occurred the previous day.

Wow, thats nuts. At least I have a good enough connection with some local computer stores where I can call them up, in advance, have them put whatever item on hold, then I can just go pay for it at their will call. No fuss, no hassle, no sales rep

I just had a great experience at the Apple Store, with one exception that's irritating me.

I brought my wife's iMac in for what turned out to be a bad power supply and subsequently damaged mother board. We routinely leave them on 24/7 and on New Year's Eve we came home in the early afternoon to find her system off. She started it with no problem, but a few minutes later noticed a funny smell. I called Apple and they said it was out of warranty. I had bought it for her for Christmas last year, so it's just a few weeks past warranty, and it wasn't one of those covered under the extended coverage plan that Apple has for some early iMacs.

When I brought it to the store, I waited my turn and the guy who examined the machine informed me that the repair would be covered under warranty even though it had expired! It's going to take nearly a week, but I'm happy.

So what's the one exception? I had to wait about half an hour for service. That wouldn't be bad at all, except that the guy in line ahead of me was there with an iPod that he said "wouldn't connect" with his PC! When I left, they were still working on this guy's system. They started off by connecting the iPod to a Mac, which of course, recognized it. What that tells me is: the iPod works and the PC doesn't, so go get your PC fixed, SOMEWHERE ELSE. Did they tell him that? No. They set about trying to fix his PC. They had made good progress by the time I left too. They had found the conflicting software, were transferring songs to the iPod, and were going to do more tests on his PC.

Now, I know what you're thinking. They were providing good service, and you're right. The thing is though, that I, and others were there with Macs that needed service and the place was very busy. I just don't think a PC guy should get more PC service at the Apple Store than he can get from the place he bought the PC. That's especially true when there are Mac users who need help.

Plus, I just knew it was going to be the PC's problem as soon as I saw the laptop. :D

He he, good point cwtnospam. What I wonder is how much they charged him. Obviously the PC is not covered under AppleCare in the least...

Ouch! That bytes! ;)

My Apple Store is in the Galleria Mall in Houston, TX which is definitely a yuppie rich idiot store. So far, I haven't had any problems with them either way. It's certainly not a place to hang out, but it's not pushy either. It's more or less middle of the road.

Usually, when I go there, I know exactly what I'm going to get so there's really no need for me to ask any questions. I just tell them that I want this or that, and they get it for me. I have asked a few basic questions which they've been able to answer easily enough. When I bought my PowerBook, I knew I wanted the 15" and before I could tell them I wanted to add extra memory, the salesrep told me of the option of the 15" with the extra memory and larger hard drive. Sold. That was easy.

I have used the Genius Bar once, but, again, it was for a very simple issue. I kept blowing my iPod earphones and kept buying more. After blowing through 4 sets and having 2 replaced (just because that's what I had on me when I bought my G5), I decided to stop using the Apple earphones and get the Shure E5c's which have served me very well (I bought those online, not at the Apple Store). The Apple Store did take back some other earphones I had purchased through Apple online which was passed the 10-day return period, but I think they felt obligated to do so since I was dropping some big bucks at the time for my G5 and accessories. Otherwise, I don't know if they would have been so accommodating.

I have, at times, asked the salesreps if they can think of anything I might need that I've forgotten, but they never can think of anything so I usually just get whatever I came for. No pushing of extra products. The only thing they try to push is the extended warranty, but they take my "no thanks" pretty easily enough.

Basically, I find the Apple Store to be just like the online Apple Store, but faster. I know what I want, walk in, get it, and walk out happy. :)

I love the Apple store in Rockaway NJ its right in the mall and opened to anyone. All the items are one display so you can try them out and mess with them. But I went down there on a couple days after christmas. I had a question about my white iBook G3. I walked up to the counter and the employee asked " Can I help you." I asked him a couple questions about the Airport and some other networking questions, every time I asked him a question he had to go ask someone else that was working there. What this leads up to is that I think all the Apple Store employees that work at there should at least know a good amount of knowledge about the computers

Every time I go into the Apple store I generally know exactly what I want, so my experience with the employees has been pretty minimal. I went to the Genius Bar once last year to get a replacement foot for my iBook, which happened to be right on the battery. Since they were out of feet for my iBook they just gave me an entirely new battery, which was definitely cool after one year of use.

My complaint isn't really about the Apple store, it's about their policy of replacing out of warranty parts. Two examples. The power supply in my Quicksilver had a dying fan. Since the Quicksilver was long out of warranty (I never buy warranties for desktops), they would not even sell me a new power supply without looking at the machine first. Secondly, they would not let me install the power supply myself, and insisted on charging an installation fee. I forget the exact figure (this was about a year ago), but the price was outrageous (above $200 easily). The solution was to go to a local Mac reseller and buy the part from them, then give them the old PSU. The whole fiasco took a few days to be resolved.

The situation was similar for a CPU fan. However I didn't even bother calling the Apple store this time. I placed an order for the replacement at the local reseller and then hacked together a 'good enough' replacement with a similar fan from CompUSA (it had 3 wires -- one to control the speed instead of the Quicksilver's two; I had to splice the old connector on) while I waited for it to arrive.

The thing is, if I owned a vanilla PC these would have been insanely minor issues. That's the only thing I hate about being a Mac user. As for the iBook I'm using now, its 3 years of Applecare expires this summer, and you best believe I'll be selling it before then, since I know I will be raped for any out of warranty replacements.

Hopefully that will change when it all goes x86. I used to work for an AASP and I had so many similiar clients as you. If you were competent enough to install your own out of warranty parts I didn't care. I would do a direct parts order from apple, and then cross ship it to my client. They paid me, I made money (from mark up) off the part and everyone was happy. However, I do see some clients that I would not sell parts direct too, just because they would probably srew it up themselves and then it would all fall back on me. However, for the most part I would always order the part for the client.

Unfortunately, it's not easy to tell who can and who cannot do their own repair work. I run into this frequently when I try to buy computers or computer parts. They see a middle aged, stay-at-home Mom type of person, and they think I must not know a damn thing about computers when, in truth, I generally know more about them than they do.

It gets even more frustrating when I'm trying to get something simple for a Mac (like a fan) and I'm in a computer parts store, and they have the ignorance to tell me "they don't carry Macintosh fans." Ugh! As IF Macs use some kind of strange electricity? I try my best to not mention that I'm buying something for a Mac unless the part is Mac specific.

Back when I was working for IBM and had to run PCs for programming, I wanted to either spec out my PC or build my own so I could ensure that the parts inside were what I wanted. But when I went into my favorite geek store, the guy who ran up to me to help me, instantly directed me to the slowest and cheapest components possible, thinking I wouldn't know the difference, wouldn't know what to do with any of it, and/or wouldn't have a desire/need for anything better. Needless to say, he did not get my business.

If the judgment is done after speaking with the person to determine their level of knowledge, then that's okay (I have a habit of asking questions that I already know the answer to just to determine if the other person has a clue or not). Unfortunately, I find all too often people judge only by whether you look like their pre-conceived mold or not.

Vicki,

I can usually tell if a person is competent enough right off the bat. It is just how they talk to me. There are key things that set it off, like when they ask, "Okay how do I install this?" or "Do think that could be the only problem?" If someone has troublehsooted their problem down to a defective part they usually tell me their troubleshooting steps. On certain systems like imacs and emacs are not as easy and apple laptops are probably the hardest laptops to work on over all other laptops.

I understand your frustration, but you need to realize that when it back fires it comes right back to the person who sold them the part. If someone absolutly persists on me ordering them a part I make sure they realize there are no refunds or returns for any damage they do themselves. Even when i state that people still don't understand and still want to bring it back to me like it was my fault to begin with.

Here is a scenerio I ran into about 2 or so years ago.

Guy brings me in an ibook in a cardboard box. It is in pieces almost completely apart. he wants me to take out the old hard drive and put in a bigger one. He said he was IT for his company and gave me his business card, and stated he did not have time to do the install because of other obligations. I was like, "okay i'll do it but I cannot guarantee it is going to work because you brought me the system in pieces." He agreed and dropped it off. After I looked at it, I noticed that he had taken the whole thing apart up until the point where you have to remove the hidden screw under the little magnent which was under the keyboard. He obviously overlooked it, and was not experienced enough to do the job. Long story short, I get it apart (ibooks require almost complete disassembly to replace a HD, which is dumb IMHO) upgrade the Hd and it all works with one small exception. The powerbutton is kind of sticky. It works but you had to wiggle the power button, something they did on disassembly that made it janky. Long story short I was blamed and he was mad and I told him that is how it goes since he is responsible for the damage. Long story short I ended up calming him down and it was okay. He was IT and was experienced but he was still incapable.

Agreed under that situation, tlarkin. I wasn't thinking in lines of someone handing over their computer for repairs, but someone just asking for a part -- already determined (part number, name, etc.) -- and being unable to find someone to simply get the part due to their own incompetence, not mine.

Having to ask a guy how can a fan tell whether it's in a Mac or PC and watching his face screw up as he contemplates the answer is a bit frustrating. I just wanted the fan. No guarantees involved whatsoever (as long as the fan actually worked when you gave it power).

I think we're talking apples and oranges, though (pardon the pun! :D). You're thinking of a service desk while I'm thinking of a retail store with some kid who thinks just because I'm a woman, I can't possibly know what I'm doing. I certainly don't know it all (as evident with my questions here!), but if I walk in and ask for a part, I should be given equal opportunity to purchase that part as the next person, be they a man or woman.

In the 21 years I have owned computers, both PCs and Macs, I don't remember ever having to drop my computer off at a service desk. I honestly prefer to do the work myself. I might not always know what I'm doing when I start, but I take care in my work and I'm capable of learning. However, I must admit that I may draw the line when it comes to tearing apart my PowerBook should the day come when it needs to be repaired.

I know, no one can know everything vicki, its cool:cool:

Really and in all honesty if you fully understand that I am not responsible for any mess ups and that there is no refund on the part and only a 90 day exchange warranty, then I will order you parts.