Re: AUGD: Apple store policies toward Apple User Groups
Re: AUGD: Apple store policies toward Apple User Groups
- Subject: Re: AUGD: Apple store policies toward Apple User Groups
- From: Chris Hart <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 06:48:21 -0400
- Thread-topic: AUGD: Apple store policies toward Apple User Groups
The points that Dave has made the head of the nail, in my estimation.
Any message or approach to using the Mac that Apple cannot control
themselves, they want no part of.
If they could go even further, to the point of operating their retail stores
without selling third-party products, believe me they would.
It's Apple's way or the highway.
Now just imagine what it would have been like if you had brought your user
group to the Store for an event and received that brush off in front of your
assembled members. I had just that experience.
I believe it was in 2006 that my group, Connecticut Macintosh Connection,
had the local Apple Store burn the MUG bridge right in front of our faces.
A member of our board had scheduled our monthly meeting at the store itself
and one of their associates was going to give our group a presentation,
accompanied by a discount on products for that evening only. We had done
just such an meeting at this same store about 2 years prior, I believe.
Well, on the night of our meeting we were given the cold shoulder and the
manager with whom we had made the arrangements was no longer with the store.
The new manager said she would do nothing for us -- no presentation, no
discount -- and that the previous manager should not have promised such
either.
They were so 'generous' as to let us have our meeting in their "theater" and
use the podium and accompanying computer/projector setup. But other than
that we were treated like we had a plague.
Our members in attendance were shocked, we board members were embarrassed,
and I -- as VP in charge of group programs at the time -- was infuriated.
-Chris
___ Dave G at <email@hidden> wrote: ___
> At one point, Genuises were allowed to hand out business cards for a
> group I was involved in. Had a good sitdown with a "keyholder" there
> and eventually the store manager and we were told User Group Goals are
> incompatible with the Apple Retail Store and here were some the
> reasons.
>
> 1) The Free help cuts down on OnetoOne sessions. These are very
> important numbers for a store to meet. They want people to go to
> OnetoOne sessions, not get questions answered for free. Same for the
> AppleCare attach rate. Why get phone support for 3 years when you can
> just go to a User Group meeting.
>
> 2) The advice given at group meetings may not be the "party line"
> given by Apple. Certain solutions are approved, certain aren't. They
> don't want people to come in the store and say "The president of the
> user group told me your Genius was wrong)
>
> 3) Membership in User Groups come with discounts. Apple Retail
> stores sell products and driving sales from the store to the User
> Groups discounts is "suicidal." Same goes for giveaways. Some groups
> give away great stuff....stuff that people might have been considering
> buying in the Apple store. I know when Microsoft donated a copy of
> Office that really irked the store.
>
> 4) Space is at a premium. Having people in the store that aren't
> going to buy anything turns away potential customers. This didn't
> apply in our case, but he mentioned it from other stores.
>
> 5) Phone calls. The store gets phone calls about the meeting and
> answering questions about User Groups takes time away from store
> guests--again at other stores not his.
>
> Basically he thought that most store's see User Groups as antiquated
> relics from Apple's earlier days, when the logo was a rainbow and
> BBS's were all the rage. TThe retail store serves as the primary
> mouthpiece for Apple to it's public. It's the same reason for the
> pullout of Macworld: Apple wants to interact directly with it's
> customers and user groups and trade shows are middlemen in that
> relationship
>
> The guy wasn't rude or anything about it, in fact he was REALLY nice
> and apologetic. He just said he has store sales goals and the User
> Group, albeit in a small way, gets in the way of those goals and he's
> got to look out for his stores and, ultimately, Apple's best interest.
>
> I do have friends that work in the stores. Apple is squeezing the
> stores abit harder so your store is probably feeling that pinch.
>
> For the record, this was his opinion and he was saying this off the
> record not in the store, so I can't tell you the store or group. He
> also moved on to "bigger and better" things at Apple, so I'm assuming
> he was on target with his opinion.
>
> On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 8:51 PM, Russ Conte <email@hidden> wrote:
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> Greetings from Chicago! I hope my note finds everyone well.
>>
>> We've been meeting for some five years at the North Michigan Apple Store. We
>> are a very typical group, bringing in speakers, holding raffles, giving away
>> t-shirts, SIGS, and all the rest. You know how this goes :)
>>
>> What are your arrangements with the Apple store, if you meet in one? Have
>> there been any changes with user groups that meet in Apple stores? The
>> reason we are asking is that we have recently been approached by three
>> managers, separately, at different times within the last few months about
>> accepting money for memberships, or any other financial transactions while
>> we are in the store, and that we are forbidden from doing these while we are
>> in the store. One of the managers questioned our holding raffles, telling us
>> we could not have raffles exclusively for our members. We are wondering if
>> this is consistent across all Apple stores. We are most interested in the
>> responses.
>>
>> Best wishes,
>>
>> Russ Conte
>> President, Chicago Apple Users Group
>> www.chicagoaplle.org
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