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- Hi, my name is Brian Molina.
I am a former Apple Store employee.
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- Hi, my name is David.
I am a former Apple employee.
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- Hi, my name is Glory.
I am a current Apple Store employee.
- And today we're going to
be answering your questions.
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with twinkling chimes)
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"What is it like at the store on the day
"that a new iPhone is released?"
- Well, this past September was
my first launch, and it was insane.
There's lines outside all day.
The store is always busy, but somehow,
there's even more people inside the store.
It's just basically organized chaos.
- My first year, it was packed
and it was pretty crazy.
There's a lot of hype going into it.
- And since this launch was
three iPhones and the Watch,
it was a whole lot going on in the store.
But, yeah, the hype lasts for
about two weeks of craziness.
(pop)
- [David] "Do people still wait outside
"overnight to get the new iPhone?"
- Yes, people still do that.
- Which sometimes confuses me.
- So you drive in to park into work
and you just see this line of people
in their little chairs and tents.
It's not that serious.
Just go online and buy it.
- For the iPhone, I've seen
'em there a day or two before,
but also, for the iPad, iPods,
they would come just a few hours before
we would open the store
and just kinda wait there.
(pop)
- [Glory] "What was the
worst or most annoying
"problem to deal with?"
- We would have this setup area where
after you purchase, you would go there
and they would help you set up the phones,
help you set up the
computers, and sometimes,
even myself, I used to be there for four,
five, six hours with one customer.
- Especially if someone
doesn't know the PIN number
to an account, or they
don't know the password.
It's always password-related things.
Just, people, know your
passwords, write them down.
- For me, personally,
it's when people come
into the Apple Store and ask questions
about their Gmail accounts.
Those really get to me, 'cause it's like,
"I don't work for Google.
"I don't really know how to
help you with the situation."
So that's probably the most
annoying problem to deal with.
(pop)
- [Brian] "Can you get
banned from the Apple Store?"
- Not really?
If they were trouble customers, then we'd
always keep an eye out for them
and we would know, if in
the future they came in,
to kinda just keep an eye out for them.
- There's not pictures
of people on the walls
somewhere that says, "This
person cannot be in here."
- It was moreso just, "Get out,"
stuff like that, but not to the degree
where you're actually banned.
(pop)
- [David] "Can you get
kicked out for staying
"and using the products for too long?"
- No, you definitely can't.
- You can sit inside the
store and use the computers
or iPads or phones from open to close,
as long as you aren't bothering anyone.
- Although when it gets
really busy, then yes,
because people are trying
to test everything out
and we only have so
many iMacs or whatever.
- But it's usually, four hours or so
is the longest that I've seen.
- Or sometimes we'd have this
one guy that would come in
and basically do his
work at our (laughs) job.
People knew him and he would come in.
"Oh, he just works, he
comes in and works in here."
So I'm like, "Okay, that's cool.
"If you're good with
that, I'm good with that."
(pop)
- "How easy is it for an employee
"to tell if a customer's product is fake?"
Hmm, depending on where they got it from,
it can be pretty hard to tell.
- I think the most popular
thing to try and fake
was a screen, a third-party screen.
- When the Geniuses are
messing with the phone,
they can tell the screws are different.
Sometimes the Home, when
there was a Home button,
the Home button would be a
little loose and toggley,
and then you'd be able to tell
that things were moved and shifted.
- I could never really tell, but there
was one day where someone replaced one
of the display iPhones with a cookie.
And that, I could tell that
that was fake, for sure.
But the icing was very clean.
It was very well done.
(pop)
- "Does every employee at the
Apple Store own an iPhone?"
No, not everybody has an iPhone.
- And that's fine.
We don't shame, I mean, there was
people who would shame them.
- Some people don't like the iPhones,
people don't know how to work it.
But, you know, to each his own.
(pop)
- "Has anyone ever attempted to steal
"one of the products on display?"
Yes, absolutely.
- There's too many times.
You see people who put the Beats on
and they just kinda
walk out, you see people
who'll just grab accessories.
People love to take off their case
and then they replace it
with one of the sample cases.
- I've seen people come in
and they go to certain tables
and just yank phones off
the table and then run out.
This happens, like, once a week.
- There's been instances
where people would get caught,
but a lot of people are very successful
with (laughs) getting away with it.
And we're just told not to do anything.
- 'Cause we're all just trained
to be like, "Doesn't matter."
As soon as that phone leaves the store...
- 'Cause they're all demo devices,
they can't do anything with them.
(pop)
- [David] "Is it illegal
to jailbreak your iPhone?"
(pop)
- I don't know if it's
illegal, but I'm sure
it's frowned upon, like you're
not supposed to do that.
- Because if you try to
bring it in to trade it
or get a new one, they're
not gonna take it,
they're not gonna give you anything.
And then, if you go to the Genius Bar
to get your phone fixed,
they're not gonna fix it,
because it's basically not
an Apple product anymore.
- So, I'm gonna go with yes, it's illegal,
because you're just
tampering with all of the
internal stuff that goes
on with the phone anyway.
Easy answer is, I think
yes, it is illegal.
(pop)
- "And are the Geniuses actually smart?"
Yeah, they really are.
Honestly, they're geniuses.
- And they do go through a lot of training
to do the things that they do.
- They know a lot of the
techie side of things.
- And sometimes when I
didn't know an answer,
I would walk to the back
and I would ask them,
and they would, (snaps) just like that,
knew, like, in a second.
They knew exactly what
we were talking about.
- Luckily, I think there's
a pretty good culture
at Apple that we're all in it together,
no matter what our positions are.
And there's no competition.
- Everyone's really nice.
No one seems snobby or mean because
they know more than I do.
Everyone's pretty helpful and nice.
- So I hope that answers
some of you guys' questions,
and we do wanna help, and we will help.
Otherwise, Google it, and
you'll find out there.
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