Ex-AppleCare Employee Describes Life Inside Apple

ahknight writes "A former AppleCare employee writes about his time in Apple. From the article: 'I remember when I first started at Apple they had a picture in the training class of some guy in flip-flops, shorts, and a tropical shirt in a decorated cube with a goofy grin, the message being: it's casual. One fellow even went as far as pushing that to the reasonable limit by showing up to work every day for several months in a bathrobe and sandals (and shorts). I don't recall a word ever being said. I think he actually just gave up because no one said anything.'"

Comments

little Apple

[Pliep]

This is basically any IT / Helpdesk employee's story, not a lot of "inside Apple" info here. And the guy sucked at it because the most important part of being a good support guy/girl is to be able to get the customer to trust you and let you help them, EVEN if they're total bastards and very mad because something does not work.

Knowlegde and understanding of tech is just 50% of the support-job, knowledge and understanding of people is the rest.

Re:little Apple

[Jedi Alec]

This is basically any IT / Helpdesk employee's story, not a lot of "inside Apple" info here. And the guy sucked at it because the most important part of being a good support guy/girl is to be able to get the customer to trust you and let you help them, EVEN if they're total bastards and very mad because something does not work.

Then again, there is a limit, and if you work for the right company, a properly defined one. Nevertheless, judging FTA, this guy makes the same classic mistake tons of helldesk employees do, which is to confuse the concept of "intelligence" with "knowledge about computers". It never ceases to amaze me how underpaid geeks somehow can't get it into their skulls that the guy is not stupid, he's a bloody doctor/lawyer/diplomat/you name it, for crying out loud. Perhaps someday they'll turn the tables and when a guy like this walks into a doctor's office the good ol' doc will expect him to know whether he's running a beta version of his appendix.

Re:little Apple

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

and you know this how, exactly? Did he ever take a support incident from you?

He didn't actually have to interact directly with the guy to know what he's like at support - after all the guy wrote a long article describing his experiences. Perhaps after reading the following in TFA:

It's hard enough to have to change your dialect of stupid for every person that calls in,

The GP thought that the guy who wrote the story had a bit of contempt for his customers? I hope that attitude is not typical for Apple Support (but judging by my experience with the "Geniuses" I would say it is).

Re:little Apple

[GaryPatterson]

Just like you think Mac users are whiney fan-boys because you come into contact with a lot of them, anyone in tech support thinks that users are stupid at tech, because they come into contact with a lot of them.

And just as the larger group of Mac users are just normal people doing their thing, the larger group of computer users are normal people doing their thing.

Ask *anyone* in tech support, in any business. I've asked a few in different businesses and the answer's always the same.

This blog poster's attitude is nothing unusual.

Re:little Apple

[Ohreally_factor]

Not necessarily. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if someone could give exemplary customer service and still be able to bitterly complain after hours. Those who cannot blow off steam don't last long. If you ever work a job where you have to spend any substantial amount of time dealing with jerks, you need to be able to blow off steam appropriately. Doing so in a blog, especially after you've left, is appropriate.

In fact, I have a method for getting excellent customer service when I call Apple, or some other tech company. One of the first things out of my mouth is, "I'm one of those total idiots, but I promise I won't yell at you." This usually gets at least a giggle. Then I actually make two minutes of small talk. No shit! I don't drag it out any further, but I want to get at least a tiny feel for whom I'm talking to.

Next, I outline my problem. I have ready any pertinent information (model #, OS version, etc.). I have notes about what steps I've already taken. Then I go through whatever steps the service rep has in their three ring binder (or modern equivalent). When none of those steps solve the problem, they send me a box to send in my laptop. I thank the rep, and ask for their manager's email address, so I can send praise. And I do so.

I've never called Apple with a software problem. It's always been hardware. Software I can solve on my own. They've been nothing but top notch in solving my hardware problems, going above and beyond, fixing things that I didn't expect to be covered by Applecare (dented case, cigarette burns on the keyboard).

As I said, Applecare has been top notch, in my experience. This might be because of pure dumb luck or it might be because I treat the rep as I would want to be treated if I was in their shoes. My attitude is, "How can I help the rep (to help me)." I've heard a few horror stories, and I attribute those to either bad luck, or the customer being a cocksucker.

Re:little Apple

[SolitaryMan]

...confuse the concept of "intelligence" with "knowledge about computers"

Agree. Totally.

As a programmer, I think that *all* programmers have to spend some time supporting customers on some stuff. Or at least read articles like this or talk to tech support from time to time. Not for the amusement ("hey, they are stupid") part, but in order to better understand how usual people see computers, in order to be able to adopt software to their views/habits.

This mostly applies to UI designers/developoers, but every software component has its human users, and knowing these users is a key point in creating a successful application.

Re:little Apple

[Hott of the World]

I used to work at tech support for some big name appliance manufacturer, and I'd vent a little, mostly to fellow workers.

At least with appliances, its not really a matter of being stupid, since the interface has been the same for generations.

Still, we'd get the crazies, (for good service, don't threaten the serviceman with a gun) and the entitled (My warantee is a year expired, but I want free service!) or those who think that everything's our fault (Wait, you mean if its a user error, the warantee's not going to cover it and I'll have to paaaaaaaaay? Thats horrible!).

Face it, People suck. Tech support has to deal with these people, and it only gets worse as the gadgets get more complicated and hard to use. The only people who have it worse than Tech support is billing, because frankly you've not heard the meaning of pissed till someone has problems dealing with money.

That being said, we do our job. Our job is to be nice, helpful, understanding. How long do you think anyone would last if they showed their contempt to every customer who called up? I'd say a week, tops. People can tell, and people don't like it. They call your manager, and then you get written up.

I treated every one of my calls like it was my problem, and I probably had one of the worst track times in the whole building. There were still things I couldn't do for the customer, still problems that I had to say "sorry, we don't cover that", and you know, it sucks, but thats not our call.

Re:little Apple

[v1]

One of the things I get to do at work (computer sales shop) is answer tech questions on the phone. I actually very rarely get a hostile customer, and in those cases they usually either don't stay hostile for long or they realize I don't own a Magic Wand and go away. Most of the customers I deal with are the clueless, they call with basic computer questions that carry their own special brand of frustration. There are also the variety that are cluess AND think that your entire day has been reserved for providing phone support for them. "hi I just bought my first computer and a printer, can you show me how to make christmas cards?" Those questions really do happen. We try to draw the line at 5 minutes of phone support. Any more than that, and they have four choices: bring it in, have us come out, send out a professional instructor we reference (much cheaper than sending out a tech) or keep trying to figure it out yourself.

All in all most of the tech support calls I take are short and productive, and quickly resolve the customer's questions. The part that takes the longest time is just figuring out exactly what new and creative thing the customer has found he can do with/to the computer. After long enough you can guess pretty quickly what the issue is. My favorite: "Every time I click my mouse a little window opens up". "Take the book off your keyboard". "What?" "Take the BOOK off your KEYBOARD." "The what? .... oh, that works! How did you know I had a book sitting on the corner key on my keyboard?" "You're not the first." Now consider that call took 20 seconds. Now guess how long the FIRST one of those calls took? (hint: I broke my 5 minute rule more than once)

Re:little Apple

[zaq121]

How could fellow tech support callers be your best customer? You have no idea if they are a fellow tech support person or not.

A month ago I had to call cox about my cable modem and I dreaded making the call, knowing that I was going to be treated to someone with less than half my knowlege.

My connection would just die after any type data would transfer. It could be replicated within a seconds of loading up counter-strike or downloading a file. After much tests I concluded that either my cable modem was going bad, or their line had issues.

Sir, do you have a home network.
Yes.
Sir, first of all, it is not our network, it is your network with the problem.
Lady, I disconnected from the network and am currently directly connected to the cable modem.
Ok sir, what browser do you use.
Opera.
Sir, we don't support Opera
Lady, I have Firefox and IE, I assume you want me to use IE, pretend I never said Opera.
How often do you clear your temporary internet files?
Lady, I just want to play counter-strike, I never use IE, so I don't clear the temp files.
Sir, we don't support games
Ok, forget I said counter-strike, would you like me to go clear my temp files now?
Please.
Ok, that was fast, now what? I still can't download more than a few KB of that linux ISO.

(we continued with other newbie crap such as my connection settings, firewall, manage add-ins, if I have any 'strange icons next to the clock', etc, etc...)

Sir, I am in your modem right now and all the levels look good
I start a download and connection dies, she says she is still in my modem.
Your modem is fine, I am connected to it and all levels look good.
It looks good??? my internet JUST died. Lady, I need to get off the phone, click

I go to best buy, buy a new cable modem, call them up and give them my new info and my problems are now gone.

What good was my knowledge? Even though I know a thing or two, I was treated like I knew nothing.

Obligatory

[GroeFaZ]

Oh, and next Friday... is Hawaiian shirt day... so, you know, if you want to you can go ahead and wear a Hawaiian shirt and jeans.

*embarrassed silence*

I rock, all else sucks.

[Funkcikle]

Hello and welcome to my blog. Just want to whine about how I work in a crappy job I think I am too good for. Not only am I too good for the job, I am way better than everyone else there. Which explains why I have not risen so fast to the top of the company that the resultant nosebleed is dripping onto Steve Jobs' hair (which is a toupe, by the way - YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST FROM THE BEST GUY IN THE WORLD).

Not only am I great at everything, I am such a cold chap that I make everybody else cry due to my brilliance. I would laugh at their weakness but hey...I am just too cool.

Urgh.

What is the difference between this guy and waiters who snigger at customers who choose bad wine? The former has a blog, that's what.

I am now going to go click on his Google ads a couple of hundred thousand times and have his account suspended for click fraud. He made me waste four and a half years reading his Maddox-style crap.

Re:I rock, all else sucks.

[fm6]

What is the difference between this guy and waiters who snigger at customers who choose bad wine? The former has a blog, that's what.

Well, presumably the waiter also knows something about wine.

You've convinced me not to bother with this story when becomes deslashdotted. But jeez, what do you expect? Blogs are all about vanity. And yet people love this shit. That is what bothers me.

Shame the same can't be said for apple re-sellers

[Anonymous Coward]

I worked for two years at an apple re-seller dealing with support and sales. I can honestly say that the casual 'easy' lifestyle never made it to there..

I'm just about to start legal procedings against my former manager!

All of the Apple representatives that came to check up on 'us' as well didn't seem to have inherited the casual lifestyle either .. stiff as a board.

Oh it's "this guy"

[Nijika]

The "better" one. Frack. A dime a dozen in tech supprt. Sorry, dude, but the reason your career didn't advance is because you didn't have the people skills to climb the ladder.

How many of us here have done tech support as a full time gig? I bet the show of hands is impressive. How many realized it was time to move on, not just from the job, but from the "customerz R teh st00pitz" attitude as well?

No? Haven't figured that out yet? Enjoy your time in the middle.

There's always one, or more, of those guys who feel that they have been given the shaft. They're just so good technically but they can't seem to put a career together. Why? It' must be dumb luck and conspiracy. "I don't get promoted because [manager|company|god] is threatened by my skill, or because they are short sighted, or because maybe I didn't take a shower this month".

Those of you who have your eyes upwards, or elsewhere know who I'm talking about. Those who are this guy will not realize it.

Re:Oh it's "this guy"

[Aladrin]

I was only part time, but it was while I was in college. I worked phone tech support for a major computer manufacturer.

Despite being more knowledgeable and more helpful to customers, I was passed by for 'promotion' (if you call it that... the place sucked) several times. Poeple that knew a LOT less and usually just messed up my customer if I had to get a second opinion on something.

Until 1 day, the seating arrangement changed. I ended up sitting right next to the head of our area. I said good morning every morning and suddenly I was 'backup team lead' about a month later. Another month later, another seating rearrangement, and for the next 2-3 months, I remained 'backup' and people who had never even been backup were promoted to full team lead.

At the time, it stuck in my craw that I had to 'suck up' (even tho I was just being my normal self at the time I was promoted, I'd have had to go out of my way to be nice under the new seating) to the boss (female, if that matters) to get anywhere.

I was only there 6 months, but I learned a LOT about politics in the workplace. Geeks tend not to do well with it, but it's worth the time to look into so you at least know why thse things are happening to you.

Re:Oh it's "this guy"

[MichaelSmith]

That said, a decade in support will wear on a person.

Tell me about it. My dad worked most of his life in process control. Building networks in mines and factories. I am sure he had a lot of fun cruising the world with a toolbox and an ethernet analyser and being shot at in PNG.

Now the local branch of his company has turned into a phone support operation and it is totally the wrong type of work for him. He knows his stuff technically but the job is too structured for him. A 63 year old tech shouldn't have to take X number of calls per hour or get carpeted by management.

So he is retiring soon and I am trying to set him up with a business fixing valve amplifiers. He is old enough to have started out on valves and they have come back into fashion. If I had known he was being made to do this kind of work I would have been pursuading him to get out before his heart attack, not after.

Seemed Like He Was Spot on To Me

[GaryPatterson]

The blog entry seemed pretty reasonable to me. He was in a job for a long time, got stale, realised it and got out for greener pastures. Lots of technical people do that, and it's a good thing for them.

I particularly liked the part where the bozo with the "mission critical" computer didn't back it up. If it's mission critical, you have redundancy. If you don't have redundancy, it's not mission critical - you've already decided you can survive without it.

I call BS on this

[green pizza]

The writer of that blog entry is obviously a native english speaker. There's no way he worked in tech support.

Yes

[liangzai]

That is the Apple way, folks. Robes, sandals, beach sand. Cars, guitars, sex, and teenager violence...

You are free to sweat in your Business Bhurka and eventually choke on your tie when it gets stuck in your Dell lapstop, but remember you had a choice.

Would you like fries with that?

[FooHentai]

Whatever, tech support is the IT equivalent of working in McDonalds. The only difference is how much knowledge you're expected to bring to the table. I'm sure there's some attainable goal of a satisfying tech support role, but it must be prohibitively costly and difficult to implement, since even Apple evidently functions just like all the rest when it comes to support workers.

The pay, conditions, level of respect you receive, and especially the customers, all comparable. Flipping burgers and switching backup tapes don't feel all that different, they're both soul destroying once you get past any initial novelty.

So it's hardly surprising that many leave the job in a pretty bitter state. What is surprising is how many of them think their situation is novel, and that it's worthy of sharing with the world.

Teamwork and Infrastructure Matter

[Shannon Love]

To give you an idea about that, how much would you expect to pay a consultant (one man, not a company) that had even most of the following skills?

I worked in Applecare for 9 years and saw a lot of this attitude. Tech support specialist feel more knowledgeable than we actually are because we forget the enormous support given to us by our teammates and the support infrastructure of the company. It might be true that any particular high level support tech could leave the company and get highly paid for the knowledge they possess but that superior knowledge would grow stale in hurry. They would have an edge for 3-6 months but after that slip down the knowledge slope and end up just like everyone else.

Applecare techs can quickly solve problem that would take expensive consultants because they have an instant reservoir of high quality information at their fingertips. First, they have their teammates who are also specialist in area who can be tapped just by poking one's head over a cube wall. Second, they have the databases, training and testing labs provided by the company that lets them find answers quickly. Thirdly, they can escalate problems up the technical food chain until it hits the people who actually created the product in the first place.

All this support makes the individual feel super-knowledgeable but I saw a lot of people leave for consulting gigs who didn't make it for long because they under-estimated how important their support was.

Tech support isn't for everyone. Its not a high status job by any means no matter how well compensated. However, if you like rapid problem solving, have basic personal skills and can just remember that if everyone knew what you knew you wouldn't have job in the first place, it can be a good career.