Comment by robmclarty | Hacker News Reader

Comment by robmclarty | Hacker News Reader

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Or at the Apple store! omg, the number of times I've walked in, gone directly to a sales person to request that they kindly go to the back room and retrieve a specific item for me so that I can give them money and been stalled, interrogated, and counter advised on other products when really I already know what I want and just want them to get it for me.

me: "Hi, I'd like to buy a White 13" Macbook with a 500gb HD and 8gb of RAM. Could you please get one for me?"

sales person: "What are you using it for? Do you browse the internet? look at photos? do a lot of word processing?"

me: confused "um, I do web development and use Photoshop sometimes..."

sales person: "Oh well you need a Macbook Pro then."

me: "no, I can't afford that and the regular Macbook is plenty powerful for what I need. Can I just buy one please?"

sales person: "Photoshop won't run well on the regular Macbook. What you really want it the Macbook Pro. You'll need at least 16gb of RAM and if you're editing photos you'll want a bigger harddrive, not to mention the extra power that comes from the Pro's CPU."

me: "um, I have money in my hand right here that I will give you in exchange for a regular Macbook. Can you please go get one and take my money?"

The problem is that they don't know that you actually know what you want.

You present identically to the kind of person who is completely non-technical and was mis-advised by a friend of theirs, and who will come back in a week complaining about how Photoshop doesn't run well enough and their hard drive is full.

Apple has decided that they want to ensure that you are happy with your purchase, and part of that process involves the salesperson being convinced that you are buying the right thing.

You're right that I would present the same way.

I just get frustrated being told what I want, being upsold, and being made to feel as if I don't know what I'm talking about when in fact I probably know a lot more than the sales person who has probably never used the device in question the way I've described I will be using it.

I understand that the general case is better serviced this way, but for someone who walks in knowing the part numbers they want, the added friction is a turn off.

I personally avoid going to Apple stores because of how hard it is to actually buy stuff there. Even grabbing a simple USB key off the shelf is incredibly hard to pay for when the cashiers are all hiding in a sea of other people.

I'd think "I do web development" should be a sufficient signal that "this person is not non-technical."

> I'd think "I do web development" should be a sufficient signal that "this person is not non-technical."

Not to a systems software developer, sonny.

/s

(Besides, "I do web development" could easily mean "I know what Dreamweaver is". (It's that song by Gary Wright which helped inspire Freddy Kreuger, right?))

I misread that the first time, and thought "I don't understand... someone saying that they do web development should be a perfectly clear sign that they're nontechnical, especially to a systems developer".

> (Besides, "I do web development" could easily mean "I know what Dreamweaver is".

People who fall into the (negative) category "I know what Dreamweaver is" never describe themselves as web developers, but rather as web designers (and the serious web designers, say, as UX designer).

If you don't want this to happen, just don't answer the questions about what you are using the computer for.

Just say something like "I don't want to get into that - I know this is what I want to buy."

I've never had a problem with this.

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