Mad Hatter's Hatbox

Arrogant Apple

2007-12-18T17:47:00Z

Last week I visited our local Apple store (for the last time) to purchase an iPhone for a friend. We called the store and they would not take his credit card over the phone and hold the purchase until I could pick it up. So, my friend gave my cash. I arrived at the store, told the salesperson I would like an iPhone and was directed to a cashier. He placed the iPhone on the counter and I got out the cash. Sorry, he says, we don’t accept cash for iPhone purchases. What??!! I politely asked him if here were kidding. No, he answered, he was not. I, a little more loudly, said you have got to be kidding. I told him he could check all the bills to determine they were genuine and not counterfeit. No, he said, that was not the issue. I asked a little more loudly, why they did not accept the legal tender of this country. At that point a manager type person came over and asked if there was a problem. I told him indeed there was, that I wanted to purchase an iPhone and wanted to pay cash. He said it was Apple policy to not accept cash for iPhones. I asked him why. He said it was Apple policy to not accept cash for iPhones. He told me if I was unhappy with that I could make a complaint. I said I would indeed. If the purchase was for myself I would have immediately left the store. Since it was for a friend, who was leaving town the next day, I gave him my credit card and paid for the iPhone. I then told the manager person that this policy was ludicrous and that it was going to cause Apple to lose a customer. A customer who in fact two days later had intended to purchase a 23 inch widescreen Apple monitor. A customer who in fact when he received his bonus in March had intended to purchase an Apple computer and was interested in exploring software development on the Mac. A customer who would never make another purchase from iTunes. Two days later I purchased an HP w2408 24 inch widescreen monitor. BY the way, not one person who worked in the store apologized in any way for anything.

When I returned home, I searched on the web and found out why Apple did not accept cash for the purchase of an iPhone. In fact there were a couple reasons. First, any customer is limited as to the number of iPhones they can buy. Huh??!! And if they accepted cash they would have no way of keeping track of how many a given customer had purchased. They wanted to make sure that everyone that wanted an iPhone had a chance to purchase one. Actually I was not surprised as Apple has never been able to forecast demand for any one of their products. The other reason Apple refused to take cash was they wanted to know who had iPhones to track how many of those iPhones were used with AT&T service and how many were unlocked to be used with any service the purchaser wanted to use. My feeling is that is none of their business. If I want to purchase an iPhone and use it for anything I so desire, I can. I purchased the product, I didn’t lease it.

I then went to the Apple web site and found a link to provide feedback on Apple retail stores. I filled that out, sharing essentially what I shared above. The next morning I noticed on the receipt a link to a web site at Apple where the feedback went not only to Apple but to the store from which the receipt was generated. I filled out that feedback survey and at the end it asked if I would consent to being contacted by phone about me y experience. I indicated I would indeed and left my cell number. Three days later I received a call from the manager at the store. He wanted to know how they could improve their service for my next visit. I politely informed him it would not be possible. I shared my concerns again. He was clearly well trained by Apple to not concede anything but did at least say he was sorry my experience was negative.

This whole experience epitomizes Apple arrogance. They want to control it all. All the hardware, any software that runs on their hardware. Everything. Never will I enter an Apple store again. Ever.

Race Day 2007

2007-05-28T15:34:00Z

An Indy 500 Race day to be remembered! What ended up a rain-shortened race of 415 miles, was one of the most exciting races I have seen since I began attending in 1981. More lead changes is this race than 29 of the last 32, combined! The checkered flag was waved in the pouring rain, the second major storm since the beginning of the race. While clothes were dampened, spirits were not. My wife’s younger sister and her husband had come down for their first race. We wanted it to be a good experience and exciting race. Although we did not get in 500 miles, we got all the excitement and thrills we could ask for.

After getting up yesterday, the first thing we did was check the weather radar. It did not look good. It appeared a big storm was about to hit Indy, which was already wet. Well, it did rain but most of the storm blew north of us. We left for the track at about 9:00 am, wanting to make sure we could park in our usual spot (Speedway High School). Absolutely easy drive the parking lot, which was much emptier than I thought it would be. We parked, hung around for about 30 minutes and then walked the three-quarters of a mile down to the track. When we left. it was not raining.

We arrived at the track and worked our way up to our seats. Track drying was in full swing. They got it dry and the race started on time. The pole sitter was overtaken going into the first turn and lead changing began in earnest. The first caution came to remove pieces of John Andretti’s right side mirror. How it broke is not known. Every single car came it at once for the first pit stop on this yellow. Lead changing kept on in earnest. There were three more cautions before the first rainfall, all three accidents single car accidents with no major injuries and only one minor injury. Some questionable pit stops occurred during this last yellow before the skies opened, most notable, Sam Hornish, defending champ. When the race was red-flagged for rain, Tony Kanaan leading, Marco Andretti second and Danica Patrick in third. This was around 3:00 pm. Kanaan started his rain dance while everyone else hoped it would stop, the track would again be dried and we would go racing again.

An hour later the rain did stop, they began drying the track, and we were ready to race again by 5:45 pm. As my son said it would, and I had also been saying this too, it was a “freaking frenzy” when the green flag waved again. One caution and lots of great racing ensued, lead changes continuing at an unbelievable rate. The clouds started darkening in the west. Carol got a text message (we are not sure from which of our two boys) that said rain in 15 minutes. We believed it. Others must have gotten the same info as ponchos started re-appearing. Meanwhile, in the best piece of luck during the day, Dario Franchitti had to make a pit stop out of sync due to a tire problem. That stop proved to make the difference. When the second to last caution came out, all of the leaders had to pit but Dario did not.

After running a few laps under yellow, the green flag waved once again and the drivers were off, briefly. On the back stretch Marco Andretti, whose right side mirror was unusable, bumped wheels with Dan Weldon, went airborne, flipped over and skidded along upside down for a bit, hit the infield grass and flipped back over. All the Andretti faithful moaned, the anti-Andretti faithful cheered. That was short-lived as Marco did not get right out of his car. Concerned fans watched until Marco did emerge from his race car, albeit a bit wobbly, and cheers by all erupted when it was clear he was probably OK. Former winner Buddy Rice was also taken out by this crash. Dario fell in behind the pace car for the yellow that came out. Less than one lap under yellow the skies erupted again (about 15 minutes as predicted after we got the text message). A lap later the checkered flag waved and the second Scot in the history of the Indy 500 had his first victory (Jim Clark was the other, over 40 years ago). Dario’s wife, actress Ashley Judd looked every bit as happy as hubby. The time was about 6:30 pm.

We had an uneventful rapid trip home. We carried everything in and turned on ABC’s re-broadcast of the race (it is blacked out locally). Thankfully the three hour rain delay was edited out of the broadcast and be 11:30 pm or so, I turned off the TV and went to bed.

Race Weekend

2007-05-24T23:05:00Z

Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, the greatest spectacle in racing. We are a few scant days from the 91st running of the Indy 500. As usual, we are already watching the weather forecast. So far, there is a 30% chance of rain race-day morning. Sounds like the race will run Sunday. As long as it stops raining, if it ever does Sunday, by 9:00 am or so, the race will likely start on time at 1:00 pm. Carol’s younger sister and her husband are coming down to go to the race with us. A good time will be had be all.

Welcome To The New Hatbox

2007-05-24T21:58:00Z

Welcome to the new Hatbox! Maybe I will even periodically post stuff here. Well, one can always hope.