A story in the San Luis Obispo (Calif.) New Times weekly magazine wraps up all the issues of the future downtown Apple store in that city: competition with a local reseller, negative architectural feedback from a city commission, an under-the-radar city council appeal, and store construction. The story explains how the building owner took Apple’s name off the design documents after the initial turn-down in order to have the architectural plans approved, and it posts a photo of the building under construction.
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“Copeland appealed to the City Council and in January got his frosted-windows version approved”
They’re installed. Can’t see much inside as a result, but they have the basic metal framework installed for the counters and such.
Keep up the fight Shane!!!
This isn’t my Apple.I have always been proud of Apple’s independent, critcal-thinking style. Now I have to ask when it comes to San Luis Obispo, what are you thinking? You have a successful, independent Mac/Ipod retailer located at one of the SLO’s busiest intersections with plenty of parking and a bilboard-sized advertisement for Macs in its windows. They have promoted and supported Apple Computer, Inc. for years. As a corporation, you who have a reputation for out-of-the-box, independent thinking? Can you really let one of your own rot? This isn’t my Apple. You have appeared to be above-the-board in your corporate style. Now, I find out that your name was withdrawn from building plans to push approval through the system. Not my Apple. I have been a steadfast and loyal Mac purchaser since 1995. Even now that PCs support all of the graphic design programs, I have remained loyal to Mac and Apple Computer, Inc. More than loyal, because of my pride in who I thought Apple was, I have been a proselytizer of all things Mac The treatment and tech knowledge that I receive at Macsuperstore is a big part of that loyalty. They made you visible in our small town. They supported Apple. It is your turn to support them. Bring my Apple back. Put your lease in line with your untarnished reputation for being an enlightened corporation. Continue to support independent thinking.
Yes, I agree with the above post. The hard work and loyal support of the SLO area Mac community and Shane Williams has led to a strong Apple market in the area. Now, Apple comes in, under the radar, and establishes a store that may take a significant portion of the business away from the MacSuperStore. I’ve done business for years at the MacSuperStore. The store has consistently won awards for their customer service and retail presence. Something’s happened at Apple. Stores like the MacSuperStore fit the business model for a small town like SLO, and have been beneficial to the Mac community and Apple since Apple’s “lean years”. Why attempt to thwart that, and do so in such an underhanded way? Is that how we now treat our hard-working local businessmen and women?
“Apple comes in, under the radar”
It’s possible that going under the radar was all Copeland, but can’t argue with the rest.
Apple announced on the construction wall that opening day is June 9.
I was very excited to hear that a real Apple store will soon be in San Luis Obispo. Being far from competition, MacSuperStore has done some shady things over the years. I’ve lived in the area for the entire lifetime of the store. As an enthusiastic Mac user I’ve sent many people to that store. Much of my experience with the store is through what has happened to my friends.
One friend drove 40 miles to get there after being told on the phone that they’d set him up with Classic for his OS X Mac for free. That seemed very nice of them (and it was a machine that obviously had shipped with it). He’d lost his 9.2 disc. A short time after getting there they told him his drive was corrupt and that he needed to buy Disk Warrior first.
Bait and switch.
Disk Utility reported no errors. Even if there had been some errors Disk Utility couldn’t fix, he was willing to start fresh by simply reinitializing the drive. He later found his disc – 9.2 installed fine without repairing anything. MacSuperStore wasted a bunch of his time and 80 miles of driving, but at least he didn’t fall for the Bait and Switch.
Another friend bought a used dual G4 from them. From day one he kept having problems with it crashing. They just told him he was visiting buggy web sites. He bought some RAM on his own and added it. It didn’t help. I visited him and happened to boot into OS 9. The system promptly threw up an alert saying it had bad processor cache. I told him to go back to them with that information, as the bad cache on the CPU module was no-doubt causing the crashes in OS X. They said cache is memory, and he upgraded memory, so they wouldn’t help. Nevermind that cache and DRAM are two completely different things. He’d been to them within days of buying the machine over it crashing. He got sold a lemon and they wouldn’t stand behind it.
When he bought the machine and wasn’t having luck getting a better price, he asked if they’d throw in Tiger when it came out (it was shortly before release). Well they did, but they gave him a pirated copy from a box that was filled with them! What respectable dealer would dare boost the apparent value of machines at Apples expense?
Another friend bought Tech Tool Pro from them (another case of misleading advice – it wasn’t needed for his problem). The package had been tampered with. When he went to register the software he got a message that the serial number was already registered. He went back to MacSuperStore and they were upset he tried to register it online, saying it wasn’t required!
Recently I was in there. A customer near me was being sold an out of date version of DiskWarrior at full retail price. He may not have needed the Intel support of the current version, but it has other enhancements. Maybe he didn’t actually need the software at all. But is seems sleazy to dump out of date inventory on unsuspecting customers at the price of the latest version.
I don’t mean to dump on DiskWarrior, its a well written product that’s great when it is really needed.
The techs are nice guys, but for the $75/hr one pays to use them, they’re only getting something like $15/hr ( based on Craigslist employment ads I saw). It was apparent from the posting that part of the job is to push profits through software sales (obviously including some that isn’t needed). Several techs have left them to do direct software training, which no-doubt pays much better.
In recent times they appear to be trying to clean up their act. They don’t seem to have used machines any more. (This does seem to coincide with many more highly-priced machines appearing on Craigslist locally, perhaps they just went underground?)
Another friend had a Mac laptop with the case plastic damaged, the machine was otherwise in warranty. After being quoted $50 for the plastic (he was told they had a salvaged part from a new damaged machine) plus $225 labor to change it, he wanted to do it himself. It’s not like it requires anything beyond using reasonable care, some small tools, and perhaps a little thermal grease for a heatsink if that is disturbed. They said Apple “frowns” on them making parts available and would NOT sell him the part. When the customer said he couldn’t justify $275 for a simple cosmetic repair, they offered him $300 for his in-warranty Intel MacBook (which still worked!). What an insult.
He went out of town to a real Apple store which happily referred him to two other Apple-authorized dealers nearby that could order the part. They even provided business cards and a flyer with service descriptions, directions and maps for those dealers! He visited one, paid for the part which had to be ordered and had it in the mail within a week. (He saw from a store terminal that the dealer cost of the $50 part was $25, a markup he was happy to pay) If the folks at MacSuperStore had been more interested in helping him instead of trying to cheat him out of his computer, he wouldn’t have had to go 240 miles to get what he needed. If they’d been smart they would have realized that a happy customer would turn to them first for the next new machine, iPod, Apple-TV etc. That’s unlikely now. A Happy customer doesn’t have stories like this to tell either. Word of mouth/fingers matters guys. Treat people right and it is free advertising.
With some of the things they’ve done, they’re lucky to just be getting competition. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see their dealership yanked entirely. Some things they’ve done compare with those of bad auto repair shops.
There is enough business around San Luis Obispo for an Apple Store and MacSuperStore to both do well. Hopefully the competition will result in MacSuperStore treating customers better, and they can fbe useful by filling in any gaps. The increased visibility from the official store will help grow the Mac market share locally.
If the other Apple store I mentioned is an indication, one in S.L.O. will actually send business to MacSuperStore when they can help customers. The Apple Store employees are not paid on commission, so they’re not under pressure to misdirect customers.
I’ve been grateful to have MacSuperStore around over the years and have sent many people there to buy Macs, but most of the gratitude was because there was little else Apple nearby (mainly the university bookstore, which can sell students CPUs at special pricing).
A real Apple Store in San Luis Obispo can’t come soon enough for me.
The current love/hate relationship has gotten really old.
The MacSuperStore folks ought to extend their hours. They once had an internet cafe downtown. Maybe it is time to reconsider that idea.
It works for Barnes and Noble. (Merge it with the iPod shop?)
The current location is fine for parking, but definately off the foot-traffic path for coffee. Downtown S.L.O. actually has people that walk around.
The new Apple Store location will get much more passer-by foot traffic.
To address a few of the many things “Wanting Diversity” brought up:
We have long made it our company policy to do “what is right” and being called “shady” hurts a bit. It goes against our moral ideals to do so and I can’t say that we have ever intentially mis-led or screwed a customer. Now, having 15+ employees is sometimes hard to stay consistent with all policies and advice.
Diskwarrior v3 was $79. v4 went up to $99. We simply gave customers a choice to go with 3 for a savings of $20. We could of sent them back, but frankly v3 sold out rather quick when it was a savings for most.
Part of the service agreement with Apple forbids us from selling service parts to end-users (outside of things like power adapters and batteries) without installing them. We have always abided by those rules, even when it means losing a sale or two. In fact, we got a cease and desist letter from Apple about a year ago — threatening to pull our authorization unless we quit selling parts to folks. After asking for example or proof, we never heard back from them.
Our techs are paid fairly and we charge fair rates for their services. It’s a very tough business to succeed at. I hope that folks around the country would give their Apple Dealer and Service Providers the benefit of the doubt in their business efforts. It’s incredibly hard to meet customer expectations and abide by Apple’s strict policies and desires — at the same time.
I’m happy in a way — that customers will have a choice to shop at the Apple Store — because honestly, we will send some folks there, because we can’t seem to make them happy. Whether Apple will or not — only time will tell. Many folks feel that because it’s Apple — their needs will all be “taken care of”. We do our best within the framework and we love to help Mac users in our community. It’s a real shame that it’s getting less and less profitable to be a dealer – as Apple gets deaper pockets to do things themselves instead.
I encourage you or any other concerned folks to step in and join us behind the scenes for a whole day — catch a glimpse of all that we go thru to provide the experience and products that we do. Like what Dairy Queen offered Mark Cuban — come see what it takes!
Shane