The strange, wacky and weird world of being an Apple Store employee

Three former Apple Store employees opened up to Thrillist, revealing some of the strange, crazy and unusual things that take place inside an Apple Store. Not all of it is customer related. For example, Apple was determined to keep the Lightning cable a secret, even to Store employees. So before it introduced the Apple iPhone 5 with its new port, it shipped Lightning cables to the store. To prevent employees from finding out about the change in advance, each location received shipments of the new Lightning cable with the new plugs hidden inside mock 30-pin connectors. Once Apple unveiled the phone, Store employees learned about the subterfuge. They were then told to pry apart the false 30-pin connectors to reveal the Lightning plugs that were inside, so that the cables could be displayed on the rack and sold.

As you might imagine, iPhone owners would have to try and con Apple Store employees about how their handset got damaged. This way, they could argue that the warranty was still valid. One customer tried to convince a Store employee that the liquid inside his iPhone "was some kind of E.T. fluid from when he was abducted (by aliens). It was hard to keep a straight face during that." Another customer came into the store with his iPhone in pieces, sitting inside a plastic bag. He had been so upset with the way that his iPhone was working, that he took it out back and shot it with a rifle. Needless to say, the damage was not covered by the warranty.


One of the former employees did mention the right way to get Apple to replace an iPhone with a cracked screen for free. This does require that you are aware of a known issue that  is affecting your model. As an example, the Apple iPhone 6 had a problem with a film that was slowly sliding over the lens of the rear camera, leading to distorted photos. If you had dropped your iPhone 6 and gone into the store saying, "I dropped my iPhone 6 and I want the screen fixed," you'd end up paying for it. But if you went into the same store, saw the same guy, but focused on the issue with the film covering the camera lens, the phone would probably get replaced  at no cost. It is all in the presentation.

Considering that the Apple Store would seem like an interesting place to work, why leave? Apparently, talking to people everyday about the same issues over and over became a chore for these three. But don't worry about Apple. They no doubt have a long list of people who would love to have the opportunity to put up with the strange, wacky and weird just to put on the Apple Store uniform.

source: Thrillist via CNET