Pro tip: 95% of the problems with the power connectors are due to dust trapped inside the charge hole. Yes, there is a lot of dust in there, even if you can't see it. No worries though. You can solve that problem in 2 minutes. Here's how:
1 take a clip, or something similar (thin and rigid) and use it to dig out the dust from the connector hole in your phone
2 be surprised at how much dust you actually find
3 keep digging out the dust
4 your phone is as new! Try charging it and you will see that it won't disconnect randomly anymore.
Hope it helps :)
p.s: We charge 10-15 euros for that in the store, and obviously don't tell how easily we got it fixed to the customer. I know, it's funny and infuriating.
My iPhone 6s, with its weird turning off and on randomly at times and other funky behaviors, was (and will always be) my favorite phone I ever owned! I'm not joking :)
I'm sorry if I came off as a virtue signaler. No I'm not blaming Apple, and of course people would buy cool things to look cool even without them. What I'm saying is that Apple is especially good at applying pressure in right spots: as you said, the human desire for status and fear of being left behind. Some still haven't recognized it and I've seen countless people make poor financial decisions because of their blindness to what is moving them to buy. Maybe I should have used "aware" instead of "intelligent", since intelligent people can fall for it too. Of course I'm generalizing and as you said, people also buy Apple just because they like it and can afford it, I did that too. But too many times I've seen people really torn and staying there thinking to themselves for half an hour if they should buy it or not, because they know they shouldn't. If you just like a thing, but you know that buying it will have very bad financial consequences for you for the next 10-20 months, it's not difficult to resist. So the fact that all these people were buying anyways, makes me come to the conclusion that there were more powerful internal forces moving them, then just "liking Apple".
Mmm that was not our policy. I worked in Italy, so maybe there are different rules for different countries. But something like trying it out for 2 weeks, then coming back and getting a refund or switching it (for example for a different color) was never ever allowed.
What you said it totally true. But to say that Apple is not forcing is a white lie. It's true that they're not pointing guns at us, but they are smoothly pointing us in that direction. There's a psychological pressure to have the latest tech, otherwise not only your phone, but also you yourself, are outdated and uncool. No kind of manipulation was ever forceful. That's what makes it a manipulation. You think you're doing it, but another person/company slowly brought you to do it.
A lot of people are intelligent and strong enough to resist this brainwash, but a lot of others are not.
Could be stupidity, or compulsive fomo. I think that to do what he did, stupidity is not enough, you have to have a big fear or insecurity inside to work as a sufficient motivator.
Once you open the plastic outside the box (not even the box itself) you can't return it for free, it might have been compromised in some way. Its value is automatically cut in half in the store's eyes.
Thank you. But any person with morals would do the same. No, I worked there for a few months. After a while they reached out to get me back there, but I declined.
I knew/know this person personally. We all knew him because he was an habitual client. He is working as a professor in high school. So the probability of him being so wealthy to change one iPhone per week are not that high. That said, even if he is, do you think that his behavior would be consider sane? His story is just to point out how the sense of worthlessness in some people is financially exploited by prestigious brand like Apple.
The cool thing now is that you can have a brand new 2019 phone with the latest tech for 300/400 euros. So if you want to keep the pace, you can do it without selling your soul. I think it's more about the temporary sense of worthiness that an Apple product can give you.
Yes, what you said is completely true. I am not saying that Apple is evil, I personally own Apple products and I think they're great (but overpriced). I just wanted to point out the length some people go just to have Apple in their pockets. Apple is not evil, but they know what they're doing, and they know that the prestige of their products is used by people to try and neutralize the sense of worthlessness they feel inside.
This manipulation is even more evident now that they are selling phones that are almost identical to the previous generation, bring nothing substantially new to the table, if not new smokes and mirrors. I'm sure that in their headquarters, they now spend less and less time innovating and more and more time refining their selling skills.
For me personally, working there was a perpetual moral internal debate. I was good at convincing people that were on the edge of buying. On one hand, the more you sell, the higher the commission you get, for you and the whole team.
On the other hand, you have to sell tech that is one of the best, but for the time being, totally overpriced. Therefore, you have to manipulate a lot, and tell half-truths if not blatant lies at times, which is not great either.
This becomes much harder when you have to manipulate a person, that is clearly struggling in their decision because of financial reasons, into buying a phone priced 1000+ euros.
On the inside, I was always screaming "what in the world are you doing!"
The way I operated was this: when a manager was nearby me, I had to act the part, but when I was alone I tried, in a not so explicit way, to clear the fog in their brain and make them get back some reason in their heads. I prefer being able to sleep at night, instead of getting a few more bucks in my check.
To be clear, I like Apple products, and I personally own them ,because I was able to get them used (but brand new) with huge discounts in price, but they are not for everyone.
About the 40yo man, he gave us back his phone each time. The way it works is this: if you bring back a phone, you get an evaluation which is at best (even in perfect condition, got out of the box just a week earlier) half of the initial price tag.
You can get a new phone, give back your old one and pay the difference.
Former Apple Store employee here! You would be surprised by how people become blind from all the smokes and mirrors of the Apple branding and advertisement.
I remember one day, there was a 40-something years old man, that came in with an iPhone X and switched it for an XS, adding 500 euros.
Only to return 1 week later to switch the XS for an XR with better storage, adding 250 euros.
Only to return 2 weeks later, to switch the XR for an XSmax adding 400 euros more or less.
This gentleman was so brainwashed into FOMO by Apple that threw 1000+ euros out of the window.
One other time, there was another gentleman that clearly couldn't afford an iPhone X. He was so torn when deciding if to buy or not. I tried to give him hints that it was better if he let go of it ("maybe wait next year, your iPhone 5 is still doing the job"), but no, in the end he decided to go for it and we tried to do a 6 months payment plan. His card got rejected. Then we tried with a 10 months payment plan. Rejected. Then we tried with 20 months one. Finally, accepted. He wasn't even happy about that. Was probably thinking about what he was going to have to renounce for that iPhone. I tell you, the whole process was physically painful.
What?! Light is not small evil demons coming from the sun directly into our eyes?! Anyway amazing, I've never thought about the non-hardware perspectives. You got me excited!
One other important thing to note is this: vaping was introduced as a way to quit smoking cigarettes, but now, as backed by numerous studies, we see that, not only just a very small percentage of smokers leave cigarettes completely and opt for vaping, but also, a lot of people (especially kids and teenagers) that would have never smoked cigarettes in their entire life, are introduced to the habit and gesture of smoking by vaping. This means that vaping is doing the opposite of what it was advertised to do, it is a road that leads towards, and not away from, cigarettes.
Why do you think there are some many flavors to decide between when vaping? Strawberry, chocolate etc. are just the basic ones to pick from.They are tasty and colorful. They are targeted towards kids. The tobacco industry found a new way to advertise itself and to enter the homes of innocent people. Imagine this: a 12 year old has been taught that cigarettes are bad. He decides he will never smoke one. One day, he passes by a vaping shop with his edgy friends and they decide to buy a nicotine-free juice with some brand new vapers. It tastes good and you can do all kinds of fat clouds with it. Wow! Plus, it's not cigarettes so there's nothing to worry about. After a few months the nicotine-free juice is not edgy enough for these young teenagers, so they decided to buy the one with a small percentage of nicotine. Now they can prove how badass they are. During this period of time they acquired not only the habit to go in and out a vaping shop, but most importantly the gesture of sucking a stick and inhale the fumes from it. They are psychologically dependent on it. But the nicotine-filled juice is not edgy anymore, so what's next? Cigarette of course! In this way innocent kids that would have never picked up a cigarette start smoking, thanks to vaping. It's a sneaky move the Tobacco industry studied and they fooled all of us.
My personal experience: I smoked for 3 years and quit 1 year ago. While first trying to quit, I used vaping as a mean to succeed. No need to say, not only I started vaping, but I kept smoking MORE cigarettes than ever before. This is just my personal experience of course, but it shows a little the uselessness and damage of vaping.