I’ve seen other people here mention the resellers using account balances, cash, and or odd prepaid gift cards to make purchases. Always with an old iPhone logging into the Apple ID right before using account balance on Apple Pay. What’s actually going on with that? Sometimes I notice the same people hanging around multiple times a day waiting to buy things.
I once had an infamous manager that say, “as long as you’re wearing this shirt, you control what customers rate.”
I call BS on it, there are things that we didn’t share, business, accessories, services.etc but happy customers just rate everything yes or 5, we are aware of we shared usually and we darn well know for a fact what we say most of the time.
You can have an unhappy customer who rates everything 1 because they had to pay for a OOW repair at cost, not because you weren’t polite.
You could have TMS comment about someone else, but somehow ended up on your metrics, YET we weren’t allow to remove it.
I have a friend who had to deal with a corporate team member, who ended up acting all nice in the store, but rated 1, only for him to ask around and find out that retail and RCC are the only 2 teams that aren’t allow to write surveys when received (medallia).
Corp team member could literally just mess with us all they want despite working for the same company, some of them literally treats us like second class employees when they’re here at the store, throwing fits or even demand that we do the exchange, I don’t think they actually know that EPP purchase beyond a certain percentage requires a return and repurchase then collect.
My point is, NPS aren’t everything.
So for some context I was an FWE last year (2025-26) however I couldn’t continue due to university reasons but I did the reinterview whole process anyway because this company almost feels addicting. However i didn’t get it. I’m not entirely sure I was put in pipeline but my manager said something like “you can reapply in 6 months if you would like to”. And then now I have reapplied on the 2nd April to be seasonal this year (this is what I mean by it being an addicting company) however I haven’t heard anything. Are there any people that have been in my position before had this experience and I’m just at a bottom of a very long list or have I been rejected? Although that would be almost crazy as my CV was in the template that was on people.apple and worked in January and it had my metrics on (that were pretty high).
So to not even get an interview feels like a slight kick in the face.
So if I am in pipeline as I generally can’t remember much from that conversation as my car had just failed its MOT and I zoned out once I heard “unfortunately” where do I sit for becoming an FWE again. And if not what did my manager mean by “you can reapply in 6 moths” when someone from my core has gone through the system again and had his interviews.
Thanks for reading my kinda rant.
If you can, request a pto day for the 3rd friday of September. Pretty much guaranteed to be launch day if you look at the past launches. 😈
So a while back I applied for Apple Ross park because the former place I worked for I was answering phones for Apple and figured why not?
Well I didn’t expect to get tapped for a phase one interview
Here’s the problem
I live over an hour away no car no one who can take me to the interview next week so I emailed asking if for phase one I could do over Webex or zoom and THEN if I get the nod for phase 2 I come into the store because w gas how it is?that’s a LONG way to go on a ‘maybe’
Guess I’m asking what’s the chances they say yes to this compromise?or should I just delete and forget it?
I truly don’t feel happy to work for Apple anymore. It drained me so much, these past years and I feel more like a zombie every day. I feel bad calling out every other month, but clearly my mental health is getting worse. Retail is just a sinking ship now and it’s overwhelming with all these metrics and focuses that are rinse and repeat every quarter.
How you all feel about the current state?
Apple Retail was once the gold standard of experiential retail—a place where employees felt empowered, customers felt inspired, and the brand shined through every interaction. Today, that legacy is at risk. Across hundreds of posts and thousands of comments from your own retail teams across both US and international stores, a clear pattern emerges: morale is tanking, sentiment is deeply negative, and your frontline teams feel undervalued, overworked, and forced into ethically dubious practices.
We write because this is not just about metrics or sales; it is about the soul of Apple Retail, which is very clearly no longer "our people." The sheer abandonment of what was built and led by Ron Johnson is a slap in the face to every Apple Retail employee and customer. We held out hope that Deirdre would breathe new life into the organization and lead a revitalization following the Browett and Ahrendts eras. Instead, it is clear the current trajectory is designed to purge stores of the very tenured employees who know what the glory days were actually like.
Being incessantly pressured—and now virtually required—to collect customer information using Connect & Personalize has become the norm. Signing customers up for “free trials” to inevitably pad the Apple Services piece of the earnings pie chart, being required to log “anyone with a job” as a business intro just to check a box, and killing any remnant of what the Creative or Genius roles once were— is now the name of the game. No more help, guidance, real tech support beyond restoring everything, or genuine learning. Now, the objective is quite literally to persuade every person to buy something, regardless of the method or need.
Examples: Apple Vision Pro demos, Apple Intelligence, business intros, services, conversion, services, conversion, business intros, connect and personalize, conversion.
Need an appointment for actual help? Management would much rather you funnel everyone who isn't planning on spending a dollar directly to AppleCare phone support. There are leaders currently in place who share this sentiment, but they too are being pushed out, replaced by external hires who are turning these stores into every other retail space.
Is the incredible surge of LOA’s and two-week notices every store has recently faced not an enormous red flag? What about the failing Pulse results across every market? Or is this the end goal? We want to be proud, enjoy working here, genuinely help people, have fun. If wanting tenured brilliant employees to quit without laying them off is the goal, it is working.
Being proud to work at Apple and referring friends and family to retail has become a thing of the past. We would not refer even our enemies to the current state of Apple Retail. It is like watching a family member slowly lose their grip on reality while being completely powerless to stop it. You love them dearly, you cherish the history and stories you share with them, but they are losing themselves and no longer remember who you are. Apple Retail is a distant memory of what it once was, and we are all watching it fall to ruin. Apple has made it very clear that it wants to prevent store unionization, yet leadership's own actions are driving that movement forward completely on its own.
As Apple enters a new chapter with shifting top leadership, I implore you to read through the posts on this subreddit. Read the comments. Read the Pulse surveys. Read the customer complaints about agonizing wait times, repair turnaround times, and having to be helped by an employee who is simultaneously juggling three other people. Conversion.
Read the room.
One of my store managers who I kid you not named his first born Tim and had "AppleEmployee" on his custom license plate today told me he took pride in having 3 call outs in over 13 years working for the company. This is the same guy who quite literally RUNS to customers to get his approach tactics working and being recognized by the store.
——— That really hit home .
let that sink in before you clock in for your shift today
Hope you all protect your mental health.
You matter
I used to work for Apple from 2014-2019 and went from PT BOH specialist up the ranks to FT BOH, Lead and learn experience including in and out of store core facilitator, acting IS full time, acting ops lead, to a multi department LOTF experience journey that had me spend months as a specialist and then months as LOTF for each department including handling CS issues, having 1-1s, being in manager meetings for planning and actioning iPhone launches, Repair room strategies and of course all store inventory counts.
I have always thrived in the fast paced “I can do it!” Environment of the Apple Store. I felt so at home I would do anything asked of me to build “experience” and my managers made me feel that I was fully on track and hitting all marks towards promoting to Lead Ops or Manager at the end of my multi year experience.
However. After 4.5 years with the company 2.5 of those at least in my leadership experience I was disappointed to hear they felt I needed more time
(I asked for direct feedback, growth opportunities, stretch goals at every 1-1 I had the whole time ) and they chose to promote someone I knew had much less experience ahead of me. I was heartbroken and felt driven to quit since I spent so long committing 200% of myself to the store and the staff with the vague promise of being seen and promoted based on my hard work, commitment, and unique abilities.
I even have a matching tattoo with 3 former Apple employees that is the green Boxcutter we used in BOH at the time and all our tats say “BOH LIFE 4EVER” I’m committed yall
I got my 5 year award, asked my management team again what opportunities I should be focusing on, what opportunities I needed to rise to and what I could do to set myself above the rest. I didn’t get any actionable, tangible, measurable answer. I eventually decided to follow my heart and quit Apple to peruse a dream I knew would be fulfilling to me even though it would be a massive pay cut and I’d be leaving corporate safety. Then…COVID hit. I spent 3 years bartending fulfilling my dream and being a pillar of my community when they needed it most. I don’t regret that time. But after Covid you couldn’t predict how much money you’d make every month bartending. I got a regular ass retail job and worked there for years. Then another one. And now….
I really want to go back home to Apple. I know you can’t find an OPs Lead or OPs manager role often. And I may not interview well enough to get those roles anyways. But the thing is if I try to go back as a regular specialist I worry I’ll be overconfident in interviews knowing I’m already experienced and praised for my LOTF role. I also was never a good sales person. I simply can’t upsell someone if I don’t think it’s right ( a grandma coming in thinking she needs a MacBook pro talks to me and then realizes she only needs an iPad Air with accessories)
Please help!
I want to come back to Apple I have a fuck ton of experience at Apple retail and in other luxury retail sales and services (Tiffany &co) and I don’t know where to start applying.
P.s. I have a friend who’s higher up at Apple retail NY that can refer me and put his name on me since we used to be co workers.
Today as i'm at work my entire management started shadowing most of the tenured staff, it felt absolutely surreal having worked here for more than a decade and I have a new shark manager on my back listening to every word making sure I bring up every single metric to the customer and than when I did help everything the customer asked, my manager asked why I didnt demo airpods. I'm done, i cant do this anymore guys, how can i take a long extended leave
My store pretty big we have so many people on leave and for example we have this one guy he is an expert and he goes on Leave for about 8 months at a time, and I kid you not you'll see him one day and than boom not for another year. And on his instagram hes travelling the world probably at his other job, meanwhile were being slaved for all the metrics.
We have another guy still in the system and hes been on leave since 2019, a girl whose been on leave for 2 years. How is this even fair? And how can i do it.
Has anybody heard back from apple after submitting the questionable information sent by the recruitment team? i received the email around 2 weeks ago and send my info back as soon as i got it and still have not heard anything from them. I’m aware this period apple are looking for seasonal hire so i was expecting to hear something back sooner - If you are Based in London like myself do mention in replies please
Apple Care, Accessories, CNP, Hero Units, TMS is 90 percent all above benchmarks still got AE? Why not EE ?
Is it better to stay at the borderline? Because you will get AE.
It’s almost like the company has turned upside down on its head. I work at a large store in Canada and today my soulless Manager had the audacity to pull me aside because I didn’t scan connect personalized for a return. As any normal employee, I scanned the actual receipt. The customer handed me and he had the audacity to say why didn’t you start with connecting personalize? It would’ve made interaction smoother. I can’t work here anymore. I’m losing my mind every second I’ve given my entire 20s to this place and I feel like I’ve lost my life. 11 long years of my life.
I work at a store in the US that gets a lot of international tourism. We notice a lot of foreign customers ignore us when we welcome them.
Why are greetings not customary to foreigners?
We tend to see it most with Eastern Europeans and Asians
Every time I hear those words come out of a manager / leads mouth i cringe and die inside .
You mean to tell me I’m expected to help 10 people in product zone all at once while you shit on me later because I didn’t take my break/ lunch on time . Meanwhile I’m also expected to set up connect and personalize , business Intro , free services , together at Apple sessions , Apple Intelligence within 10-15mins.
They have skeleton crews on a daily nowadays . We have 1 genius and 2 TEs and a bunch of clueless TS at the Genius Bar and when call outs happen … morale goes out the door because the remaining team who did show up get the alarming amount of work expected for the day which is 3-4x more expected of them
This is the expectation of Apple retail stores across the nation . Do you think this is fair ?
Here’s the honest truth - the store doesn’t care about you . It never did. it’s designed to be this way . The gaslighting is very real and if you’re feeling the pinch Oh boy trust me on this , it’s going to get a whole lot worse come sept when Timmie steps down .
If your gut feeling is telling you it’s probably time to jump ship . I’d start NOW
🤦♂️
I work at a smaller store (4x4 table store). We had a bunch of callouts today. We had 4 managers, 2 leads, 2 lead geniuses. The floor was busy with 4 people on PZ. 1 on point and the others serving multiple customers.
The managers were dicking around in the name of coaching doing f all. When a customer goes to them they get annoyed and tell them to go see the specialist who is already helping 3 different families.
The leads took position at one the tables and staring at the schedule all day on their iPads.
I have never seen any other retail place where the managers will never do a single sale. Never touch an Isaac. Whenever this is bought up on pulse, the managers band together and fight it. They don’t want to set the precedent. Like WTF.