Peter Cohen, writing for iMore:
A rumor surfaced this week that Apple’s excising its One to One program at its retail store in favor of expanding the free group workshops program. One to One allows owners of new Macs and other devices to purchase a year’s worth of weekly, personalized training with Apple specialists in Apple retail stores at a steal of a price: $99. If One to One does indeed go away, I can understand why. It’s very expensive for stores to do, and many customers can get effective training other ways.
And:
The retail store where I work, while not owned by Apple, is authorized by Apple to sell and service much of their gear. We’re located almost an hour’s drive by highway from the closest Apple-owned store. There are other places in the area to buy Apple gear: Best Buy, Walmart, Target. But for personalized sales and service, many people are much more comfortable coming to us.
And:
We have to offer training to keep customers, but we’re not a social welfare agency. We have to make enough money to pay employees, keep the lights on, and put enough in the owner’s pockets to make the business operation worthwhile. It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for us to see it go away.
Interesting flip side of the coin. If Apple did away with the One to One program, sounds like it might be a boon for non-Apple retail stores.
Excising:
a tax levied on certain goods and commodities produced or sold within a country and on licenses granted for certain activities: excise taxes on cigarettes.
But we get the point. 🙂
I was hoping that my father-in-law’s eventual switch to Mac would be supported by One to One training (if only to spare me the inevitable “where is everything on this thing you recommended” phone calls), but I’m in favor of any decision by Apple that helps good Apple Specialist stores stay in business.
I have a client I still help long distance using TeamViewer, but for things I can’t do over the internet I send her to Apple to use the One-to-One I had set up for her. I’m interested in seeing what alternatives Apple offers or if the group events will be all that is offered now. Luckily she is in Baltimore, so there are a few specialist stores around to help.
The verb “excise” means to cut out surgically, or to remove a section of music or text.