O for Oakridge, E for effort
Sunday, I went to the Oakridge Apple Store to see if I could get any help. I showed up at 11:35am. I was greeted by an employee, Richard Jones, who helped me get signed in to see a “Genius”. My time to be seen was at noon (much better than 7pm). While I waited, Richard and I hung out. You should have seen this guy. He was awesome: African-American, white beard, Kangol hat, and a nice watch.
He asked me what kind of watch I was wearing. “Omega.” He removed his watch and handed it to me. "This thing is titanium, limited edition." Damn, it was light. It weighed nothing compared to my Omega Seamaster. The catch: his was the 150th anniversary edition of the Omega Seamaster. He continued to chat about how he liked nice things. He wanted the nice watch. It matched the paint on his Jaguar. He liked going sailing in the Bay Area. He taught me a little about sailing. “Puke down wind so it doesn’t come back in your face. But it’s probably okay because the next time the water comes up over the boat, it’ll get washed off.”
The Oakridge store doesn’t have a checkout counter. I bought an Airport Extreme card for my girlfriend. Richard pulled out a large PDA from his belt, scanned the product, swiped my credit card, walked over to a drawer, pulled out the receipt and a bag, handed me the receipt, bagged my Airport card, and the purchase was done. That was nice, quick, and convenient.
12 o’clock came around and it was time to get my Mighty Mouse fixed. The guy tried his magic. After some rubbing with a damp cloth (not sure what he used to get it damp), the scrolling was a little better. It could scroll, but it wasn’t 100%. I figured he would give up and tell me I had to deal with it or buy a new one. But he went to the back and pulled out another Mighty Mouse. I think, because it was in a cardboard box, it may have been a refurbished mouse. He told me that we could just do an exchange, but I needed to provide some information. Unfortunately, I have never registered an Apple product. But now I see why I should. To make the exchange, Apple would need to track the transaction by way of my registration or by giving them the serial number off my computer. Naturally, I don’t carry the serial number to my computer in my wallet. So the store is going to hold the mouse for me for five days. All I need to do is go home, write down the number off my computer, and come back with my old mouse.
All in all, I believe this was 20 times better an experience than going to Valley Fair’s Apple Store. So what have we learned? Go to Oakridge. Come on, Robert Scoble thinks “Oakridge isn’t too ghetto anymore”.
