Who Do You Trust? The Shop Girl or Head Office?

All of my tech is Apple - iPhone, iPad, iPod, Shuffle, MacBook Air - I'm a willing brand devotee and have always been satisfied with the hardware and the standard of customer support but something happened recently which has thrown my brand loyalty into turmoil.

I recently tried to download some new apps and it said my operating system was incompatible.  Ok, I get how this works, technology moves along swiftly and sometimes I get left behind.  It's an analogy for life that most people over 40 can appreciate.  This can be easily resolved (in technological terms, at least) by downloading the latest operating system.  No big shakes.  But it turns out my MacBook Air isn't compatible with the latest software, it has officially reached its sell-by date.  Apple were putting it out to pasture and effectively forcing me to buy a new laptop.  This is annoying as I only bought a new hard drive for it six months ago.  When the Apple Store in Regent Street took my money and installed the hard drive they were severely limiting its shelf life. They never gave me the option to have a newer hard drive installed.  So, my MacBook Air is limping towards retirement and I have no choice but to buy a new unit. 

To be honest, I got over this quite quickly as I like spending money, especially on technology and it gave me an opportunity to buy a MacBook Pro.  Exciting.

Before I gave Apple even more of my money, I did some research but it just confirmed what I already knew - A MacBook Pro is a solid purchase.  I made a special trip to Brent Cross Shopping Centre *shudder* to visit the Apple Store and buy my MacBook Pro.  I'd already made my mind up, it was just a case of walking in and paying for it.  When I got to the store a display model caught my eye so I went over for a quick feel.  I was soon approached by a member of the sales team.  I like Apple staff, they know their stuff and I always feel confident with their advice and this young woman was confident in her approach to me.  I announced that I'd like to buy the MacBook Pro.  She asked me…

'Why?'

Hmmm… wasn't expecting that…  I'd already closed the sale for her…

I told her that I was going to use it for business, designing, etc and she said that I would be better off with a MacBook Air as the MacBook Pro was on the way out.  Alarm bells started ringing, she made me doubt my decision.  She said there hadn't been an update on the MacBook Pro for well over a year which is 'never a good sign' so I should go for a MacBook Air as it had been recently updated, it was much quicker and had a much better battery life.  I explained that I had a MacBook Air and she insisted that I should buy a newer one.  This really threw me.  I wanted a MacBook Pro.  She said that the MacBook Pro had moving parts in it, it had a CD drive - how retro!  It was heavy and hot and was basically signed off for the big Apple junkyard, she said it was going 'the way of the old white laptop'.  Damn.

I'd been side-blinded.  I'd already been stung by my MacBook Air becoming obsolete so quickly after the repair and now I had visions of my shiny new MacBook Pro becoming irrelevant in the same amount of time.  I still wanted it though.  I said to her...

'I still want to buy the MacBook Pro.' 

She said, 'Don't.  Trust me, don't'...

This was weird, I checked her Store ID to make sure she wasn't some nutter from Sony trying to put me off a sale.  She was so authoritative in her advice that she made me feel like a fool for even considering buying a MacBook Pro.  I walked out of the Apple Store dazed and confused.  Fifteen minutes earlier, I had gone in with the absolute decision to buy a MacBook Pro and here I was leaving with nothing.  Did that just happen?  It should have been the easiest sale in the world.

Three days later and I'm wondering if she was right?  Why would she say all that for the fun of it?  I contacted Apple Inc to air my confusion and they assured me that the MacBook Pro was still very relevant and they had no plans to retire it any time soon.  Just to be on the safe side, I contacted them again for a second opinion.  I received the same response and they shared my confusion with regards to the anti-sales technique in their Brent Cross store.  I thanked them for their help but then became paranoid.  

 

Some of what the shopgirl was saying is now making sense.  Who needs a laptop with a disc drive?  When was the last time you put a CD into your computer?  Everything is downloaded now.  Physical media is rapidly dying, DVDs and CDs are mainly traded at car boot sales these days so it stands to reason that the CD drive in your laptop is going to be as useless as a Floppy Disk within 12 months.  Yet Apple Inc are allaying my fears, they tell me I can purchase with confidence and why wouldn't they?  They presumably have an aircraft hangar full of MacBook Pros they need to keep selling.  So the big question is: Who would you trust?  The shopgirl or head office?  


Update:  Seriously, if there are any tech-heads out there, I would truly appreciate any advice.