A few years ago I went into PCWorld with my wife looking for a laptop for her. She had her heart set on a mac, (because they looked so beautiful), and nothing was going to change it!
We headed for the laptops area of the store and found a couple of macs tucked away at the end of an aisle. Eventually we managed to find a member of staff and started to ask about the merits of Apple over windows.
Well, to say the assistant was unhelpful would have been kind. He basically told us that a mac was no good, that there was no software for it, that it wasn't worth buying one, and we should look for a windows laptop instead.
He did a fantastic job. He convinced me - that we shouldn't be in this behemoth of a computer store looking for a mac, they didn't want to sell us one, they didn't want our money. So we went to a smaller, independent mac seller and bought one from there.
My wife still uses that same machine today. It's never broke down for her. It's never crashed. It just works. And it still looks stylish today. And everytime I look at it, I long for my own mac.
Finally, now it's my turn. I'm looking for my first mac. I'm abandoning windows after many years of frustation, hang ups, crashes and bugs. I went back into PCWorld to see what they had, and wow! has their attitude towards macs changed.
They now have a dedicated area in the centre of the store devoted just to Apple products - and you can't miss it with the large illuminated Apple hanging above it. There was a member of staff who was only there to sell apple products, and he was knowledgeable. When I told him what I was after, he spent at least 15 minutes talking me through the options I had, and actually told me I didn't need the all singing all dancing top of the range model for my needs (potentially saving me lots of £££). He knew what he was talking about too, and demonstrated on a laptop many of the questions I had. He wasn't pushing me for a sale, he wanted to give me the advice I needed to hear. Eventually I asked about pricings and options and he went through them all, even giving me the details of the interest free option.
I have to say, I am impressed with this new approach towards selling macs in PCWorld, and I may well be returning next weekend to buy one of the most beautiful, stylish, and reliable machines I have ever seen.
