Jan 30, 2009 08:00 PM
41,956
Enter your username and password.
Andrew's parents went to the Apple Store in Leawood, Kansas to buy a new iThing. Bauble acquired, they headed for the glass door. The wind slammed it into the building, exploding it all over them.
Glass doors, on a windy Midwestern winter day anyway, are apparently not the most practical design. After Andrew's parents were coated with glass, store employees rushed over to make sure they were okay and apologized profusely. They left, but discovered on the way home they had actually sustained some cuts from their glass shower. (Which is entirely possible. After a car wreck, I was discovering cuts and bits of glass in my head for days afterward.)
Andrew wrote Steve Jobs and Apple's VP of retail stores about what happened. Instead of a response from either of them, his parents got a call from an Apple Claims rep to make sure they weren't gonna sue Apple. Thankfully, Andrew's parents aren't greedy litigious assholes. So that was the end of the matter.
But you'd think Apple would at least give them an iTunes gift card, since they chose not to be pricks about it. And well, a door exploded all over them. Here's Andrew's entire letter:
On Sunday December 21st, my parents were shopping in the Leawood, KS Apple Retail Store. After making their purchases they found a design flaw in the elegant stores of Apple. Glass does not hold up well in Midwest winters As they were leaving the store, a gust of wind caught the front glass door, the door slammed all the way around into the front of the building and shattered all over them. After many apologetic conversations with the employees of the store, they left and my father noticed he had sustained a cut on his hand. To make it home, they had to stop at the local grocery store to get bandages. Upon coming home, my mother discovered she had also sustained cuts.This all seemed like a lot of trouble and trauma for just adding to the number of Apple products in our family (We have the new Macbook, Macbook Air, 2 iPhones, time capsule, Apple TV, airport extreme, countless iPods, etc.).
THE END RESULT: I emailed this information to Steve Jobs himself, as well as Ron Johnson VP of Apple Retail. My family has not heard from either of them. We did however get a call from an Apple Claims representative in Seattle to make sure my parents didn't keel over on the car ride home and probably trying to find out if we were planning any litigation. My parents took the high road on this one out of respect for the company of Apple which they know I greatly admire. I am an Apple shareholder as well as the Vice-President of the Mac Users Society at my University.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Our family LOVES Apple. We have all been to Cupertino and have seen Steve in person. It's just funny that all Apple did to rectify a retail door shattering on my parents was to make sure we weren't suing. It's ironic that people who get horrible service and whine about it walk out of stores with brand new macbook pros and whatever they cry for. Yet people like my family have taken the high road because we respect companies that give 1st class service to customers and deliver innovative products.
I've Attached a Photo of the Damage to the Store. My heart goes out to all the Apple Employees who braved the cold and stayed until the store closed.
What do you think Apple should've done?
Send an email to matt buchanan, the author of this post, at matt@gizmodo.com.
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
Start a new discussion