Apple workshops? Not impressed in my area

I paid the 99 for one on one as well as attended some of their free workshops. I bought an iphone 4 and went to that workshop. OMG... I couldn't get out of there fast enough. The lady that was "showing" me was awful. She was like a 60ish non sophisticated iphone user. I could have shown her a thing or two. She could not get facetime to work at all. It was embarrassing. She also told me there wasn't much to show me since I had the 3gs before.

I also attended a couple of the movie making workshops. My guy was soooo wierd and didn't help me at all but I was polite about it. He also made me feel very uncomfortable as his personality was really odd-- didn't talk much with awkward silences. I felt like I had to come up with things to say. It was like... so... what do you want to know? Since I got him both times I went, I don't think I'll go back. The one to one sounded really good as I like to play with movies and pictures but I am seriously disappointed in what I actually got.

Did you give feedback to the store manager or Apple? They can't improve if you don't tell them what they're doing wrong.

Some instructors are better than others. I thought they are supposed to be more versed in the subject they are teaching though. I have had a few sessions where I already knew most of the product but still got a few things out of it. Most of these sessions are for new users. The workshops are very general. The one-to-one is more geared to you and what you want to learn. Give it a try.

Don't be shy about asking for a different instructor. You paid for this.

Sounds like an absolute beginner would have a much better experience just gleaning the online tutorials, rather than waste money for what essentially sounds like less that even that, at the Apple stores. Why don't they make the tutorials more in depth?

After all, if you are paying for a lesson, why not have prepared materials and have the instructors know the in's and out's of said materials, rather than have the instructor ask dopey questions such as "what do you want to know?" That's plain ridiculous... Um.. I want to know how each feature works and what I can actually DO with each feature ? I bet they'd have an aneurysm with that question !

I'd ask for a refund and stick to the online materials, as well as help from the fine folk at forums such as this one. (I exclude myself as being fine folk, but I'll help when I can )

Doug

I'm sorry to hear about the poor service!

Doug b said:

Sounds like an absolute beginner would have a much better experience just gleaning the online tutorials, rather than waste money for what essentially sounds like less that even that, at the Apple stores. Why don't they make the tutorials more in depth?

After all, if you are paying for a lesson, why not have prepared materials and have the instructors know the in's and out's of said materials, rather than have the instructor ask dopey questions such as "what do you want to know?"

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Almost all of Apple's tutorials, workshops, and classes are free.

Only One-to-One sessions are charged and in that case, they would need to ask what do you want to learn about since it's tailored to the individual.

I went to a couple of the Apple Free workshops at the Apple store. They were Basic classes design more for the beginner than someone who has been around computers for a while. I actually enjoyed the iWeb and iPhoto classes. My class facilitator knew the material well enough, was pleasant and I must have lucked out because she was attractive also. I would take more but it is a 35 minute drive to get to the Apple sore.

Sometimes they'll hire less techy types on purpose because they make better teachers for nontechnical people. I, for example, am more knowledgeable about UNIX than all but 4 or 5 of my co-workers, but when somebody asks me for help, I tend to overexplain and get a bit too technical. Perhaps if you let them know that you are a technical type when you go in, you'll get an instructor better geared to your needs--from the sounds of it, someone like the 5 co-workers I have that blow me out of the water

schweb said:

Did you give feedback to the store manager or Apple? They can't improve if you don't tell them what they're doing wrong.

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I'm still curious on this.

A disgusting experience, but not surprising. Truly professional technical trainers are a rare breed. More often than not, those positions are considered to be entry level.

This is a bit off topic, but, several years ago I found myself laid off from my job as a technical trainer in a now-defunct corporation and needed to find work quickly. So I accepted a job as an applications trainer at New Horizons. For one, I was shocked at the low wage (but, as they say, beggars can't be choosers), but was completely dumbfounded at the lack of knowledge my new co-workers had. With few exceptions, if it wasn't covered in the book, they didn't know or care. No outside experiences to create samples. No anecdotes. No extrapolation. They had a curriculum from which they never deviated. Ever. Then, to top it all off, shortly after I started, they hired a guy that worked as a janitor in a gym when they needed a new trainer who could barely pronounce the word computer. No certs. No teaching experience. And week later, he was ostensibly teaching IT pros how to code in Transact SQL.

You should definitely complain to Apple. While I'm traditionally pessimistic where trainers and training is concerned, I would have expected better from a company like Apple. They should fire this chick and hire real professionals. Lord knows, with the way they price their products, they should be able to afford it.