Absolutely right. people should try to deal with the issue right then and there.

Writing long letters to steve jobs isn't going to deal with the problem directly. It's the nevermind telling you to your face about your sexism but let's let daddy deal with this, syndrome.

Could be sexist, could be insecure. Maybe he just had a tremendous fear of women. Either way, this does not sound like something I would write to corporate about.

This letter should have been written by her husband; I didn't hear a word she was saying!

I agree with the article. The man was a sexist bastard, no doubt about it. However, being the modern, independent woman that you are, you should have stepped up, sent your husband elsewhere, and forced the salesman to talk to you. Why were you letting him do the talking?

My girlfriend had a similar experience. The guy just treated her like a retarded child looking upon a computer like it were fire to a caveman. Douche Bag Apple staff. They really need training on how to deal with people of any gender. If they can't speak to a woman in public, don't work a service sector job or move to Saudi Arabia.

@ironchef: On the same note, however, it's much easier for someone who obviously has issues with women to dismiss her as just another "bitchy dame", or what have you. The ideal route would have been to ask for the store manager and embarrass the employee right then and there. That being said, I don't think there's anything wrong with writing to corporate. Think about if it was a matter of race rather than gender. There would be a media hoopla about it.

@ThinkerTDM: I was thinking that, too. She should have just sent her husband away and forced the dude to talk to her. And then punched him in the nuts.

Wow. 3 of the first four comments complain about the victim. Maybe you should all go work in the Apple store too.

@Alger: Of course. Because the consumer is always right. And if an employee has a genuine social problem, it's his fault.

Most likely this is a case of the geek as Apple sales dude who is only out in public because the job requires it. No social skills and a bladder emptying urge whenever a woman comes within 15 feet of him are often misinterpreted as sexist behavior. In either case, the Apple employee is not well suited for the retail world, and should be returned to the back of the store or his mother's basement.

This is big news? I practically have to stab myself in the eye to get salespeople to address me and not solely my husband.

Let me tell you something lady, the guy possibly was SO GOOD at his job he automatically knows the kind of customers to avoid. I am an Apple customer from the days of the Lisa (I remember when the stock fell the first time around) and let me tell you, I won't even step foot into an Apple store due to the PC people that are flocking and confusing everyone with their god awful questions. Everyone seems entitled to the "MAC" club for dropping 1,600.00 at a crack, and feel entitled to the warm hug and respect that others have gained over the past 25 years when they stood loyal to the brand because it was not in the main stream.

Good for you- that new Airbook is just pretentious enough to demand respect from the girls club - but GOD DAM IT you demand it from the loyal Apple geeks too!!

And another thing, when you approach teenage boys at the computer store - some of them may be too shy to speak with you directly. Or they might be from the South, where we call people "Mam" and "Sir". Where it is considered "rude" to talk up one's 25 year old wife in public.

Or you could have been just another spoiled rotten "Hip" MAC customer of the hour rolling in to haggle the purchase of her new computer. The last time I ventured into an Apple store I was astonished by the hoards of 14 year old girls having $600 TELEPHONES handed to them by their parents. And the classes of PC users asking the Apple employee to personally email Steve and ask him to put another mouse button on their laptops.

We are all holding our breaths until the "fad" is over and everyone else leaves the Apple experience back to where it once was. No go out to the garage and put that white Apple logo sticker that came with your Nanno on your SUV.

@Diet-Orange-Soda: F*&% you.

@durkzilla:
True - because his knowledge of COMPUTERS has nothing to do with it. You are thinking of the Dell Kiosks.

I you have some major sexist issue or inability to talk to women, don't work with the public.

She did the right thing by not buying anything and leaving. I probably wouldn't have been as nice and had called him on what he was doing.

Sounds like the apple store staff needs some additional training. They called some autistic guy some rather unprofessional things a few months ago.

@Diet-Orange-Soda: Sexism IS "a tremendous fear of women."

Hate = fear

@bdslack: Forgot your smug mac hippie anger management meds? You're obviously really pissed off that the mainstream unwashed has started knocking on your exclusive club of mac worshippers. Attitudes like this are the reason why I'm sometimes ashamed to owon a mac. It's a G-D computer.

If the husband was really handsome and the salesclerk was gay, that could explain the snub. In any event, the salesclerk's behavior was extremely rude and not acceptable.

This is more of a societal thing and not an apple store thing, I think. As a woman, you just have to get yourself out there. Be assertive. Push the husband out of the way and start talking. I think salespeople have a tendency to go to the person that is asserting themselves in the situation.

@bdslack: What a moron. You are the epitome of the elitist Mac customer base that nobody likes.

Dear Anjela,

Stop bitching. There are much more important things in the world.

Sincerely,

Steve Jobs

"I am the geek for whom the MacBook Air was invented."

The MacBook Air was invented for hipster clods who don't know anything about what's under the hood of their machine.

Not geeks.

One of the quickest lessons a salesperson should learn is that in most cases, the woman controls the purse strings. It's not true in my family, but if my wife wasn't okay with a purchase, or felt disrespected by a salesperson, they aren't getting our money.

Even if you're a chauvinist pig, you should be able to set aside that in order to take a customer's money, and at least simulate interest in the female.

In general, it's a bad sales tactic to ignore anyone in the buying customer's group - wives, husbands, kids, grandmothers, the dog, whoever. If they're there, they're involved in the decision.

We don't mean to suggest you did something wrong by simply walking out; we offer this advice because standing up for yourself will make you feel a lot better.

She stood up for herself by walking out.

It is not her job to train their employees to pay attention to the person making the purchase.

Apple owes you an apology for this employee's behavior.

Meghann... You've been here as an editor for as long as I can remember being a reader. While I'll agree that Apple not only owes her an apology but a damn golden ticket to the Apple store along with her educational discount, you know just as well as I do how extremely UNLIKELY it will be for Apple to issue a written apology, let alone a verbal one via the phone. Hell, they can't even honor their own AppleCare which - according to the article - they tried so hard to push upon her husband.

This is real similar to the email I've wanted to write twice. I have gone in to various apple stores with the intention of buying almost $2000 worth of products (a macbook, and then a year later an iPhone). Both times due to the horrendous service of the employees, I've walked out shaking my head and without my desired purchase. I have never run in to a company where I feared I couldnt enter their store because the employees gave me such a physical reaction. If sensible people are violently turned off by a company's employees, that company may be doing something wrong.

@bdslack: You're right, what right does she have to expect reasonable service during the trip where she plans to spend upwards of $1700. Take that $1700 to ANY other store, and watch employees fall all over themselves to help. Apple may have had a great model set up, but their rapid expansion has ruined any goodwill with people who still have free will. I will NEVER step foot in an apple store again.

@bdslack: I hate to be blunt. Usually I'm a nice guy who will over look such comments but dude, you are truly an asshole for that. If someone wants to make a purchase, it is their option to do so.

@bdslack: holy shit, dude. you are entirely too pissed off. apple makes computers. i can't believe you said "mac club" without the slightlest hint of irony. i hope you don't work in retail, or any business where human interaction is necessary. seriously, you need to chill. she wanted a macbook air, and the guy was rude. in retail, it's not the salesperson's right to judge, he's there to sell--to everyone. it's really not that deep.

"My husband finally stopped Bill in his tracks and told Bill that the computer was for me."

Yeah the guy was an ass, but I agree with Ben that you should have stood up for yourself at the time. Did you let your husband answer all the questions or did you try and assert yourself? Did your husband ask "Honey, it's your money, what do you think?" To try and bring you into the conversation.

@Diet-Orange-Soda: You know, the customer *isn't* always right. But in this case, she was.

And, whether the employee has a genuine social problem, or is just a jerk, he shouldn't be in a customer-facing position. (And look at the results of actually putting him in such a position: the store lost a sale, and so infuriated a customer that she will never buy from them.)

@bdslack: I can only hope you're a troll, because otherwise the phrase "weeping for humanity" comes to mind. What the hell does the iPhone rage or newbie users have to do with the terrible way the consumer was treated? She was ignored, repeatedly, when she was the one with IT experience, the one buying the damned thing, and thus the one who needed to be asked her preferences with the machine. Not her husband - her. If you want to complain about the your need to keep your pretentious club for old school members only, go ahead. Just do it in a different post, rather than hijacking this one.

The worker possibly being from the South has nothing to do with it either; for one - and seven years in Atlanta and five more in backwoods Alabama give me reason to understand the South - people aren't that sexist in public if they want to continue to be seen in public. If they are, then angry letters to management and above ought to be sent out so that they can be removed from positions where their attitudes will continue to offend those around them and lose their companies valuable sales. Talking to a man's wife isn't considered rude (what is this, 1820?), nor can it be when she's the one making the purchase and he directed the sales guy to her.

I don't see why everyone is making excuses for his behavior either; just because he might be scared of women is no reason to treat her in such a fashion. Again, if you can't handle the job - don't work it.

The employee definitely made some seemingly sexist assumptions; first assuming the machine was for the hubby, and then even after learning it was for wife, continuing the sales pitch to the hubby. But wife seems way too meek, she certainly should have spoken up when it was happening...
also @MDSasquatch: giggle, that was funny :)

Ummm...Why didn't the husband step up here?

This does happens so many places, surprise surprise. We always enjoy when my wife slides a credit card with her name on it in the sleeve, and the waiter instinctively returns it to me.

Particularly when they read it closely enough to call me by her last name. Her particular last name is so unlikely to be my last name, that it always intrigues me that they are so "focused" on the idea it is my card, they can't see the much more likely "this must be her card."

If this had been me and my wife, she likely would have similarly just shut down and watched to see how it played out or left the store sooner. (If he doesn't want to notice her as a human being, she's not going to make him notice her as "that confrontational customer.")

But if I hadn't at some point said, "Look, she's the one with the money, you need to be talking to her," I'd be sleeping on the floor.

Next she'll want the right to vote or some crazy like that.

@bdslack: whoa. calm down. this is clearly a case of the apple employee being confused. i think she's overreacting too, but your post is way out of line. sheesh. i'm looking forward to reading all of the angry comments here, but is this really newsworthy? to me it seems a bit inflammatory and sensationalist. so one awkward apple salesman makes a mistake and suddenly apple is a sexist company? give me a break!

here's the problem:

"My husband finally stopped Bill in his tracks and told Bill that the computer was for me."

before it even got to that point her husband should have immediately said: "i'm not making any decisions here, i'm just along for the ride", and then taken a back seat to the whole experience. at this point the sales person would have realized his mistake and shifted gears.

i'm a female and i've never had anything but excellent service at the apple store. this sounds like a big misunderstanding that's now been blown way out of proportion.

"Rare" disorder? Nah. I've had the same experience in many different stores, from Best Buy to Home Depot. And not just from male clerks, occasionally women clerks can be diagnosed with the same affliction as well! My daughter, age 11 now, found it in Electronics Boutique. In egregious cases usually prescribe a dose of verbal slap side the head, followed by the pill of "can I speak to your manager right now."

@miramesa:
Ain't it the truth? I'm sick of guys defending other guys with the "you should be nicer to him; he's just afraid of girls" line of bullshit. WHY is he afraid of 'girls'? Because he sees us as non-people?
Yes.

When I was a student, a male, car-owning friend of mine drove me to buy my first t.v. We walked out of Circuit City when they ignored me and talked to him. I bought a t.v. at Good Guys.

The teenage boy who loaded it into my friend's car started to explain to him how to unpack it. My friend stepped aside as I physically moved in front of the flunky to make eye contact with him and said something like, "Explain it to me. The t.v. is mine. He won't even be there when I unpack it."

The flunky physically turned his back on me so that he was again looking straight at my friend and continued talking to him as if I weren't even there.

Fifteen years later and I'm still shaking my head.

So wait a second, you are still going to buy a Mac?

Cool.

Companies love it when they get it both ways. Apple hires basement dwelling losers who wouldn't know a social skill if it bit them in the arse and will now see no reason to fix their problems. After all you are still going to spend your money on a Mac!

I suggest you go to Best Buy next and try to purchase a DVD. No doubt the CS agents will treat you like crap and in the end, get you to buy the DVD at a higher price.

Oh nevermind about Best Buy.

This is Apple we are talking about.

Sometimes you just have to deal with basement dwelling dweebs and overpriced hardware so you can show off to your co-workers or fellow Starbucks patrons that you are Apple Cool.

And just think, you may run into "bslack" at local Starbucks where he is blabbering on about the virtues of being Apple Cool and just maybe he'll glance your way and nod approvingly!

And you know that will just make your day!

As a woman, I have had similar experiences purchasing cars, TVs and sofas.

Ignore me and I will take my money and my business elsewhere.

But, before I leave I let them know why their sales numbers will be shorter this month.

So, Bill is basically toast now. Yay.

And the customer was wearing jeans and a flannel shirt? Perfect! (No disrespect. My idol George Lucas wears the same outfit.)

Please don't give up on Macs because of one asshole.

I think they are taught not to talk too much to females or Blacks. I was in a store yesterday and the overall "feel" is very uppity. No minorities, (white-males) get all the attention. Let's be honest, they do the most buying. It's the price you pay for making intelligent choices, but not among the supposed "intelligent" crowd.

My girlfriend had the same problem a year ago in the Burlington, Massachusetts Apple Store location. I let the guy know pretty quickly I had not interest in a Mac and he needed to talk to her. You could see the confusion and fear in his eyes. But honestly, I've seen this at a lot of computer stores. It's not just an Apple problem.

I almost took a job in college at Office Depot in the 'technology' department. I remember being told by the manager a number of times that the entire staff in that department was men. He warned me that they 'weren't going to like me' because I was 'the only girl.'

So glad I didn't take that job.

I will say I have been in many restaurants where the server only spoke to me and handed me the check, not my male companion.

I agree, why should Apple care if she is STILL going to buy one? @Trick: