I don't like apple products. I stopped using an apple computer about 20 years ago because I was the only appleite in the corporate team I was with at the time, and half the documents didn't work for me. After I got my mind right I became much happier with windoze pcs. My main problem with apple is the company somehow still owns everything you buy or do with their products. A portion of the purchased music in my library is useless (but maybe not now?) because it's coded in that single sourced apple m4p format. This is not to say that Google and microsoft don't have a dossier on all of us, which is why I use duckduckgo for a lot of searches. But these last, unfortunately, tend not to be as focused as is Google for my needs and interests. But after all that's what's really the problem with Google: its overwhelming awareness of me, you and everyone we know. But on to my reason for wandering one recent day into this store: I felt it was time to give up trying to adapt to my latest android phone. Fortunately I knew exactly which iphone I wanted, and told the greeter as much the minute he said "Welcome to apple, sir, how may I help you?" Me: "I wanta buy an iphone xx." Not so fast, according to the greeter, "Let me get a sales person to help you with your needs." I suspected where this was headed, to a requisite intereview scripted by the marketing department, and I was in no mood for it. "I don't need any 'help' because I know exactly what I want. So how do I buy one?" The greeter seemed a bit alarmed with such unaccustomed directness, but he continued to recite his lines. "The iphone you want is on that table over there, please wait and someone will be over in a minute." OK OK so I waited, and finally here comes another young guy who seemed intent on helping me. "So, sir, are you upgrading to a new iphone?" No. "So have you had an iphone before?" No and I'm ready to buy this one right here, here's my card. "Look," he says, "I'm just trying to make sure you have chosen the iphone that's right..." Now I'm getting very impatient as there were other things more pressing for my day than being interviewed by this salesguy, so... Can you just sell me the damn phone or do I need to speak to another sales person? "You don't have to use profanity, sir, I'm just trying to help, now if you'll just calm down." One last time I looked him in the eye and said, look if you can't just make this sale now let's find your manager and see if he'll resolve your communication problem. At that point he relented and asked if I wanted to include applecare+ which I didn't. After all that, and after paying for the iphone, it unfortunately turned out the product wasn't in stock and wouldn't be for weeks. Probably even more unfortunate is that I gave apple my real name and contact information. Now the marketing department won't be leaving me alone. I can only hope that this phone, when I finally get it, is more user-friendly than buying it has been. I would say go anywhere else than the Corte Madera store, but something tells me these guys are all the same, everywhere. read more