Is Apple breeding conspiracy theorists and news media deniers? During my last visit to the North Scottsdale Apple store, what should have been a short conversation about my iPhone 6 battery was turned into a lecture on the entire news media and claims of conspiracy.
When I asked for the battery in my iPhone 6 to be replaced, an Apple salesperson at its North Scottsdale store said that media outlets CNET, Wired, and The Guardian deliberately reported false information about Apple - titles of the referenced articles are below.
After I read the salesperson several quotes from an unnamed Apple spokesperson that were included in the articles, he continued to claim that the articles were false and that I did not need to replace my battery. He added that the reason no Apple employee's name was attributed to the quote was that the person would be fired for saying such a thing. He ventured that the whole thing might be a conspiracy by Apple's competitors to discredit the company.
After some more back and forth, I tried to reassure the salesperson that I did not think it was Apple's fault. That I thought the company was doing what it believed was the best thing for its consumers. Nevertheless, he continued to try to convince me that I should not replaced the battery and that the articles were false.
He added that if something like that were true, he would have known about it. I said that the article just came out yesterday and maybe corporate is planning to provide its employees with this information. But he insisted that he would have known about this if it were true.
I love my iPhone, but I could do without the arrogant employees. Is a culture of arrogance at Apple an unfortunate legacy of Steve Jobs?
* CNET (Apple iPhones slow down as batteries age, says report)
* Wired (Apple had way better option than slowing down your iPhone.)
* Guardian (Apple admits slowing older iPhones because ...)