All is not peachy at Apple store

An Apple store quotes a woman twice what they quote her husband -- to fix the same computer

"Apple zealots would have you believe that all things Apple are perfect," writes Steve. "Ain't so. My adult daughter's 13-month-old desktop stopped working. She took it to the giant Apple store in midtown Manhattan where she was told it would cost $800 to repair. $800!! For a machine that is a month out of warranty.

"The next day her husband took the machine back to Apple. He did not tell them that they had seen this machine less than 24 hours earlier. With no pressure or haggling they offered to repair it for $300. Not a bad discount for one day. He decided to let them repair the machine and did not argue with the quoted price. A few hours later Apple called. They opened the case, pressed the 'reset' button, and the machine came back to life. No charge."

[ For tips on how to deal with customer service roadblocks, see the Gripe Line post "Persistence is an art." ]

"Our question is: Why doesn't Apple quote repair charges AFTER they have opened the case and done a real evaluation?"

A woman goes in to a consumer electronics store one day and is quoted more than twice what a man is quoted the very next day. And that is your only question?

I doubt that your daughter is as surprised by this as you are. You don't say, but was it her idea to have her husband go back and try again? That is certainly a strategy I -– and most women I know -- use when buying or repairing consumer electronics.

I have worked rather publicly in high tech for more than a decade and yet, in consumer electronics stores, I have frequently been condescended to, ignored because my husband was there, and made to feel I might be more comfortable in the toy or housewares department. This is despite the data that shows that women wield a hefty portion of the available cash these stores hope to collect.

According to the Consumer Electronics Association, "Of the roughly $200 billion that will be spent at retail on CE products by consumers in 2007, $90 billion, or 45 percent, will be made by women. Overall, 88 percent of men and 82 percent of women describe themselves as being interested in CE products, including 43 percent of men and 31 percent of women who are 'very interested.' These figures are virtually identical to those measured in 2005, when 88 percent of men and 81 percent of women described themselves as interested in CE."