Disclaimer: The views and opinions stated in this podcast are just that, one person’s views and opinions shared freely on the internet while exercising the freedom of speech guaranteed in the United States Constitution.  Visit the Effective Complaints Website In today's podcast, I talk about how Why Apple Computers Suck in A Final Letter to Steve Jobs who announced that he'd be retiring from the company.  In it, I detail my experience with visiting my first Apple retail store, and writing two (2) letters to Steve Jobs that were never acknowledged.  Here's what happened: I had been ruminating over sharing this experience on this blog, but I never seemed to find the time to get around to it, but today, upon hearing the news of Apple CEO Steve Jobs resigning, I thought it was the perfect time to share my story and express both my disappointment in the brand and my hope that the new face of Apple does a better job with their company’s operations. The very first computer that I ever got was an Apple that someone gave to me in high school.  I was ecstatic!  I was even more excited when I joined my high school's newspaper and Macintosh computers were the devices of choice.  I took my love of Apple Computers with me to college (it was 50/50 PC to Mac ratio my freshman year), and while I embraced PCs on a daily basis out of necessity as a Business Student, it was my love of Macs, and my ability to seamlessly work on both platforms that got me a job in tech support on campus. As a person of "limited financial means" for most of my adult life, I was never able to actually PURCHASE a Mac (though I used them regularly at work and to complete school work), and I vowed that when the day came (and I had the money), I'd finally get the chance to "deck out" my home IT setup with Apple products galore!  I anxiously waited for this moment for more than a decade.  Through undergrad, grad school, crazy jobs, and now my own venture, I've eagerly waited and anticipated the moment I could afford to buy the type of Mac products I wanted!  It was going to be an awesome! A little while back, I stood on the cusp of a major move forward in terms of finances both personally and professionally.  With the next round of funding for my business that was due to come in soon, I could FINALLY afford the home and business IT setup I've always wanted.  As such, I went to my local Apple Store in the Green Hills Mall in Nashville, TN for the first time EVER.  Ironically, I happened to go to the store right after I left the bank talking to a loan officer (i.e. I was dressed pretty snazzy pants suit). I walked into the store and was immediately "smitten" with all the wonderful Apple products strewn about!  Though merely window-shopping on this day, I was making mental notes of exactly what I'd have in my soon-to-be-renovated home office as well as my new office space "in the city".  By the time I had walked the aisle and landed on the other side of the store by the $3,800 27-inch, 2.8 GHz Quad-Core iMac, I realized that NOT ONE employee in the store had said a word to me.  I looked around, and saw (quite surprisingly) that there were almost TWICE as many Apple employees as there were customers, so this struck me as REALLY ODD that none of the people "in Apple attire" had even bothered to say "Hi" or "Welcome to the Store" as so many contrived sales people do in retail locations.  Perhaps being friendly and welcoming isn't an Apple Retail Store thing, but again, I wouldn't know this since this was my first visit. I wasn't really sure what I was looking for, but I could have benefited from having SOME attention from one of the many employees that were there and not working with other customers.  I continued to walk around the store, then I got the strange feeling that I WAS BEING AVOIDED!  When I walked near two employees, they actually managed to move away from the direction where I