Eh?

Genius Bar as the other person as commented. I should have put it in parentheses, apologies.

Happy to share. Hope it was insightful.

Well I would say IQ tests don’t equate to actual intelligence. I also take issue with the adjective dumber.

OP could have worded it better, something like:

Americans score lower than average on IQ tests. USA: 98 VS Global: 100.

I used to work for Apple and before I joined the Genius Bar I was working the avenues (what they call the sides where they keep accessories) and because I’ve been known to pull a few scams myself (companies, never people) I have an eye for something out of the ordinary.

So I saw a lady bring in an iPhone and receipt to change it for the same phone in a different colour. Not that odd mind but I did notice it.

A few days later I see the same lady do this again with another employee and now I am thinking something is definitely off.

The next time she comes in I make sure I approach and ask them if they need help, again they ask to swap for a different colour.

I then say sure we can help with that and as is procedure we would confirm the Serial Number matches that on the receipt, we didn’t have access to the tools that read this from the hardware as we would on the GB, so we would power on the device and press the little “i” to view and compare. It’s a match, but still this isn’t legit obviously.

At this point, not that I’m protecting Apple here I wanted to work GB and this would get me on their radar, plus I was the shit at faking extroversion and giving outstanding service as I was depressed and I found being overly nice and energetic made me happier I would leave work on cloud 9 and then crash. I take the phone to the GB host (dude who checks people in) and say something is off here and explain all of the above. They send me to the repair room 🥰 never been in before and I was excited.

Once inside I explain to the tech guys that’s up and they’re like yeah that’s odd. They say to tell her that we need to do a few more checks and to come back in 30 minutes. Basically we were going by to open the phone and verify it’s innards. As well as using the serial number reader tool (forget the name now) to verify all is legit.

Go back to the lady and explain this, she’s flustered but agrees as she can’t not. Take the phone and box and drop it in the GB repair room. When I come back out I can see the lady is on the phone in an irate conversation with someone. A few minutes later she says she’s changed her mind and wants the phone back.

Go get her her phone and am instructed to write on the receipt to do a check before returning (again I forget the terminology) so that if she went to another store they’d now go open this phone up.

She’s pissed at this and leaves with her phone and receipt unhappy.

A while later I recall seeing a bust of a gang of folk from a certain country (the same this lady appeared to be from) for returning iPhones that either had fake innards or were not the phone in question.

As a scammer in the past it hurt to stop someone doing the same but this was my patch and I wanted to make a good impression. Which I did as I moved to the GB for 3 years which changed my life. They offered so much encouragement and you’re surrounded by talented people that I up-skilled and I’m now a software developer (not for Apple).

I don’t know what it’s like working there in the USA, but in England it was amazing. They paid more than any other retail store, stock was given every year, you could buy it too at a discount, you were trusted and not micromanaged, the benefits were outstanding and led me to my ADHD diagnosis with healthcare (as sadly mental health support on the NHS is underfunded).

Yeah I’m not American but it’s particularly egregious (shocking for you Americans 😉) as it states that the score for the USA was 98 and the global average was 100.

So OP is an ass for that title imo.

It was a Halo streak. For killing five ops in four seconds.

0.03 months for me.

I guess when I say machine gun I’m meaning (incorrectly) a rifle like an AR-15. Whether it be single shot (is that semi-auto) or automatic. Although I believe you can’t get autos as that’s why people use bump stocks; I again guess.

I definitely saw guns. Maybe shot gun?

Some people do apparently. Me I’m like OP its a constant stream of thought. Evening as typing this I’m actively reading the words.

True. You could hit a killtacular in no time.

Go for kindergarten, surely they’re easier targets.

I’m fighting an urge right now…

British.

I found a lot of things weird, but I did go to Florida like 8 times so it’s to be expected and maybe some of these are exclusive to that state.

• I found it weird that alcohol seemed to be sold only in liquor stores. But you can buy a machine gun in Walmart.
• The food. Don’t get me wrong it’s nice and all but the quantity. Take sizzlers, you go in order your main meal then get an endless buffet for free. Like I couldn’t eat my steak when it arrived as I was full from the buffet.
• syrup all over breakfast items and people bigger than id ever seen were gorging and then taking a box home too.
• enthusiasm: grown ass adults whooping and hollering as we were queuing for rides. I’m a man child myself but it was startling.
• Jaywalking. Wtf

To throw out some positives. Everyone I met was lovely and nothing like the nut jobs we get to see online. People were polite, friendly and accommodating.

Beautiful nature and national parks.

We call them pavements in the UK and I kinda think sidewalk is more descriptive. You walk on the side of the road.

I believe it happened I’ve had many insane conversations with people like this.

Like food banks and people will say well what if people that don’t need it go there. I’m like so what, if 1 in a 1000 abuses a system it doesn’t mean we should make the 999 suffer by removing it.

Doesn’t signal allow signups without a phone now?

Also second SimpleX that the other person mentioned.

That’s true. I do wonder what the average price for a sandwich is in NYC. I’m also curious if London has sandwich’s priced like this.

Yeah it’s crazy. Imagine the contribution he could have made to CompSci or Mathematics had he not been driven to suicide.