Apple Online Store has Real People to Help You

I was looking around the Apple Online Store earlier today and discovered an impressive feature I hadn’t seen before: live chat with a store employee.

You can buy three different English keyboards at the Apple store:

• Apple Keyboard
• Apple Keyboard — English
• Apple Keyboard — English (Int’l)

I was trying to find out which was the proper keyboard to buy for a UK layout. The description on given on each product’s page is identical, leaving me none the wiser. I wanted to be sure I’d get the correct one, as sending items back to online stores is a chore. I was wondering how I’d find out.

Suddenly, next to the search box, a “Chat” link faded into view. I tried to get a screen grab of this later, but the link stubbornly wouldn’t appear. I did manage to somehow select the area where the link would be:

I clicked Chat and lo and behold a chap named Marcus asked if I required any help. I said I did, outlined my problem and provided a link to the keyboard I thought would be correct. He told me the one I’d selected should be the right one, after checking I wanted one with a “£” key.

I haven’t seen this level of assistance on a website before, but there it was when I needed it, allowing me to solve my problem in just a few moments.

(“Apple Keyboard — English” is the correct one, if you are wondering)