No specific Apple Stores have been identified over this subscription practice, but reportedly all
stores have been directed to stop. This is Tysons Corner Apple Store in 2023.Staff at Apple Stores have been pressured into signing up customers to services such as Apple TV, but the practice has reportedly been stopped after it was uncovered.Apple has previously cracked down on other firms pushing subscriptions on unwitting users, but now it has been doing something similar. Whether Apple expressly sanctioned it or just created the pressure on its employees, staff at Apple Stores have reportedly been signing up users to free trials without telling them.
The practice was uncovered by Louis Rossmann, previously best known as a critic of Apple's repair policies. In the latest of a series of YouTube videos, he has explained how the practice worked.
When you go into an Apple Store and have your device set up, he says, staff can "also sign you up for subscriptions without your consent, because there is a screen that is on their device that has Accept or Decline." This is on their device, not the customer's, and so staff members have allegedly being pressing accept.
"They are encouraged to position subscriptions and free trials as gifts," continues Rossmann, "not telling the customer that 2 to 3 months from now, you are now going to have to pay $20 or $30 a month for whatever it is that they've signed you up for."
Apple stops the practiceFollowing Rossmann's initial
YouTube video on October 30, 2026, he reports having had confirmation from Apple Store staff. According to one of these anonymous sources, though, Apple has abruptly banned the practice.
Reportedly, Apple has now issued an instruction to be "read verbatim in all stores" by regional managers. The text of that instruction hasn't been leaked yet, but this source claims it specifies that the "Accept" button must now only be pressed by the customer.
That source further says that the service metrics that staff work to have been changed. Specifically, Apple Stores allegedly no longer measure how many times each staff member has signed up a customer to a service.
It's obviously good if the practice has been disavowed. However, even if the source is accurate, it is not certain that this particular performance metric has been removed permanently.
Angela Ahrendts introduced the metrics when she took over Apple retail in 2013. At some point subsequently, Apple introduced a practice of stopping the metrics over the Christmas buying season.
When they are suspended like this, it's done in early November. It's not known when this first began, but it has happened before, and AppleInsider can confirm that these metrics have now been suspended for 2026.
So it may not be the case that this particular measure of staff performance is gone for good. But hopefully it does mean that this nickel-and-diming of Apple has been ended.
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