I’d like to start by saying this: I love Apple stuff. iMacs, MacBook Pros, my iPod Touch, my AppleTV, etc. For the most part (there will be a forthcoming highlight of the most useless Apple stuff out there right now) I am a pretty happy Apple guy, and I’ll still recommend a Mac to just about anyone who wants one for home.
That said, I refuse to refer to the punks at the Genius Bar as geniuses anymore.
Yesterday the intern for the web division of the company I work at told me that his MacBook Pro we had gotten him four months ago was having hard drive issues. Seemed reasonable enough. Since I can get a replacement hard drive replaced under warranty by Dell in about 5 minutes, I wasn’t the slightest bit concerned.
But we’re talking about Apple hardware here. New Apple hardware, with non-user serviceable parts. Which meant that I could either call AppleCare and lose a week shipping the thing out after convincing them it was the hard drive, or take it into the Apple Store and only lose a few days. I opted for the Apple Store route.
From a customer service perspective, the support techs working the genius bar are good people, and the service is pretty rockin awesome. If your Mac is doing something weird, there’s a decent chance they might figure out what’s going on. But if you know something’s wrong, you’d better hope Apple’s blessed diagnostic methods confirm your beliefs, otherwise you’re screwed. After determining that the hard drive was indeed not working properly on the MacBook Pro, the kid (he was seriously maybe 19 or 20) tried to tell me that the mounting bracket for the hard drive was faulty, and that’s why my drive wouldn’t mount. I told him to replace the drive anyways, which they did.
Maybe what irks me is just the fact that my Jedi mind tricks are useless there. “3 internships and a year with an IT firm” doesn’t mean squat in an Apple store, any more than my MCITP certification bears weight. The fact that I can’t repair my own equipment bugs me, too.
The biggest thing that struck me last night though is that the guys behind the genius bar aren’t wearing shirts that say “genius” anymore. They’re triage. Diagnose (in 15 minutes or less, ideally) and either fix it or put it in the back to have a real genius fix tomorrow. I guess it’s just an odd contrast to the way I approach support: you come to me with a problem, I fix your problem. No putting it in queue.
Now if we can just get customers to schedule times for support issues, I’d be all set…
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