The vision of the Apple retail store model is a beautiful thing: Gorgeous fixtures, interactive demos, a theater and even a tech-support Genius Bar that make technology friendly. The reality is often a bit different, particularly in major cities. The Genius Bar is over-run with customers, and even making an appointment doesn’t ensure prompt service.
It’s a victim of its own success. The good news, though, is that the system can work. Take, for example, the case of my fiancee’s 12″ Powerbook.
Technorati Tags: genius bar, applecare, retail, warranty
About four months ago, its hard drive started acting flaky, and within a month it crashed and wouldn’t come back to life. We went down to the San Francisco Apple Store, had a Genius look at it, and the machine came back to life just by running Disk Utility, which baffled me, since I had tried it several days earlier.
The machine has never quite been itself since, and it went down hard two weeks ago. We finally took it into the Apple Store on Saturday. The situation was somewhat dire. She received the computer three years ago, almost to the day. Her parents had purchased the extended AppleCare plan, but we couldn’t find the documentation any more. We had a receipt for its purchase, but no guarantees that the plan was ever activated. Worse still, the plan had, at best, a week left on it. And can you imagine what would happen if the hard drive was revived at the store and then it died 8 days later?
As you can imagine, we approached our visit to the Apple Store with some trepidation. And, as usual, the line was moving slowly. Though we had a 5:15 appointment, it took a solid half-hour to be seen. Eventually, we were called up to the counter. A man with a funny name starting with V booted up the machine. A horrible grinding sound hit, and the machine crashed. And crashed and crashed and crashed.
“OK,” he said. “Thank god it’s got a really horrible sound. That way it can definitely get replaced.”
And with that, we were all set. The machine’s off to Elk Grove for repair, and a brand-new hard drive is on its way. We couldn’t believe it. I brought my arguing hat and everything. But when the chips were really down, Apple showed its in-person customer service to be head-and-shoulders above the competition. It made me proud to be a Mac-head.
This is the second Apple product manufactured in 2004 we’ve had die on us in the last six months. Remember, kids. The extended warranty is for your own good.
19 responses to “Sometimes, the Apple Genius Bar is Actually Genius”
Hard drives have a 5-year factory warrenty. So it’s costing Apple only the cost of replacing. Which is probably higher that the price of a new hard drive since prices of those have fallen over the last years.
I know this costs Apple next to nothing. The point is, there was a very good chance they were going to fight the diagnosis that the drive was dead. Instead, they took it very much in stride and sent it off. I was very impressed.
With a pro-care card it’s amazing how much faster they will fix something. When my SuperDrive died my Apple Store Genius told me it would be a one to two WEEKS to fix it. I needed it sooner for a print project, so I asked how long would it take for a Pro-Care customer – he said 1 to 2 days. I bought the pro-care & got my PowerBook back in under 36 hours. The project CD got to the printer on time. It was worth $99 to me – I just wished I lived closer to the store so I could take advantage of all the other extras more often!
I’ve only had to go to the Genius Bar one time and that was resulting from my mistake. I accidentally trashed a folder instead of a file. It took about three hours to get everything up and running again however, my Mac Genius was extremely helpful. I purchased the extended Apple Care for my computer and have been thinking about purchasing the Pro Care for the added features it has.
I’ve only had to go to the Genius Bar one time and that was resulting from my mistake. I accidentally trashed a folder instead of a file. It took about three hours to get everything up and running again however, my Mac Genius was extremely helpful. I purchased the extended Apple Care for my computer and have been thinking about purchasing the Pro Care for the added features it has.
I have had my wife’s iMac G5 repaired twice at the local (Pasadena ) Apple store. I have had my daughter’s iBook(s) repaired and replaced at the Genius Bar. I have had iPods rebooted, and learned things I never thought I would. But I have NEVER had an argument. I can’t imagine why you would have been prepped for a fight.
Apple isn’t perfect by any means. But the store they got very right.
John
I had a similar customer experience with Apple. I bought a 40gb iPod in November 2003. I bought the extended Apple Care for it and used it once. No muss, no fuss, Apple sent me a new iPod. As it was running out, in the fall of 2005, I called Apple and asked if I could by an extension to Apple Care, and mistakenly the rep said yes and sold it to me. Well, in 2006 I needed to use that and that’s when Apple service figured out that I’d bought Apple Care for a product that was not eligible for warranty extension. So, get this. First, Apple agreed to honor the agreement, which I thought was pretty decent of them. But better still, they refunded the Apple Care agreement that they incorrectly sold me. That was unexpected and impressive.
I have a compare-and-contrast experience with Dell, which I won’t recount here. Suffice to say, Apple earns my repeat business on the quality of its customer service. Mine is only a singular experience but when it mattered most to me, Apple really showed exemplary customer service, and that’s worth it to me to pay them extra margin on their hardware.
Uhm… sorry, but that is a rather uninspiring story of technical support. For someone who has purchased an extended warranty, as you did, booting up the machine and replacing hte part is the least that I would expect from the company. Now, if they had sent the part the next day and sent someone to your home to repair it, THAT would have been service. It sounds like you had the opportunity to drive down to the store, wait a ridiculous time in line, and then have someone clearly point out something was wrong with the drive and have it replaced.
Though I am also a fan of Apple (though NOT of their service), this isn’t the sort of thing that really should garner high profile praise. While the idea of the genius bar is great, it would be even better if Apple took Dell’s business approach to service, that is: Pro-care customers can call and make appointments for people to come see them, or if more convenient to go to the genius bar. The genius diagnoses and recommends a replacement and a repairman calls the next day to make an appointment to come and fix the machine. The necessary parts are overnighted so that the downtime is minimal.
I have a high quality Dell Workstation M65 (which actually ran me a little less than my MacBook Pro), and when the wireless decided to die the other day, this is exactly how Dell fixed it. Given that the machines are essentially the same price, I am very disappointed that Apple is getting it’s lunch eaten by Dell in the service department. While Dell’s bare bones service does suck, their premium is unparalled and to upgrade is only like $100. I wish Apple made it that easy.
OEM Apple hard drives a one (that’s ONE) year warranty. And the warranty is through Apple, not Toshiba (the usual supplier). I know this first-hand, from when my Ti’s disk died after 3 years. Since Apple takes the risk on the drive, they get a big discount from Toshiba. Since most drive fail either very quickly or after 5 years, Apple has mitigated the risk of the first year failures.
So covering the disk was at Apple’s expense, though the 30 bucks plus shipping still leaves them about a $250 profit on the extended warranty. Even better when you consider that the Apple Care plan actually only covers you for two years (years 2 and 3).
I’m IT manager for a company, and we have an Apple store a few miles away in a mall. Whenever I have an issue, I diagnose all I can in house, then make an appointment at the bar.
Of approximately 2 dozen times I’ve taken systems over, only once did I ever bring one back broken (and only because it was OOW with no AC). Every other time, they send them off for repair without a hitch and without a hassle. And I typically have the machines back within 72 hours.
As opposed to Dell, where a simple repair (like a bad hard drive) can take HOURS to diagnose on the phone and then days to get sorted out.