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Bad experience at the Apple Store..

nospleen

nospleen

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Dec 8, 2002
2,726
1,597
Texas
My intel imac's fan started making a clicking noise in the last few weeks. It seems like the fan is not rotating smoothly. I decided to reserve an appointment at the genius bar and take it in real quick for a look over. I already had a case number from an apple chat session earlier. I stopped in and explained the issue. The gentlemen says they will have to check it in and asks if I had my data backed up. I told him that I did not, but would a fan replacement risk any data damage to the HD. He was very rude and said that they could not be liable, etc... I said that I can understand them not being liable, but could they call me if they were going to mess with the HD. He told me no they didn't have the time to do this, I needed to read their agreement and gave me the form to read about not being liable. I understand his point, but there is a right and wrong to explain this. I told him that I wasn't sure if I should leave it because I did not want to risk the data loss or the 10 day return time I was quoted. He then said, "You need to make up your mind you only have 12 minutes left." The whole time he was very arrogant and condescending to me. I kept my cool and was very polite. I understood his point, but they way he expressed them were extremely rude.

When I was getting my imac ready to go a Gentleman came in with an iPod for a battery issue. The same guy told him he had 10 minutes to help him. The guy said, "What if you cannot find the problem in the first 10 minutes?" The Apple guy told him, "If you are worried about time, then we better get started, we are now down to 9 and half minutes!" The iPod owner was pissed.... He said, "Is this how you treat all of your customers?" I thought it was a fitting end, I wanted to blow up on the guy, but I decided to keep my cool. But, the iPod owner ended up having Applecare too. I was thinking that we both were Apple owners who spent extra on Apple care, albeit not for help at the Genius bar, but to receive piss poor service in return. It was very disappointing to say the least.

It is hard to portray over the net how annoying his tone and actions were. Although he did tell me Applecare has in home service, which I did not know. If the Apple chat service agent would have told me that, I would have set up in home service instead of dragging it down to the store.

I am a huge Apple fan and have switched tons of friends and family. I would be sorry to hear a story like that from them. Sorry for the rant...
 
nospleen said:
My intel imac's fan started making a clicking noise in the last few weeks. It seems like the fan is not rotating smoothly. I decided to reserve an appointment at the genius bar and take it in real quick for a look over. I already had a case number from an apple chat session earlier. I stopped in and explained the issue. The gentlemen says they will have to check it in and asks if I had my data backed up. I told him that I did not, but would a fan replacement risk any data damage to the HD. He was very rude and said that they could not be liable, etc... I said that I can understand them not being liable, but could they call me if they were going to mess with the HD. He told me no they didn't have the time to do this, I needed to read their agreement and gave me the form to read about not being liable. I understand his point, but there is a right and wrong to explain this. I told him that I wasn't sure if I should leave it because I did not want to risk the data loss or the 10 day return time I was quoted. He then said, "You need to make up your mind you only have 12 minutes left." The whole time he was very arrogant and condescending to me. I kept my cool and was very polite. I understood his point, but they way he expressed them were extremely rude.

When I was getting my imac ready to go a Gentleman came in with an iPod for a battery issue. The same guy told him he had 10 minutes to help him. The guy said, "What if you cannot find the problem in the first 10 minutes?" The Apple guy told him, "If you are worried about time, then we better get started, we are now down to 9 and half minutes!" The iPod owner was pissed.... He said, "Is this how you treat all of your customers?" I thought it was a fitting end, I wanted to blow up on the guy, but I decided to keep my cool. But, the iPod owner ended up having Applecare too. I was thinking that we both were Apple owners who spent extra on Apple care, albeit not for help at the Genius bar, but to receive piss poor service in return. It was very disappointing to say the least.

I am a huge Apple fan and have switched tons of friends and family. I would be sorry to hear a story like that from them. Sorry for the rant...
Click to expand...

Call AppleCare, tell them what happened, and get a case number for THIS issue explaining that 10 days is not acceptable (it isn't).

I found that the Apple Store's main goal is to try and weed you out so they can move onto the next person. Like the time my machine kernel panicked RIGHT IN FRONT OF A TECH and they sent me home, which I was told by Steve's hit men was a big NO NO.

Walk in next time with a case number from AppleCare specific to your new problem (and back up). My guys were nice about the back up deal - he just said "before we dig into this, do ou have a backup?"
 
Sounds like you should bring this up with the store manager. This isn't acceptable (or normal) behavior at the stores. Yes, there are time slots at the Genius bar, but that's their responsibility to keep, not the customer's.
 
matticus008 said:
Sounds like you should bring this up with the store manager. This isn't acceptable (or normal) behavior at the stores. Yes, there are time slots at the Genius bar, but that's their responsibility to keep, not the customer's.
Click to expand...

Indeed. Maybe it would be wise of them to schedule more than 10 minutes for each person. This definitely warrants either a talk with the manager or a call to Apple to explain that this policy is ridiculous, the turn-around time is unacceptable, and that the behavior of the genius was inexcusable.
 
iGary said:
Call AppleCare, tell them what happened, and get a case number for THIS issue explaining that 10 days is not acceptable (it isn't).

I found that the Apple Store's main goal is to try and weed you out so they can move onto the next person. Like the time my machine kernel panicked RIGHT IN FRONT OF A TECH and they sent me home, which I was told by Steve's hit men was a big NO NO.

Walk in next time with a case number from AppleCare specific to your new problem (and back up). My guys were nice about the back up deal - he just said "before we dig into this, do ou have a backup?"
Click to expand...

I cannot believe they would send you home after a kernel panick!! I just finished a chat session with an agent setting up in home service. It is just fan noise, so I can live with it. I would have flipped if I went through what you did with your Pmac... The chat agent was very, very helpful though, a definite positive!
 
nospleen said:
I cannot believe they would send you home after a kernel panick!! I just finished a chat session with an agent setting up in home service. It is just fan noise, so I can live with it. I would have flipped if I went through what you did with your Pmac... The chat agent was very, very helpful though, a definite positive!
Click to expand...

Yeah, although nice, I do hope the guy I dealt with at the Annapolis Store gets a "talking to" (the guy at coporate said he was goingt o talk to them) because he sent me home THREE times with the "it's a software issue" deal.


Glad you got some help, though. :D
 
baby duck monge said:
Indeed. Maybe it would be wise of them to schedule more than 10 minutes for each person. This definitely warrants either a talk with the manager or a call to Apple to explain that this policy is ridiculous, the turn-around time is unacceptable, and that the behavior of the genius was inexcusable.
Click to expand...

I was so annoyed and trying to keep my cool. I am a very, very nice person until pushed to a certain point. When I was sitting there trying to decide whether or not to leave it, I was also trying to cool off a little. That is when he dropped the 12 minute blast. I just said, that's fine, I will call and schedule in home service. When I told him that I was pretty sure that 10 days is what they are told to quote, but could it be done earlier. I even said, I am not going to hold you to it, but if it can be repaired by mid week, I will leave it. He said, 10 days is what we quote. I said, I understand that, but realistically what are we looking at. He said, 10 days SIR is what we quote. I really wanted to slap his @$$... :D :p
 
The funniest part of the whole thing was my wife. When he started acting like a smart @$$, my wife looked at me like, uh oh, don't do it honey. She then said, I will meet you at the car. It was pretty funny, I knew she thought I was going to pop off. I am someone who believes in customer service, so she knew this was a hot button. Maybe I am getting old or soft, but I didn't pop off. The iPod guy gave me a chuckle though.

But, if the Apple guy pissed both of us off, how many times has he done this? I would like to talk to the manager about it, but I go in the store so much , I do not want to be known as the *****...:(
 
It really sounds like there are some bad people working at that store, and that they have gotten away for a long time with no one calling them on their boorish behavior. So yeah, just echoing, that when this happens... Apple Corporate needs to know what is being done to their reputation.
 
The guy sounds like a real jerk. You were treated poorly, most certainly, but just keep in mind that it is advisable to back up all your data anytime you bring your computer to the Apple store or any repair center.
 
jadekitty24 said:
The guy sounds like a real jerk. You were treated poorly, most certainly, but just keep in mind that it is advisable to back up all your data anytime you bring your computer to the Apple store or any repair center.
Click to expand...

As I was leaving the house, I was thinking, I should back this up. But, I thought they would just open the case and pop the fan in. But, you are right...
 
nospleen said:
The funniest part of the whole thing was my wife. When he started acting like a smart @$$, my wife looked at me like, uh oh, don't do it honey. She then said, I will meet you at the car. It was pretty funny, I knew she thought I was going to pop off. I am someone who believes in customer service, so she knew this was a hot button. Maybe I am getting old or soft, but I didn't pop off. The iPod guy gave me a chuckle though.

But, if the Apple guy pissed both of us off, how many times has he done this? I would like to talk to the manager about it, but I go in the store so much , I do not want to be known as the *****...:(
Click to expand...

You can say ass or ******* if you like. :D
 
You should report that guy to stop him behaving like that to other customers - just show him that you are not the one to mess with and you really mean business.

Even though you are a regular customer that you are bound to see that loser again and if you do report him and he probably will get a firm talking to keeping him in line and you probably will get some dirty looks off him - just ignore him and that's his problem, not yours.
 
dornoforpyros said:
lol you've got 10 minutes and now you've got 9. What is this guy? a doped up hooker waiting for her next fix?
Click to expand...

I think I see my newest sig...:D
 
With all this type of behavior I really wish the Managers or co-managers would really learn to "manage" the behaivors of the employees. Just because your behind the bar doesn't mean your good at what you do or a people person (not everyone was an A student). With that said the Genius Bar at the Buffalo AppleStore has been good at going over the time limits but for all the customers, that is why some of us go there, to get things fixed ;)
Good luck and hope the in-home Applecare goes well.
 
iGary said:
I always find that carrying a loaded firearm to the Apple Store helps.
Click to expand...


That may work for you, but I find that simply carrying it into stores such as this rarely suffices. I find that "brandishing wildly" really tickles my fancy. :p
 
iGary said:
I always find that carrying a loaded firearm to the Apple Store helps.
Click to expand...

It's also nice to have an aimable microwave-type device out in the car so if they keep giving you a hard time you can just scramble everything in the store.
 
I've got a story for you folks. Let me preface this by saying I believe that all this hostility and arrogance comes from two factors:

1. I'm sure the Geniuses get a lot of ignorant customers with stupid problems. i remember a lady in front of me once whose ipod wouldn't work. She had left the hold switch on.
2. These guys generally don't have good social skills. That's a generalization but it's true, a lot of these guys remind me of Comic Shop Guy from the Simpsons. It takes a certain nerdy dedication to fix computers for a living.

So, my sister was having problems with her 15" powerbook. It would randomly go to sleep while she was using it. She couldn't figure it out so she sent it to Applecare and they reinstalled the operating system and sent it back. This didn't help at all, and I was a little disappointed in those folks. She took it into a store, but they suggested reinstalling the operating system (huh?). When I went to see her, I examined the laptop, did a little investigation, and discovered that her trackpad temp sensor was giving false overheat signals. Those signals were convincing the powerbook that it was about to melt and so it would go to sleep.

Here's where it gets good. I'm obviously tech savvy. I obviously could be working behind that bar if I wanted to. And the last thing in the world you should do is threaten a geek on their turf with superior geekery. I took the powerbook into the store, explained what I had found, pulled up the logs of the temperature sensor readings. It was there, black and white. The reaction? Well, we can't be sure. You didn't use a certified mac diagnostic tool, so we'll have to check this for ourselves. We're the professionals. (Include appropriate level of smarminess).

I was shocked. I expected a "thanks for doing my job for me since apparently several of us haven't been able to do it." Instead. attitude.

The lesson: Get used to this kind of nonsense. As long as a specific population has control over a set of information, and use this as a basis for self identification and self esteem, us "normal" folks are going to get attitude. :rolleyes:
 
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