Genius Bar should have an emergency line . . .

[JC86]

So my friend who was visiting for the weekend had her two month old 3GS die on her. Wouldn't charge, wouldn't show up on itunes, just a bricked blank screeen. It wasn't dropped or submerged in water or anything so I thought it must have been defective and suggested that we go to the local apple store to get it sorted out. So we go the store and the only available rep was this sales guy so we ask him to help us out. At first, he's tries all the things we had already tried, hard reset, sync with computer etc. We had already told him we tried all that but he insisted on trying it again himself. When nothing worked, all he said was sorry, you need to make an appointment with the genius bar rep or we can wait there all day for a standby meeting.

Now i can understand having to make an appointment for a non-emergency service with a genius rep but would it kill them to have an emergency rep to handle these sort of situations that I'm sure come up on a daily basis? I looked over at the genius bar and half the people there were for dumbass reasons. One white chick couldn't launch her mail app since she accidentally deleted it from her dock and another guys ipod cable got messed up. If apple is worried about people abusing this service and saying everything is an emergency, just have your regualr sales associates screen the cases and determine if its eligible for the emergency walk in meetings! Is it that hard? I ended up popping out her sim and letting her borrow one of my old phones so she can at least make calls until she went home and made an appointment with her local apple store. Apparently it took them all of ten minutes to replace it. Which makes the hoops they made us jump through all the more infuriating.

 

[AstroManLuca]

That is rather stupid. Why couldn't the sales rep, after determining that it was not working, put in a service request? I mean, Apple Stores also have techs in the back who work on hardware issues, right? And not being able to open Mail.app isn't a hardware issue.

 

[PricklyPete]

I have never had an issue with the Genius Bar...I just make an APPOINTMENT before I head to the store. I'm usually out of there within 30 minutes of showing up.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: JC86
So my friend who was visiting for the weekend had her two month old 3GS die on her. Wouldn't charge, wouldn't show up on itunes, just a bricked blank screeen. It wasn't dropped or submerged in water or anything so I thought it must have been defective and suggested that we go to the local apple store to get it sorted out. So we go the store and the only available rep was this sales guy so we ask him to help us out. At first, he's tries all the things we had already tried, hard reset, sync with computer etc. We had already told him we tried all that but he insisted on trying it again himself. When nothing worked, all he said was sorry, you need to make an appointment with the genius bar rep or we can wait there all day for a standby meeting.

Now i can understand having to make an appointment for a non-emergency service with a genius rep but would it kill them to have an emergency rep to handle these sort of situations that I'm sure come up on a daily basis? I looked over at the genius bar and half the people there were for dumbass reasons. One white chick couldn't launch her mail app since she accidentally deleted it from her dock and another guys ipod cable got messed up. If apple is worried about people abusing this service and saying everything is an emergency, just have your regualr sales associates screen the cases and determine if its eligible for the emergency walk in meetings! Is it that hard? I ended up popping out her sim and letting her borrow one of my old phones so she can at least make calls until she went home and made an appointment with her local apple store. Apparently it took them all of ten minutes to replace it. Which makes the hoops they made us jump through all the more infuriating.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

 

[Kmax82]

Yea, I don't understand how this is any different than the Geek Squad, or any other computer repair shop. There might be a small time shop that would take walk-ins, but in general, you need to make an appointment. Typically you can get in the same day, but you have to make an appointment. I don't understand why that's such a hard concept.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Originally posted by: JC86
So my friend who was visiting for the weekend had her two month old 3GS die on her. Wouldn't charge, wouldn't show up on itunes, just a bricked blank screeen. It wasn't dropped or submerged in water or anything so I thought it must have been defective and suggested that we go to the local apple store to get it sorted out. So we go the store and the only available rep was this sales guy so we ask him to help us out. At first, he's tries all the things we had already tried, hard reset, sync with computer etc. We had already told him we tried all that but he insisted on trying it again himself. When nothing worked, all he said was sorry, you need to make an appointment with the genius bar rep or we can wait there all day for a standby meeting.

Now i can understand having to make an appointment for a non-emergency service with a genius rep but would it kill them to have an emergency rep to handle these sort of situations that I'm sure come up on a daily basis? I looked over at the genius bar and half the people there were for dumbass reasons. One white chick couldn't launch her mail app since she accidentally deleted it from her dock and another guys ipod cable got messed up. If apple is worried about people abusing this service and saying everything is an emergency, just have your regualr sales associates screen the cases and determine if its eligible for the emergency walk in meetings! Is it that hard? I ended up popping out her sim and letting her borrow one of my old phones so she can at least make calls until she went home and made an appointment with her local apple store. Apparently it took them all of ten minutes to replace it. Which makes the hoops they made us jump through all the more infuriating.

really? hahaha

you just have to learn to wait ... I wouldn't mind an iphone line vs a mbp line or whatever else apple sells .

 

[Kmax82]

Originally posted by: ViviTheMage
I wouldn't mind an iphone line vs a mbp line or whatever else apple sells .

There already is. They have different geniuses for different products.

 

[Kaido]

Yeah it's annoying, but like the others said - it's a small shop, so you gotta make an appointment ahead of time. If you do that, you're set. I agree though, they should definitely setup some kind of "this is REALLY an emergency" system. I use my iPhone for business, so if it breaks, I need it fixed ASAP! I keep my old iPhone EDGE around "just in case", so I can swap SIMs out if needed.

Edit: Also, this was a big motivation for me to build a Hackintosh - I can fix/replace 100% of the parts, so there's no downtime for me if I run into a problem (that plus a spare drive with SuperDuper & Time Machine, whoohoo! )

 

[Ka0t1x]

The place is there as a service, and just like everyone else has said, and its plastered ALL OVER their website, make an appointment.. You should be so lucky to even have an Apple Store in your area..

However if anyone is interested, I just got my 3G replaced via the mail route... and I was very pleased.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: JC86
emergency
emergency
emergency

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

LOL! Good quote, and I agree.

I fail to see how an iPhone not working is any more of an emergency than a customer not being able to use their email or an iPod not functioning for whatever reason.

Originally posted by: Kaido
Yeah it's annoying, but like the others said - it's a small shop, so you gotta make an appointment ahead of time. If you do that, you're set. I agree though, they should definitely setup some kind of "this is REALLY an emergency" system. I use my iPhone for business, so if it breaks, I need it fixed ASAP! I keep my old iPhone EDGE around "just in case", so I can swap SIMs out if needed.

Edit: Also, this was a big motivation for me to build a Hackintosh - I can fix/replace 100% of the parts, so there's no downtime for me if I run into a problem (that plus a spare drive with SuperDuper & Time Machine, whoohoo! )

I agree that they should offer a quick turn around service/replacement option for business class users, but they should charge you extra for it. You can't pay for a consumer product and expect enterprise class service/support.

enterprise service is expensive... http://store.apple.com/us/product/D2652LL/D

 

[Nothinman]

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

And you can't judge how important a device is to a person's life from a 3rd party anecdote. I use my phone for both work and personal activities and if it dies, I consider that an emergency.

I fail to see how an iPhone not working is any more of an emergency than a customer not being able to use their email or an iPod not functioning for whatever reason.

And I can't understand how you could consider someone's email or iPod more important than their phone, especially when that person's phone is probably also their iPod and email client (one of at least). Hell, I might even rate my phone as my important than my car in most cases.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

And you can't judge how important a device is to a person's life from a 3rd party anecdote. I use my phone for both work and personal activities and if it dies, I consider that an emergency.

I fail to see how an iPhone not working is any more of an emergency than a customer not being able to use their email or an iPod not functioning for whatever reason.

And I can't understand how you could consider someone's email or iPod more important than their phone, especially when that person's phone is probably also their iPod and email client (one of at least). Hell, I might even rate my phone as my important than my car in most cases.

He never said the other person's e-mail or iPod are more important than the OP's friend's phone - but the person with missing mail icon and the guy with the messed up iPod cable had appointments.

 

[Kadarin]

Hey, if you really, really need to access your email and can't (even if it's for some stupid reason like the shortcut got deleted), then it's an emergency to you at that moment. Oh, and yeah, the appointment thing.

 

[JC86]

Who plans on having their phone die on them? It was a saturday when the phone died, we checked apple's website and the earliest appointment was a monday. would you want to go two days without your cellphone while you were on vacation? I'd consider that an emergency, especially if your cellphone is your only phone as is the case more and more often these days. I have no problem making an appointment but like i said, I don't know how you guys can plan on having your phone die on you and make an appointment ahead of time.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Originally posted by: JC86
Who plans on having their phone die on them? It was a saturday when the phone died, we checked apple's website and the earliest appointment was a monday. would you want to go two days without your cellphone while you were on vacation? I'd consider that an emergency, especially if your cellphone is your only phone as is the case more and more often these days. I have no problem making an appointment but like i said, I don't know how you guys can plan on having your phone die on you and make an appointment ahead of time.

Cell phones die with pretty predictable regularity, you need a backup.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: JC86
Who plans on having their phone die on them? It was a saturday when the phone died, we checked apple's website and the earliest appointment was a monday. would you want to go two days without your cellphone while you were on vacation? I'd consider that an emergency, especially if your cellphone is your only phone as is the case more and more often these days. I have no problem making an appointment but like i said, I don't know how you guys can plan on having your phone die on you and make an appointment ahead of time.

I think you're missing the point... it's not that your friend's cell phone dying was unimportant, it's that you dismissed everyone else's problems as unimportant. Do you think that "white chick" planned on losing her Mail icon? Or the other guy planned on having problems with his iPod cable? Or everyone else who had appointments planned on having things go wrong? You dismissed everyone else's problems as less important than your friend's problem.

Yeah it sucks to go without a phone for two days, but it's not the end of the world.

nitromullet is correct in saying that if you demand a certain level of timely support, you need to expect to pay for it. Apple doesn't offer it, but even if they did I doubt most people would be willing to pay for a support contract on their phone. Cell phones do die, get lost, break, etc - if losing access to your cell phone for a day or two is an emergency to you, then it would pay to plan ahead and keep a cheap spare. I believe pay-as-you-go phones can be used with your regular SIM card, and they're cheap. Keeping one of those would cost you a lot less than whatever Apple would charge for a guaranteed same day support contract on an iPhone.

 

[Nothinman]

He never said the other person's e-mail or iPod are more important than the OP's friend's phone - but the person with missing mail icon and the guy with the messed up iPod cable had appointments.

He may not have said the ipod was more important, but he did say at most equal which I don't believe is the case these days.

But does replacing an iPhone really warrant an appointment? The sales guy already did all of the troubleshooting that the "genious" would likely do. Give the person a new phone, swap the SIM cards and if the bad one can be fixed later just sell it as a refurb.

Yeah it sucks to go without a phone for two days, but it's not the end of the world.

But it could be the end of a part of your world if you miss an important call about work, your apt burning down, family illness/death, etc.

The point is that IMO the sales guy should've been able to replace it after he determined it was dead. If it later turns out that he was wrong and one of their "geniouses" fixes it, who cares? They just put it in a new box and resell it.

 

[Need4Speed]

remember when we didn't have cell phones .. sheesh .. my phone is the center of my daily life too, but if the damn thing dies the universe doesn't stop. Some of you make it sound like it's the difference between life and death if you're phones go down ...

 

[Kmax82]

True.. cell phones aren't reliable. Cell Providers aren't reliable.. if you really need to get those business calls.. have a land line that serves as your basis for your work and forward to your cell phone while you're on the road. Then if your phone dies you still get all your business calls. Or simply buy a $20 cheap beater phone on eBay and carry that with you, in case your iPhone/any other smart phone dies, to get your calls. Is it an inconvenience? Yes. But it's not an emergency.

 

[biggestmuff]

Ha. Even though I've had my Mac for almost a year, I entered this thread thinking the Genius Bar was some sort of app or toolbar in OS X.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: JC86
Who plans on having their phone die on them? It was a saturday when the phone died, we checked apple's website and the earliest appointment was a monday. would you want to go two days without your cellphone while you were on vacation? I'd consider that an emergency, especially if your cellphone is your only phone as is the case more and more often these days. I have no problem making an appointment but like i said, I don't know how you guys can plan on having your phone die on you and make an appointment ahead of time.

Yeah it's kind of a crappy situation all around. I think this would be a really good improvement to their existing setup.

You should email Steve (sometimes he responds!). His email address is steve@mac.com. One time I emailed him about the missing Firewire jack on the 13" Macbook, my favorite size, and later they added it back in. I'm just sayin'

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

And you can't judge how important a device is to a person's life from a 3rd party anecdote. I use my phone for both work and personal activities and if it dies, I consider that an emergency.

I fail to see how an iPhone not working is any more of an emergency than a customer not being able to use their email or an iPod not functioning for whatever reason.

And I can't understand how you could consider someone's email or iPod more important than their phone, especially when that person's phone is probably also their iPod and email client (one of at least). Hell, I might even rate my phone as my important than my car in most cases.

You're missing the point. It isn't the device that makes it a non-emergency, it's the importance of the user of the device. To me (and everyone else), you not being able to use your iPhone is just as unimportant as someone else not being able to listen to music.

If I'm in line to get my MBP looked at (for whatever reason) I see no reason to move aside to let you in front of me just because you use your phone for work (and neither does Apple). We're both paying customers, and that makes us and our respective problems equally important.

This isn't a value judgment on you btw... I'm just as unimportant to you and everyone else as you are to me, and I don't expect you to let me cut in front of you at the Genius Bar.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I agree that Apple should offer some sort of expedited support for people who use their iPhones for their business, as these phones are very important to these customers. I also think they should have trained iPhone people working at AT&T retail locations authorized to replace iPhones for these customers in the event that they cannot address the customer's issue. However, they should charge you extra for the service.

Originally posted by: JC86
Who plans on having their phone die on them? It was a saturday when the phone died, we checked apple's website and the earliest appointment was a monday. would you want to go two days without your cellphone while you were on vacation? I'd consider that an emergency, especially if your cellphone is your only phone as is the case more and more often these days. I have no problem making an appointment but like i said, I don't know how you guys can plan on having your phone die on you and make an appointment ahead of time.

I don't think anyone is denying that the situation sucks, it does... but, an emergency it isn't.

 

[JC86]

Wow, I knew most of the people here are Apple fanatics but this is really taking it to another level as Apple apologists. Those of you who read my original post would know that my friend ended up borrowing one of my old ATT pay as you go candybar phones until she could go make an appointment at the Soho Apple store to have her iphone properly diagnosed by a 'genius'.

As far as I can tell, these Apple geniuses are doing the exact same things we do when we try to diagnose a problem with our phones and according to my friend, her 'genius' helper did the exact same thing the sales associate did a few days earlier and came up with the same diagnosis, faulty hardware and promptly issued a replacement. Would it have killed Apple to issue a replacement while she was in LA so she didn't have to rush to Soho after work to take care of a problem that should already have been resolved? no.

I was not suggesting that the lady who accidentally deleted her mail app shortcut let us cut in front of her to have our phone replaced. She made an appointment and deserves to have her problem taken care of although Google would have more than sufficed to fix her problem. I was simply suggesting setting aside another line for cases like my friends. It took the genius no more than ten minutes to do it. For a company that prides itself on customer service and support, is that too much to ask? As ATT/iPhone customers, we are paying a premium for the convenience and simplicity that the iPhone offers. Yet this whole ordeal was unnecessarily inconvenient when it didn't have to be.

 

[mugs]

It has nothing to do with being an Apple apologist. You don't understand that if they had another queue for free "emergency" service, it would just fill up with the same issues as the regular genius queues. Having an employee judge who has a real emergency wouldn't work, because just about any issue that prevents you from fully using your computer could be claimed as an emergency. It's ironic that you complained about the "white chick" who couldn't launch her mail program, because her issue was just as much an emergency - even if it was caused by user error.

I did read the OP, I do know you loaned her a phone. I was speaking in generalities when I said that someone who considers lack of access to their phone to be an emergency should keep a spare.

Does AT&T not offer support for the iPhone at all? What do people do if they don't live near an Apple store?

 

[Tyranicus]

You have to call Apple and send it in if you can't get to an Apple store. AT&T only sells the iPhone. They won't even replace headphones.