The definition of an overreaction
Posted October 20, 2006
By The Macalope
Dave Rosenberg has a bad day at the Apple Store and decides the solution is to burn Apple to the ground.
If Apple wants to be an iPod company, they should at least give their business users a fair chance at being successful by licensing the OS to another PC maker.
Apple really needs to do something about this customer service problem because it’s apparently driving people insane.
UPDATE: The Macalope had started a longer post about the subject of Apple’s customer service but the Masked Blogger pretty much already wrote it.
Damn these hooves!
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I don’t know if it is Apple that needs to do something or that people need to learn something called “patience.” There was a time when a piece of equipment failed and you would not expect to see it again for weeks and he is getting mad when things don’t get repaired in days. Granted a computer is different than a television set in that it contains valuable data, but still…
The standard time to wait for something to be repaired is a week. And he went to the store because of a squeaky keyboard? I guess I just don’t get it. Apple should, though, carefully screen it’s employees for the genius bar as it seems this guy got a particularly “bad” genius.
He’s either going about this the wrong way, or his business is too small to fall into Apple’s radar appropriately. He needs to be talking to the local SE, not standing in line at the Apple Store with the rest of us schmucks.
And, regardless of anyone else’s bad experience, if the Macalope pays for Apple Care, he’s damn well going to use it, rather than drag his ass to the Store.
I find it odd he went to the store to make an appointment instead of doing it online.
I guess I can cancel his bad experience out with my generally good experiences at both the Bethesda and Annapolis stores in regards to my MacBook’s RSS problem and subsequent issue with keyboard fitting, if you ask me the depot needs better quality testing before sending units back out. When the RSS was fixed they sent the MacBook back with an obviously warped keyboard fitting.
I had a horrible experience at the Santa Monica Apple store. Apple seriously needs to learn how to deal with customers that are _IN_ the store. This whole, schedule an appointment online business is utter crap. It’s not the concept I don’t agree with, but the mentality of the stores that if you’re not in the queue you’re nobody.
Hello. I’m at the store and I have a problem with your product. Telling me that I’m going to have to wait 3 and a half hours before anybody will even speak to me _IS_ ludicrous. Telling me that I have to wait longer than some guy that just walked in with an iPod issue is even crazier.
I don’t mind having to stand in line if the demand for help is there, but telling me that I can’t get help even if noone is as the “bar,” is pompous and Apple will pay for it.
Not to mention that when I finally got help, it took Apple three and a half weeks for the logic board replacement to arrive. That’s three and a half weeks I’m without my laptop. Ridiculous.
@ James…
I don’t find it odd at that one would go to an Apple Store and expect service. When my car has a problem, I take it to the garage. I don’t call and make an appointment first. When my toaster stops toasting I take it to the repair shop. I don’t call and make an appointment first.
I find it very odd that Apple requires you to be in a queue before they’ll even consider helping you, whether the demand is there or not.
The Genius Bar was originally conceived to be more like a doctor’s or dentist’s office than a repair shop. You talk to a “genius” about how to use your computer to solve a problem. Like the doctor’s office, you need to make an appointment in advance, otherwise, if they’re busy, you go to the end of the line.
Given the increased volume of people uses Apple gear, Apple needs to rethink how to handle people bringing in their stuff for a hardware repair. They may need an area for “walk-ins”.
By the way, at Honda, you generally need to call in advance for a service appointment, otherwise, it’s 50-50 you’ll get your car back on the same day.
Anyone that has ever worked retail or a service job knows full well how serious an issue Borderline Personality Defect is in this country. I certainly would not make a very good Genius. If someone came in complaining about their MacBook mooing or whining, or squeaking, I probably would say, “ventriloquism”? So I respect people that do those jobs.
AppleCare is the way to go for those purchases too expensive to self-insure. There are well know and documented problems with some recent Apple products. I know, because I bought them. My 1st generation iMac G5 had what was an industry wide problem with defective capacitors. Apple had a tech sent out to my residence to replace the Midplane. Mighty Mouse scroll ball failed, they sent a replacement mouse, twice, even though this mouse did not come with the original machine. They covered it under the AppleCare agreement on the iMac. My black MacBook had the random shutdown problem. They sent a box for it and I had it back in 5 days, so far it is working great. I admit, this is more problems that I ever had before with new Macs, but the service has been very good.
Mark-
I have a feeling that if you showed up at your Honda dealer without an appointment they wouldn’t turn you away or try to make you feel stupid for not going online and setting up an appointment (egads what if I couldn’t get online in the first place!). Sure you may not get your car back the same day, but they will deal with you in an appropriate manner.