Genius Room stories

DanHalen · Oct 16, 2012

What is it like working in the genius room on repairs? Is it a big room or small? Are the geniuses in the back all under 30? How many lap tops and desktops are in for repair each day (on average)? The store is always packed. I imagine there is a lot of homemade porn seen. Do they intentionally view it? Do they copy it to a flash drive or snap pics (a la Geek Squad)? Do they work there way after the front of the store has closed? Is there a supervisor? Check out that Gizmodo artile, pretty interesting... I'm sure most of you have seen it, though. :apple:

AppleNewton · Oct 16, 2012

Its no different than most repair rooms or tech rooms or repair benches, honestly.
Theyre more up to snuff on their procedures and equipment they use thats for sure, compared to any other tech room.

It also depends on the store, the smaller mall stores, have more cramped, confined and often crowded tech rooms. some even have remote tech rooms. often what they cant or arent able to do in stores get shipped off to texas depot repairs anyway.

theres simply not enough time with the amount of repairs that go through there to sift through customer data, and since they dont hardly do software repairs or back-ups most likely they wont see it nor do they care to, not in my experience at apple or other apple related places. but i cant speak for all people who work there im sure there a few employed genius' that commit those actions like any place.

DanHalen · Oct 17, 2012

AppleNewton said:
Its no different than most repair rooms or tech rooms or repair benches, honestly.
Theyre more up to snuff on their procedures and equipment they use thats for sure, compared to any other tech room.

It also depends on the store, the smaller mall stores, have more cramped, confined and often crowded tech rooms. some even have remote tech rooms. often what they cant or arent able to do in stores get shipped off to texas depot repairs anyway.

theres simply not enough time with the amount of repairs that go through there to sift through customer data, and since they dont hardly do software repairs or back-ups most likely they wont see it nor do they care to, not in my experience at apple or other apple related places. but i cant speak for all people who work there im sure there a few employed genius' that commit those actions like any place.

Yikes.

G51989 · Oct 17, 2012

AppleNewton said:
Theyre more up to snuff on their procedures and equipment they use thats for sure, compared to any other tech room.

Really? I've found that at most locally owned PC shops, the techs their whoop a genius in pretty much every category besides the internals of Apple products.

AppleNewton · Oct 17, 2012

G51989 said:
Really? I've found that at most locally owned PC shops, the techs their whoop a genius in pretty much every category besides the internals of Apple products.

well not saying theyre more technically inclined, but as far as quality of equality of equipment and policy/procedure they have a pretty good handle on things. its been a while ive been into alot of local mom/pop shops but yeah...just from experience

MaxPower72 · Oct 17, 2012

do they sing songs while they work, like the Oompa Loompas?

DanHalen · Oct 19, 2012

Deciding whether I should buy a new lap top now or try to hold out for another 6 months for a new one.

G51989 · Oct 19, 2012

AppleNewton said:
well not saying theyre more technically inclined, but as far as quality of equality of equipment and policy/procedure they have a pretty good handle on things. its been a while ive been into alot of local mom/pop shops but yeah...just from experience

So far, my 2011 iMac experience has been a pretty poor one, the bar doesn't make it any better. ( Though the last Mac I bought before this was a Macbook, no Issues, and a G5 before that, still no issues, this 2011 has been a complete pile of crap ).

Its almost like they want to blame me for its overheating and stability issues O_O.

DanHalen · Oct 20, 2012

G51989 said:
So far, my 2011 iMac experience has been a pretty poor one, the bar doesn't make it any better. ( Though the last Mac I bought before this was a Macbook, no Issues, and a G5 before that, still no issues, this 2011 has been a complete pile of crap ).

Its almost like they want to blame me for its overheating and stability issues O_O.

Poor in what way?

----------

AppleNewton said:
Its no different than most repair rooms or tech rooms or repair benches, honestly.
Theyre more up to snuff on their procedures and equipment they use thats for sure, compared to any other tech room.

It also depends on the store, the smaller mall stores, have more cramped, confined and often crowded tech rooms. some even have remote tech rooms. often what they cant or arent able to do in stores get shipped off to texas depot repairs anyway.

theres simply not enough time with the amount of repairs that go through there to sift through customer data, and since they dont hardly do software repairs or back-ups most likely they wont see it nor do they care to, not in my experience at apple or other apple related places. but i cant speak for all people who work there im sure there a few employed genius' that commit those actions like any place.

I took a macbook in for an external repair (replaced charge dock) I was told I'd have it the next day and it took a day and a half. It's an easy fix so I became a bit suspicious that they weren't just fixing it? Do they go through your files if it's just an external fix? Also, I had some windows open when it died before I took it in. When I got it back, the windows were no longer up. In my experience, when my computer has died and I get it to a power source the last open windows reappear.

G51989 · Oct 21, 2012

DanHalen said:
Poor in what way?

The machine itself looks great, but Ive gone through 2 of them already, they overheat very easily, get dust behind the screen, at least mine has, Ive had stabilty issues as well, none of my other Macs ever have given me issues like this.

I love an AIO for my living room, and for the past few months its been fine, but if theres another failure, I'm buying an ACER or ASUS all in one to replace it, sure it might not be as pretty, but at least it will work.

I dont understand its random failures.

I typically build my own machines, cept servers. But Over the years, Ive bought crappy Dells, Crappy HPs, like 500-800 dollar crap ( they make amazing cheapo servers ), and all these " crappy " cheap PCs have all been dead reliable.

AppleNewton said:
Its no different than most repair rooms or tech rooms or repair benches, honestly.
Theyre more up to snuff on their procedures and equipment they use thats for sure, compared to any other tech room.

Caught this late, but not that I use lots of these Local PC shops, because I tend to build my own, but I had a crappy Dell box ( used as a storage server ), blow a power supply, I had it back in 45 minutes, and this is a VERY busy shop. 4 Screws, and a wire covered under warrenty, the case has thumb screws on it.

Where when my G5 blew a PSU back in the day, I had a week and a half wait at the Apple store to get it back.

malman89 · Oct 21, 2012

DanHalen said:
I took a macbook in for an external repair (replaced charge dock) I was told I'd have it the next day and it took a day and a half. It's an easy fix so I became a bit suspicious that they weren't just fixing it? Do they go through your files if it's just an external fix? Also, I had some windows open when it died before I took it in. When I got it back, the windows were no longer up. In my experience, when my computer has died and I get it to a power source the last open windows reappear.

They tend to make silly easy fixes the lowest of the low priority that they don't do until the end of the day or first thing the next morning, which is why it takes overnight for them to handle it.

DanHalen · Feb 3, 2013

Do they go through your laptop if it's an external repair like the charge dock? Do they hook it up to diagnostics/the data server?

malman89 said:
They tend to make silly easy fixes the lowest of the low priority that they don't do until the end of the day or first thing the next morning, which is why it takes overnight for them to handle it.

Do they tend to hook up your computer to the data server if it's just an external repair like the charge dock?/ Go through it?

famous600 · Feb 4, 2013

DanHalen said:
Do they go through your laptop if it's an external repair like the charge dock? Do they hook it up to diagnostics/the data server?

Do they tend to hook up your computer to the data server if it's just an external repair like the charge dock?/ Go through it?

Hmm sounds like you have a computer at an apple store and may have some information you don't want accessed lol. Ivealways said if you don't want someone to know something then don't do it

DanHalen · Feb 4, 2013

famous600 said:
Hmm sounds like you have a computer at an apple store and may have some information you don't want accessed lol. Ivealways said if you don't want someone to know something then don't do it

Everyone says this but in my case the charge dock was broken and I was unable to charge it. It was dead and there wasn't a way for me to wipe it. I didn't give them my password.

famous600 · Feb 5, 2013

DanHalen said:
Everyone says this but in my case the charge dock was broken and I was unable to charge it. It was dead and there wasn't a way for me to wipe it. I didn't give them my password.

If they don't have a password they can't gain access

DanHalen · Feb 5, 2013

famous600 said:
If they don't have a password they can't gain access

Thanks for taking the time to reply. What if my password has been the same for the past year and I went in a year ago as well? Do you think they'd keep it on file?

famous600 · Feb 5, 2013

DanHalen said:
Thanks for taking the time to reply. What if my password has been the same for the past year and I went in a year ago as well? Do you think they'd keep it on file?

no problem and its possible they could have the password in their system. However a broken charge port and your system password essentially have nothing to do with one another I would assume. You could plug in a charger and see that the light changes color and verify the port is working without needing access to the computer.

DanHalen · Feb 5, 2013

famous600 said:
no problem and its possible they could have the password in their system. However a broken charge port and your system password essentially have nothing to do with one another I would assume. You could plug in a charger and see that the light changes color and verify the port is working without needing access to the computer.

Did you work at Apple? This is a bit reassuring..

Brian Y · Feb 5, 2013

DanHalen said:
Did you work at Apple? This is a bit reassuring..

They have better things to do with their time than go through your stuff.

famous600 · Feb 5, 2013

DanHalen said:
Did you work at Apple? This is a bit reassuring..

I do work for apple but not at apple. I do not handle hardware replacement but it just makes sense.

Queen of Spades · Feb 5, 2013

DanHalen said:
Did you work at Apple? This is a bit reassuring..

Brian Y said:
They have better things to do with their time than go through your stuff.

I did, and I can confirm they don't give a rat's ass about your files. I spent many hours in the genius room and I never once saw anyone going through a customer's files. There's no reason for it, it would slow them down, and they honestly could care less.

If you're that paranoid and it's a hardware repair, James Bond, you can always back up your computer and perform a fresh install of your OS before taking it.

DanHalen · Feb 6, 2013

My computer died and when I got it back from the store the pages that I had opened didn't come back up. In my experience, whenever my computer dies and I plug it back in, all my last opened webpages pop back up. What gives?

famous600 · Feb 6, 2013

DanHalen said:
My computer died and when I got it back from the store the pages that I had opened didn't come back up. In my experience, whenever my computer dies and I plug it back in, all my last opened webpages pop back up. What gives?

Maybe they had to reset something? But really at the end of the day it sounds like the computer works. If you have nothing to hide then it really shouldn't matter. Like I said before if you don't want someone to know about something then don't do it

DanHalen · Feb 7, 2013

Queen of Spades said:
I did, and I can confirm they don't give a rat's ass about your files. I spent many hours in the genius room and I never once saw anyone going through a customer's files. There's no reason for it, it would slow them down, and they honestly could care less.

If you're that paranoid and it's a hardware repair, James Bond, you can always back up your computer and perform a fresh install of your OS before taking it.

When you were working there did they keep people's passwords on file?

Queen of Spades · Feb 7, 2013

DanHalen said:
When you were working there did they keep people's passwords on file?

The password is usually on the work order, so I suppose technically it would be in the system. But it's not accessible to anyone except the geniuses and genius admin.

And if it's a hardware repair, it's basically used just to login to your computer and make sure the repair was successful.

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