Genius Bar availability

scottish · Jan 14, 2015

Not strictly related to MacBook Pro but since there was no obvious place to post this and it's the reason I'm going I thought I'd ask here.

Does anyone know when new slots are made available for genius bar appointments?

I was told 12:00AM local time by Apple support but at 0:01 there is still no availability for Edinburgh Princes Street. The advice now is to check a couple of times a day but that's not feasible for more than a couple of days and I've tried since yesterday.

I could go to an ASP but would rather go to the store now that we finally have one in Edinburgh.

I think there's a fault in their system. I simply can't believe that there are no appointments over the next week.

thebro20 · Jan 14, 2015

you could always just go up there without an appointment and you MIGHT be seen. it never hurts to try

scottish · Jan 14, 2015

thebro20 said:
you could always just go up there without an appointment and you MIGHT be seen. it never hurts to try

Thanks for that suggestion. I may actually be near it tomorrow so will try that, though I will only have limited time.

technosix · Jan 14, 2015

Perhaps Apple should buy some computers to manage their schedule.

sahnert · Jan 14, 2015

A technician I talked to (in the US) mentioned that they were possibly moving away from the online reservation system and instead taking all appointments as walk-ins. Sounded like a trial program, so perhaps your store is testing it?

luvmymbpr · Jan 15, 2015

sahnert said:
A technician I talked to (in the US) mentioned that they were possibly moving away from the online reservation system and instead taking all appointments as walk-ins. Sounded like a trial program, so perhaps your store is testing it?

Ugh I hope this isn't true. I have used the appointment method twice, and it's amazing to walk in, get immediate service, and be out in under 10 minutes.

scottish · Jan 15, 2015

Thanks for further replies.

Went to store this afternoon. They are completely booked up for the next two weeks and have a backlog on repairs too meaning even if I did get my laptop in tomorrow it might not be repaired for a further two weeks.

The store can book appointments for customers two weeks in advance while online you can only book 6 days in advance. This means that it is a waste of time looking online as appointments will not show until the demand drops significantly.

It was recommended I try the Apple store in Glasgow which is 50 miles away. That's something I'd hoped not to have to do any more now that there is a store in Edinburgh.

I'm thinking about calling Apple tomorrow to express my dissatisfaction with this situation though I'm not sure it's worth the effort. Clearly something is wrong with the running of the store if every other store in Scotland has good availability.

thebro20 · Jan 15, 2015

scottish said:
Thanks for further replies.

Went to store this afternoon. They are completely booked up for the next two weeks and have a backlog on repairs too meaning even if I did get my laptop in tomorrow it might not be repaired for a further two weeks.

The store can book appointments for customers two weeks in advance while online you can only book 6 days in advance. This means that it is a waste of time looking online as appointments will not show until the demand drops significantly.

It was recommended I try the Apple store in Glasgow which is 50 miles away. That's something I'd hoped not to have to do any more now that there is a store in Edinburgh.

I'm thinking about calling Apple tomorrow to express my dissatisfaction with this situation though I'm not sure it's worth the effort. Clearly something is wrong with the running of the store if every other store in Scotland has good availability.

That's definitely a bummer. And as it is a set back, seeing as its the only on within 50 miles of you I can see why it's so backed up. There's 4 within 15 miles of me and it's ALWAYS busy. So I can see why yours is so booked up.

PennCentralFan · Jan 17, 2015

Try to fix it yourself. Seriously do some reading here and other places. At the worst save your most important files and do a reinstall or something like that.

cairene2011 · Jan 18, 2015

Apple Genius Bar Appointments seem notoriously hard to get in the UK. I'm in London and we have an abundance of Apple Stores, nevertheless most appointments are 2-3 weeks in the future. Which doesn't sound bad - unless your Mac is unusable for the time being.

In London they get quite upset if you show up without appointment, which is understandable as even with appointment the waiting time is extremely long as there are just so many customers popping in at the same time after work. Last time I went to regent street for an iPad appointment I had to wait an hour after checking in until the genius had eventually time to see me. Similar experience in Covent Garden, while in Brent Cross I was turned away with an appointment before, because they were short on staff.
If you go without an appointment, make sure you go early in the morning (not during lunch break and not in the afternoon).

Mildredop · Jan 18, 2015

scottish said:
Thanks for further replies.

Went to store this afternoon. They are completely booked up for the next two weeks and have a backlog on repairs too meaning even if I did get my laptop in tomorrow it might not be repaired for a further two weeks.

The store can book appointments for customers two weeks in advance while online you can only book 6 days in advance. This means that it is a waste of time looking online as appointments will not show until the demand drops significantly.

It was recommended I try the Apple store in Glasgow which is 50 miles away. That's something I'd hoped not to have to do any more now that there is a store in Edinburgh.

I'm thinking about calling Apple tomorrow to express my dissatisfaction with this situation though I'm not sure it's worth the effort. Clearly something is wrong with the running of the store if every other store in Scotland has good availability.

I avoid apple stores altogether - hideous places. When my MacBook Air broke, I was unable to see a 'genius' for a couple of weeks and then the repair wouldn't taken another week at least, which was no good as I needed my computer. So I went to a local apple approved computer repair place (who did PCs as well as apple - it was on an industrial estate just 10 mins from me). They had it fixed the next day, so I'd recommend just bypassing the apple store and going to an independent.

----------

PennCentralFan said:
Try to fix it yourself. Seriously do some reading here and other places. At the worst save your most important files and do a reinstall or something like that.

Please don't do this.

cairene2011 · Jan 18, 2015

In the UK the independent Apple Authorized Repair Shops don't seem to do repairs that are covered under Apple Care. I went to one before and he refused to even look at the machine, because I still had Apple Care and would have had to pay him nevertheless.

cjmillsnun · Jan 18, 2015

cairene2011 said:
In the UK the independent Apple Authorized Repair Shops don't seem to do repairs that are covered under Apple Care. I went to one before and he refused to even look at the machine, because I still had Apple Care and would have had to pay him nevertheless.

They should not do that if they are authorised. Apple will pay them for their time and parts if the repair would be covered by AppleCare. Something doesn't add up there.

cairene2011 · Jan 18, 2015

cjmillsnun said:
They should not do that if they are authorised. Apple will pay them for their time and parts if the repair would be covered by AppleCare. Something doesn't add up there.

Maybe someone from the UK can chime in? I went to the authorized Apple Service Provider in London Goodge Street (I think they have closed down/moved now) two years ago when I still had two years of Apple Care left. My MBA wasn't starting up anymore. The guy asked me if I had Apple Care, I said yes and he said I had to go to Apple then, because he would have to charge me. So I went to Apple instead.

Funnily, back home in Austria we don't have any Apple Stores at all, so the authorized Apple Service Providers always honour Apple Care. Although also in that case the repair isn't done by the Apple Service Provider, they are in fact sending the faulty machine to Apple for repair. I had a MBP with dead pixels, took it to the Austrian Apple Service Provider and they sent it to an Apple repair facility. I got it back 3 weeks later with a new screen.

cjmillsnun · Jan 18, 2015

cairene2011 said:
Maybe someone from the UK can chime in? I went to the authorized Apple Service Provider in London Goodge Street (I think they have closed down/moved now) two years ago when I still had two years of Apple Care left. My MBA wasn't starting up anymore. The guy asked me if I had Apple Care, I said yes and he said I had to go to Apple then, because he would have to charge me. So I went to Apple instead.

Funnily, back home in Austria we don't have any Apple Stores at all, so the authorized Apple Service Providers always honour Apple Care. Although also in that case the repair isn't done by the Apple Service Provider, they are in fact sending the faulty machine to Apple for repair. I had a MBP with dead pixels, took it to the Austrian Apple Service Provider and they sent it to an Apple repair facility. I got it back 3 weeks later with a new screen.

I am from the UK.

cairene2011 · Jan 18, 2015

cjmillsnun said:
I am from the UK.

Hmm, do you think it could be different in London, because there are so many Apple Stores around? Because otherwise, I don't have an explanation either.

Edit: Found the name of the shop where I went 2 years ago: MicroMend in Goodge Street London.

Edit 2: I just read a few Yelp reviews about the shop trying to figure out, if I had been mistaken in thinking that they were an authorised Apple Service Provider (they appear to be according to their website) ... and the staff seem to have been a rather shady bunch. So perhaps I just got wrong information from them about Apple Care only being honoured by Apple. In hindsight, perhaps they were hoping, I'd say "Ahh, whatever, I'm already here, not gonna go to Apple. I'll pay for the repair" ... hopefully that wasn't the case and there was a genuine misunderstanding instead.

Anyway, sorry OP for the wrong info!

cjmillsnun · Jan 18, 2015

cairene2011 said:
Hmm, do you think it could be different in London, because there are so many Apple Stores around? Because otherwise, I don't have an explanation either.

Edit: Found the name of the shop where I went 2 years ago: MicroMend in Goodge Street London.

They're no longer trading.

cairene2011 · Jan 18, 2015

cjmillsnun said:
They're no longer trading.

Yeah, I know... Not a surprise when you look at those Yelp/AllinLondon reviews. Yikes! Looks like I unwittingly dodged a bullet there.

scottish · Apr 27, 2015

thebro20 said:
That's definitely a bummer. And as it is a set back, seeing as its the only on within 50 miles of you I can see why it's so backed up. There's 4 within 15 miles of me and it's ALWAYS busy. So I can see why yours is so booked up.

PennCentralFan said:
Try to fix it yourself. Seriously do some reading here and other places. At the worst save your most important files and do a reinstall or something like that.

cairene2011 said:
Apple Genius Bar Appointments seem notoriously hard to get in the UK. I'm in London and we have an abundance of Apple Stores, nevertheless most appointments are 2-3 weeks in the future. Which doesn't sound bad - unless your Mac is unusable for the time being.

In London they get quite upset if you show up without appointment, which is understandable as even with appointment the waiting time is extremely long as there are just so many customers popping in at the same time after work. Last time I went to regent street for an iPad appointment I had to wait an hour after checking in until the genius had eventually time to see me. Similar experience in Covent Garden, while in Brent Cross I was turned away with an appointment before, because they were short on staff.
If you go without an appointment, make sure you go early in the morning (not during lunch break and not in the afternoon).

Mildredop said:
I avoid apple stores altogether - hideous places. When my MacBook Air broke, I was unable to see a 'genius' for a couple of weeks and then the repair wouldn't taken another week at least, which was no good as I needed my computer. So I went to a local apple approved computer repair place (who did PCs as well as apple - it was on an industrial estate just 10 mins from me). They had it fixed the next day, so I'd recommend just bypassing the apple store and going to an independent.

cjmillsnun said:
They should not do that if they are authorised. Apple will pay them for their time and parts if the repair would be covered by AppleCare. Something doesn't add up there.

Thanks for the replies to my post and apologies for not returning to the thread until now.

I have recently got the computer repaired. In the end I took it to an authorised service provider where the work was was carried out under warranty within a few days.

Edinburgh still has no availability for Mac appointments and when I was in looking at the watch I found out there is still a backlog on repairs so happy to have gone down the ASP route.

CaptainChunk · Apr 27, 2015

Yep, that's what I've done in the past if no Genius Bar appointments were available in an acceptable timeframe. Most major cities have at least one 3rd-party repair shop that's authorized by Apple. And in my experience, they perform repairs pretty quickly.

What sucks about the Genius Bar reservation system is that it doesn't really differentiate repair requests from "gee, I'm computer illiterate and need help" requests. They seem to all go in the same queue. Whether or not there's any truth to my observation I'm not sure of, but it certainly seems that way. Every time I walk into an Apple Store, the Genius Bar is always slammed with little old ladies that need help copying their photos.

LxHunter · Apr 27, 2015

CaptainChunk said:
What sucks about the Genius Bar reservation system is that it doesn't really differentiate repair requests from "gee, I'm computer illiterate and need help" requests. They seem to all go in the same queue. Whether or not there's any truth to my observation I'm not sure of, but it certainly seems that way. Every time I walk into an Apple Store, the Genius Bar is always slammed with little old ladies that need help copying their photos.

My guess from what I have overheard at Genius Bar:
40% computer illiterate "how do I rename file"
40% could have Googled
20% hardware failure or complex software issues.

CaptainChunk · Apr 27, 2015

LxHunter said:
My guess from what I have overheard at Genius Bar:
40% computer illiterate "how do I rename file"
40% could have Googled
20% hardware failure or complex software issues.

Heh, seems legit.

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