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Apple is planning to make a number of changes at its retail stores ahead of the upcoming holiday season, which include adjustments to Genius Bar appointments and training for its employees on a new initiative, according to 9to5Mac.

apple_store_genius_bar_official.jpg
The report notes that Apple will do away with the suggested 15 minute time limit for Genius Bar appointments in favor of a system that allows customers to book sessions with time limits based on how many issues they have. A few Apple Retail Stores have already started training for the new measures, as a full rollout of the new policy is expected to take place in the near future.

The company will also reportedly be training its employees on a significant new initiative from Sunday, August 10 to Thursday, August 28, which may pertain to in-store iPhone activations. During the aforementioned time period, Genius Bar employees will receive three hours of training while sales employees will receive five hours of training.

Lastly, Apple will be standardizing its attire for all of its U.S. retail employees, as those on the Apple Store Business Team will switch from their black polo shirts to the blue T-shirts worn by other retail employees.

Article Link: Apple Stores to Adjust Genius Bar Appointments, Set to Train Employees on New Initiative
 

Prof.

macrumors 603
Aug 17, 2007
5,299
1,982
Chicagoland
Why do we always use the same stock photo? Surly there are other pics. Yeah, the guy is super cute, but...

As for the new initiative, when I go to the Apple store with what should be a 5 min fix, it ends up taking 30 mins. They should fix that!
 

Canyonero

macrumors regular
Apr 2, 2012
119
282
Sounds like good common sense moves. No cost-cutting ******** like under Jon Browett. Angela's onto a good start.
 

Hoppesangen

macrumors member
Jun 28, 2010
72
1
Why do we always use the same stock photo? Surly there are other pics. Yeah, the guy is super cute, but...

As for the new initiative, when I go to the Apple store with what should be a 5 min fix, it ends up taking 30 mins. They should fix that!

Did you read the article? It seems like they're fixing just that!

"The report notes that Apple will do away with the suggested 15 minute time limit for Genius Bar appointments in favor of a system that allows customers to book sessions with time limits based on how many issues they have."

Yippee! :)
 

Prof.

macrumors 603
Aug 17, 2007
5,299
1,982
Chicagoland
Did you read the article? It seems like they're fixing just that!

"The report notes that Apple will do away with the suggested 15 minute time limit for Genius Bar appointments in favor of a system that allows customers to book sessions with time limits based on how many issues they have."

Yippee! :)
I did read the article, and no it doesn't appear they're fixing it. When I go to the Apple store this is what happens. Let's assume I have an appointment for 5:30pm.

  1. Arrive at 5:25 to check in - I'm told someone will be with me right away.
  2. 5:30 - no one has yet to help me.
  3. 5:45 - still no one has yet to help me
  4. 5:50 - finally being helped - (I dropped my iPhone in the toilet)
  5. 5:55 - Genius agrees to swap my phone out (says it'll talke 5 more mins)
  6. 6:00 - still no replacement yet.
  7. 6:05 - dude arrives from the back with my replacement.
  8. 6:15 - out the door and on my way home.

Something that should literally take 10 mins ends up taking almost a full hour. Ridiculous.

Every damn time I go to the apple store this is my experience. My appointment was for 5:30, I expect to be talking to a genius at or around 5:30 (I'll wait till 5:40 cuz I'm nice like that).
 

KUguardgrl13

macrumors 68020
May 16, 2013
2,492
125
Kansas, USA
I did read the article, and no it doesn't appear they're fixing it. When I go to the Apple store this is what happens. Let's assume I have an appointment for 5:30pm.

  1. Arrive at 5:25 to check in - I'm told someone will be with me right away.
  2. 5:30 - no one has yet to help me.
  3. 5:45 - still no one has yet to help me
  4. 5:50 - finally being helped - (I dropped my iPhone in the toilet)
  5. 5:55 - Genius agrees to swap my phone out (says it'll talke 5 more mins)
  6. 6:00 - still no replacement yet.
  7. 6:05 - dude arrives from the back with my replacement.
  8. 6:15 - out the door and on my way home.

Something that should literally take 10 mins ends up taking almost a full hour. Ridiculous.

Every damn time I go to the apple store this is my experience. My appointment was for 5:30, I expect to be talking to a genius at or around 5:30 (I'll wait till 5:40 cuz I'm nice like that).

And while you're sitting around waiting, your Genius is helping four other people. That's my experience.
 

Dainin

macrumors regular
Sep 4, 2009
211
161
I did read the article, and no it doesn't appear they're fixing it. When I go to the Apple store this is what happens. Let's assume I have an appointment for 5:30pm.

  1. Arrive at 5:25 to check in - I'm told someone will be with me right away.
  2. 5:30 - no one has yet to help me.
  3. 5:45 - still no one has yet to help me
  4. 5:50 - finally being helped - (I dropped my iPhone in the toilet)
  5. 5:55 - Genius agrees to swap my phone out (says it'll talke 5 more mins)
  6. 6:00 - still no replacement yet.
  7. 6:05 - dude arrives from the back with my replacement.
  8. 6:15 - out the door and on my way home.

Something that should literally take 10 mins ends up taking almost a full hour. Ridiculous.

Every damn time I go to the apple store this is my experience. My appointment was for 5:30, I expect to be talking to a genius at or around 5:30 (I'll wait till 5:40 cuz I'm nice like that).

So, the person before you, who needs help for an hour, can now block that out instead of fifteen minutes making the "genius" late for your appointment.
 

rdlink

macrumors 68040
Nov 10, 2007
3,226
2,435
Out of the Reach of the FBI
I did read the article, and no it doesn't appear they're fixing it. When I go to the Apple store this is what happens. Let's assume I have an appointment for 5:30pm.

  1. Arrive at 5:25 to check in - I'm told someone will be with me right away.
  2. 5:30 - no one has yet to help me.
  3. 5:45 - still no one has yet to help me
  4. 5:50 - finally being helped - (I dropped my iPhone in the toilet)
  5. 5:55 - Genius agrees to swap my phone out (says it'll talke 5 more mins)
  6. 6:00 - still no replacement yet.
  7. 6:05 - dude arrives from the back with my replacement.
  8. 6:15 - out the door and on my way home.

Something that should literally take 10 mins ends up taking almost a full hour. Ridiculous.

Every damn time I go to the apple store this is my experience. My appointment was for 5:30, I expect to be talking to a genius at or around 5:30 (I'll wait till 5:40 cuz I'm nice like that).

Stop taking your iPhone into the bathroom...
 

dannyyankou

macrumors G5
Mar 2, 2012
12,940
27,786
Westchester, NY
Why do we always use the same stock photo? Surly there are other pics. Yeah, the guy is super cute, but...

As for the new initiative, when I go to the Apple store with what should be a 5 min fix, it ends up taking 30 mins. They should fix that!

To add on to this, yesterday I brought my computer in because one of the bottom feet came off my MacBook. I thought it would be a 5 minute fix, but it ended up taking more than 1 1/2 hours to replace it.
 
Last edited:

Skudbucket

macrumors newbie
Jul 26, 2014
1
0
As for the new initiative, when I go to the Apple store with what should be a 5 min fix, it ends up taking 30 mins. They should fix that!

If it's a 5 min fix then why don't you do it yourself? They're either going to show you what settings you have input incorrectly, restore your device or repair/replace it. Only the latter requires you to go to the store. Take some ownership of your issues before complaining about someone else trying to help you with them.
 

locoboi187

macrumors 6502a
Oct 3, 2012
711
375
If it's a 5 min fix then why don't you do it yourself? They're either going to show you what settings you have input incorrectly, restore your device or repair/replace it. Only the latter requires you to go to the store. Take some ownership of your issues before complaining about someone else trying to help you with them.

A 5 min headphone replacement turned into 60 min, with an appointment. He raises a legitimate point.
 

fa8362

macrumors 68000
Jul 7, 2008
1,571
496
"those on the Apple Store Business Team will switch from their black polo shirts to the blue T-shirts worn by other retail employees."

Nothing screams "unprofessional" like a t-shirt. The new head of retail needs her head examined.
 

PocketSand11

macrumors 6502a
Jun 12, 2014
688
1
~/
The few times I've needed to go to the Genius Bar, it took way longer than it should have just to get started. The Genius Bar seemed understaffed. Lots of people everywhere asking if I need help buying an iPhone, nobody working on tech support.

On the bright side, the Genius Bar employees obviously were trained well and knew what they were doing, plus they were nice and didn't appear to be following a strict script like you'd get when calling for MS tech support. I didn't know there was a time limit. The appointments have always run more than 15 minutes for me.

The other problem is that they often conclude "nothing is wrong with your computer" when something obviously is, and when replacing parts, you can't request that they put something else in. My mom's iMac's hard drive failed twice within a few months (and seems to be failing again, this time out of warranty) either because they kept putting in stupid Seagate hard drives or because the computer is a lemon, and her MacBook Pro's CPU temperature was passing the boiling point of water under heavy usage, supposedly normal but probably the cause of two battery failures thus far.
 
Last edited:

Tronic

macrumors 6502
Jun 10, 2009
352
60
Blue Polo would be best; professional enough while in a color that allows employees to stick out.
 

PocketSand11

macrumors 6502a
Jun 12, 2014
688
1
~/
If it's a 5 min fix then why don't you do it yourself? They're either going to show you what settings you have input incorrectly, restore your device or repair/replace it. Only the latter requires you to go to the store. Take some ownership of your issues before complaining about someone else trying to help you with them.

Maybe it's 5 minutes for someone who is qualified to fix it. You shouldn't risk breaking something and losing your warranty.
 

PocketSand11

macrumors 6502a
Jun 12, 2014
688
1
~/
"those on the Apple Store Business Team will switch from their black polo shirts to the blue T-shirts worn by other retail employees."

Nothing screams "unprofessional" like a t-shirt. The new head of retail needs her head examined.

Yeah, they're probably supposed to make the customers feel more comfortable, but they have the opposite effect.

----------

Blue > red

That is always true.

1251327251341s.jpg
 

Yumbo

macrumors 6502
Oct 1, 2011
334
66
Australia
To add on to this, yesterday I brought my computer in because one of the bottom feet came off my MacBook. I thought it would be a 5 minute fix, but it ended up taking more than 1 1/2 hours to replace it.

I was advised 4 hour drying time to replace feet.
Will see what happens today.

Ok, got quoted an hour. Hmmmm.

Cost policy was interesting.

Got called back saying they ran out of parts as part of inventory error.

They then decided to replace the entire bottom to avoid me going back in next week.

Costly solution but happy customer.
 
Last edited:

cicton

macrumors member
Jul 21, 2014
44
13
Canada
I did read the article, and no it doesn't appear they're fixing it. When I go to the Apple store this is what happens. Let's assume I have an appointment for 5:30pm.

  1. Arrive at 5:25 to check in - I'm told someone will be with me right away.
  2. 5:30 - no one has yet to help me.
  3. 5:45 - still no one has yet to help me
  4. 5:50 - finally being helped - (I dropped my iPhone in the toilet)
  5. 5:55 - Genius agrees to swap my phone out (says it'll talke 5 more mins)
  6. 6:00 - still no replacement yet.
  7. 6:05 - dude arrives from the back with my replacement.
  8. 6:15 - out the door and on my way home.

Something that should literally take 10 mins ends up taking almost a full hour. Ridiculous.

Every damn time I go to the apple store this is my experience. My appointment was for 5:30, I expect to be talking to a genius at or around 5:30 (I'll wait till 5:40 cuz I'm nice like that).


Did they replace for free? If so, why are complaining, you dropped it in the toilet.

----------

"those on the Apple Store Business Team will switch from their black polo shirts to the blue T-shirts worn by other retail employees."

Nothing screams "unprofessional" like a t-shirt. The new head of retail needs her head examined.

Agreed.
 

Mezzle

macrumors newbie
Jan 15, 2008
24
8
Scotland
I did read the article, and no it doesn't appear they're fixing it. When I go to the Apple store this is what happens. Let's assume I have an appointment for 5:30pm.

  1. Arrive at 5:25 to check in - I'm told someone will be with me right away.
  2. 5:30 - no one has yet to help me.
  3. 5:45 - still no one has yet to help me
  4. 5:50 - finally being helped - (I dropped my iPhone in the toilet)
  5. 5:55 - Genius agrees to swap my phone out (says it'll talke 5 more mins)
  6. 6:00 - still no replacement yet.
  7. 6:05 - dude arrives from the back with my replacement.
  8. 6:15 - out the door and on my way home.

Something that should literally take 10 mins ends up taking almost a full hour. Ridiculous.

Every damn time I go to the apple store this is my experience. My appointment was for 5:30, I expect to be talking to a genius at or around 5:30 (I'll wait till 5:40 cuz I'm nice like that).

Your appointment didn't even come close to being an hour.

It doesn't matter if you arrive before your appointment time, if your appointment is 5.30 then any time before that is being wasted by you, not Apple. You then said your phone was given back to you by 6.05. So in reality, it's taken you 35 minutes. A handover to leave doesn't take 10 minutes.

Even then, if that was happening every time, the store would be getting crucified for it by corporate. And then it would get fixed. Numbers like that aren't allowed to become the norm.
 

seamer

macrumors 6502
Jul 24, 2009
426
164
Clothing doesn't improve the skill level of the person fixing my phone. Do the job and be clean; it doesn't mean anything if you're wearing a pink tutu. Well, it might mean you like wearing tutus. But my phone is fixed.
 

ouimetnick

macrumors 68040
Aug 28, 2008
3,552
6,341
Beverly, Massachusetts
And while you're sitting around waiting, your Genius is helping four other people. That's my experience.

Well either have more "genius" people staffed, or don't allow for scheduling 4 or more people with the same "genius"

It doesn't take a genius to figure that out now does it?;) A company with over 100 billion sitting around can surely afford to fix the issue.
 

charlituna

macrumors G3
Jun 11, 2008
9,636
816
Los Angeles, CA
Did you read the article? It seems like they're fixing just that!

"The report notes that Apple will do away with the suggested 15 minute time limit for Genius Bar appointments in favor of a system that allows customers to book sessions with time limits based on how many issues they have."

Yippee! :)

Not all that yippee as it means that folks that want to list a zillion issues could tie up a single genius for ages. Screwing with how many appointments can be taken, getting breaks on time and even walk ins.

What they really need to do is set it so that you put in your serial and find out your warranty status from the get go (so you know if its worth your money to even go in), find out what the issue is and if its something out of scope like "My yahoo email is asking for my password and i forgot it" get told to go to Yahoo and so on

----------

Every damn time I go to the apple store this is my experience. My appointment was for 5:30, I expect to be talking to a genius at or around 5:30 (I'll wait till 5:40 cuz I'm nice like that).

The notion seems to be that you state what you need help with and they book appointments according. So that, for example, someone doesn't try to squeeze 8 phones into a single 10-15 minute appointment and then yell at managers until they get all 8 taken care of. Pushing your appointment back.

And if they know what the issue is before hand they can firmly state to have your shizz backed up before you show up and even queue up appointments so that one guy handles the 5 toliet phones all booked in that hour rather than bouncing from 1 toilet phone to some little old lady that actually needs a class, to a battery issue etc.

----------

"those on the Apple Store Business Team will switch from their black polo shirts to the blue T-shirts worn by other retail employees."

Nothing screams "unprofessional" like a t-shirt. The new head of retail needs her head examined.

No the person who wrote the article needs his head examined. Because outside of EarthDay, KidsCamp and the 30th Anniversary week they haven't worn tees in like 3 years. The shirts are the same material that polos are made of/

And in truth the color switch makes sense to me. I never understood what makes the 'business team' so damn special. managers in black I can see, but that team is just a bunch of regular staff.
 

ricci

macrumors 6502
Aug 21, 2012
259
13
NYC
"those on the Apple Store Business Team will switch from their black polo shirts to the blue T-shirts worn by other retail employees."

Nothing screams "unprofessional" like a t-shirt. The new head of retail needs her head examined.


I agree! Not that a shirt makes someone better or more or less professional, Its nice to know who's who when I'm looking for the professional team! I would even want the professional team completely separated from the huge crowds of kids and how to classes! This is not cost effient but just as Guitar Center has GC Pro ( which I have my rep for my business )it is separate from the main amature store!
 
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