Apple Store "Genius" Woes...

[bunnicula]

I guess this is the best spot for this one?

Okay, so I've had this intermittent problem with my 3GS for awhile now. I checked, and I knew I was getting close to my 1-year anniversary in regard to warranty. I don't have AppleCare, nor do I want it. I'm gonna buy a white iPhone 4 whenever they're out and the hoopla is all over.

Soo... I make an appt at one of my friendly, neighborhood Apple stores.

I wait until 10 minutes past my appt time. No biggie. I'm patient.

I tell the "Genius" that I have this problem, that it is intermittent, but lately it has been getting worse.

I had begun an erase of all my data before I took it over there, in case they went ahead with a replacement. The phone locked itself though, and wouldn't reboot.

The "Genius" reset the thing, and I had told her (yeah... it was a girl, I've never had a chick help me at the Genius bar, though I am a chick and was not biased... until now) all of the problems I'd had, and that I'd tried a reset at home before to no avail, etc.

She takes FOREVER to complete her "diagnostic" of the device, and comes back to inform me that she wasn't able to duplicate the problem, so well... I guess there's no problem and her reset has fixed it! (No. It hasn't. It will happen again. I am restoring it now. It will happen again.)

She brings along a manager to explain this to me. I'm all of 5'4" and I hardly look menacing. It was weird.

So, I tell the manager dude that I waited over an hour (yes, it took that long), and that I really don't have time to truck it back over there to wait another hour when it starts up again. He appears to be sympathetic (but, not really), and offers to sell me AppleCare for half price. Uh. No, dude. Just, no.

He then offers to cover it until I can buy myself an iPhone 4. I ask if he's gonna cover it until the white one comes out... so then, he offers to cover it for 3 months. (Kids, I'm sensing a late August release, if they really meant "later this summer" for that white model... manager got all crosseyed when I said I was holding out for white). His original offer was to cover it for an extra month (until he heard that I wanted white... could mean something, could mean nothing).

Anyway... I leave. Pissed off.

Should I just take it to another local Apple Store? Tomorrow, I mean?

I'm aggravated beyond belief. I don't want to have to fight the crowd at an Apple Store after iPhone 4 launch. You know that place will be nuts for at least a few weeks.

Bah.

Advice?

 

[bunnicula]

Forgot to put it up there, but my problem is that the touchscreen sometimes isn't responsive in certain areas (esp the upper right side of the screen), and I am getting these odd, white "glowing" sort of pinpoints of light toward the middle and lower part of the screen from time to time.

I don't want the thing to just up and stop working once the warranty period is over, nor do I need AppleCare, because I don't plan to keep this phone for another year or whatever.

 

[aristobrat]

"Genius" is the job title for their position. They didn't pick it, and most of them that I've met don't particularly care for it, because when they don't have a solution that makes the customer happy, then people start making snide remarks about it, or throwing it around in quotation marks, as if the employees are really expected to be Geniuses.

You don't have to be menacing to get a manager brought out when they explain something. They'll often do that if they expect you're going to have a problem with what they're about to tell you. Looks like your Genius knew you weren't going to stop with what she had to say, so she saved you a step.

Call the manager back and see if they will give you front-of-line privileges (an immediate stand-by appt) the next time your phone acts up. That way you can just come on down, while it's misbehaving, and have them witness it themselves.

Your other option is to bypass the store entirely and use AppleCare telephone support. See if they'll send you out a replacement.

 

[bunnicula]

"Genius" is the job title for their position. They didn't pick it, and most of them that I've met don't particularly care for it, because when they don't have a solution that makes the customer happy, then people start making snide remarks about it, or throwing it around in quotation marks, as if the employees are really expected to be Geniuses.

You don't have to be menacing to get a manager brought out when they explain something. They'll often do that if they expect you're going to have a problem with what they're about to tell you. Looks like your Genius knew you weren't going to stop with what she had to say, so she saved you a step.

Call the manager back and see if they will give you front-of-line privileges (an immediate stand-by appt) the next time your phone acts up. That way you can just come on down, while it's misbehaving, and have them witness it themselves.

Your other option is to bypass the store entirely and use AppleCare telephone support. See if they'll send you out a replacement.

I've just never been through such an ordeal with an iPhone before. Seriously, NEVER.

I have also never had trouble with anyone from the Genius Bar.

Ever.

She did walk out looking pissed off, so maybe she set me on edge right there.

Still not convinced that she's well-trained, but that is more to do with her grasp of what I was saying to her than whether or not she resolved the issue to my satisfaction.

It's 6 days until my warranty is up. Would it have killed the woman to just replace the damned thing? I reckon that's what I'm saying. Nobody wants to go stand in line for hours to solve such a simple problem. They've got a new phone coming out, why be so picky?

Eh. Maybe Apple is becoming more hardcore on returns.

 

[bunnicula]

Oh, and thanks for the advice re: immediate standby. If I have to go that route, let us hope that the "immediate" in "immediate standby" means something shorter than an hour and 15 minutes.

 

[Sun Baked]

You can call a drunk redneck with the inability to put wooden blocks into the correct hole an Apple Genius ... but as noted before, it doesn't improve their capacity to understand problems any better.

 

[bunnicula]

You can call a drunk redneck with the inability to put wooden blocks into the correct hole an Apple Genius ... but as noted before, it doesn't improve their capacity to understand problems any better.

Hehehe... yanno, I had always wondered if the people who are certified to work back there hated that name. I know, if I had chosen that career path, that I'd hate that name. I was standing at a Genius Bar once and saw this woman come in with her computer, her iPod, and her Airport. The poor employee had to try to explain why her Airport might work in the store, but may not work at her house (like, say, if she plugged it in wrong). She didn't get it. Then again, the woman looked to be about 80. I was rather pleased that she was even TRYING to get it.

 

[aristobrat]

You can call a drunk redneck with the inability to put wooden blocks into the correct hole an Apple Genius ... but as noted before, it doesn't improve their capacity to understand problems any better.

I really doubt there was anything about this GB appointment that wasn't understood.

Geniuses work for Apple, and Apple has set guidelines on what issues qualify for a product replacement. It's the Geniuses job to follow those guidelines.

When the customer position is "I want my iPhone replaced, even though I can't show you that there is a problem", and their employer's position is "We don't replace iPhones unless they are showing a symptom that warrants a replacement", it puts the Genius and the customer in a really crappy position.

Hopefully the mgr at that store will let the OP swing by the next time the problem is showable. That makes the Genius' life so much easier.

 

[bunnicula]

I really doubt there was anything about this GB appointment that wasn't understood.

Geniuses work for Apple, and Apple has set guidelines on what issues qualify for a product replacement. It's the Geniuses job to follow those guidelines.

When the customer position is "I want my iPhone replaced, even though I can't show you that there is a problem", and their employer's position is "We don't replace iPhones unless they are showing a symptom that warrants a replacement", it puts the Genius and the customer in a really crappy position.

Hopefully the mgr at that store will let the OP swing by the next time the problem is showable. That makes the Genius' life so much easier.

I dunno, aristobrat. She sorta had a "glazed over eyes" look about her.



I can appreciate their position. I just hope they actually appreciated mine.

I wasted over an hour there. When the phone starts acting up again, I'll prolly be over there for another hour or more.

It's just aggravating.