Customisation on icons

[Benjamin,]

When I went in store the other day, to get my disk-drive looked at the Apple guy fired at me for the following. (BTW this was an Apple franchise company called Solutions Inc.)

• I had disabled Spotlight via the Core System file
• I had been in the Core System file
• I had used CMD+C/V and CandyBar to change my icons
• I had used Loginox to change the login background and logo
• I had used 3rd party applications to change the normal operation of a Mac
• I had iStat Menus
• I had Bartender (hiding various system menubar icons)
• I had Alfred (though he didn't comment much on this)
• I had Hazel
• I had Sophos (anti-virus).
• I had delayed launcher.
• I had several others...

Is this normal? Did I just get someone on an off day? Next time I go in, do I need to disable all of the above temporally? Should I really not use any of the above?
Is it just because I went to a reseller? Are Apple stores different?
Could I bypass disabling all of the above just by making a secondary account?

 

[NewishMacGuy]

When I went in store the other day, to get my disk-drive looked at the Apple guy fired at me for the following. (BTW this was an Apple franchise company called Solutions Inc.)

• I had disabled Spotlight via the Core System file
• I had been in the Core System file
• I had used CMD+C/V and CandyBar to change my icons
• I had used Loginox to change the login background and logo
• I had used 3rd party applications to change the normal operation of a Mac
• I had iStat Menus
• I had Bartender (hiding various system menubar icons)
• I had Alfred (though he didn't comment much on this)
• I had Hazel
• I had Sophos (anti-virus).
• I had delayed launcher.
• I had several others...

Is this normal? Did I just get someone on an off day? Next time I go in, do I need to disable all of the above temporally? Should I really not use any of the above?
Is it just because I went to a reseller? Are Apple stores different?
Could I bypass disabling all of the above just by making a secondary account?

Go to a different store, one at which they provide decent customer service.

 

[Benjamin,]

So that's not normal then?

 

[NewishMacGuy]

It's definitely not a normal level of service in the US or at actual Apple stores. At Apple stores they may not be able to work on your machine if you have done extensive modification to it, but the folks there are likely to communicate that politely, and most will try to help as much as they can.

Having lived in London briefly, my impression of UK customer service standards is that they vary much more broadly than they do here in the US and can far surpass our best customer service over here on the high end, but are worse on average.

 

[GGJstudios]

I had Sophos (anti-virus).

I recommend that you avoid using Sophos, as it could actually increase your Mac's vulnerability, as described here and here. You don't need any 3rd party antivirus app to keep a Mac malware-free, as long as you practice safe computing, as described in the following link.

Mac Virus/Malware FAQ​

If you still want to run antivirus for some reason, ClamXav (which is free) is one of the best choices, since it isn't a resource hog, detects both Mac and Windows malware and doesn't run with elevated privileges.

 

[Mal]

I wouldn't get on you in a store for most of that, but I would strongly warn you about Sophos and other anti-virus programs. See GGJstudios' post for the details, but I've definitely advised removing those to plenty of customer's before.

Never would refuse service or berate you for that though.

jW

 

[Benjamin,]

They didn't refuse service, just whined at me for ages.

I guess what I would do is temporarily disable Loginox and CandyBar.

And Sophos is going now...