Genius Bar Reservation WTF?

[ceharrin]

So I have never had to contact Apple support for anything in the past; I am a SW eng and capable of resolving most problems, if any, that I encounter with apple products. But I bought an iPhone 8+ in October and have had numerous issues across the os and hardware. Some updates have helped a few of these.

I wanted to make a genius bar appt at my local apple store. You can't. You have to call their support or chat and you have to perform all of the basic steps , the ones you already tried, to see if that fixes it and then they give you a case number to track it. And then you get to go through it all again when the fix doesn't take.

Pretty ticked at apple right now....

 

[bruinsrme]

From experience the appointments fill up fast (weeks out) especially with the on going battery replacement program.

The store I frequent has had wait times up to 3 hours.

Have you tried a clean install?

 

[GeniusAdvisor]

The reason we do this is because appointments are filled up at the Genius Bar by people that don't need to be there.
For example - My gmail email doesnt work on my Mac.
If we can filter those people away, it will lead to more appointments being available.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

I was able to schedule an appointment online for my local Apple Store Genius Bar just fine. No chat needed, no phone call needed.

1. https://support.apple.com/repair
2. "Start a repair request"
3. Click my product, click my category of problem.
4. "Bring in for repair"
5. Sign in with my AppleID.
6. Pick my local store.
7. Pick a date and time. (Going through the process right now, it says my closest store has an appointment at 5:30 PM today - 11 hours from now.)

However, as a software engineer, you should know that the vast majority of consumers of electronics/software are *NOT* capable of doing all the diagnostic work on their own without prompting. Having people walked through the basic troubleshooting for certain types of problems is a good idea, as it prevents people with common, fixable-at-home problems (which may have similar symptoms to uncommon/serious problems,) from clogging up local stores.

Would you rather be able to instantly schedule an appointment - but have that appointment be three months away, or go through a few steps to ensure you are having a problem that needs an in-person appointment, and have that appointment much sooner?

 

[aristobrat]

3. Click my product, click my category of problem.

FWIW, depending on the category you pick here, the next step may not give you the option to make an appointment.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

@Anonymous Freak already said it, but I made an apt within 30 seconds of viewing your thread. Start a request for a general reason, then make an apt.

 

[superscape]

However, as a software engineer, you should know that the vast majority of consumers of electronics/software are *NOT* capable of doing all the diagnostic work on their own without prompting.

I agree, and I'd add that in my former life as a help desk person (not @ Apple) I had plenty of instances of people-who-should-know-better fail to do the basics.

"Of *course* I haven't tried a reboot - I'm an engineer with a million years experience and I know that <blah> is the problem – it's obvious that a reboot won't help...". Needless to say, a reboot (or whatever) and everything's magically fine.

Aaaah... happy days...

 

[Anonymous Freak]

My favorite was getting a call from a panicked customer about their (PC) hard drive dying. They read off the error message "DISK BOOT FAILURE - INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER".

"Alright, do you happen to have a floppy disk in the drive?"

"No, I checked that! Definitely no floppy in the drive!"

"Okay, could you please power the system off and..."

Hear a "chunk" noise, then a sheepish:

"Oh, never mind, it works now."

 

[ApfelKuchen]

The Genius Bar was a genius move on Apple's part. People were tired of waiting on hold for phone support, and now they had an opportunity to have in-person contact with a real person (as if phone support people aren't really people). It greatly boosted Apple's reputation for service, to the point where there are people who believe Apple Stores are the only place they can get service from Apple.

But there are only 500 Apple Stores worldwide. There's only so much physical space available, only so many hours in the day - you can't cram more people into a physically limited resource than the laws of physics allow (well, assuming the people don't want to be stretched and compressed as they cross a black hole's event horizon).

So, Apple now boasts of 1.3 billion devices in active use. 1.3 billion, man (or woman)! Do you seriously think that everyone who needs a hand can be squeezed into 500 stores around the world? Meantime, the number of people who can work from a call center or the comfort of home is much larger.

Instead of driving to the mall, finding parking, and walking 5 minutes to the store, checking in, waiting 5, 10 minutes or longer, maybe, just maybe, working with those people on the phone or in chat might be a good idea. Let the phone support people solve the problems that don't have to be solved in person, making it easier for the people who end up needing in-person help to get it. If Apple Stores were hospital emergency rooms, it'd be called triage.

But yeah, everyone's special. Whether a computing pro/amateur hardware head or someone who MUST get their problem fixed before tomorrow's big exam/presentation/whatever... people want a special back door to get what they feel they deserve; a private audience with a Genius.

Get humble for a minute!

 

[superscape]

My favorite was getting a call from a panicked customer about their (PC) hard drive dying. They read off the error message "DISK BOOT FAILURE - INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER".

Excellent.

Apologies for moving off topic. This will be my last Comedy Support reply, but I think my all time favourite was the "faulty" mouse that moved up when it was supposed to move down, and left when it was supposed to move right.

Yes... I can tell you're ahead of me here: it was the wrong way round.

 

[bruinsrme]

The Genius Bar was a genius move on Apple's part. People were tired of waiting on hold for phone support, and now they had an opportunity to have in-person contact with a real person (as if phone support people aren't really people). It greatly boosted Apple's reputation for service, to the point where there are people who believe Apple Stores are the only place they can get service from Apple.

But there are only 500 Apple Stores worldwide. There's only so much physical space available, only so many hours in the day - you can't cram more people into a physically limited resource than the laws of physics allow (well, assuming the people don't want to be stretched and compressed as they cross a black hole's event horizon).

So, Apple now boasts of 1.3 billion devices in active use. 1.3 billion, man (or woman)! Do you seriously think that everyone who needs a hand can be squeezed into 500 stores around the world? Meantime, the number of people who can work from a call center or the comfort of home is much larger.

Instead of driving to the mall, finding parking, and walking 5 minutes to the store, checking in, waiting 5, 10 minutes or longer, maybe, just maybe, working with those people on the phone or in chat might be a good idea. Let the phone support people solve the problems that don't have to be solved in person, making it easier for the people who end up needing in-person help to get it. If Apple Stores were hospital emergency rooms, it'd be called triage.

But yeah, everyone's special. Whether a computing pro/amateur hardware head or someone who MUST get their problem fixed before tomorrow's big exam/presentation/whatever... people want a special back door to get what they feel they deserve; a private audience with a Genius.

Get humble for a minute!

I have taken advantage of the GB several times. Yeah waiting stinks but I don't recall ever having anything but a good friendly experience.