Impressed by Apple
My recent trip to the Genius Bar
I had a great experience with the Genius Bar at Apple this week. Maybe this is service only a near trillion dollar company can pull off but it’s something anyone doing hardware service should aspire to.
For a long time, one of my Mac’s had been suffering from Stain Gate. It’s when the anti-reflective coating starts to rub off leaving weird marks on the screen. Apple (quietly) offered a free replacement extending back four years. I made an appointment, showed up, and was told it would take 1–3 days to get it repaired.
Less than 20 hours later, I get a call that my computer is ready for pick up. I show up and get my computer in less than 10 minutes and no charge.
So what did Apple do right?
- It set my expectations low and exceeded them (in terms of timeframe for repair).
- It didn’t require any documentation from me (except ID on pick up) to go through the process.
- Very friendly staff.
Of course, being a nitpicker, I need to look for areas to improve. Some idea:
- The Genius Bar appointment web site froze in Chrome. It only worked for me in Safari. Not cool.
- I can about 20 minutes early for my appointment but they were very strict about when the appointment would start. Had to come back after.
- There was some upsell on the Apple trade in program. Nope… just fix my computer please.
In the end, still a great experience and even for repairs I might have to pay for, I might consider Genius Bar for the convenience.
