Not so Good Thing I Learned at Apple Store

[dsanner106]

No doubt you got ahold of a new or lesser trained person at the apple store, they should know better than to think apple would start the warranty when sending to an authorized location. I would also point out the in no way does apple consider best buy to be a competitor selling their product, in fact apple could never handle the retail sales of their full volume and rely on resellers to get the product in all areas of the country.

Drew

 

[Praying Colonel]

Reminds me of this:

I asked myself what is the most mind-numbing, pedestrian job conceivable and three answers came to mind: a toll booth employee, an Apple store genius, and what penny does. Because I don't like touch other peoples' coins and I refuse to contribute to the devaluation of the word genius, here I am.

--Dr. Sheldon Cooper, explaining to Penny why he's temporarily working at the Cheesecake Factory, "The Big Bang Theory"

 

[Deb & Bill]

You can do all of this online at the Apple site. Just register your equipment. And if you have a problem, you enter the information into the system and they tell you if they will replace it or not. Had the same problem with my husband's IPod Nano. The on/off button broke. They sent a new one, we sent the old one to them at no cost to us.

 

[timmac]

Apologize if this has already been mentioned, but in my experience (at least once I've done this successfully), if you register the Apple product online, you'll note--at least initially--that the warranty expiration isn't right. There's a process where you can upload a copy of your purchase receipt, and they will update the date and timeframe of your warranty. Do this first, then visit the "genius" bar.

ETA: I should have said "sometimes warranty expiration isn't right".

 

[huskies90]

Reminds me of this:



--Dr. Sheldon Cooper, explaining to Penny why he's temporarily working at the Cheesecake Factory, "The Big Bang Theory"

LOL. I thought of the same quote when I saw this thread. I was gonna post the youtube clip...Oh well, here it is anyway if anyone wants it. Big Bang = very funny show!!

http://youtu.be/HT9VNdgKnI4

 

[disneymom2003]

We discuss issues on message boards to enlighten others which this thread is doing.

As to pimply faced teens. . .maybe if that wasn't all electronic stores hired the stereotype wouldn't be there. I don't and won't shop in B&M electronic stores. The male kids they hire see 40something female and either won't wait on me or treat me like an idiot. Amazon gets my business by default.

My son worked at an Apple store for 6 years. He used to tell me about people who came assuming he was an idiot or demanding someone fix something right now. Do you think he did not realize that? He was actually very knowledgable and willing to help. The store be worked At and actually all Apple stores I have been in have employees of all ages. So the comment inferring they are stupid is wrong. I realize this is a messAge board and vent is normal. How unfair to bash all because one was wrong or not knowledgable about a product. By the way not all Apple employees are "geniuses" The geniuses work at the back bar and only repair computers. You have to have an appointment to see them

 

[SMD]

My son worked at an Apple store for 6 years. He used to tell me about people who came assuming he was an idiot or demanding someone fix something right now. Do you think he did not realize that? He was actually very knowledgable and willing to help. The store be worked At and actually all Apple stores I have been in have employees of all ages. So the comment inferring they are stupid is wrong. I realize this is a messAge board and vent is normal. How unfair to bash all because one was wrong or not knowledgable about a product. By the way not all Apple employees are "geniuses" The geniuses work at the back bar and only repair computers. You have to have an appointment to see them

I'm sure there are lots of hard workers at the Apple Store, just as I'm sure there are many who mean well, but still dispense incorrect advice. I also know this is not unique to the Apple Store. But in my personal experience, they seem to have an epidemic of employees (and yes, even Genius Bar employees) who fit the descriptions provided by previous posters.

For example, my iPod stopped working, and a genius (I had an appointment) told me I took my headphones out of the jack too many times and voided my warranty. The manager agreed. I drove to another Apple store, there was an opening at the bar, and they replaced my iPod, no questions asked.

Another time, my laptop stopped working, and a genius told me I used non-compatible RAM and voided Apple Care. I pointed out that it was that very Apple Store that sold and installed the RAM. He stuck to his guns, and took out the RAM and told me all these BS non-technical terms that he made up. Bottom line, they did honor Apple Care, but how many people would not have known he was full of it when he started making up terms to describe the issue?

 

[timmac]

I'm sure there are lots of hard workers at the Apple Store, just as I'm sure there are many who mean well, but still dispense incorrect advice. I also know this is not unique to the Apple Store. But in my personal experience, they seem to have an epidemic of employees (and yes, even Genius Bar employees) who fit the descriptions provided by previous posters.

Like anywhere, some employees are better than others, more or less knowledgable, more or less helpful, even just simply more or less rude.

It's important to always keep in mind that, although Apple is sometimes viewed as having ethereal qualities, particularly when it comes to customer care (and I'll happily say they are usually very good), they are still a business with financial incentive to avoid repairing/replacing things when
they can. Sometimes the end goal of making a profit means edging to the side of making a happy customer (who will hopefully offer repeat business),
other times it simply means avoiding expenditure any way possible.

Apple's big specialty, and a large driving force of their success, is that they usually do a very good job of making customers feel like they go above and beyond, and that they offer an overall good value for the purchase. Notice I say "feel like"; how much of it is real vs just a bit of show, is not always clear. Some subtle psychological trickery has been reported in their training materials:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/08/29/apple-geniuses-taught-to-show-empathy_n_1840091.html

 

[acourtwdw]

If the OP had taken the product back to the Best Buy where the purchase was made, the product would have been fixed or replaced under Apples warranty per the agreement that BBY has with Apple.

 

[andysomma1]

Reminds me of this:

"I asked myself what is the most mind-numbing, pedestrian job conceivable and three answers came to mind: a toll booth employee, an Apple store genius, and what penny does. Because I don't like touch other peoples' coins and I refuse to contribute to the devaluation of the word genius, here I am."



--Dr. Sheldon Cooper, explaining to Penny why he's temporarily working at the Cheesecake Factory, "The Big Bang Theory"

 

[dfchelbay]

We discuss issues on message boards to enlighten others which this thread is doing.

As to pimply faced teens. . .maybe if that wasn't all electronic stores hired the stereotype wouldn't be there. I don't and won't shop in B&M electronic stores. The male kids they hire see 40something female and either won't wait on me or treat me like an idiot. Amazon gets my business by default.

How dare you!

 

[Axel]

Outside of my iPod (which I only have because they've kind of cornered the market on portable music), I don't buy Apple products.

They're just too darn expensive and I don't know how so many of my college friends have Apple-this and Apple-that (OK, I know how a few of them have it, and it's because mom and dad have deep pockets).

I have an Acer that works just fine, even runs Photoshop and a whole slew of other "fancy" software. I pad around $300 for it when my cousin's Macbook with comparable hardware cost close to $1500.

Maybe I'm just not hip to my generation, but I'll always be a PC/Android person. I know too many people with complaints about poor service for too much money with Apple.

 

[theworldneedscolor]

I am also disappointed in Apple. We decided not to extend our warranty on my iPod Classic. About a month later, the head phone jack broke. Should be a cheap and easy fix, right? Well, they want to charge me $200!!! No thanks, I'll take my business else where...

 

[mieuxmew]

I purchased iTouches for my kids on Black Friday last year from Amazon as Christmas presents. My son's battery was having issues last week and they replaced the iTouch. Purchase date in their system is 12/25/11.

 

[auralia]

I got a launch ipad 2 and the cell connection was dead from day one. When I brought it back 2 weeks later it was replaced but if you don't buy their warranty then your warranty disappears once you replace your ipad once. So when I has screen issues 6 months later they said they wouldn't replace it because the one year warranty ends when you switch it out the first time. I complained because my first exchange was a doa item. It took 20 minutes but they did swap it out, but they acted like they were doing me this big favor. For 830$ I expected to actually have a one year warranty on it not a one year/one fix warranty and then it is gone.