Apple’s Genius Bar – the dedicated, hands-on technical assistance area within Apple’s Retail Stores seems like a rather clever concept. Staffed by highly skilled individuals trained in all things Apple, their job appears to be to make customer service, troubleshooting and repairs as cheerful and user friendly as the products Apple produces. At least, that’s how it should work.
In reality, thanks to understaffing and the overwhelming popularity of Apple’s products, the result for most people out for an urgent or spontaneous shop (in London, at least) is zero customer service. That is, unless you’re prepared to wait literally days. There are of course floor staff to give you directions around these giant stores and cashiers to take payment for your goods, but when it comes to asking a question – it’s by appointment only.
I urgently needed to replace yet another of Apple’s notoriously faulty PowerBook Power Adapters yesterday and having kept the receipt, thought I’d try to get it replaced. Due to the threat of litigation over the fire hazard the sparking adapters represent, Apple have been issuing rebates and replacements and have vaguely acknowledged the issue on their own Product Support Knowledge Base that reads:
“Whether your product is in or out-of-warranty, you can take your adapter to an Apple-Authorized Service Provider or Apple Retail Store for evaluation and replacement if necessary.” Emphasis mine.
Being a Sunday, I had expected the Apple Stores would be busy and tried to “reserve a Genius” online early in the morning, so as to speak with someone at one of the stores at some point during the day. I thought I was being remarkably flexible, but soon learnt that of the five Apple Stores in and around London, not a single Genius was available at any time on Sunday, Monday and at some stores even later.
Despite not being able to book, I decided to head to Apple’s flagship London store on Regent Street – spurred on by positive online comments by people who’d been through the process. I thought I could ask someone on the floor. My mistake. I did manage to squeeze a minute of time from one of the Geniuses between appointments, but upon querying him about exchanging my faulty adapter, he replied by detailing how to book an appointment.
Essentially, I can’t work without a functional power adapter and a three day wait to speak properly with a Genius for a potentially free replacement is kind of a false economy. I walked out of the Regent Street Apple Store £54 ($87) lighter, but was weighed down by the thought that maybe I had fallen victim to a system that appears and purports to be helpful, while only doing so on a limited basis.
While this was a Sunday and the shoppers and tourists were all out hitting Piccadilly and Oxford Circus for the latest fashions and fashionable gadgets, this was a fairly regular day. No bank holiday weekend, no terribly new releases from Apple recently (just the 3GS and some minor updates a little while back) and as the cashier informed me “it gets a hell of a lot busier than this.”
So why is it possible to get same-day delivery from some retailers now, but not same-day customer service from Apple? Whether this delay is intentional or merely symptomatic of Apple’s success, it would undoubtedly decrease the number of returns and replacements they have to process (thanks to time-poor individuals like myself who walk away) and therefore improve their bottom line.
What do you think? What are your experiences with the Genius Bar? Is this something that’s unique to London stores? Be sure to leave your comment below.