So I just came back from an unsuccessful attempt at getting someone at the Apple store to pay some goddamned attention to me.

I went there (the one in Burlington, MA) because my laptop hard drive, which is onle 1 1/2 years old, appears to have crapped the bed this morning, and I needed a serious technician to take a look at it. I went up about 15 minutes before lunch time, figuring I might be able to beat the lunch crowd. Unfortunately, the mall was jammed, which just added ot my misery. So anyway…

I make it into the Apple store and try to get the attention of one of their “geniuses”. I manage to get a guy who’s just finished doing something on some computer behind the counter, and I ask him if I can drop my laptop off, because I have to get back to work. He tells me he doesn’t know, that he’s an off-duty tehnician, and therefore, can’t help me. But tells me to sign in for an appointment using the concierge program on one of the machines in the store. He tells me that maybe one of the people behind the counter can help me with the dropoff situation.

So I go to sign in for an appointment, and the nearest one is in THREE HOURS TIME!!! So I drop my name in the hat, and wait around, again, for someone to pay attention to me so I can drop my machine off with them. During this time, the counter is being monopolized by middle aged women, some with their children, most not. All of them, are HAVING TROUBLE WITH THEIR IPODS!!!!!

IPODS!!!

I kid you not. If you take two synapses and rub them together, you get a spark. But grown women with a gallon of synapses packed unto a cranium seemingly can’t generate smoke. How hard is it to figure out how to use an iPod? How difficult is it for them to find a teenager to show them? WHY IN THE WORLD WAS I LEFT WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO TALK TO WHILE A TECHNICAL SUPPORT “GENIUS” PUT AN IPOD SKIN ON AN IPOD FOR A CUSTOMER????

Here’s the real issue. When I signed in on the Concierge program, they offered no field where you could tell them what’s wrong. No heckbox to tell them what product needed servicing. It was first come, first serve, and you tell them your issue when you get there. That is absolutely no way to plan workflow. What they should do (at a minimum) is have one queue for iPod related idiocy, where non-technicians help tech people how to use iPods, and another where technicians help those with known computer problems. The way they have it set up now leaves me, a committed Apple customer who has spend over $2k with them in the past year, out in the cold with a serious problem. They need a dropoff window as well, for those customers who can’t sit around for three hours waiting.

So I have an appointment with them for 3:15pm today. I don’t think I’m going to fight my way back into the mall to get there. Instead, there’s a mom and pop computer store down the street from me, and they can handle macs as well as pcs. They may cost me more, or I may have to wait for a part to be ordered, but at least I know they’ll give a shit.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 29th, 2005 at 2:27 pm and is filed under technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.