Good news for people who find it intimidating to walk up to a counter for tech support: in new store designs, Apple is doing away with the physical Genius Bar. Instead, they’re replacing the bar and its stools with benches where the person assisting you simply sits down next to you. [More]
genius bar
AppleCare Changes Will Save Money, Maybe Make Customers Happier
By 5.13.13
When you visit the Genius Bar at your local Apple Store with a complaint about your portable iDevice, if it’s in warranty, they’ll generally hand you a new-to-you refurbished device and send you on your way. AppleInsider reported this weekend that for some basic repairs, that’s about to change. [More]
Apple: The Midwestern United States Is Too Humid For The iMac
By 12.18.12
Apple’s 27″ iMac is not a cheap computer. That model currently starts at $1,800. So customers who found a smoky gray residue inside their screens were disappointed when Apple turned around and told non-smoking customers that the issues are obviously their own fault. Reader Jason, for example, was told that his screen smudged itself because it’s too humid where he lives. Does he live in the tropics? Florida, maybe? No, he lived in Ohio when his iMac troubles started. And the problem recurred after he moved to Chicago, just down the street from the city’s flagship Apple Store. [More]
Apple Takes Back Wi-Fi-Sabotaging MacBook, Replaces It With Shiny New One
By 11.29.12
Micahel’s new Macbook had a very unusual flaw. Whenever it was connected to his home network, it would take out his modem. Unfortunately, it didn’t take the whole Apple Store’s network down, so he wasn’t able to replicate the problem for the Geniuses. After five trips and a variety of repairs, Apple finally gave up…and gave him a brand new MacBook. [More]
Apple Announces iMac Hard Drive Replacement Program, Runs Out Of Hard Drive
By 10.25.12
Apple has recalled Carla’s iMac. Specifically, the hard drive, which was made by Seagate, and has has a record of failing more than a hard drive should. Customers were told to bring their computers in so that Apple could swap the hard drive for a nice new one. Carla made her appointment as instructed, but when she got to the store, learned that the replacement hard drives were out of stock and they’d have to hold on to her computer for a week while waiting for them to restock. [More]
How The Apple Store Trains Its Geniuses To Manipulate You
By 8.30.12
People consider the Apple Store experience the gold standard–or at least the brushed aluminum standard–of electronics retail. Companies from AT&T to Microsoft have tried to replicate the Apple Store experience, then refused to admit that they were trying to replicate the Apple Store experience. The backbone of the store is the Genius Bar, where Apple fans seek repairs, warranty replacements, and the wise counsel of the local council of Geniuses. What goes into the formation of a Genius? Gizmodo got hold of an Apple Store training workbook, and decided to tell the world. [More]
Can You Accuse A Mac Genius Of Malpractice?
By 7.1.10
Ryan writes that an Apple retail store’s Genius declared his MacBook Pro dead: the required logic board replacement would have cost more than a new computer. So Ryan moved on, and sold his old MacBook for parts. Only it turned out that the Genius misdiagnosed Ryan’s computer. The logic board was fine, and the real cause of his computer’s failure was an inexpensive-to-replace bad stick of RAM. Ryan dropped two grand on a new computer for no reason. [More]
Earn $200/hr Teaching Angry Man To Use Apple Products
By 5.7.10
I guess Apple products aren’t idiot-proof after all. We have found your idiot nonpareil. There is a man in San Fran who needs help using Apple products. He is wiling to pay $200 an hour. This is his NSFW Craigsist ad/rant about how he is too busy to figure out how to get his credit card number from auto-populating when his kids buy stuff on iTunes, but has enough time for you to come over to his house and teach him how to use his devices. [More]
Meet The Bad Consumers Of The Apple Genius Bar
By 1.24.10
Sure, we focus on stories of bad customer service here, but Gizmodo turned the shiny white counter around and solicited stories from anonymous Apple Geniuses about the worst customers they’ve ever encountered. [More]
Mac Genius Reports Child Porn On Customer's Computer To Police
By 8.26.09
A man in Connecticut brought his computer to his local Apple Store for repair due to a software issue (likely a—gasp!—virus) but when he returned to pick it up, learned that the Mac Genius had reported him to the police after finding child pornography on the hard drive.
Fixing Your iPhone Requires 3 Visits To Apple Store And 3 Visits To AT&T
By 12.22.08
Whose problem is it when your iPhone needs to be activated? Nobody seems to know. It is a mystery.
Best Posts Ever, This Week
By 7.13.06
Most popular stories of the week so far, excluding anything that has to do with AOL. We’re gonna play it cool like that, and ignore the top seven results or so.
iPods Killed The Genius Bar
By 7.11.06
One of the blogs I’ve been following recently after my experience at the Apple ‘Genius’ bar with a smug doofus who told me I’d have to return my $2,000 laptop because he couldn’t figure out how to turn a screwdriver counterclockwise is ungenius, the chronicles of an ex-Genius detailing life behind the Bar. I haven’t linked it before now because it’s never really as incriminating as I’d like.
Apple Genius Bar Soho Crashes, Burns
By 1.9.06
The Apple Store in Soho (Manhattan) is a favorite of ours, but only because we enjoy running our greasy thumbs across the once-immaculate products on display. The Genius Bar—Apple’s haughty name for their customer service desk—we avoid with extreme prejudice; We’d rather mail our faulty products back to Apple than wait in a line for hours to talk to a service tech—especially when their service can be so uneven.
