So if you remember, I went to the apple store over a week ago to learn that Apple gave me a goofy battery and it needed replacing. Here's what happened:
- I waited over the 72 hours maximum I was told I'd wait for a phone call.
- I went to the store today and was told that I should have made yet another appointment just to pick up a battery. They could have told me that on the phone.
- Instead of getting a new battery right away, I was told it would take an hour. Good god, Apple... this is ridiculous.
- I spent a nasty rainy day at a mall trying to blow away gift cards. California malls are outdoor ones mostly.
- I came in after an hour and was told to wait even longer.
- Finally someone came out with an invoice for $110? Wait, I thought you were replacing a defective battery. Here's a hint. If a customer has been waiting for a week, and then comes in and is told to wait an hour, read your notes that say, this is a replacement for a battery recall.
- The guy went back and got new and improved paperwork that says the battery is free.
Seriously.. I wasted a lot of time today. In the future I will resign to calling Apple Care, because at least I can work while on speakerphone. It does suck that all these batteries are proprietary so there's generally one place to get them taken care of.
I'm going to see how long I can hold off on buying any new apple stuff. I'd rather not shell out $50 to apple for a keyboard, but it's been the most comfortable keyboard I've used (I have one at work).
**Update: ** There's a lot of fanboys out there, so I guess I need to break it down. For a process that should take 5 minutes (me bringing in a battery and getting a replacement) it took over a week of waiting and additionally 2 hours on two separate days to actually assess that I need a new battery and to finally get it in my hand. This is incompetence on Apple's part. This post serves as an alert for people who actually value their time.
I agree that the process was inefficient for the simplicity of what needed doing. Waiting is fine, if it makes sense. Making a customer wait over an hour for you to walk to a shelf, grab a battery, hand it to him, and ask him to sign a sheet of paper is unnecessary.
Am I unfamiliar with how recalls work? Is it common practice for a company to admit they sold you a faulty component, but then make you wait over an hour for the part that they just have sitting in the back room? Seems like a good way to piss off a loyal customer who’s probably annoyed that you sold him something that doesn’t work right.
What’s especially irritating is when you’ve got two employees standing at the door to say hello as you walk in. Does it really require a “Genius” to grab a battery off a shelf?
I like Apple products, but this aspect of their customer service was clearly not thought out well.
1..Had the same experiance replacing a bad battery on my MBP. Had to print out an Apple Webiste about replacement MBP Battereis and they still tried charging me the $110 after an hour wait while the “Genius’s” tried to figure it all out. All while the greeters and “product specialists” swarmed over the new customers.
Will not buiy new products from them for quite a while.
Last summer I had a battery problem with my MacBook Pro. The guy at the genius bar took one look at it and gave me a new battery on the spot. The whole process took about ten minutes. Most of that was sorting out an error in the way my machine was registered. There had been an error and it needed fixing. Overall I was very satisfied.
John,
Yeah, this isn’t my first battery issue, but the first time I had this problem, I knew someone who worked at the apple store, and the process was reasonably smooth.
I get the feeling that the Stanford Shopping Center Apple Store is managed poorly. There’s a flock of employees checking to see if you need anything, but none of them are empowered to actually do anything other than ring up sales, and talk about the current offerings.
I like most of Apple’s offerings, and the retail stores are generally pleasant, but the whole Apple Geniuses and the Genius Bar, is a bit off the mark.
Sadly, Dave, I know exactly what you mean. I just had a similar experience today with the battery for my MacBook. The “genius bar” was staffed by a bunch of kids who looked and acted like they were teenagers full of caffeine, and no one could be bothered to check if the problem was actually my battery or my computer. If it’s the computer, they will want me to bring it in and LEAVE IT FOR A WEEK OR MORE. Honestly, my auto mechanic can change my car battery in about 10 minutes and perform major repairs in less than a day. As much as I like my Macbook, I am not going to buy another Apple product because the customer service is simply not up to the standard that I require. They were rude, in a tremendous hurry, and did a bad job. I can only speculate that the company gets away with slipshod customer service because too few people demand better. I do demand better, however, and will seek it elsewhere.