New iMac and Apple Genius Bar
I recently purchased a new iMac, a lovely Core i3 27″ beauty that swayed me over from six year of Apple laptop use. So far, the computer has been wonderful. The processor and faster memory offered a great performance improvement over my unibody MacBook, and the improvement in graphics power was incredible. Overall, I’m very happy with my purchase.
I bought this computer as a replacement for my main work machine. Previously, I had been a full time employee at a start up, with no company provided computer and needed the mobility to have a computer for school, consulting, and my main day job. In December, I joined a larger software development corporation in town and was provided a PC to work off of. Having always wanting the desktop iMac, and being out of school, I purchased one for a casual computer at home and my consulting machine.
This morning I went in to check email and noticed that the computer had frozen up and would not respond, and also noticed that the fans were going full blast. I did a hard reset of the hardware and walked away, assuming all was fine. Coming back some time later, the iMac had booted to the terrifying missing system icon folder. After using the restore disk to run some quick tests, Disk Utility confirmed that the iMac could not find a hard drive at all.
I pulled out the trusty iPad, now serving as my only computer device (an iPhone does not count, no matter how productive you might be on yours, I am not) and made a reservation at the concierge desk for later this afternoon. Upon arriving at the local Apple Store, an employee promptly greeted me and took the very heavy 27″ iMac from me to the genius bar, much to my delight.
A few minutes after arriving and checking in, I was talking to the genius. A few questions and a diagnostic test later, the genius confirmed that the hard drive had failed in the unit. Much to my relief, he said that the repair could be easily performed in house and wouldn’t take but a few minutes. Up until this point I was convinced the unit we be shipped off, as the front glass & display has to be removed to get to the hard drive.
The genius looked up the serial number of my iMac and confirmed, that yes I had only had the unit for 7 weeks and it was still under warranty. I had even purchased Apple Care on the product. At this point however, I was told that the store did not stock that hard drive, and the part would have to be ordered. I conveyed my dismay at this decision, as this was only a hard dive replacement, and not a more specified part, such as a logic board, display, or graphics board. And, that I use this machine for my consulting work – so having to wait for the part & repairs was going to cost me several hundred dollars.
The genius did offer me a list of three other authorized Apple service providers in town which could provide the warranty work on the machine, possibly faster than the Apple Store. Being a Sunday afternoon, none of these places were open, so I opted to leave the massive machine at the store and await for the part to come in.
Obviously the best experience would have been to have the computer serviced while I waited, but I am rather bummed that I did not have the option of using a loaner machine or having the unit simply swapped out for another one in store right then. For this experience, I rate the Apple Store at 7/10 stars for helping me with a problem after purchase. The employees seemed very understanding and helpful, but I simply did not receive the service I expect for paying two thousands dollars less than two months ago on a machine.
What are your experiences with the Genius Bar at your local Apple Store?
