I hate Macs, part 2...

Following up on my misbehavin' Macbook, I brought it in to the Genius Bar at the Rosedale Apple store. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to stuff one of these stores into a typical mall space, but it didn't work. Trying to sell and service computers, iPods, and iPhones in a space the size of Games by James just isn't a good idea. And nobody had any idea how things worked: you don't purchase items at the counter (that's the genius bar) -- instead the employees all carry little credit card machines. But no one knew this, so there was always a queue at the Genius Bar. Even if you DID know what to do, typically all the employees were talking to someone who doesn't know how to email, ala Best Buy, so you just had to stand around until someone could suck your money into the little machines attached to their hip like some emo cyborg.

In addition, the Genuis Bar was packed with people having problems with their Macs. And when you arrive, you're supposed to check in with the "Concierge", although there is no indication of this, nor who the concierge is supposed to be. My favorite was when the concierge told me they would come get me when it was my turn at the bar, and I didn't have to stand there but could go look around the store...

...

...Why would I want to do that, exactly?

To be fair, though, every time I've worked with Apple's service people, they've been very nice, helpful, and accommodating. Of course, when I opened my Macbook, the keyboard worked fine. But they went ahead and replaced the keyboard and faceplate anyway (mostly because they broke it trying to take it off, but whatever...). And they even replaced the two screws that were missing. Nice guys.

One amusing observation I made: the "Geniuses" behind the bar were discussing running Windows on their Macs. One even mentioned that she was happy because a friend was giving her a free copy. One of her coworkers replied that Apple has a program so workers can get free serial numbers. So not only do Apple's technical service folks prefer Windows, Apple actually provides it for them. Confidence-instilling, to be sure.

Currently listening to: Toadies - Sweetness