As an IT guy, I never thought I’d need to test Apple’s ‘Legendary Service’. I usually just fix stuff myself. But in this case, I decided to try them out.
I bought a new MacBook Air (My first Mac. I think Apple products are pricey, but that’s beside the point). Unboxed the MacBook, heard angels singing, and marveled at the craftsmanship. Until I started typing and a key popped off. Hmm, not off to a good start with my first Mac, but I hopped online and set an easy Genius Bar appointment for the next day at the SanTan Village Apple Store location in Gilbert, AZ.
I got there late, and they’d cancelled my appointment, so I had to set up another one. Woulda been nice to have someone floating to handle walk-in’s on a first-come, first-served basis, but this location, like so many others, is so busy that I imagine that’s unlikely. Still, it would be nice to have a system where you can be on ‘standby’ if you want to wait to get in on the next available open slot or cancelled appointment.
Anyway, despite me mentioning it in the ‘notes’ field of the online appointment booking, they didn’t have a replacement plastic tab for my keyboard key on hand, so they instantly offered to swap out the entire notebook for a completely new computer. AWESOME.
I threw them another curve when I requested to pay the difference to upgrade to the next higher hard drive capacity since I knew from using a couple days that I would kick myself for not getting the bigger hard drive. They upgraded me for the cost difference, no problem. AWESOMER.
Then they transferred all of my files from one computer to the next, which only took a few minutes with the Thunderbolt<->Thunderbolt transfer. AWESOMER-ER.
Of course, after spending $1600 on a laptop, you’d expect nothing but pure service awesomeness and I’m really glad to say it was an absolute pleasure dealing with them. I’m a believer in Apple’s legendary service now.
As another side note, one of the other things that impressed me was the knowledge and passion that the folks at the ‘Genius Bar’ had. As an IT guy, it really irritates me when I have an advanced question/request about something, and some clueless, poorly trained, commissioned employee at the big ‘Blue and Yellow’ Electronics store offers the answer that will get them the highest commission.
Passion about the products you’re selling/supporting is something that is missing in so many retail operations today. Say what you will about Apple employees being ‘fanboys’, but their sincere passion about the product is hugely important when it comes to finding the best product or solution for a customer. ‘Genius’ might be overstating it, but there was a marked difference between the Apple employees I dealt with and your run-of-the-mill commissioned sales folks. If they didn’t know the answer to a question, they didn’t waste my time by BSing their way through it. They admitted it up-front, and got an uber-genius from the back room that did know the answer. Every electronics store needs an uber-genius in the back room, if not on the sales floor. Take note, ‘Blue and Yellow’.
