Friday, October 06, 2006

Idiot Bar


I've never used, or needed to use Apple's Genius Bar. That is until the last two versions of iTunes came out (7.0 and 7.01). The gapless playback they introduced in 7.0 rendered my iTunes basically useless. It had to update each and every song in my liberry! We're talking the 8,500 songs of the 14,000 I actually own (I don't have some things loaded in - like classical music, some mood/ambient music - or Cher - which technically isn't mine).

7.01 was supposed to correct it, but really didn't and now we're talking hours to restore stuff...and I still don't think that will be 'the fix'. I had some other iTunes issues and the on-line Apple support site wasn't really answering my issue(s). So, I made the trip to the actual store.

First, you have to make a reservation for the Genius Bar. Who knew? So you must use one of their Macs to do it. But no instructions on how to get to the reservation site. Go figure. Then you have to chose between a Mac problem and and iPod problem. Technically, mine was neither. I chose iPod, because the wait time was 40 minutes shorter.

I will give them this - they took me 10 minutes earlier than my reserved time. But here are things you really don't want to hear from the genius behind the bar:

"I have no idea" and "Umm....I really couldn't tell you".

Whatever they are paying these guys - clearly it is too much! (this is sarcasm!)

I'm still very much pro Apple, the product. But I have rarely had a good experience in their stores. I know computer guys are usually slightly dweebish and should know more about the product than I do - but I don't need the frickin' tude on top of it. I already bought your product. Here's a little advice for the staff: Cut the fuckin' snob routine.

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