The IT Nerd

During my hard drive nightmare last year (Click here and scroll down to “My MacBook Pro Has Repeated Hard Drive Failures” to see the full story), it was insanely difficult to get a Genius Bar appointment at times which forced me to go to local re-sellers to get assistance, twice. Something that Apple didn’t like doing, and didn’t hesitate saying so. That may be about to change if a report in 9to5Mac is to be believed. According to them, Apple is about to change the whole Genius Bar experience:

This new program, spearheaded by Retail Senior Vice President Angela Ahrendts, moves away from the classic appointment model. Instead, a customer describes the issue to an Apple Store employee, who inputs the issue into an updated iPad application. Using a special algorithm, the application provides the customer a wait time based on issue priorities. For example, a customer seeking an iPhone screen replacement will automatically be placed higher in the queue than a customer seeking help with a minor iCloud issue.

The customer then provides a phone number, which Apple uses to send three text messages with wait time updates:

• 1) An initial text message confirming the Genius Bar request and providing the wait time
• 2) A text message telling the customer to start heading back to the Apple Store
• 3) A final text message telling the customer that their technician is ready to help and where they can be located in the store

If this is true, I for one would consider this a very significant step forward. A system like this would have likely made me feel less frustrated and question the wisdom to purchase Apple products. Again, assuming that this is true, this new program is scheduled to roll out the week of March 9th in Apple’s United States stores. If it does roll out, I hope it pops up internationally quickly.

This entry was posted on February 24, 2015 at 2:32 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.