GENIUS BAR!!!!

[Laurie]

I'm taking my iMac in to the hopefully aptly-named Genius Bar. WISH ME LUCK!

[jimTurk]

Shame on cj ! Scaring Tom and robbing ALL OF US of the Best Show!!! Potentially FOREVER!!?? I'm so angry!! Is anyone as enraged as I am?!! This is unacceptable!

Tom, what can we do? 

[John Junk]

Shame on cj ! Scaring Tom and robbing ALL OF US of the Best Show!!! Potentially FOREVER!!?? I'm so angry!! Is anyone as enraged as I am?!! This is unacceptable!

Tom, what can we do? 

Wait!  You should have posted this on one of 5 other more appropriate threads!

I had a friend whose boyfriend used to work at the Genius Bar and he said most of his job was telling people they couldn't fix their iPods because the damage was physical.

[LostInReno]

Trust me they are not geniuses but good luck.

[Sarah]

I had a friend whose boyfriend used to work at the Genius Bar and he said most of his job was telling people they couldn't fix their iPods because the damage was physical.

Which begs the question:  what did Filthy Laurie physically do to her iMacPod to cause damage extreme enough to warrant recourse to these so-called geniuses?  The mind reels . . .

[Laurie]

It was an iMac. The logic board and power supply is busted. Boo, I say, boo. I get it by Friday, maybe.

[Stan]

It was an iMac. The logic board and power supply is busted. Boo, I say, boo. I get it by Friday, maybe.

 Logic board? Tell them you're not paying for it. I had to take my eMac to the geniuses back in January for the same thing. As it turns out,  an assload of faulty logic boards were installed between 2003 and 2005, and the genius I was dealing with forgot to close the page he was reading when he went into the back room, so I got to read about it. What was most disturbing was reading the phrase "don't tell the customer the repairs are free yet...". Also, I was made to feel like a caveman for having a two year old computer. Fuckers.

[Laurie]

It was an iMac. The logic board and power supply is busted. Boo, I say, boo. I get it by Friday, maybe.

 Logic board? Tell them you're not paying for it. I had to take my eMac to the geniuses back in January for the same thing. As it turns out,  an assload of faulty logic boards were installed between 2003 and 2005, and the genius I was dealing with forgot to close the page he was reading when he went into the back room, so I got to read about it. What was most disturbing was reading the phrase "don't tell the customer the repairs are free yet...". Also, I was made to feel like a caveman for having a two year old computer. Fuckers.

I had extended my warranty for 3 years. It expires this December. The lady Genius who helped me told me she has the same iMac I brought in at home. After December 3rd, I have to pay for the damn repairs myself. Boo. If it gets damaged again somehow, and the repairs cost $500 or more, I'll probably just spring for a new computer.

ALSO: Mac users. Download the free free free Clone program and back up your hard drive to an external hard drive. I build my own external hard drives, 'cause it's cheaper and pretty easy to do. You can get a 300GB-500GB hard drive for a very good price and a nice hard drive enclosure for a better price. It's worth it.

[John Junk]

Shows how much I know, I just back things up by clicking them and dragging them from the hard drive to the external drive. 

Yeah, i got an iPod and I told the girl at the apple store my computer was from 2001 and she looked at me like I was Rip Van Winkle.  I think she was probably like in 7th grade in 2001 so I guess it's all relative.  (actually, I really do need a new computer).  Still, don't make fun of me, I'm buying stuff at your stupid store, dummy!

[LostInReno]

For a new power supply its like $80.00 I just needed that last week thats why they suck. It took so long to get it and I felt like I had just hired them to write my biography they ask so many questions. At one point it sounded like I stole my computer cause I didn't know any of the right information.

[Laurie]

Really? I had to answer, like, three questions. Also, they had BOTH the parts in stock, so I might get my baby back as soon as Friday. FINGERS CROSSED.

[Josh]

genius bar set too high in more ways than one.

Two San Francisco women have filed a lawsuit that accuses Apple of largely ignoring accessibility laws at one of its retail stores, making shopping or service trips all but impossible for those confined to a wheelchair.

Filed this past Friday in a Northern District of California court, the 17-page suit claims that Apple has simultaneously violated both the federal Americans With Disabilities Act as well as the California Health and Safety Code by failing to provide "full and equal" access at its San Francisco flagship shop on One Stockton Street.
Both of the plaintiffs, Nicole Brown-Booker and Jana Overbo, require wheelchairs and recount separate experiences in May and July of this year which they characterized as both frustrating and humiliating. In both cases, neither woman was able to properly reach products or service desks at the store -- most of which were placed on a table or counter far out of reach. For Overbo, this meant a wasted trip. Unlike other customers, she was unable to watch as a Genius Bar technician serviced a software issue she had been experiencing on her Mac. Although the technician claimed to have "fixed" the issue, Overbo returned home with her Mac only to discover the software issue remained.

Access to each of the common features of the store was difficult in general, the women added. Neither of the complainants could reach the elevator buttons on their own, and the store's presentation theater had no wheelchair accessible seating areas or passageways needed to attend one of Apple's instructional workshops. Just completing a purchase was difficult due to the height of the cash registers, the plaintiffs said. To accommodate Brown-Booker's need to sign for a computer game, one store clerk needed to crawl underneath the cashiers' stand, untangle wires, and then pull the credit card system off the counter. This took some time and drew undue attention to Brown-Booker's disability, forcing other customers to wait behind her.

While the Stockton Street venue was itself difficult to navigate, the problem was allegedly compounded by a lack of help from the Apple's retail staff. Many seemed to unintentionally ignore both of the women, leaving them at the mercy of a few kind customers who eventually asked if they needed help selecting software titles from the store's shelves.

At the Genius Bar, it was not even clear that the Genius Bar staff could see over the counter to spot a customer in a wheelchair, Overbo told the representing law firm for the complaint, the Law Offices of Paul L. Rein. Similarly, she was unable to properly check in for her Genius Bar appointment or view the LCD displays listing the order of upcoming appointments. She was forced to wheel back-and-forth across the length of the bar, desperately attempting to inform staffers that she had arrived for her appointment.

It's apparent from these occurrences, the two women said, that Apple retail stores do not have a policy in place to assist handicapped shoppers. And if they do, it wasn't being followed.

Since modifying the building is entirely within Apple's reach, the company has no legal excuse to avoid obeying the federal and state laws for granting access, according to the lawsuit. And with no measures in place to have employees serve disabled customers, both of the plaintiffs have warned that they and any other disabled customers would continue to face discrimination simply by entering the store.

The lawyers representing Brown-Booker and Overbo are requesting a jury trial with compensation for the emotional and physical losses caused by Apple's seemingly neglectful approach. But as becomes evident in the lawsuit, both women are less interested in punitive action and more in successfully pressing for the needed changes to the building's layout and employee policies, letting either of them return to the Stockton Street outlet as equals to their fellow customers.

The plaintiffs fully "intend to return and patronize this Store, once legally required access has been provided," according to the suit.

(bold added)