Feeling sorry

Some days I feel sorry for Apple employees. As their market share has grown, their base has changed. I've been in the Apple store four times this week (three times more than I wanted to be there) and the feeling in there has definitely changed in the past year. It must be hard for the store employees to hear the signal over the noise.

On my first trip there I went in to say goodbye to my iPod. I had hoped the geniuses could boot it one more time so I could get the data off of it. It powered up and said that I should contact Apple support - but then it powered back down again never to be revived again. I think I have most of the data backed up. I mainly used the 60G device as a portable backup device when I'm producing podcasts for clients on the road.

While I was there someone dressed in light blue asked if he could help me. It seems that he couldn't - I've found the rule of thumb is that those people dressed in light blue can never help me but they always offer to in a way that forces me to let them try. The ones wearing black or orange tend to be the helpful ones. And so I waited for an available genius who couldn't. I had time while waiting a half hour past my appointment time and watched an Apple employee give his personal business card to someone and ask them for a job.

A couple of days later I was back to buy a Mac mini for an article I'm writing. A guy in light blue asked if he could help me. I asked if I could run Leopard server on the Mac mini. He said he didn't see why not. This didn't seem to be a real answer, but then again he was wearing light blue.

I bought one and added some memory. The guy in blue said that it takes two hours to install memory on these machines so I would have to come back the next day. I told him that didn't sound right. He told me it was right. I shrugged. No point in making a scene.

Back on Sunday to pick up the mini. Yet another guy in blue said he didn't think it was ready yet. I told him I thought it was. He was pretty sure it wouldn't be. I asked if he would check. He did. It was. It had been finished hours before.

Sort of.

As it would later turn out, this guy in blue was correct but for the wrong reasons. I took the mini home and plugged it in. I pressed the power button. No chime.

Hmmm. Maybe minis don't chime.

The power light came on but nothing was visible on the display. I mean nothing. Not even a grey screen. I cycled the power. Still nothing but the powerlight. I tried Target mode. I tried Single user mode.

Nothing.

So I made an appointment at the genius bar and headed back to the Apple store. This would be visit four. I tried to brush by the guy in light blue who greeted me at the door. No dice. He wanted to sign me in to the genius bar. I was next up on the list of Mac customers.

My appointment time came and went as people from the iPod list kept getting called. A loud, abusive voice behind me got louder and angrier. Someone wanted attention now and wasn't getting it. As employees tried to quiet the visitor he repeated louder and louder "You're going to fix my xxxxx iPhone now." He also said repeatedly, "I'm going to yyyyy sue you." Where the value of xxxxx changed as the exchange continued the value of yyyyy never did.

The police escorted him out of the store - a woman in light blue had called them and passed the phone to someone wearing a black shirt. "A-ha," I thought, "they can dial the phone but not speak into it." A much calmer exchange ensued in front of me. A man was insisting that Apple replace the button on his iPhone because the plastic was cracked. The store manager was pointing to where he had dropped the phone many times and dinged it up badly. The man tried to show that he hadn't dropped the phone on the button so this should be Apple's problem.

And then his wife took up the charge. "Well," she said, "you can either replace his phone now or it will cost you a lot more later. He's going to reach into his pocket and cut his finger on that button. When he does you will have to replace his phone and we will sue you for a lot of money." The manager quietly stuck to her guns but that was twice in ten minutes I heard a threatened suit. I do feel sorry for Apple employees. Even the ones in light blue.

Thirty minutes after my appointed time, Jim called my name for service. "Cool," I thought, "he's wearing orange - he'll know how to fix this even better than the guys in black."

Jim asked about the symptoms and then he cabled up and pushed the button and observed the same thing I had seen. "Hmm," he said, "let me go and see if the memory is seated right."

"Shouldn't the tech who installed the memory have booted the machine to confirm it worked?" I asked.

Jim shrugged. Then nodded. He took the mini in the back.

"Hey, wait a minute!" I thought. "How come he can take the machine apart and check the memory in a few minutes when the guy in blue told me this would take two hours...I knew that sounded fishy."

Jim was back in five minutes. The machine was working fine. An unnecessary trip to the Apple Store and a long wait in the line for the Genius Bar for something that was actually the fault of an Apple employee. The one Apple employee I don't feel sorry for right now.