Two days ago I noticed a saddening spectacle as I witnessed a dark irregular shape creep across the corner of one of my 23" Apple Cinema Displays. In stark contrast to a previous Apple service visit with ProCare membership in hand, a recent visit to the U-Village Apple Store was a complete surprise.
As stated on the Apple ProCare page, members are entitled to what is recognized as the Fast Track service:
ProCare is your ticket to priority repairs and available same-day service at the Genius Bar. Members get "Next in line, first on the bench" service on all in-store repairs. And if you have a quick technical question, just flash your card, and we’ll work you in as soon as we can.
Essentially, based on my knowledge of the service and experience from a previous visit ‘n drop with my MacBook, the entire process of leaving my display for repair should have been ~10 mins. rather than 1.5 hours.
The visit began with my arrival - Apple Display in hand. I approached the Genius Bar and politely spoke to Susan informing her of my request for assistance. She asked if I had previously registered for an appointment using any one of the computers in the store. I replied with a simple "no" citing the fact that I was a ProCare member. The reply: "you’ll still need to register for an appointment".
What? I though the value of the ProCare membership included what was known as Fast Track, or "Next in line, first on the bench"? I scratched my head, befuddled as I witnessed two additional ProCare members stunned that they would also need to register for an appointment. Even more aggravating was witnessing a recently finished Genius Bar rep reach out asking a customer if they had been helped yet? No registration, no name, straight into troubleshooting an application issue.
Had it not been for the interesting conversation I had with another customer about an iPod, the original Apple II series, and price difference of LCD’s 7 years ago in comparison to todays offerings, I might have literally gone crazy.
Bitch and moan Derek? Oh yes, very much so. I’ve even gone Dell because of today - 30" UltraSharp Widescreen 3007WFP to be exact.
34 Comments
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You ordered a 30″ display..? Thats sweet, Dell or Apple, its still a 30″ display. What will your display setup consist of now?
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Were you able to get the 23″ display fixed?
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Not exactly sure what the display setup will be. I’m going to be posting one of my 23" inch displays (the newer one) on Craigslist locally in order to save myself and the buyer from shipping costs.
Concerning the display mentioned above, it’s on its way to Apple for repair.
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Very odd, you should go further on this and complain. After all, you paid for that ProCare card. Maybe your store was just very misinformed about the service.
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I think it was something more along the lines of whoever was supervising the Genius Bar didn’t study their Apple services.
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So it’s likely to be a 23" ACD and a 30" Dell? Thought of posting the other 23" for sale and grabbing another 30" Dell?
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Two 30" displays would be massive and excessive. (But that’s only what I’m saying now).
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Derek, there is no such thing as excessive if you cna afford it (and since you made a spur purchase of a 30″ Dell monitor, we’ll assume that you can).
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really? weird, my buddy uses his Procare at the Alderwood Apple store and cuts up in line all the time. Sounds like they dont know what they’re doin down in the district (which doesn’t really surprise me all that much).
How much are you sellin your 23″ for?
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I think you’ll find that you never really can have big enough
My dual 30″ ACD setup works great, in the future I’m leaning toward a 1920×1080 LCD or projector…lose some real-estate but easier on the eyes.
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I can’t believe they would treat a paying member like that. I think that customer service is the one thing that can really make or break a business these days.
congrats on the new display! the way i see it, you can’t go wrong buying a dell or hp display!
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It’s on CL right now. Hoping to get $775 but will settle for $750.
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I agree with Arjun, Derek. You owe it to yourself as a “premium” customer and future customers to speak up and let them know that kind of thing is unacceptable.
Apple techs had literally beaten my laptop with a hammer (long story) and I fought hard for weeks, but eventually got them to apologize AND pay for the damages they tried to blame on me.
The point is, you HAVE to stick up for yourself, even regarding those little things, because as the customer base grows, Apple HAS to know their quality of service cannot erode.
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I agree with Tom, you owe it to yourself and Apple needs to know that their reps are screwing up. Take it up the chain, I’m sure someone will be along to apologize in short order.
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From what I’ve gathered after a few phone calls, ProCare service varies from store-to-store. Registration may still be required in order to be serviced at the Genius Bar (which is a little odd when on of the selling points of ProCare that convinced me was being able to show your cad in order to expedite help requests). Regardless, the incident was logged by Apple.
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That is odd.
From apple.com
Maybe it’s the word available that’s tripping us up. I certainly sounds like you should get seen right away.
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You bought a Dell monitor? How horrible.
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How horrible? What I’ve come to realize is that the premium on an aluminum housed display is not worth it. Not to mention the fact that Apple Cinema Displays ship with a 1-yr. limited warranty vs. Dell’s 3-yr. limited warranty.
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I wasn’t actually serious. A 30" monitor is a 30" monitor; congrats on your purchase.
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Way to go on the new monitor. Having used both Apple and Dell Monitors, I’d have to say I’ve never seen a difference other than price. I love my Dell Monitor. The actual computer though, that’s a different story…
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When does the 30″ Dell arrive?
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Delayed due to adverse weather conditions.
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I love my Dell 30″ now if I can get the friggin PC I have it hooked to working again! It was a nice display for the week had it running on the PC. Thinking I need to put it on my MacBook Pro … but it might be a bit tough to lug around, since I work almost completely virtually. (”but it’s just so pretty!”)
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I have the Dell 2405FPW and I have to say that I love it. When calibrated, I literally cannot see the difference between it and a co-worker’s Apple 23″ monitor. There may be one, but considering that I paid about $650 for mine, brand new (gotta love Dell coupon days), it sure doesn’t seem important. Even if I could see it, which I can’t.
Besides, a subtle black bezel is, to me, nicer. And its thinner (the bezel) than the ADC, too.
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Hey Richard, how did you go about calibrating your Dell. I noticed that mine was almost too bright out of the box.
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Derek,
If you have not already, Bitch up a storm to the Apple store that troubled you! Also let the Apple Corp. know how you feel too. Send them a link to this post. As a fellow Apple user, we pay too much money for their products to be treated any ol’ kind-of-way.
I’m currently having issues with my MacBook Pro’s LCD. A strange gray stripe appears when booting up but goes away shortly after warming up. Although I just have the standard Apple Care Protection plan, I don’t know where I would be with out it. I will be in the Apple store soon as this semester is out to have them do what needs to be done to fix this.
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Is the grey stripe similar to the screenshot in the article above?
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The gray stripe that I am experiencing is going vertically down the middle of my display. It stays visible for about 2 minutes or so then goes away.
Highly annoying. I’m willing to send you a photo of it if you would like.
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I am confident that once you explain and show a Genius Bar rep what is happening with your computer they will send it away for repair, no questions asked. As with any LCD replacement, they’ll need to see the problem for themselves in order to accept a computer for repair under warranty.
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Funny thing is, I brought my MBP there back in the fall, and the Genius Bar guy said that its just the lcd led bulbs warming up. I took it at that because I could not be with out my mac at that time. Soon as school is out, I’m going back to have them ship it off. I knew that over all I had the final say but I felt like the genius bar guy was not trying to escalate the issue. I thought his explanation was quite shabby but I have learned to be vocal since that occurrence.
Thanks for your insight, this post was helpful.
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That is one of the most pathetic excuses by a Genius Bar rep if I had ever heard one. If that was the response I received, I would have invited the rep to walk around with me to various notebooks to reboot from a cold start in order for him to support that load of an explanation. Next time that happens, make sure to note a name and time of incident. Although Apple service may be up and down between different reps, there are still store managers that care.
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No kidding! I will be marching back up there soon after school is done and will post the results.
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Well, I wanted to say that my MBP was dropped off at Apple last week and it came back in 4 days. I was surprised to see how quick the LCD replacement was done. However, thank goodness that I backed up my personal data before handing over my MBP. Apple reformatted my hard drive and did not do a data transfer!
It is not the end of the world but I now have to get answers from them why they did this.
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