“Genius” vs. simple problem
Stopped by Apple Store this morning to get MacBook fan repaired or replaced.
Was told that it would take them 3-5 business days after they got the part in.
Gave up, went to work meeting. Realized that I hadn't explicitly said out loud "I have ProCare," just assumed the guy could see the ProCare card in my hand.
So at lunch I went back and said "I have ProCare."
Guy said they could do the repair within 24-48 hours. Nifty! He got me to a Genius within five minutes even though they have no non-ProCare appointments open 'til Friday.
The following is the gist (nowhere near verbatim) of the ensuing conversation (I had already explained that I was only in town for two more days):
Genius: What's the problem?
Me: The fan seems to have gone dead.
Genius: Oh, look, your camera light is on. [Restarts MacBook several times in rapid succession. Camera light remains on.]
Me: I'm pretty sure the fan is the problem. The computer just suddenly goes completely dead. Last time this happened, it was because it was overheating. The fan wasn't working, so they replaced it.
Genius: [opens up Photo Booth to see if he can get the camera to turn off] Might be a logic board problem.
Me: [repeats previous statement about fan.]
Genius: Is your firmware up to date? [checks.]
Me: [repeats previous statement about fan.]
Genius: You said it had been shutting down. How often? Once a week?
Me: Every ten minutes.
Genius: [opens Console app, looks at logs.] Oh! [walks away. Returns a minute later.]
Me: What does that "Previous Shutdown Cause: -82" mean? [edited a few hours after posting to correct the error number and error message]
Genius: Overheating. Mind if I install a free Dashboard app?
Me: No.
Genius: [downloads and installs iStat] Oh, look. That's interesting.
Me: What?
Genius: The fan doesn't appear to be running at all.
Me: [looks for desk to headdesk on]
Genius: It might be the logic board or the temperature sensor. I'm afraid we can't fix this.
Me: Can't you just replace the fan now, and when I get home next week I'll get the rest of it looked at?
Genius [disapprovingly]: No, we can't just change something and hope it works.
Me: Even though a year ago, when this exact same problem happened, they replaced the fan, and everything was fine for a year?
Genius: Nope.
Me: So there's nothing I can do.
Genius: There's nothing we can do. You could take it somewhere else, like Tekserve [and no, he didn't spell it, and yes, I did have some trouble figuring out the spelling when I tried to Google it]--they could fix it under warranty, and give you a loaner.
Me: I guess that's what I'll have to do. [stalks out of store]
I've done tech support, more or less, and I totally understand that sometimes people come in with completely wrong diagnoses of their problems. And I didn't think to do the geek handshake (whereby you say something at the start of the tech-support conversation that establishes your geek credentials, which sometimes makes tech support treat you like less of an idiot). But jeez, someone comes in telling you exactly what the problem is, tells you symptoms that exactly match the problem, and tells you that the same problem was treated a year earlier--shouldn't your first thought be that maybe the problem is what they think it is? Shouldn't it take you less than ten minutes before you even try to corroborate the problem? Shouldn't you be less than surprised when you discover that in fact the customer was right in their diagnosis? And shouldn't you be willing to consider the possibility that a fix that worked before might work again, at least for a few days?
I do understand that they need to do diagnostics, and that they don't want to do a partial repair that'll break down again. I understand all that. But this was still not the right way for them to handle it.
...Tekserve says no dice--takes them 3-4 business days for warranty repairs like this. Grr.
...Hey, I have my work MacBook with me; I guess I could try and port over my data. If my home machine doesn't die in mid-transfer. Worth a try.
