It seems Google has cleared this file from it's cache. Thankfully,
Yahoo still have it. Here is the full text of the page. The most recent
entry is at the top.
"http://66.218.71.225/search/cache?p=%22www.livejournal.com%2Fusers%
2Fthemacgenius%22&ei=UTF-8&u=www.livejournal.com/users/themacgenius/
&d=78DDE27724&icp=1&.intl=us"
Sunday, March 6th, 2005
1:02 am
Conscience fades away
There's something to be said for honesty in repair work. While the
majority of the work done in stores is within warranty, there is the
occasional out-of-warranty computer. Let's say an iMac G4. I put a
couple discs into it, no response. Clearly the superdrive has failed. I
tell this to the customer, and then go to look up the price. I find the
part number, and the price. My jaw drops. I try to close my mouth
before telling the customer, "It looks like it's going to be about six
hundred dollars for a replacement superdrive." Never mind that you can
buy a faster drive on Newegg for $69, you have to have this one because
it has an apple printed on its label.
Or how about a G4 tower - "There's $135 labor for installing that
replacement logic board." Never mind this takes about six minutes, but
it's officially a "level 2" replacement. I wouldn't feel very good if I
found out my auto mechanic was charging $1300 per hour.
This is even true with iPods. "Oh, your iPod is two weeks outside of
warranty? It'll be $249 to fix it, regardless of what's wrong." I tell
people "I don't set these prices" often enough that I'm starting to say
it in my sleep.
This sort of thing makes me glad that there are resellers and service
providers out there, even though we aren't doing them any favors. Sure,
we won't give them iPod Shuffles until months after they come out, but
hey, we give them OS X themed fridge magnet words!
Tuesday, March 1st, 2005
1:04 am
Mac Genius: Better than Stanford
With only five hundred or so Mac Geniuses employed by Apple, it really
is harder to become a genius than be accepted into Stanford. This was a
popular comparison made by many instructors during mac genius training.
Why do so many people want to be Mac Geniuses? It is a prestigious
role, to say the least. I regularly bask in the prestige of removing
popsicle sticks, coins, and Yu-Gi-Oh cards from CD drives. It really is
the job that everybody wants - the customers want this job, the Mac
Specialists want this job. The upside of being a genius is that you are
granted the opportunity to be the "face" of Apple tech support. The
downside is that, in the eyes of many customers, you are personally
responsible for anything which might go wrong. While this is the case
with all tech-support, it seems like everybody coming to the genius bar
either lives on a remote island, or they run their entire business on a
single 400-mhz iMac which just had its hard drive fail. If I can make a
recommendation to those applying to become a mac genius - get some
student loans and apply for Stanford instead. Having "Genius" in your
job title can be cool, but not as cool as an MBA.
Saturday, February 26th, 2005
12:53 am
Service with a Smile
While many Apple retail employees may be boiling with contempt on the
inside, it is key that this is never apparent to customers. If a
customer walks into the store and isn't happily greeted within a few
minutes, someone isn't doing their job. Weeks of training have taught
me that every customer should be given some form of acknowledgment - so
that they won't steal from us.
Our motto is "Surprise and Delight," meaning that's what we want each
and every one of our customers to experience when they come to an Apple
store. Unfortunately, the only surprises lately have been our security
alarms going off when anybody picks up one of our display iPods.
In terms of real news, Apple stores are updating the eMacs in the Kids
sections. The eMacs are being replaced by 17" iMac G5s. While no
official word has been given, this says to me that the eMac will not
see another revision within its lifetime.
Friday, February 25th, 2005
1:12 am
Welcome
Recently, Apple had a feature called "A day in the life of a mac
genius" in their holiday newsletter. I thought I might begin this blog
by detailing a day in the life of a *real* mac genius. Not some
happy-sugar-coated-conveniently-located-near-Apple-HQ mac genius.
The day begins with the "daily download," where everyone on staff that
morning gets to listen to our manager talk about all sorts of financial
drivel while trying not to fall asleep. The day progresses with a
constant flow of customers into the genius bar. Some people just need
their iPod reset, some have more detailed technical questions, and some
are 300 pound women with two-inch-long hair growing from their second
chin. While many are grateful of the free tech support, others are put
off by the often several hour long wait times, informing the whole
store of their displeasure with various four letter words. Meanwhile,
I'm trudging through replacing an iPod - a process which takes one
minute to find out that it needs to be replaced, and eight to twelve
minutes to navigate through our cumbersome reporting system. I'm often
greeted with messages telling me that I need to click the "get quote"
button before I can click the "get quote" button.
Later in the day I'm able to retreat into the "Applecare room," where
repair work is done. Here, instead of being overwhelmed by angry
customers, I have the privilege of being overwhelmed by repairs, and
the multitude of "must be done now" tasks which can only be performed
by a mac genius. After spending the rest of the day removing coins from
CD drives, cleaning various fluids (and select solids) from the insides
of computers, and coming up with creative ways to tell customers
"you're stupid," my day comes to an end. Unlike the aforementioned
"sugar coated" mac genius, I don't leave my keys behind at work.
