fitzage.me

I've had a number of opportunities in the past year or so to interact with the Apple Store on a technical support level. Most of them have turned out really well, albeit for problems that had fairly simple resolutions.

Over the past year or so, I've had the misfortune of needing to have laptop batteries replaced about 5 times (for three different laptops). This experience, while annoying that there were so many battery issues, was handled quite well by the Apple Store. After clearly explaining the problems with the batteries, all were replaced with a minimum of fuss and without requiring the laptops to be left behind.

Another problem we dealt with was Adina's trackpad button failing. After a brief trip to the Genius Bar, they replaced the top case on her MacBook in only a couple of days, and there haven't been any problems since. Well, the trackpad button did stop working later, but that was because the battery was swelling up and pushing on it from underneath. That was the fifth battery replacement.

Within the past couple of weeks I've also dealt with a failing Airport Extreme base station, and a malfunctioning iPhone. Both of these were quickly replaced once I explained the troubleshooting steps that I had taken, and they determined there were no other steps they could try. I did have to wait for a replacement base station to ship, but I was able to keep my current one and use the parts that worked while waiting for the replacement. It would have been nice if this could have been shipped to my house instead of requiring a trip back to the store, but that would create some additional logistical problems for the store.

All of these issues, however, required pretty simple solutions. The one actual repair performed is one of the easiest hardware repairs that could be done on an Apple laptop.

We have sent some iMacs in from TNI with a few different problems. Most of these were old G5 iMacs with hard drive or power supply problems, and they were fixed quickly and easily (both very simple repairs.) We wouldn't even send one of those in for the hard drive if it wasn't under warranty still, since they're so easy to replace ourselves.

And this is where the bad comes in. We had a new aluminum iMac that was experiencing fan problems. Normally on one of these systems, you can't hear the fan running under normal usage. This one developed a problem where the fan would run at a high speed all the time, indicating that there was possibly an issue with one of the temperature sensors. Fans will typically run at high speed when the system is unsure of the temperature.

We took the system in to the store, and got it back. This time, not only did the fans still run at high speed, but they were making additional noise as if one of the fans had a bad bearing or something. So we sent it in again. This time it came back and the fans were still running at high speed. We sent it in again, and they tried to fix it, but determined the fix didn't work before they sent it back to us this time.

The resolution of all this is that they are replacing the machine with a brand new one. This is a satisfactory resolution, but it disturbs me that they evidently did not test the machine enough the first two times to realize that the fans were still running at high speed before they gave it back to us. This is something that should have been noticed immediately if they started up the computer when they were done with the repair.

A while ago, I wrote this article about my experience at the Apple Store. Now I have a different experience to share with you.

When I wrote my previous review, I thought that things might have been quite a bit different if I was a customer who had been working with an employee all along going through the purchase process. Then, I was a customer who knew just what they wanted and walked in, and wasn’t impressed with the result.

This time, however, I made a personal shopping appointment, which you can do online through the Apple retail site. I sort of knew what I wanted, but wasn’t quite sure about the decision and had some questions.

The experience was great. Levi was knowledgeable and extremely helpful. He answered all the questions I had, and some I didn’t know I had. The purchase process was smooth from start to finish, without the issues I had on my previous trips. I have zero complaints about this experience, and that’s hard for me to say sometimes.

The short of it is that I highly recommend the personal shopping program at the Apple Store, although my previous comments still stand in other areas. If you are in the market for a new computer and aren’t exactly sure what you want, or just want a little help with the process, setting up a personal shopping appointment is a great way to get the help you need.

If your visit happens to take you to the Apple Store in Tucson, request Levi for your appointment. You won’t be disappointed.

Starting with Tiger and the introduction of the sticky note dashboard widget, Apple seems to have been having a love afair with the Marker Felt font. Much has been said about this already, and how it shows up in places that are otherwise examples of excellent typography. For example, the typography on the iPhone is generally great, but Apple chose to use Marker Felt in the Notes app, in an attempt to give it a more handwritten look.

Much has been said about this already, and how it shows up in places that are otherwise examples of excellent typography. For example, the typography on the iPhone is generally great, but Apple chose to use Marker Felt in the Notes app, in an attempt to give it a more handwritten look.

The font also shows up in Mail.app in the new notes feature. Unlike the iPhone, however, the user is at liberty to change the font if they so choose. This is the first thing I did with that feature.

But I haven’t been using the notes feature in Mail, because it doesn’t look much better to me with a font other than Marker Felt. I think it has something to do with the incongruity of the yellow legal pad look with a toolbar that has the dark gray look of the rest of the app.

The iPhone doesn’t bother me in this regard. I think it has to do with the fact that it’s not just a yellow sheet of “paper” stuck in where it doesn’t belong, but they’ve made the rest of the app fit in with the metaphor. The toolbar area looks like a legal pad also, which makes the rest of the metaphor feel better.

Interestingly enough, Marker Felt doesn’t bother me as much on the iPhone, and I think it’s because it fits in better with the fact that the notes app itself is more consistent within the app.

I think I would be more likely to use notes in Mail if the note window was more like the iPhone notes app and looked more like a pad of paper. Or, if they did away with the fake paper look altogether. It would also be nice if these notes would sync with the iPhone notes and Stickies, but that, especially Stickies, might be too much to ask for.

This was written in the Notes app on the iPhone.

The Tucson Apple Store was recently remodeled. The most interesting feature of the new setup is the lack of a cash register. Where the cash registers used to be is where they put the new Genius Bar.

This is also the most annoying feature. While I see the advantages of having roving employees that can check people out wherever they are, it doesn’t work quite as planned.

Every time I’ve walked into the Apple Store since the remodel, knowing exactly what I want, it has taken a very long time to find somebody who was ready and wiling to ring up my purchases. Everybody was helping another customer (which is a good thing) but there was no line for me to stand in to let people know I was ready to be helped. If I didn’t stare awkwardly at an employee who was helping somebody else, I’d be out of luck. The last time I went in there (to buy a copy of iLife for a customer), I quickly turned around and walked out. I went home and ordered it from Amazon instead (which was probably at least $10 cheaper, due to no tax and the lower price to start with).

Apple has always strived for a top-notch customer experience in their stores. The new setup is great for people who wander in not knowing what they want and need an employee to help them decide on a system and peripherals. When done, the employee can gather the items and ring them out without waiting for a cash register to open up. They need to add a cash register line back in, though, so that people who want to make quick purchases are able to do so.

I’ve been meaning to write about this for awhile, and was finally prompted to do so by this post over at The Apple Blog. I’m not the only one who’s frustrated by this.