Rant about Apple Service and Genius Bar!
I bought my daughter a MacBook a week ago as a graduation gift for college. She had an '02 Ibook with a logic board that went out over 3 times. We took the plunge and bought the new computer. It's great and she loves it. Took the Ibook to the Applestore as they will transfer her old files to her new computer within one week without a charge. Initially, we were told we had to buy Pro
care for $99.00 for this service, but one of the sales clerks mentioned, in passing, that files are transferable from one Mac to another within 7 days. We literally had our charge card in the hands of the sales guy who looked rather embarassed when we learned that this was a free service. Do these guys get some sort of commission on these "add-ons?". So, after several so-called experts on the process, we were finally hooked up with one of their techy guys who said they'd remove the hard drive from the Ibook and create a folder on her new hard drive with her old files. It was going to take 2 days to do the transfer...
After 3 days, we called the store. They pulled the paperwork and said the transfer was complete. My daughter dashed in rush hour traffic to get her computer as she has finals this week. She brings the computer home without checking, and when opened....nothing..nada...no files...exactly the same as when we dropped it off. We called the store...too busy to take our call...said they'd call us back. After two hours, they called. Suggested we type in a name of a file that she knew was on the computer. She did...zero results. No files. no pics, no nothing.
Okay...my rant. We have to take the computer back, and no doubt, they'll end up keeping it for another 3 days or so. Should I insist they do the transfer while we wait?
IMO, most of the staff I've worked with at the Apple stores I've visited have been a bit "odd". Yes, they are techy, but I can't seem to find a simple answer to a simple question. Most of them act flustered and the files transfer should not have been a big deal. Everytime I turned around, I was being directed to the "add" ons. I did buy Applecare, but no, not interested in .Mac. I have no need for that program.
I have owned Apples and Mac for over 20 years. I am no expert, but I often find myself avoiding the sales staff. I do a lot of my shopping on-line....however, this was something I could not do myself, due to the logic board being out.
Okay..so the "Genius" Bar guy tells us that the firewire cord will fail once the logic board starts to go out...( we can boot the Ibook up for about 3 minutes before the horizontal lines appear) However, originally we were told that that shouldn't be a problem. So, I fiddle around last night after talking to two managers at the Apple store convincing them that NO, the file transfer was never completed as requested despite ther insistence that the files must be on her new Mac book. Believe me, we searched the entire harddrive, and since the computer was new, it was easy to see that her 900 pics were NOT on the new computer...
Anyway, voilla...the Ibook hard drive showed up with the firewire cord and I was able to transfer most of what she wanted. It took me a long time and it was tedious, but she got her pics and files and now we don't have to return to the Apple store. The manager, of course, apologized, but offered no other explanation other than "I don't know what happened".
Okay...so they missed the boat. It's not the end of the world, but it does serve as a reminder to double check one's service/paperwork and computer prior to leaving the Apple store....
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I recieved an iPhone 5 for my birthday last week, and on the same day my mother put a horrid deep scratch right down the screen!
I booked a genius session in my local apple store, and without any hesitation or questioning they replaced my iPhone with a brand new one!
I could not believe how great this service is, and I feel like i should express it on here!
If anyone else has scratched or smashed their iphone 5 after just purchasing it, I strongly reccomend you go to the genius bar!
Great job Apple, I am very impressed!Awesome!!!
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I just got an iphone5. My computer itunes recognizes the iphone when connected, but will not sync. I have been to the Apple genius bar and they have uninstalled and reinstalled itunes several times and did everything they could think of, but still it would not sync. I have an ipad2 that syncs with no problem. So they told me to go get some computer help elsewhere...blamed it on Windows? Thanks!
You can poke around in the settings. There's a lot of stuff defaulted to on that you may not need. Such as notifications. Background app update, background app update. Try turning those off and see if that helps.
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Hi, I downloaded Yosemite this evening. It downloaded fine, it installed fine and then it restarted the Macbook. Now it seems to be frozen. I have nothing but a grey screen with the apple logo and a bar that is half black and half grey. It's been like this for over an hour. Should I worry or is it still working at something? How do I fix this if it's not still working at installing something. Thank goodness for this poor old pc as backup.
Take each of these steps that you haven't already tried. Stop when the problem is resolved.
To restart an unresponsive computer, press and hold the power button for a few seconds until the power shuts off, then release, wait a few more seconds, and press it again briefly.
Step 1
The first step in dealing with a startup failure is to secure the data. If you want to preserve the contents of the startup drive, and you don't already have at least one current backup, you must try to back up now, before you do anything else. It may or may not be possible. If you don't care about the data that has changed since the last backup, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to start. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
a. Start up from the Recovery partition, or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) When the OS X Utilities screen appears, launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.” The article refers to starting up from a DVD, but the procedure in Recovery mode is the same. You don't need a DVD if you're running OS X 10.7 or later.
b. If Step 1a fails because of disk errors, and no other Mac is available, then you may be able to salvage some of your files by copying them in the Finder. If you already have an external drive with OS X installed, start up from it. Otherwise, if you have Internet access, follow the instructions on this page to prepare the external drive and install OS X on it. You'll use the Recovery installer, rather than downloading it from the App Store.
c. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, start the non-working Mac in target disk mode. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
d. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.
Step 2
If the startup process stops at a blank gray screen with no Apple logo or spinning "daisy wheel," then the startup volume may be full. If you had previously seen warnings of low disk space, this is almost certainly the case. You might be able to start up in safe mode even though you can't start up normally. Otherwise, start up from an external drive, or else use the technique in Step 1b, 1c, or 1d to mount the internal drive and delete some files. According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation.
Step 3
Sometimes a startup failure can be resolved by resetting the NVRAM.
Step 4
If a desktop Mac hangs at a plain gray screen with a movable cursor, the keyboard may not be recognized. Press and hold the button on the side of an Apple wireless keyboard to make it discoverable. If need be, replace or recharge the batteries. If you're using a USB keyboard connected to a hub, connect it to a built-in port.
Step 5
If there's a built-in optical drive, a disc may be stuck in it. Follow these instructions to eject it.
Step 6
Press and hold the power button until the power shuts off. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed to start up, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Use a different keyboard and/or mouse, if those devices are wired. If you can start up now, one of the devices you disconnected, or a combination of them, is causing the problem. Finding out which one is a process of elimination.
Step 7
If you've started from an external storage device, make sure that the internal startup volume is selected in the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences.
Start up in safe mode. Note: If FileVault is enabled in OS X 10.9 or earlier, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Post for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to start and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know the login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
When you start up in safe mode, it's normal to see a dark gray progress bar on a light gray background. If the progress bar gets stuck for more than a few minutes, or if the system shuts down automatically while the progress bar is displayed, the startup volume is corrupt and the drive is probably malfunctioning. In that case, go to Step 11. If you ever have another problem with the drive, replace it immediately.
If you can start and log in in safe mode, empty the Trash, and then open the Finder Info window on the startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) Check that you have at least 9 GB of available space, as shown in the window. If you don't, copy as many files as necessary to another volume (not another folder on the same volume) and delete the originals. Deletion isn't complete until you empty the Trash again. Do this until the available space is more than 9 GB. Then restart as usual (i.e., not in safe mode.)
If the startup process hangs again, the problem is likely caused by a third-party system modification that you installed. Post for further instructions.
Step 8
Launch Disk Utility in Recovery mode (see Step 1.) Select the startup volume, then run Repair Disk. If any problems are found, repeat until clear. If Disk Utility reports that the volume can't be repaired, the drive has malfunctioned and should be replaced. You might choose to tolerate one such malfunction in the life of the drive. In that case, erase the volume and restore from a backup. If the same thing ever happens again, replace the drive immediately.
This is one of the rare situations in which you should also run Repair Permissions, ignoring the false warnings it may produce. Look for the line "Permissions repair complete" at the end of the output. Then restart as usual.
Step 9
If the startup device is an aftermarket SSD, it may need a firmware update and/or a forced "garbage collection." Instructions for doing this with a Crucial-branded SSD were posted here. Some of those instructions may apply to other brands of SSD, but you should check with the vendor's tech support.
Step 10
Reinstall the OS. If the Mac was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you’ll need the Apple ID and password you used to upgrade.
Step 11
Do as in Step 9, but this time erase the startup volume in Disk Utility before installing. The system should automatically restart into the Setup Assistant. Follow the prompts to transfer the data from a Time Machine or other backup.
Step 12
This step applies only to models that have a logic-board ("PRAM") battery: all Mac Pro's and some others (not current models.) Both desktop and portable Macs used to have such a battery. The logic-board battery, if there is one, is separate from the main battery of a portable. A dead logic-board battery can cause a startup failure. Typically the failure will be preceded by loss of the settings for the startup disk and system clock. See the user manual for replacement instructions. You may have to take the machine to a service provider to have the battery replaced.
Step 13
If you get this far, you're probably dealing with a hardware fault. Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider. -
hi i rescently updated my ipad 4 in ios 7.0.4 and for resell purpose i want to restore my ipad via itunes but it got stuck at apple logo and progress bar of 45% completed i tried it 50 times but it stuck on that exact point for hours i cant able to restore it and had no errors it just like freezes at one point i also uses dfu mode but got stuck at same problem using windows 7 32 bits itunes 11.3.8 ipad 4 wifi please help
My iPhone 5 wouldn't start after I turned it off a few minutes after writing this. It went into recovery mode and I had no choice but to connect to iTunes on PC and restore.
I restored to factory setting first, just to validate my phone was okay. For a second consecutive iOS update, the iPhone 5 did not update smoothly while connected to PC and iTunes - I had to retry two times before the progress bar for the update showed. (The exact same problem with the restart occured when I updated to 7.0.4.)
The good news is that I was ultimately able to restore the iPhone 5 to factory settings while running iOS 7.0.6. I did have a backup from about a month ago lying around and was able to successfully restore with that as well, so the damage done is almost negligible since I had my contacts, notes, mail, etc. backed up to iCloud.
Once I completed both restores, the sync with iTunes worked fine. -
I checked that the shippment order from 11Oct 13 and will shipment on 15Oct13, But till now I rec'd nothing any more, I am very serious complaint about the services and deliver time is unreasonable as you mentioned as deliver on 15Oct. I am very disappoint your customer services as I need to take a leave for waiting for colleciton. But now noone to call me today and I double check the stock already shippment on 11Oct and arrived on 15Oct at 8.00am.
In addition, I called your customer services from 12.00pm to 6.00pm but still invain to contact your customer services staff. For this instance, I am very very disappoint your services provide and let me have unpleasure experience on 15Oct.
Mr Lau
<Personal Information Edited by Host>Don't put that on here, this is not where you leave feedback. This is a forum for people who need help with technical problems and non Apple employees help each other, leaving that information here will most likely only cause you trouble especially your phone number.
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Does apple charge for Genius Bar help
Does apple charge for Genius Bar help
Depends on if the equipment is under warranty and if so then if the problem is covered under the warranty.
In all cases having them look at it to diagnose the problem is free. -
my i phone 4s will not switch off and ive got a apple sign and a bar empty underneath ,,how do i turn it off and get it working again please , ps i have held down button on top but it will not turn off >??????????
Try:
- iOS: Not responding or does not turn on
- Also try DFU mode after try recovery mode
How to put iPod touch / iPhone into DFU mode « Karthik's scribblings
- If not successful and you can't fully turn the iOS device fully off, let the battery fully drain. After charging for an least an hour try the above again.
- If still not successful that indicates a hardware problem and an appointment at the Genius Bar of an Apple store is in order.
Apple Retail Store - Genius Bar -
Do I only have a certain window of time to register my Apple Service and Support protection plan before it expires? I certainly hope not I paid for it and could never get the serial numbers for product & protection to sync together!
Normally must register an AppleCare plan before the original warranty on the Mac expires. If you have problems registering the AppleCare plan for your MacBook, call Apple tech support and ask to be connected to AppleCare Plan Adminstration.
For future posts, please make sure you're in the most appropriate forum for the product or service you're asking about. You'll be most likely to get quick and accurate help that way.
Regards. -
Help needed please, everytime I try to update the software version on my iphone it comes up with a message saying it could not be completed and is now frozen with the apple picture and progress bar on it. Do I unplug it and hope the macbook pro sees it again, I also stupidly did not back up before starting the download which I realise I will have to go back to the previous back up. This keeps happening, everytime I do this type of update, I'm starting to think I should just give up on updating my software on the Iphone. I thought it was happening because I was using a window based computer to do the updates, this time I used my Macbook Pro. Please somebody help
ljm17 wrote:
...This keeps happening, everytime I do this type of update, I...
Then you should know what you need to do... If you don't remember...
See Here > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1808 -
When I update the ios on my Iphone 4 it wont turn on and I tried to restore it, but it stuck in restore with apple logo and loading bar not move at all, I contact apple support and they tried to help me but nothing work, then they told me to send it to replace it and I need to pay $149, that's mean if anybody has any problem with his iphone even the problem from apple software you need to pay, that's not fair at all.... I will try to sale all our apple device and by Samsung device to resolve this problems.
I believe this means that it is bricked, just sell it for parts, to someone like me
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I get a white screen with apple logo and progress bar on my imac mavericks
I get a white screen with apple logo and progress bar ,then computer shuts down
when I turn my imac back on same thing happens,every time same thing
pprogress bar only goes half way then computer shut down
is there a solution ?
if not is there a way to at least salvage some files and docs?
i Have the latest imac 27Thanks I tried it but after I repaired my disk via disk utility at start up, it told me that
my disk can't be repaired and to try to back up my files so I can format it
but is there to back up my files?
also what I get is white screen with the progress bar not grey -
I restated my computer and the apple logo and processing bar came up and it loaded half way then stopped and has been sruck like that for a few hours and I don't know how to fix it? I really need to use my computer because I have a big test and all my information is on there
OS X 10.9 Mavericks/ 10.10 Yosemite
1. Repair Disk http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5836
2. Reset PRAM: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14222
Best. -
Apple iPhone 5 Flashing with apple logo and load bar and apps working
flickering, with apple logo and load bar and apps in that background that all work while screen flickering, had to restore my phone to get to stop flashing and eliminate the load bar.
Hello missyfromsouthport,
After reviewing your post, I have located an article that can help in this situation. It contains a number of troubleshooting steps and helpful advice concerning restoration issues:
If you can't update or restore your iOS device
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1808
You might need to use recovery mode if:
You can't update or restore because iTunes doesn't recognize your device or says it's "in recovery mode".
The Apple logo remains onscreen for several minutes with no progress bar.
The Connect to iTunes screen appears.
See what to do if the progress bar remains onscreen for several minutes
Use recovery mode
Recovery mode erases your device and restores it, which should resolve the issue. If you previously synced with iTunes or iCloud, you may be able to restore from your backup after recovery.
Turn off your device. If you can't turn it off, press and hold the Sleep/Wake and Home buttons at the same time and wait a few seconds for it to turn off.
Plug the device's USB cable into your computer only.
Hold down the device's Home button as you connect the USB cable to it.
When you see the Connect to iTunes screen, release the Home button. If you don't see this screen, try steps 1 through 3 one more time.
iTunes should open and display a message such as: "iTunes has detected an iPhone in recovery mode. You must restore this iPhone before it can be used with iTunes."
Use iTunes to restore your device.
If you don't see your device in iTunes, follow these steps for Mac or these for Windows.
Additional Information
If you started your device in recovery mode by mistake, restart it to exit recovery mode. Or you can just wait—after 15 minutes the device will exit recovery mode by itself.
Thank you for contributing to Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
BobbyD -
I was so excited about apple pay and now setting it up and boom 8 cards and you are done is that the wallet replacement they thought they'll do? really? I mean most people have 10-15 cards at least and I am, well because of my side business I have lots so 8 is nothing to me!
Not sure what you are saying. I was able to very quickly set up my AmEx card - no problems at all. For my PNC and Macy's cards, companies still working on being ApplePay-ready.
It will happen, just not as fast as we might like, but I think it is going to be fabulous.
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