Have had 3 different bad experiences with the apple den haag staffers.
First one was about changing the battery of faulty iphone 5. Granted, I came in the store without appointment however the staff was not particularly helpful. I was fine with having to make a new appointment, the store was not far from where I live, so it's not much of a hassle to get there. I had to make an appointment by myself in front of the 'genius' while he is chatting with his genius friend. I had a lot of problems making the online appointment since I had to put in the serial number of the faulty phone, the genius saw that I was having a problem for about 15 minutes and then came in to make the appointment in his iPad. It was done in 2 minutes! I only had to give him my email address! And he looked quite annoyed when helping me like I was too stupid to use a computer.
I came 5 minutes late to the appointment due to the train, apologized and got scolded by the genius! "You are 5 minutes late, next time don't come late otherwise your appointment would be cancelled. You're lucky that I'm available now!" I wonder at that time, is this the customer service apple wants to show the customers?
An hour ago my macbook pro got stuck in the target disk mode during restart, I think because of my broken keyboard. I immediately go to the apple store, knowing that they wouldn't be able to help. Nevertheless, maybe they can give me a solution or at least identify the problem.
Surprise, surprise! They could not help me with a SUDDEN error of my macbook without an appointment. Okay, understandable. (??)
The first genius I met informed me that I have to make an appointment. I pleaded with her, it seemed like a simple error, is there someone I could talk to that can maybe help me. She pointed at another genius with an iPad (I guess the one holding iPads has higher rank?). I went up to her, repeated my problem and she told me to come the next day at 12 (right when the store opens) and then maybe they can help. I told her the problem seemed simple and maybe she could identify and give me some kind of solution. She replied to me "Well, I'm not an expert in macbook so I doubt I can help." ?? Am I being unreasonable here for complaining that an employee of apple is bluntly saying she's not an expert in a product that the store is selling?
I opened my laptop and showed her the display stuck in the target disk mode and without missing a beat she just simply said "Yeah, I don't know what that is."
I question the level of incompetence these people that apple employs in their 'genius bars'. read more