My visit to the Apple Genius Bar

My MacBook had a boo-boo. The battery wouldn’t charge, all it would do is show a battery icon with and X in it on the status bar at the top of the screen. I tried all of the tips on the Apple support pages, but nothing worked. So I decided to try my luck at the Genius bar at the local Apple store. I don’t really know what I was expecting, probably a hard time as that’s what I usually get at stores when I try to get something fixed, but this visit was as smooth as silk. I had to wait a little bit past my appointment time, there was a ton of people in there and a couple of the problems looked bad, but once I was called up I was done in less than 10 minutes! I explained to the “genius” (sorry, I didn’t catch his name) what was going on, and what I had tried to fix it. He booted up the Mac, confirmed the problem and then brought out a new battery. He plugged it in, booted the Mac and then it showed there was a battery and it was charging. I was so happy (I was afraid it was the logic board) and when I asked what was the problem with the battery, I was told that the chip in the battery was probably dead. The best part about the whole experience was that the battery was covered under the warranty, so there was no money out of my pocket! Woo-Hoo! As a side note, after the iPhone announcement the other day I heard that Apple would be providing the customer support for the phone, not Cingular. Customer support is a major undertaking, and I was really wondering how Apple would handle this. Granted, phone support is different from one-on-one support, but everyone I saw at the Apple store today was really nice. Granted most of the customers were nice also, but a few seemed on edge (since their equipment was going to have to go into the shop to get fixed). But no one was steamed or looking unhappy with how they were being treated. Contrast that with most cell phone stores, and you’ll see a big difference. Hopefully Apple will be able to maintain that level of customer satisfaction and service when the iPhone rolls out…