English: Genius Bar at the Apple Store, SoHo, Prince Street, SoHo, Manhattan, New York City (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Remember when the biggest complaint about customer service was the guy in the call center in India whose accent you didn’t understand?
I long for those days now. Call centers all over India have been shuttered as brands push their customers to the online FAQ. You now need a Ph.D to wade through the options and decision trees that confront you as you click on the link that says “get help now.” Trust me, it’s a misnomer.
Even the Apple Store’s interface has changed. The cool thing about Apple was always the ability to make an appointment at the Genius Bar. Well, you still can do that, but only if you are an expert at wandering through all the other “help options,” including figuring out which of the topics your problem belongs in.
My MacBook Air kept crashing. I got online to look for the Genius Bar, and I found the triage page. You would think “computer crash” would be a hot topic, but it was subsumed under “Other Topics.” I clicked on Other Topics and found one that might be applicable: “hardware not working as expected.”
Desperately trying to keep me out of the store, the next screen told me how to run Apple Diagnostics. It also told me that if my machine was issued before June 2013, Apple Diagnostics wouldn’t work, and I’d have to use Apple Hardware Test. My machine, which I acquired in EXACTLY June 2013, wouldn’t let me run either.
Finally: “No thanks, continue” gave me a menu of options, including leaving a phone number so Apple could call me back. On this page, I finally got to make an appointment for the Genius Bar.
We are being converted into a generation of IT specialists by companies that do not want to spend money to support us. Google doesn’t even have a phone number anymore. Neither does Misfit, with whom I’ve been having a running email exchange (“please do not write above this line”) about my inability to sync my Shine. I won’t bore you with the FAQ on its site.
I’d give anything for a reliable Indian guy in a call center.
