I could tell that my new sexy thing was back in Portland this morning. Don’t tell me how, but a quick check of the repair status page and the DHL tracking page showed me to be correct – as of 9:07 AM it was on the truck to be delivered to the store.
At lunchtime I walked in to the Apple Store Pioneer Place and double-checked the status on one of their computers. Yep, it showed that it was signed for as of 11:48 AM today.
I walked back to the first available staff person (not a Genius – those are only the folk behind the Genius Bar) and said, “I believe you’ve got my repaired MacBook Pro.”
The guy looked confused for a moment while he processed that. “Uh… did we give you a call?” He was over 6′ and chubby but had a baby face. He looked like a giant 12-year old. I’m sure he’s a nice guy, though.
“No, but according to DHL it was delivered over an hour ago. I’d like to pick it up, please.”
“Uh… when we get them in, we have to verify the repair first, then we call you-“
First rule of Customer Service – the customer does not want to hear about your “process”. Why is he telling me about their “process” for repairs?
“Well, since I’m here already, why don’t I verify the repair?” I asked.
“Uh… OK, I’ll go check” he pointed with both index fingers over his shoulder to the door behind the cashiers “in the back.”
“Great!” I poked around the store until he came back out.
“Uh… when it’s delivered, it’s not delivered” he pointed, again with both index fingers, directly at his feet “here. It’s delivered” both index fingers shifted to his left “a couple of blocks away, and she has to go get it and bring it” fingers returned to their downward-pointing position “here. It’s gonna be 10-15 minutes. Plus we have to verify the repair.” They must have covered that extensively in his training.
“Really? 10 or 15 minutes? OK.” I thought I was being kind of pushy but couldn’t stop myself from adding, “I just want it back.”
I waited around for maybe 5 minutes, total, near the Genius Bar until a guy came out, wearing a regular green t-shirt instead of the normal Genius black t-shirt, carrying a MBP and some paperwork. “Brian?” he called out.
I stepped right up. He told me to log in but I was already doing it. It was so hard not to go all Gollum on him, but I found the strength of will to resist for just a moment. I logged in while he told me what they’d done: replaced the main logic board, temperature sensors, battery, and RAM.
Whoa. Whatever, as long as it’s fixed. I thanked him, apologized for being a little pushy (he demurred and brushed it off like it was no big deal – and having worked in customer service jobs for a long time, I know that I was nowhere near the limit, but I still felt a bit guilty for aiming my snark at a couple of guys who didn’t really deserve it) and then I was on my way.
I’ve been using it for over a half hour, off the battery. Got Mail, Safari, Adium, and a couple of other utilities open. Both AirPort and Bluetooth are working. CoreDuoTemp shows 56° C which seems about 10° C lower than it would have been prior to the repair. The battery showed a full charge when I logged in at the store and now it shows 2:12 remaining… I’ll probably have to re-calibrate this new battery but otherwise that seems the same as before.
And the most important thing is: I am whole again.