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zepharus

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 7, 2007
684
2
so I take my Mbp into the apple store tonight for a speaker replacement and some kernel panic issues. Genius looks at my apps on the dock and says "wow you have some pretty advanced stuff here like quicksilver and growl". I almost laughed outloud but caught myself. WTF are they training thess guys on? LOL
 

Lovesong

macrumors 65816
The genius I took my MBP to had no idea how to do the software zoom. I used it to zoom into a blank page to show him how awful my one dead pixel really looked. I don't know, these guys are not the uber geeks we are, but still, they get paid for this :rolleyes:
 

rosh325

macrumors regular
Jul 13, 2007
169
0
In the ether
Reminds me of when I tried to find out about swapping my large MBP powerbrick for the newer ones. "What new ones? I've never heard of them". I know if I worked for apple, I would be reading macrumors even more.
 

squeeks

macrumors 68040
Jun 19, 2007
3,393
15
Florida
Reminds me of when I tried to find out about swapping my large MBP powerbrick for the newer ones. "What new ones? I've never heard of them". I know if I worked for apple, I would be reading macrumors even more.

well, i think a problem might be is that a lot of them just see it as a job and not something to take intrest in, i certainly would want to know everything apple (well i want know anyway) if i worked there
 

queshy

macrumors 68040
Apr 2, 2005
3,690
4
It's their job - and they probably don't really like it and probably aren't even that into macs. Not knowing the software zoom is pathetic though! It took me a few days to figure that out once I got my mac! Surely it would have happened to them accidently (as it did to me) by now!
 

j/k/Andy

macrumors regular
Jun 5, 2007
197
0
Imagine if they called you a 'genius' at your job, bit of pressure, no?


There are levels of 'genius' at the bar, a few are better then most. Be nice and they will be nice to you, or they can just send your system off to the service center and then who knows what.
 

martychang

macrumors regular
Sep 3, 2007
191
0
I could see Mac Genius being an attractive job for a lazy tech. Defenders of Windows tend to harp on how much more hardware it has to run on than OS X: same idea here.

Lazy tech doesn't want to have to google what kind of exotic NIC this person has, or if there are any drivers for this device from a now defunct company, or if there are any known issues with this motherboard chipset when running with ram made by this company blah blah etc etc.

PCs can be very annoying to keep up with, some people might just want to work on computers that come from a very consistent, standardized, and narrow range of hardware. The only thing they need to learn is the OS, and only enough to be able to troubleshoot it.
 

sbluetruck

macrumors regular
Jul 25, 2007
207
0
Wisconsin der hey
while the Mac Geniuses are far more knowledgeable than the "geek squad" .... both have really taken on the roles as salesmen more than computer technician.

it's sad really, but they figure one can make more money if the problem can be solved with something new, scrap the old. hasn't everything become that way lately?

oh, and *cough* do you know how old you have to be to be a Mac "genius"??? :D
 

DJMastaWes

macrumors 65816
Jan 14, 2006
1,243
1
Montreal, Quebec
Yeah, a lot of the people who work at the apple stores aren't as knowledgeable as some of the members here. But, there are more new mac users/inexperienced computer users/people who aren't computer savvy than there are mac enthusiast. So, it's okay for the geniuses to know what they know.

A huge part of apple is image. They'll hire a hip, 22 year old, with a scruffy beard, wearing converse, over a 40 year old geek, who knows more about macs than the whole store combined. Obviously the 40 year old geek is more qualified, but it seems to be "image first, knowledge second" with apple. Which doesn't seem to be all bad, because they hipsters can just learn the OS.

Whatever the case is, the fact that a genius doesn't know how to software zoom, isn't a huge deal in my opinion. Most of the people going into the genius bar are new mac users or inexperienced computer users, who have no use for software zoom, and could care less about it. The people who use the computer vigorously, and are mac enthusiast, tend to fix things themselves, and come to a place like marcrumors for aid, thus eliminating the service of a genius.

Like others said in the thread; they probably don't care about macs all that much. It's just they're job, not their hobby (for most of the employees).

My $0.02.
 

SC68Cal

macrumors 68000
Feb 23, 2006
1,642
0
i'm with you brother:mad:

I gave up on them after they:

A) Didn't fix my laptop (see my blog) after a week. I spent my Labor Day in an Apple store.

B) Didn't understand what I was talking about when I started talking shop about OS X and some security issues (MOAB 15 and the like, as well as running demo machines with admin accounts)
 

polishmacuser

macrumors 6502a
Jan 17, 2007
799
0
Los Angeles
all i would have to say is it just depends where you go. LIke near me there are very smart geniuses and they helped me alot and whenever i asked them a question is was answered. Hear this though i was helping my dad shop for a macbook pro and one of the salesmen come up to us and try to help us. We started talking and all and we mentioned that my dad wants blu ray on his macbook pro and salesman didnt even know what was blu-ray i was stunned im 16 years old and he was 30 or something like that and i even knew. Thats why i help my dad shop for macs lol :D
 

CalBoy

macrumors 604
May 21, 2007
7,849
37
I think the problem with geniuses is that the job standards aren't high enough. With Apple's expansion in the retail arena (and it keeps growing), it becomes harder to find good geniuses. When there were only a handful of Apple Stores, finding good genius was an easier task; with the many that are open now, it can be difficult to keep quality the same. Perhaps a tougher screening process is in order, and maybe even slightly higher pay (to justify tougher qualifications).
 

ivi7

macrumors 6502a
Sep 17, 2007
796
0
When I went to visit the geniuses i was in for a surprise. I had 3 issues with my laptop and after an hour of him wondering what to do we gave up. And this is what he told me at the end of it all. "I am sorry I couldn't solve any of your problems, just a bad day" wtf
 

kuebby

macrumors 68000
Jan 18, 2007
1,582
13
MD
We started talking and all and we mentioned that my dad wants blu ray on his macbook pro and salesman didnt even know what was blu-ray i was stunned im 16 years old and he was 30 or something like that and i even knew. Thats why i help my dad shop for macs lol :D

Why should he know what BR is? He doesn't work at Best Buy, he works for Apple. Apple hasn't even decided what format they're going to support and they certainly don't make MBPs with BR drives.
 

dontwalkhand

macrumors 603
Jul 5, 2007
6,382
2,869
Phoenix, AZ
Why should he know what BR is? He doesn't work at Best Buy, he works for Apple. Apple hasn't even decided what format they're going to support and they certainly don't make MBPs with BR drives.

Apple should just put a Blu-Ray/HD-DVD/DVD drive in there and be done with it, though it would drive the cost up the roof.
 

itsallinurhead

macrumors 6502
Apr 23, 2007
495
0
Southern California
Reminds me of when I tried to find out about swapping my large MBP powerbrick for the newer ones. "What new ones? I've never heard of them". I know if I worked for apple, I would be reading macrumors even more.

I had that same experience, but after my old brick caught on fire. I actually had to point out what was changed.
 

mandoman

macrumors 6502
Nov 8, 2005
392
73
It doesn't matter what you go in for, I guarantee the first thing out
of the Genius's mouth will be "I've never heard of that issue before".
 

shu82

macrumors 6502a
Jan 10, 2007
697
4
Rocket City, AL
Stay away from those apple stores. There are still indie mac stores we need to help out. That is where the real knowledge is. A lot of these guys made it through the late 90's hell with their business. That is dedication to Macs. When I have problems I can't fix, I go there. Its usually free just to talk it out. Heck, he was the guy who upgraded my quadra from an 040 to PPC! (OS 8 here I come!)

Those are the real "Geniuses"
 

Rube

macrumors member
Sep 14, 2007
62
0
Why should he know what BR is? He doesn't work at Best Buy, he works for Apple. Apple hasn't even decided what format they're going to support and they certainly don't make MBPs with BR drives.

What made you think Apple was interested in HD DVD? Go to the Blu-ray Disk Association website and there is the Apple logo listed first. Go to the Macrumors thread here. An optional Blu-Ray disc drive s listed as an option. Burning 50 gb of data to a thin disk is very attractive to me.

I went to an Apple store and showed the genius something he didn't know was possible on the laptop(finding the display manufacturer). It was my first Apple and I had less than 3 hours on the system. He also claimed he was a "senior genius". He is like my faulty screen and is "within specs".
 
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