I looked around, trying to find the smiling dude (they have plenty of those in the Apple stores) and I walked towards him. I showed him my bricked iPhone. He looked at me with sad eyes, tried to unlock it, reboot it and finally agreed the touchscreen was dead.
I asked him if he has seen any other iPhone with a dead touchscreen and he answered: "many, the touchscreen simply stops working". Nice to feel I am not alone.
Then I asked him: "so, what's next?".
He said: "you need to go to the Genius bar" (I was less than a yard from the Genius bar). "They will look at it and give you a new one, since this one needs to be repaired". I asked if they had spare 4G iPhones (I believe I am the only one in the world left with a 4G iPhone). He said "sure".
Then he added: "unfortunately, the Genius bar is all booked today and probably also tomorrow".
He walked me to a laptop in the store where I could see when I could book my slot. The next slot was Monday at 1 pm.
Now, I told him I actually did not think I needed a genius to take my iPhone and give me a new one, any idiot could do it. He stopped smiling and told me "unfortunately, sir, you need to go to the Genius bar".
On a Saturday morning, to get an iPhone swapped, I have to wait until Monday. Sadly, I am working on Monday (actually, I am speaking at the .mobile Internet Forum in San Francisco, so I am not really working...). Therefore, I can't go and talk to the genius. I will have to wait.
And while I wait, I am paying at&t (and Apple) for a monthly subscription I can't use.
First impressions of Act 1:
- The smiling dude was very nice with me. +1 Apple
- The idea of needing a genius to swap an iPhone, when an idiot would be more than enough, is just dumb. In any other store, I could return the damn thing in two minutes. -5 Apple
- The fact that the Genius bar is overbooked makes the wait even more upsetting. -10 Apple
- Waiting from the beginning of the weekend to the beginning of the business week is really bad. -11 Apple
- Thinking that I am paying over the weekend while I am waiting for the Genius makes all this worse. -12 Apple
