Worst shopping experience ever (AppleStore Regent Street)
I visited the AppleStore in Regent Street, London on Wednesday. Since I live outside the EU I am entitled to have the V.A.T. refunded upon leaving the UK. To do this, however, there are some forms that need to be filled in.
Every shop in London does this, but to make absolutely sure I asked at the cash registers about this. I asked 3 different persons, and got the same answer from all of them - you don't need any papers, just show the receipt at the customs and you will get the VAT refunded. This is not true.
I then asked to speak to the store manager. At least he was informed, and he apologized for them not being able to do this.
AppleStore London must be the only shop in London that cannot deliover "Taxfree for tourists"!
I then needed to have a couple of questions answered at the Genius Bar, but there was an 8-hour waiting list. If you want to talk to a "genius" you must request a time slot (you can do this from any of the Macs in the shop). When I was there the waiting time was 8 hours. Of course there were a lot of people who had requested a time, but didn't wait for their name to be called, so I just jumped up when a name was called and nobody seemed to answer to that name. I got the same answer to both my questions:
"Oh. It's not supposed to do that. I have no idea what can cause it."
Some "genius"!
On a more positive note:
The store was crowded, and people were shopping like mad.
But not me
Every shop in London does this, but to make absolutely sure I asked at the cash registers about this. I asked 3 different persons, and got the same answer from all of them - you don't need any papers, just show the receipt at the customs and you will get the VAT refunded. This is not true.
I then asked to speak to the store manager. At least he was informed, and he apologized for them not being able to do this.
AppleStore London must be the only shop in London that cannot deliover "Taxfree for tourists"!
I then needed to have a couple of questions answered at the Genius Bar, but there was an 8-hour waiting list. If you want to talk to a "genius" you must request a time slot (you can do this from any of the Macs in the shop). When I was there the waiting time was 8 hours. Of course there were a lot of people who had requested a time, but didn't wait for their name to be called, so I just jumped up when a name was called and nobody seemed to answer to that name. I got the same answer to both my questions:
"Oh. It's not supposed to do that. I have no idea what can cause it."
Some "genius"!
On a more positive note:
The store was crowded, and people were shopping like mad.
But not me
Comments
In any case, try our own genius bar forum for your questions, and see how it compares
You don't stand in line for eight hours, you make an *appointment*. You then leave, go do other things, and come back for your *appointment*. Heck, if you have a ProCare account, you can do it online, check what their schedule looks like, grab a slot that works for you, and it is reserved for you.
Show me a Best Buy/Circuit City that does that.
I've noticed a lot of variance between geniuses, some are great, some aren't. Luckily, at every store I've had anything more than a passing experience with, the bad ones get filtered out after a while.
tryd, why don't you post here what your problem is, and see if us unofficial geniuses can figure it out?
Originally posted by Kickaha
tryd, why don't you post here what your problem is, and see if us unofficial geniuses can figure it out?
I don't know what his problem is, but I feel pretty certain at this point that whatever it is, it's not supposed to do that.
Originally posted by Kickaha
tryd, why don't you post here what your problem is, and see if us unofficial geniuses can figure it out?
OK - here goes:
Problem 1: My 17" PB (1 GB RAM, all the latest system updates) sometimes (about once every week - or lets say once every 10 - 20 times) doesn't wake from sleep. The only way to solution is to reboot. No major problem, but a nuisance. It only happens upon opening the screen - if the screen is open (hasn't been closed) and I just touch the keyboard it wakes every time. Hardware-related?
Problem 2: Sometimes (not always) when I unplug it to run on batteries the computer suddenly becomes unresponsive for 5-6 minutes. I get the "Spinning Beachball" and things generally stops. It reacts to mouseclicks, but it takes 30-60 secs for each click to register. I can hear the disk working like mad. The machine generally becomes unusable for 5-6 (or even 10) minutes.
Then suddenly it works fine.
The problem can also be network-related, but I don't have any servers connected, and search for mounted volumes should time out after about 90 seconds (and it shouldn't freeze the machine like that).
OK - show me that you really are geniuses!
Originally posted by MacsRGood4U
I'm not a genius, but do you run Disk Utility regularly - especially after you download an update? Just asking.
Not regulary, but once in a while.
Also - the periodic daily, weekly and monthly scripts are run regularly.
Your sleep problem is a known issue with some PBs. Dunno why, I haven't been hit by it, but it is at least a known one. The Genius should have known that.
The other sounds like the disk thrashing over a big virtual memory swap. By any chance do you click on applications trying to find one that isn't 'stuck'? If so, that just makes it worse.
Originally posted by Kickaha
Your sleep problem is a known issue with some PBs. Dunno why, I haven't been hit by it, but it is at least a known one. The Genius should have known that.
Agreed - he should have. I know that it is a known issue on some PBs.
Originally posted by Kickaha
The other sounds like the disk thrashing over a big virtual memory swap. By any chance do you click on applications trying to find one that isn't 'stuck'? If so, that just makes it worse.
That sounds plausible. I will try looking at the console/log next time. It doesn't happen always, jusy once in a while, so just opening the Console and pulling the plug will probably not reveal anything now. I'll have to keep the Console open and make sure the console window is visible so I can see what's happening the next time.
Originally posted by tryd
Not regulary, but once in a while.
Also - the periodic daily, weekly and monthly scripts are run regularly.
How do you know these are run regularly, you can't choose when the run (natively) can you? I don't like leaving my computer off but have been to, to leave it on to allow the OS to repair itself or whatever it does.
(I applied for a Genius job, they didn't even interview me, they did interview me for the Specialist job though, but to no avail, the manage is really nice though - he came over from an American store!)
Originally posted by MacCrazy
How do you know these are run regularly, you can't choose when the run (natively) can you?
I usually don't sleep the computer at night - just let it sleep the screen. Then the scripts will be run during the night.
If the computer sleeps for a while I run the scripts from the terminal.
Just open the terminal and type:
sudo periodic daily (or weekly or monthly).
The computer will ask you for the administrators password, and then run the script when you provide it.
perhaps a rogue process is eating some ressources....
Quicksilver used to make my ibook starve for memory.
Originally posted by tryd
I usually don't sleep the computer at night - just let it sleep the screen.
If the hard drive spins down does that mean that the computer wont do the checks? so you just let the computer turn off! I think Apple should allow the user to see when the last check was done and allow you to force one much more easily. Also documentation would be nice!
Originally posted by tryd
OK - here goes:
Problem 1: My 17" PB (1 GB RAM, all the latest system updates) sometimes (about once every week - or lets say once every 10 - 20 times) doesn't wake from sleep. The only way to solution is to reboot. No major problem, but a nuisance. It only happens upon opening the screen - if the screen is open (hasn't been closed) and I just touch the keyboard it wakes every time. Hardware-related?
I just had this happen to me last weekend. I usually sleep my laptop by closing the lid so I don't normally have issues with waking from sleep.
I think this issue could've been USB related as I either unplugged my CF reader while the laptop was sleeping or too quickly when the computer woke from sleep, which necessitated a reboot.
Maybe your problem is USB related? I've since made sure all USB devices were disconnected for at least a minute before sleeping the laptop and not connect anything USB until it's fully awake and I haven't had another problem yet.
This was only the 2nd time it hasn't woken from sleep properly since the Panther upgrade so I might not have the same issue as you.
If you're running Jaguar and have SMB mounted disks that disappear while your computer is asleep this will cause a lockup on wake-up, but the screen will come back to life. You end up with the SWOD (Spinning Wheel Of Death) though.
Originally posted by tryd
I visited the AppleStore in Regent Street, London on Wednesday. Since I live outside the EU I am entitled to have the V.A.T. refunded upon leaving the UK. To do this, however, there are some forms that need to be filled in.
Every shop in London does this, but to make absolutely sure I asked at the cash registers about this. I asked 3 different persons, and got the same answer from all of them - you don't need any papers, just show the receipt at the customs and you will get the VAT refunded. This is not true.
You should've voted YES for EU and ?uro. We did and because of that we're the only scandinavians using iTunes Music Store. Not to mention other benefits which would make you even more jealous...
Originally posted by faedera
You should've voted YES for EU and ?uro. We did and because of that we're the only scandinavians using iTunes Music Store. Not to mention other benefits which would make you even more jealous...
LOL