Apple Store -1

Last night was a disappointing evening at the Apple Store. I'd been unable to burn a dvd on my Macbook Pro, and troubleshooting pointed to the dvd write head needing replacement. I made an 8pm appointment at the Genius Bar, and arrived at the recommended 7:55pm toting the computer, power supply, and dvds I'd used, and secure in the knowledge that I had seven months before the Applecare warranty expired.

I checked in, and was told that the service appointments were running a few minutes behind. B.J. and I spent about twenty minutes browsing cases, software, and messing around with all the new software. Periodically, employees would offer assistance, which we declined, mentioning each time that we were waiting for the Genius Bar.

Come 8:30, we sat down to play I Spy on the children's computers, which was by far, the highlight of the night. At 8:45, my patience ran out, and I snagged an employee to ask what the hold up was. He responded by apologizing profusely, saying my appointment had been canceled. Regardless, he worked me in, and fifty minutes past the appointment time, I sat down at the Genius Bar.

Ten to fifteen minutes of troubleshooting later (trying different DVDs, checking the system log, etc), Mr. Genius went to the back and returned with a replacement drive. In order to eliminate software issues entirely (as a last ditch effort before authorizing the repair), we booted the laptop off an external HD and burned from there. Surprisingly, the burn worked perfectly.

I left the Apple Store after an hour and a half with instructions to do an archive and install and a reminder that the store was closing for two weeks of renovations, and I would need to go to another store for any further repairs.