For very small values of "genius"

[music | The Prodigy - Charly]

It just took 3 technicians 17 minutes to pull a drive from my Mac Pro and slide in a new one. That includes (4 days plus) 7 minutes looking for a new one.

After calling two local Apple certified repair folks and being told by each that they'd have to order a drive and it would take several days, I decided to drive the 40 miles and go to the Apple Store. Surely they'd have drives in stock. They told me...several days until a replacement arrives from Apple. I was pretty stunned. I was surprised enough when CompUSA and MacEdge didn't have any 250GB SATA drives on hand they could put in, but for Apple themselves. That's just sad.

I can't blame the first "Genius", the guy who pulled the drive and took it off the rails, he was handling 3 MacBook issues at opposite ends of their Bar. The Second guy found my new drive, and, at Tech #1's request, put it on the rails. Another 5 minutes passed before Tech #3 saved the day by walking by, sliding it in (NO NOT THAT BAY!) and handed me my machine.

This did not require any tests, no power applied ever, just "pull this thing out and slide that thing in". They didn't install the OS, just gave me a blank drive. From what I understand, Apple doesn't do Enterprise support any differently, which makes me very sad. I can understand why small companies or very very large companies (or universities) could have a lot of Macs, they'll either take them to the Apple store by hand, or get regular massages from an Apple rep. But what about companies in the middle?

Depending on the problem, next time I have a repair on this thing I might just eat the $70 (if the drive dies again) and forego Applecare, I don't need to stand and wait for an Appointment for 70 minutes, then be told to come back in three days, and repeat the process, all while watching iPod repairs sail by by the dozens. Not fun for me. Not for a 45 SECOND repair, tops.