Genius Bar, Part 3

I had a 12:40 appointment for today.  I show up at 12:30 and my name is on the board at the top of the list.

I get to the front and the guy is trying to finish up with this young lady.  She’s got a MacBook and she’s going to Shanghai for the semester but she is a student at Penn University.

She told me this with a hint of pride.  “Penn University.” Big emphasis on the “Penn.” I get it. She’s smart. This theory would be tested shortly.

So the big issue in her life is that she wants to make sure her laptop is running great before she goes over to China. You know, because they only make 90% of the world’s computers over there.

The Tech Guy comes back. “Maam, just to make sure you understand this – the issue with your computer has to do with Adobe, not the computer. You need an authorization code to use this software.”

She’s from Penn University.

“Okay, so are you telling me you can’t help me?”

“I’m telling you that when you bought this software, it came with an authorization key and that’s what the software wants before it runs.”

“I have to have this software for my school, I’m going to Shanghai.”

And…she’s from Penn University.

The Tech Guy is handling this extremely well. I’m very impressed with him. I mean, let’s face it – he can only tell her that she is in the Apple store, not the Adobe store so many times. He writes down the Adobe customer service number for her.

“How did you get that?”

“I just Googled it.”

So he turns to help me and we can both tell that while he has done above and beyond what a normal Tech Guy would do – the Penn student isn’t quite done but she’s at a loss of words. She finally gets up and leaves.

Meanwhile, The Tech Guy rattles through my issue fairly fast. Yes, it’s the sound card on the Logic Board. Yes, it will cost $310 to fix. Yes, it will take 3-5 business days.

I ask – “So is that 3-5 days to get it fixed or looked at then fixed?”

I guess it was my turn to be stupid.

“That’s 3-5 days and we’ll have your laptop to you working as good as new.”

I smiled.

“Happen to have a Fat Tire back there?”

He looked at me a bit weird.

“Never mind…thanks for your help. See ya’ in a few days.”