I had some extra time this morning, so I decided this would be the day to take care of it. I decided that I would go to the Apple Store First.

APPLE STORE
If you’ve never been in an Apple Store, it’s an experience. Upon entering the store, I was greeted and was asked right away if there was anything that they could help me. I told them my problem, gave them my name and they told me that I could browse around or have a seat and someone from the genius bar would take care of me. (I actually signed up an hour earlier online for an appointment with the geniuses) The really neat thing about this lady greeting me when I arrived, she didn’t have to go over to a computer to register me – she just pulled out her itouch and registered me right there. super cool & super efficient!!

I had to wait about 5 minutes or so for my genius appointment. Did I mind? Nope! Not at all. I had a seat, pulled out my laptop, hopped on their free wireless network and started going thru email. All the while, I could see what order I would be called b/c of a set of displays behind the genius bar that showed the order of people. No worries that they forgot me or anything like that.

Name called – walked up to the genius bar and told them my problem – not being able to have my voice mail notify me of any new messages. They treated my problem like their problem. The tested out my iphone, noticed that a few things were a little wacky and not working correctly. They told me what they were going to do and what it would mean. They asked my permission to wipe it out and basically start fresh (take about 10 minutes or so). I gave the consent. They also stated that I might want to go to AT&T to get a new SIM card. That might also be the problem and it was also an original SIM card and older. They popped it out and suggested I go to the AT&T store in the mall to double check on my contract and the SIM card.

AT&T
Upon entering the AT&T store, not much happened. Then I went up to the counter and was asked if I could be helped. I told them (a lady and a man) my problem, that APPLE was rebooting my phone, and the suggestion about checking my plan and a new SIM card. They were not happy that I was there and told me that it is an APPLE issue and not an AT&T one. Also, they told me that they could give me a new SIM card, but couldn’t activate it because their computer was down. But I could try to come back in 20 minutes or so. So I left. It felt like I was inconveniencing them andI left with the intention of never going back.

Back to APPLE
Upon returning to APPLE, my iphone was being worked on a little more. I gave them the SIM card and told them that AT&T’s computers were down (PC’s by the way). They popped the SIM card back in, and we had the phone working again in a few minutes. They mentioned that “wiping everything clean” fresh install seemed to solve the problem. They still suggested I get a new SIM card to insure against that being an issue.

Back to AT&T
I didn’t want to go back, thought of leaving, but decided that today was the day and I just wanted to get this things taken care of. I went back. I was directed to a different guy who was very nice. I mentioned my problem, my “reinstall” at Apple and about the possibility of getting a new SIM card. He said sure, pulled up my info on their computer (was partially working now) and said that getting a new SIM card was a good idea since mine was an older original one. His customer service was vastly different from the service I received from his coworkers 1/2 hour earlier.

So… what’s this mean? It means getting my iphone taken care of was a pain. But it has served me very well the past # of years and hopefully will continue to do so.

But it also means that I like going to APPLE a whole lot more than AT&T. While the 2nd guy at AT&T was nice, knowledgeable and helped me out, I also don’t want to have to deal with lady #1 or man #1. They left a bad taste in my mouth. I left APPLE with good feelings about their store, their employees and the customer service I was given.

And isn’t that odd – because looking at the problem is interesting if you look at it from a distance.
- I bought my iphone from an AT&T store. (sure it’s an APPLE product, but it’s warrantee has long since expired).
- I am a CURRENT customer of AT&T and pay them monthly.
- The problem seemed to mostly be a non-cellular problem.

But yet, I feel better about APPLE than AT&T.