Best Buy to Offer Apple-Certified Repairs
Apple today announced the completion of a major expansion of its Apple authorized service network. With nearly 1,000 Best Buy stores across the US now providing expert service and repairs for Apple products, customers have even easier and more convenient access to safe and reliable repairs.
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By expanding to every Best Buy store across the US, customers in cities including Yuma, Arizona; Sioux City, Iowa; Twin Falls, Idaho; Casper, Wyoming and Bismarck, North Dakota will have more convenient access to Apple repairs. Plus, Best Buy’s Geek Squad has nearly 7,600 newly Apple-certified technicians ready to make same-day iPhone repairs or to service other Apple products.
Sounds good, although I wonder what types of repairs they’ll be able to do. Can they replace a MacBook Pro keyboard without mailing it in? Will they charge for “free” iPhone battery replacements, like I’ve seen other authorized service providers do?
I was one of those “Apple certified” techs at the Geek Squad/Best Buy I worked at for 12 years. The training is a joke, you read a few articles and watch a video, then are expected to be able to repair every iPhone that Apple is willing to give you parts for. Forget about same day replacement or loner phones cause that is not going to happen. The few parts that can be replaced in-house are ones that I have hardly ever seen fail, like a speaker or a cellular receiver. Most items are shipped out and your lucky if it takes less then a week to get is back. Some items have a very quick turn around time like Apple TV and sometimes Apple Watch. Your better off just going through Apple, even just mailing it in to them is faster then taking it to a Best Buy, and you will get much better customer service. When anyone in Geek Squad sees an Apple device all they want to do is run and hide cause the process is so horrible, even just to check it in.
Previously:
- How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster
- Lobbying Against Right to Repair
- Apple Launches Keyboard Repair Program for MacBook and MacBook Pro
- Apple’s Message to Customers About iPhone Batteries and Performance
3 Comments RSS · Twitter
During the most overloaded part of the battery replacement fiasco a while back, Apple let you go to Best Buy to get your iPhone battery replaced. I tried doing that. They asked me for my phone's unlock code. I explained they didn't need it to replace my battery, and that I wasn't giving them access to all the accounts my phone could get to just to have my battery replaced. They insisted and said I had nothing to worry about. I walked out. (Naturally when I went to an actual Apple store, they did not insist on having the unlock code.)
If that place is going to be "authorized", that feels like a major diminution in the quality of the repair experience is in progress.
Given “Geek” “Squad’s” long and checkered history with violating customer privacy I wonder how Tim Cook is going to explain this to the AAPL faithful.
[…] of Best Buy’s Geek Squad techs being unable to resolve standard repair problems. Developer Michael Tsai wonders if Best Buy will be able to perform MacBook Pro keyboard replacements in-house and if the company […]
