...check his own hard drive...
Right. Sure. A consumer is going to open up his notebook computer and just check his hard drive. Did you even watch the video? He said he was "...just blown away with the GREAT experience" he had at the Genius Bar. They found his problem, fixed it, went beyond to instal Leopard for him, and all at no charge... On an out of waranty notebook! That was a rave review!
The second guy also was mostly happy. His only complaint was that the Genius told him something was not possible that he later admitted he had not explained well. For your information, a "Virtual server" is something that is done on a computer, not a router. A router hasn't the capacity to be a sever. OSX Macs can act as virtual servers to other computers via "port forwarding" through any router or switch. If you watch the rest of the video, he praises the staff at Apple and complains about Dell's script readers.
The third guy's video rant (in two parts) is a complaint that although he had an appointment he had to wait 50 minutes to ask "is there some software that can fix my drive problems for me?" I agree that wait shouldn't happen, but he wanted a specific fix in software for a problem rhat might be in hardware. The tech told him that it might not be software fixable. He then complained that a piece if third party software he had already bought called "Drive Genius" had failed to fix his problem. The genius agreed that it was a "one trick pony." Even though the Apple staff had already told him that he might have a hardware issue, he seemed determined to "fix" it with software... In fact he bought "Diskwarrior" to keep on doing it himself. He should have allowed the tech at the Genius Bar to at least test his drive.
It looks to me, that aside from the second guy's 50 minute wait, the Genius Bar people were correct and gave the proper advice or fixed the problem.
My point was the people going there were a little stupid. They shouldn't have had to go there. Sure the Genius Bar helped them but come on that's advice any regular salesperson at BB would know, not even talking about the Geek Squad either. This kind of addresses the claim you made in an earlier post on an earlier thread that Mac users tend to have more knowledge than average PC users. I know you will claim I cherry picked these videos to prove a point but in 2 of the 3 videos they had positive things to say about the Genius Bar for the most part, but my point is these people don't have the knowledge about computers you led me to believe. The first guy can't figure out how to take out his hard drive in his notebook? Hearing him contemplate whether it may have been a software versus a hardware problem he sounds like a total idiot. Second guy sounded more knowledgeable and yes he did concede he didn't explain it right, but the point I am making the "Genius" steered him away from that router as he told him he couldn't make it function as a virtual server. I'm sure if he explained what he wanted to do, the "Genius" just did not know and was wrong. Good thing the guy had the persistence to look for the answer online that the "Genius" couldn't provide for him. Better yet is he goes back there to correct the "genius". Third guy just seemed like an impatient idiot. My point was to show the chaotic environment these places are. On a serious note, why would they get rid of appointments or at least a ticket # like at a deli counter or bakery? Makes no sense...
I will commend Apple for offering these services as a complimentary service for Apple users, that is a very good idea.