It was Thursday so the little robots at the Apple Store were wearing black tee-shirts. They were busy organising the visitors into possible challenges for the Geniuses up on Mt Olympus or buyers of more geeky stuff. Appointments were being made on identical I-pads and everybody was extra cheerful and well trained to postpone answering any question for several hours with the ubiquitous advice:-

“You can always call Apple Care, you know.”  An expensive adventure in time and money.

We only had one simple question, but the munchkin said that he was not allowed to look at my note book even though he believed he could solve the problem quite fast. It was not his programme for the day and he had to obey orders. Hmm…

I have never been impressed by the kindergarten atmosphere of the Apple Store. It seems to be patronising and unhelpful. When  we expressed our exasperation emphatically he agreed to peek at our note book. It was a system problem he could not resolve and told us that it would it correct itself in a little while. Sadly,  he was not scheduled to do that on this blackshirt day.

How ironic that refusing to help us took him much longer than having a peek at our note book.  In the end he achieved nothing more than wasting our time.

We went home, non-plussed. My non-munchkin spouse,  who is not “a computer expert”,  fiddled around with the settings. Perhaps he could resolve that system problem that was meant to correct itself.  He did what would have taken the restricted employee just a few minutes.  And he did it without donning a coloured Tee-shirt or uttering geeky greetings that rang hollow in the world of adults who should grow up.

Gimmicks are extremely annoying when sensible service is lacking.