Genius Bar Question
I've gotten a couple of really great questions about the Genius Bar. So I thought I'd address one right now.
"Will you be fined if you miss a Genius Bar appointment"?
That's a good question that I hadn't really thought about. The short answer is, no, but there is more to it than that.
One of the greatest things about the Apple Store (and buying an Apple product), is that they have an in-store repair department that you can make an appointment for and have someone look at your computer problem. And it's free. If you have AppleCare, the repair is also free. But, and this is important, you must make a reservation for an appointment. If you just show up, you may have to wait hours to see someone.
Now, if you miss that appointment, what's going to happen? As I said before, you won't be fined, but it will impact what will happen later. Appointments are removed from the queue 15 minutes after the appointment time. If you don't show up within those 15 minutes, you lose your spot. Simple as that. If you walk in 20-30 minutes late, don't expect to be seen. They won't reinstate your appointment and all the screaming at the staff will seriously hurt your chances of getting 'fitted into' an appointment that someone else missed. If you don't like getting yelled at, don't do it to someone else. Try to get to the store 10-15 minutes before your appointment and check-in with any of the staff in blue shirts.
If you're going to be late, call the store number and hit the option 5 to get an operator. That's going to give you the chance to warn the bar that you will be late and they can keep the appointment live a bit longer.
One final note. If you miss a One-To-One appointment, you WILL be locked out of making one for another week. That's the only case where you will be penalized for missing an appointment with Apple.