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Genius Bar Appointment for Glass Replacement

Why does Apple not reserve a glass replacement part when you schedule a genius bar appointment for glass replacement? I made a genius bar appointment last week for today to have the glass replaced on my IPhone 17 only to find after taking the time to drive to the store that they didn't have it in stock. Why would they have a customer drive to the store when the inventory isn't available?


5 replies

Parts are allocated first come, first serve. I understand your frustration and desired solution, but repairs don’t work that way. For all we know someone showed up for their appointment an hour before you and the store had one in stock. Do you have AppleCare?


Repairs are not promised at specific times. If you call the store a day or two before the appointment and alert them to the issue and confirm stock and your appointment time, parts can many times be reserved. Reservations require the customer to be proactive and not assume unlimited supply.

Hi, former Apple Store manger here. Sorry for the inconvenience, but parts are stocked automatically by a computerized system based on past demand and anticipated short term future demand. In my experience over years, the system works extremely well. The most likely scenario is the store has in the past not had a lot of screen replacements for your specific model and their stock was relatively low based on past demand. In other words only a couple were stocked, which under normal conditions would meet anticipated demand plus an additional one or two screens to meet unexpected demand. It's possible the store experienced a higher than usual demand and/or a supply constraint. Did you express your disappointment to the Genius or a member of the management team?

I did express displeasure, his response was there really wasn't anything he could do about it and that may well be true and I also don't doubt your explanation. But having people drive to the store to get a glass replacement on time with an appointment and then turning them away because you don't have the inventory is a great way to infuriate customers (and I was fit to be tide, still am.) This is not a difficult thing to fix, e.g. reserve inventory for appointments (I would even put down a deposit.) Or alternatively tell customers that the existence of an appointment doesn't guarantee availability of the glass at the store, so call in advance. There are hundreds of easy ways to fix the problem.

I appreciate where you’re coming from. I think you have expectations about how repair service works and I’ve been telling you how they work and how you can avoid future frustrations and disappointment. If you don’t want to follow my advice that’s your prerogative.


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I understand that they don't work that way, because I spent ~ an hour driving back and forth to the store and waiting only to be turned away because they didn't have the part. In addition, I had to rearrange my schedule around the fact that I wasn't going to have my cell phone for a number of hours. No I do not, nor will I buy AppleCare, it's crazy expensive and I have had an Iphone for some 20 years and only cracked my screen twice in that time period, so the ROI is not even close to being worth the cost. As for repairs not being promised, I guess I know that...now, as for the customer being proactive...why? I made an appointment to have the glass replaced there was absolutely NOTHING that indicated that I would show up at the store only to find out that they didn't have inventory. There is NO defense for lousy customer service and I won't EVER forget it.