This is both Customer Service and Get Organized week. Who knew? But in honor of these obscure observances, I decided to drag my new iMac through the mall for my one-to-one appointment at the Apple Store. After all, I paid $99 for this service, so I might as well use it.
My intent was to have someone help me fix all of the movie projects that would not open since they took up residence on my new computer. This is a hobby for me. Although no one in my family seems to want to watch the highlights of my grandkids skating, dancing, and swimming, I still want to preserve these movies after spending hours creating them, sound track and all.
My huge mistake was to ask the nice young man, who thought he would be spending an hour helping yet another hapless senior figure out how to make a slide show, why the calendar on my computer would no longer sync to my phone. This may not sound like a big deal, but how could I celebrate Get Organized Week when I didn't know everything I was supposed to do that day?
Much to his horror and mine, there were over a dozen different calendars lurking on my computer. And they were tied to several email addresses, included my defunct mobile me (remember that?) account. To make matters worse, some were in the Cloud (whatever that is) and some were simply living on my hard drive. Despite his valiant efforts, these calendars would neither merge nor disappear.
As if that weren't bad enough, I had upgraded my iPhone 5 to iOS 8.0. Why did I do that? Because the phone told me to, of course. After making this improvement, my phone would no longer sync with what was on my computer, only with the few calendar events that had mysteriously ended up in the Cloud.
OMG! After using up my entire hour of one-to-one customer service, nothing was working at all. And the store had become unbelievably crowded and noisy, making it hard to hear much of what the nice young man said beyond, "I need to consult with a Genius. I think you need one." You see, despite the still lagging economy, those happy 2-percenters had to buy the new iPhone 6. The line snaked through the store and outside.
Well, back to my disabled calendar. My time was up, so the nice young man was kind enough to fit me in for an appointment with a Genius. After a 45-minute wait (at least I could get to Starbucks for a coffee and bathroom break), the Genius appeared. He brought two Genius-in-training guys with him, proclaiming, "You need to check this out. It's a real mess." But he was polite and patient and was getting closer to fixing the mess when I had to leave. I had been in the store for 2 ½ hours, my head was pounding from the commotion, and I thought I had a doctor's appointment. No way to be 100% sure as I was now highly disorganized and deprived of all calendars.
And so, my saga will continue in a few days. I will lug the computer back. They tell me I can come to the back door so I don't have to drag it through the mall. How's that for Customer Service? They tell me to do some homework on it and they can probably fix it. My iPhone is now super full of information, as every entry and contact has mysteriously doubled after doing the homework.
I hope to celebrate the end of Get Organized Week with a single calendar that lives happily ever after in the Cloud and sends all of its events and reminders magically to my phone. But I still have my iMovie issue to solve. And now my phone is telling me to upgrade to OS 8.0.2. Dare I?
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