Last week I had one of those days when a cascading set of dependencies made it absolutely impossible to get any work done. I wanted to make a screencast, but the software I was using no longer saved in mpeg4 format, in order to install new software I had to upgrade my OS to Snow Leopard (I know, I know…) which meant I needed a bigger hard drive, and probably more RAM – you get the idea.
Months ago, I braved the crowds at the Apple Store at Marienplatz one Saturday to go to the ‘Genius Bar’ after making my online appointment. After waiting too long, the ‘Genius’ informed me that yes, they could replace my hard drive, it was up to me to back up all my data somewhere and it would take two weeks (or some amount of time that I just couldn’t be laptop-less). The guy was not particularly helpful nor patient and is attitude was basically: Any questions? good, next!
Back to last week. The thought of returning to the chaotic, crowded, unfriendly Apple Store made me want to crawl under my desk, so I made an online appointment at Gravis. I went in the next day. There was one person waiting before me. The ‘Gravis Guy’ helped me within 5 minutes of my scheduled appointment. He was charming, friendly and helpful. Not only did he have no problem with my American keyboard and English OS, he informed me that my hard drive was corrupted but no problem, they could clone it before they installed a new one, throw in some RAM and have my Macbook back to me as good as gold by the next day. He also patiently answered my dummy questions about how this would affect my DropBox data, etc.
And the next day, back in my hot little hands it was, working better than ever! I had planned to lose a whole day of work but they finished by early afternoon.
Then just yesterday I went in to get a copy of Snow Leopard since I found I couldn’t download it on the Apple store. I was walking around looking clueless for less than 45 seconds when a friendly Mitarbeiter came up to me and asked with a smile if I needed help. I told him what I was looking for and he explained that I had to order the physical software online and that it would be sent to me via post. He said all of this without an unspoken ‘dumb ass‘ at the end.
Wahlmünchnerin sez vielen dank Gravis!
wahlmuenchnerin.com 
Haha yes! I was there yesterday, First at the apple store and then gravis- what a world of difference! And they have free water and a lovely corner they let me nurse in, so thumbs up from me too!