Originally Posted By: tahir
Would be very nice if they actually told you that rather than send you to the back of the Genius queue smile
At my local Apple Store, there is a Genius Bar triage ‘greeter’ when I walk in. I tell them what the issue is. A few notes are taken and I get a time estimate for an appointment (typically an hour or so into the future). I can then go away and do other things. I will get a message on my iPhone when my appointment slot is coming up, and I then walk back into the Apple Store.

If I pre-book a Genius Bar appointment using the Support app, then the triage greeter sends me to a designated spot at the Genius Bar tables, and within minutes someone is helping me.

Apparently Apple recently rejiggered the proportions of Genius Bar time slots that are available for walk-in traffic, so support app bookings tend to be farther into the future than they used to be.

Tip: Apple Stores tend to have really fast WiFi Internet. No appointment necessary, just be near or inside the store. I suspect it may have some special sauce (server in the back room) so downloads of Apple specific content, such as iOS updates, are really fast. Might even have super fast iCloud backup/restore capability confused , which would be useful for the Genius Bar.