Although I noticed another similiar question, is it best to have an appointment for my MacBook Pro since the "." (period key) does not function as it should? This device is just barely less than a year old.

Less than a year is warranty replacement of faulty part. I'd still make an appointment with the genius bar first.

Walk-ins are fine. The wait time for me was less than 5 minutes and the store was packed, as usual.

My imac was 3weeks old and they replaced the motherboard and it never worked right after that. That was a year ago been there 5 times w\ an appointment still dont work out of warranty this is a bad shop bad service they will keep you coming back i have a 3000.00 $ doorstop i know.