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Another amazing Apple Store experience and even learned a few new things!

iParis

iParis

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jul 29, 2008
3,671
31
New Mexico
I went into my local Apple Store today for my genius bar appointment. I guess there was some event going on at our outdoor mall because there wasn't parking anywhere so I had to park at the Trader Joe's across the street, which made me 8 minutes late (was already going to be a little late). Even though I was late they still happily helped me when ready and I didn't wait more than a few minutes.

I took my iPhone in because of my screen making a popping sound and not seeming as flush all the way around as it should be. There was an out of box scuff that I mentioned and showed, but I wasn't going to get it replaced just for that. The genius told me he wouldn't replace it for the scuff because I didn't open it there; that seemed odd by I didn't care too much. He explained that their process for the front place issues I was having is reseating it and then returning if it occurs again. Of course with my luck one of the times it stops making the sound is when I show it to him. He reseats it anyway and actually took me into the back of the store where it wasn't insanely loud so I could try to hear if it was making any noises, it wasn't. I was fine with this and new that if the problem arose again that I could take it back. Then after talking to him more and I guess after he talked to other employees more he still replaced it with a swap model for me, which I was very pleased with; I think at first he thought they didn't have any in.

He had me sign onto my My Verizon account. Little did I know my mom for some reason made the password for that different than the password you use when calling Verizon (that didn't make sense to me though since I used a successful password when purchasing my iPhone online). I called her and and she surprisingly answered the first time but she didn't remember the password! No matter though, the genius said he'd simply get an unactivated swap model instead and have me activate it by going to Verizon or calling *228, though he said he'd help me until I was done. After activating and going through setup it said there was no sim and dialing *228 ended in a failed call. We then realized I needed my old sim card since it wasn't an activated phone. I guess neither of us thought about that and are guessing Verizon only uses it for activation.


Before activating it though he had me take of the film and examine it for blemishes and scuffs before accepting it. It was flawless. Beautiful. Perfect. I actually think I had a little orgasm or adrenaline rush when I peeled back the film off her front, as weird as that sounds. I don't know why, but it just looked so much better than my last one. Oh, I even asked him if I should drain the battery upon first use and he said it's not needed. I've also noticed much better wifi strength. My iPhone 4 got 3 wifi bars all around my house, but with my original iPhone 5 it was always 1 bar. With my new iPhone 5 I get three bars everywhere and have only seen it go to two bars once or twice. I guess I had wifi problems I didn't even know about!

Just saying, if you have problems with your iPhone don't just sit here and b*tch, take it to the Apple Store. See what they can do. Everything may go better than expected!

This kind of has some positive upbringing in comparison to other threads.

Genius Bar won't see me if 3 minutes late to iPhone appointment!!!!
Apple refused to replace iPhone
Does your iPhone 5 screen click down in the corners?
And all similar threads and wifi problem threads. :p


Oh, I noticed something when setting it up for the first time. It gave me the option of selecting Verizon, Sprint, or Virgin Mobile and gave two warnings that it will be locked to that carrier before letting me continue. I'm guessing that's because it was an unactivated phone and/or didn't have a sim card.
 
JoshGlzBrk said:
As was mine. Having the manager ask me which of the two scuffed phones I wanted was a huge punch in the face. I just told him to give me my money back and that was that.
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Damn, that sucks! Even more that it was the manager! I don't think I've ever had a bad experience at my store. Where do you usually go?
 
I have never dealt bith better CS than Apple's in-store and on phone. There will always be a few bad apples though, no pun intended.
 
Why are you trying to dial *228? You don't activate 4G phones and it's amazing that Apple hires these kind of people and yet you rate this as positive ? All you had to do was take your sim card out of your phone and put it in the new phone :) No need to log into any account. What an epic fail and a major waste of time and the apple worker should be better trained
 
iParis said:
The genius told me he wouldn't replace it for the scuff because I didn't open it there; that seemed odd by I didn't care too much.
Click to expand...

It's not that odd.

There is no difference to the Apple Store employee (aren't only the ones manning the genius bars called geniuses?) between an iPhone that came out of the box damaged, and an iPhone that you damaged after taking it out of the box. They'll replace it in the former case but in this situation they can't be sure that that is what happened. And if they replace it while not sure, people are going to take advantage of that. And I'm sure you understand why that is unwanted.

That problem does not exist if you open it in the store, with an employee present. They can verify that the damage was present in the box, which of course should never ever happen, and replace it if it does.
 
My experience is that there a lot of "luck of the draw" at Apple stores. Overall, I am very happy, but sometimes I don't get the most helpful rep in the world.

Luckily, there are at 3 stores equal distance from where I live, so if I am not happy at one I just quietly leave and head to the other. But it's pretty rare for me to do this. Most of the time things go great.
 
JonMPLS said:
My experience is that there a lot of "luck of the draw" at Apple stores. Overall, I am very happy, but sometimes I don't get the most helpful rep in the world.

Luckily, there are at 3 stores equal distance from where I live, so if I am not happy at one I just quietly leave and head to the other. But it's pretty rare for me to do this. Most of the time things go great.
Click to expand...

I agree with this.
 
ROLLTIDE1 said:
Why are you trying to dial *228? You don't activate 4G phones and it's amazing that Apple hires these kind of people and yet you rate this as positive ? All you had to do was take your sim card out of your phone and put it in the new phone :) No need to log into any account. What an epic fail and a major waste of time and the apple worker should be better trained
Click to expand...

Because he told me to! D:
At least I helped him also learn something new!

CyBeRino said:
It's not that odd.

There is no difference to the Apple Store employee (aren't only the ones manning the genius bars called geniuses?) between an iPhone that came out of the box damaged, and an iPhone that you damaged after taking it out of the box. They'll replace it in the former case but in this situation they can't be sure that that is what happened. And if they replace it while not sure, people are going to take advantage of that. And I'm sure you understand why that is unwanted.

That problem does not exist if you open it in the store, with an employee present. They can verify that the damage was present in the box, which of course should never ever happen, and replace it if it does.
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I understood why, that's why I didn't care too much. It seemed odd to me because there were people here who got them replaced after coming back and it's not like their genius couldn't have said "Well why didn't you get it swapped then? Which employee was it that rang you up? Did you open it here or when you got home?" I think (again, crazy loud in the store) he told me one of the reasons he did it was because I pre-ordered online so they couldn't really have had a way to check it and would have been stupid for me to go wait at home for UPS to deliver it then go to the Apple Store to open it.

JonMPLS said:
My experience is that there a lot of "luck of the draw" at Apple stores. Overall, I am very happy, but sometimes I don't get the most helpful rep in the world.

Luckily, there are at 3 stores equal distance from where I live, so if I am not happy at one I just quietly leave and head to the other. But it's pretty rare for me to do this. Most of the time things go great.
Click to expand...

I usually tell people that if they have a bad experience at an Apple Store to try again a different day. It depends on the genius, their mood, what the other employees say when the genius doesn't know the answer, the day of the week, how pure your meth is, the weather, and what Laurene Jobs ate for breakfast.

Unfortunately, there's only one Apple Store in our entire state. >.< I can't wait to not live in the poorest state in the country.

SLC Flyfishing said:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1456266/

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1457949/
Click to expand...

Damn! I'm sorry. :\ Those people also have no right saying you shouldn't be upset. If your new phone had a couple niches you didn't care about and you were replacing your phone for a different reason, then mayybee. But you paid a large amount of money for a device. If it doesn't have cosmetic flaws then works it doesn't proportionate out when your swap phone has cosmetic flaws and works. What are they doing in the back of these Apple Store anyway, playing catch with swap models?

LoloBond said:
That almost made me cry.... thanks for sharing!
Click to expand...

Out of laughter, I'm sure. : P
 
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GoreVidal said:
Yes we do.
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So you wouldn't be upset if your defect phone was cosmetically perfect, but your functioning swap had apparent flaws? Then again, it was hard to tell how bad it was or wasn't based off his description. I might have gotten upset, but I don't think I'd go through the trouble of going through those extreme measures.
 
iParis said:
So you wouldn't be upset if your defect phone was cosmetically perfect, but your functioning swap had apparent flaws? Then again, it was hard to tell how bad it was or wasn't based off his description. I might have gotten upset, but I don't think I'd go through the trouble of going through those extreme measures.
Click to expand...

I pay money expecting a product without manufacturer defects, simple as that. The fact that some people dont respect or value their hard earned money has no bearing on me or what I expect from a sales transaction. Some people don't agree or see things the way I do, that's their prerogative. But ultimately I'm not worried about those yahoos who commented in my posts. I'm still going to demand a product that's delivered as advertised, or demand a discount for a clearly flawed product. I don't think that's unreasonable at all, especially when paying $800+.

My issue has been rectified, a new phone is on its way. Apple's customer care and apple care departments have both apologized profusely and even offered to discount a brand new replacement if Verizon doesn't come through like they say they will. Both departments mentioned that there will be steps taken to ensure this sort of thing doesn't continue to happen at my local store as well.

In te meantime, I've been given a loaner phone from Verizon while I wait for mine, and it looks like I may not have to pay for the service in the meantime.

I knew both of these companies didn't make a habit of poor customer service, but you have to speak to the people who can and who want to make thins right with the customers who pay their salaries.

I'm pleased with the outcome at this point.
 
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SLC Flyfishing said:
I pay money expecting a product without manufacturer defects, simple as that. The fact that some people dont respect or value their hard earned money has no bearing on me or what I expect from a sales transaction. Some people don't agree or see things the way I do, that's their prerogative. But ultimately I'm not worried about those yahoos who commented in my posts. I'm still going to demand a product that's delivered as advertised, or demand a discount for a clearly flawed product. I don't think that's unreasonable at all, especially when paying $800+.

My issue has been rectified, a new phone is on its way. Apple's customer care and apple care departments have both apologized profusely and even offered to discount a brand new replacement if Verizon doesn't come through like they say they will. Both departments mentioned that there will be steps taken to ensure this sort of thing doesn't continue to happen at my local store as well.

In te meantime, I've been given a loaner phone from Verizon while I wait for mine, and it looks like I may not have to pay for the service in the meantime.

I knew both of these companies didn't make a habit of poor customer service, but you have to speak to the people who can and who want to make thins right with the customers who pay their salaries.

I'm pleased with the outcome at this point.
Click to expand...

Exactly! Are there scratches on the pictures of the iPhone on Apple's website? No. I'm glad things worked out though!

KoukiFC3S said:
Hmm Virgin Mobile iPhone 5 huh? That'd be cool.
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Yeah, it was interesting! I mean, it's not like you can't get one on Virgin Mobile, but you can also get one on Cricket and smaller carriers. I took screenshots of it, surprised it even worked since I was still in the setup area, but they were deleted when I restored my iPhone from backup.
 
Oh! What was also weird is that when he had me sign into my My Verizon account he had me do it from my own MacBook that I brought to the appointment. Did he intend to do that with everyone? What if I didn't have it, would he have had me do it from a demo unit computer? Haha.
 
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