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Disappointed with Apple Store

C

chris2k5

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 30, 2010
687
0
Both iPhone 4's I own on Verizon have issues with the home button being very mushy and sometimes being unresponsive.

Made Genius Bar appointments and came in with both phones and showed the girl the issue. She had to click the buttons crazy hard to get them to work and deemed it ok...

I kindly made a fuss about it and said I wanted a replacement for both devices since they were bought brand new without issue and this issue arose. This is what she said to me:

"Yeah, this is a hardware issue and doing a replacement is just too much paperwork and work to restore everything. I would say just press the button harder."

The store was about to close and they wouldn't budge on the issue...I am actually very disappointed with customer service here. This isn't the first time I've had issues with that Apple Store (Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua, NH).

A year ago when I bought my Macbook Pro there, one of the employees, dropped my Macbook Pro and tried to sneak it back in the bag...And when I said I wanted a new one, she gave me huge attitude.

Lesson learned, I am never buying from that Apple Store EVER again and will talk with a manager tomorrow or something.
 
Man that is ********* up, didn't see that one coming from them. I'd probably do what you said, I 'd go there, say I want to see the manager and would not leave until I did.
 
I got my Macbook Pro, Macbook Air, 2x iPhone 4, and was going to get an iPad 2 there today but after being treated like this I told them to take the iPad 2 back cause I am in no way giving them money for that treatment.

It was the iPad 2 I wanted and have been waiting for too but whatever.
 
chris2k5 said:
I got my Macbook Pro, Macbook Air, 2x iPhone 4, and was going to get an iPad 2 there today but after being treated like this I told them to take the iPad 2 back cause I am in no way giving them money for that treatment.

It was the iPad 2 I wanted and have been waiting for too but whatever.
Click to expand...

She really said that to you? Terrible. I would demanded a manager right then and there and told the manager this woman should not be in retail.
 
Agreed, you need to get management involved. Being passive about it only reenforces that kind of behavior. Fortunately, I've never had that problem at my local Apple Store (Easton,OH).
 
chris2k5 said:
Both iPhone 4's I own on Verizon have issues with the home button being very mushy and sometimes being unresponsive.

Made Genius Bar appointments and came in with both phones and showed the girl the issue. She had to click the buttons crazy hard to get them to work and deemed it ok...

I kindly made a fuss about it and said I wanted a replacement for both devices since they were bought brand new without issue and this issue arose. This is what she said to me:

"Yeah, this is a hardware issue and doing a replacement is just too much paperwork and work to restore everything. I would say just press the button harder."

The store was about to close and they wouldn't budge on the issue...I am actually very disappointed with customer service here. This isn't the first time I've had issues with that Apple Store (Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua, NH).

A year ago when I bought my Macbook Pro there, one of the employees, dropped my Macbook Pro and tried to sneak it back in the bag...And when I said I wanted a new one, she gave me huge attitude.

Lesson learned, I am never buying from that Apple Store EVER again and will talk with a manager tomorrow or something.
Click to expand...

Damn... I wouldn't even from that macbook pro experience. What do you bet they sold it to some one else and hope they didn't notice (or try to give him the same treatment they did you when he came in to complain about it having issues).

I can't believe she could reproduce the problem and refused to replace the phone! I'm glad the guy I got was completely opposite (I couldn't get it to reproduce the problem when I got there despite the problem getting bad enough I was thinking there was a good chance it would do it and he just took me at my word).

Please talk to the manager (hey and I'd love an update to how the manager handled you). Hopefully this is just a case of bad employee vs. badly run store (could be management encourages this or management is bad at picking good employees or knowing when to fire people. I can tell you, it sux working under some one who can't fire some one cause then you end up working with a bunch of either deadbeats or people who piss off customers that you have to deal with the after affects).
 
I didn't get that kind of service when I went to my Apple Retail store here in Portugal. And even when I went to the Apple Store in London, the people there were just perfect. Like someone said above, it all depends on the people running the store.
 
Appalling service. If I were the OP I would talk to the store manager, for I am certain that is not the quality of service Apple wants consumers to experience.

On my part, I have had only wonderful experiences at the Tyson's Corner Apple Store in VA (no, I don't work there, or know anybody who works there). For example, my father passed away this fall and we wanted to show pictures for a memorial service. The funeral home only had a VCR, so we had to convert some digitized photo's into a movie burned on a DVD. I walked up to the genius bar without an appointment, no fewer than three Apple staff took pity on me, and they patiently explained how to do this with Apple software. It worked without a hitch. Apple products: expensive. Apple customer service: priceless.

Unless, of course, if you get a dud, which apparently happened to OP.
 
Before we all go off saying who shouldn't have a job, or the terrible things going on in Africa, lets all make sure we have the total 100% story. Right now we only know what the OP is saying.
I'm not disagreeing or belittling him in any way. Just saying we don't know the complete story.
The 5 Apple stores I've been to, I've received nothing but outstanding help and assistance.
Maybe the girl was new, was her last day, maybe they said that the buttons were in fact ok.

But honestly, I highly doubt an Apple employee said that they did detect a hardware problem but to just deal with it. That goes totally against the grain from my experiences.
 
iceterminal said:
Before we all go off saying who shouldn't have a job, or the terrible things going on in Africa, lets all make sure we have the total 100% story. Right now we only know what the OP is saying.
I'm not disagreeing or belittling him in any way. Just saying we don't know the complete story.
The 5 Apple stores I've been to, I've received nothing but outstanding help and assistance.
Maybe the girl was new, was her last day, maybe they said that the buttons were in fact ok.

But honestly, I highly doubt an Apple employee said that they did detect a hardware problem but to just deal with it. That goes totally against the grain from my experiences.
Click to expand...

I do have to agree I'm pretty shocked at that. I know that they took me seriously on the last few things I've brought in and none of the stuff was stuff I could even get to display for them (I could totally see them telling me they couldn't do anything if it wouldn't do the problem for them).

But, you never know when there is a bad apple or even a badly run store. I say let him talk to management, let him even complain to apple if management seems sucky.

It's retail. If it's one bad customer, most likely they'll chalk it up to that (I've not heard of Apple being one of those stores that will automatically just fire people or demote them over one complaint) but if the store is run badly people will complain and Apple will get the idea when they keep getting in complaints (especially if the complaints are consistant about what's wrong).
 
I heard of someone's iPhone ringer rocker fall off, and Apple told them that they were biting it. I know Apple gave me a ridiculous excuse when I was getting something done at the Apple Store too. That's why I'd much rather call them in and send it out. but if I was in your situation, I would have asked to speak to a manager.
 
Wow thats unlucky man. In the Brent Cross London one, I took mine in for the exact same issue, he was like "yeah I see what you mean, I'm gonna get you a replacement"
I would definitely, go into the store again asking to speak to the manager, maybe even refer to a page on these forums, where people were having the same issue, and all mostly got replacements, good luck :)
 
iceterminal said:
Before we all go off saying who shouldn't have a job, or the terrible things going on in Africa, lets all make sure we have the total 100% story. Right now we only know what the OP is saying.
I'm not disagreeing or belittling him in any way. Just saying we don't know the complete story.
The 5 Apple stores I've been to, I've received nothing but outstanding help and assistance.
Maybe the girl was new, was her last day, maybe they said that the buttons were in fact ok.

But honestly, I highly doubt an Apple employee said that they did detect a hardware problem but to just deal with it. That goes totally against the grain from my experiences.
Click to expand...

The girl was new? Last day? There is really no excuse for her not wanting to replace my device because of the paperwork and the time it takes to do the restores.

Both issues are present on both iPhone 4's and its kind of annoying to the point where I can't exit the app I am in and just have to wait it out. The girl at the Apple Store was jabbing and digging in her finger nails a couple times to get it to work too.

Anyway, I called the store today and asked for a manager and they were all on the floor so I could only leave a voicemail. I'll call back later and hopefully they will be available.
 
And I must say I am very pissed actually. I came from Droids and other phones on Verizon and they always agreed to replacements whenever those crap devices failed in anyway - No matter how much typing it required on the computer to get me a replacement.

Not only did I waste gas driving to the mall to get it looked at but I left with the same issue and wasted gas on the way back home.

I am embarrassed to be an Apple product(s) owner right now.
 
I think that Apple's biggest problem is their ever growing popularity.

Before the iPhone or the iPod became popular relatively few people would go to their stores or buy their products.

The amount of support that was needed AND the pool of people to actually discuss their support experiences was very small.

It's not realistic for a company the size of Apple to be able to have the number of staff that they need on support (worldwide), while ensuring that every single member of staff gives top notch support.

I worry that their support reputation is unsustainable in the long term because of this.
 
sucks, my local apple store is 2.5hrs away and never had any problems. drove there with no genius appointment on one sat morning and only had to wait 5mins for a rep. replaced my 3GS for the yellow screen issue and 15 total mins in the store and i was on my way with a brand new iPhone. you have to realize customer service isn't what it used to be. thats no excuse for your situation, should of asked for a manager.
 
chris2k5 said:
I am embarrassed to be an Apple product(s) owner right now.
Click to expand...

You can probably tone back the dramatics a bit, unless you're gunning for a MR Academy Award. I am positive the managers will take care of you and make it right.

Apple Stores are staffed by humans, not perfect automatons, sometimes these things happen. Make your displeasure known to the manager, and hopefully they will monitor it so it doesn't happen again.

You also have the choice of not patronizing the store any further.
 
Left a voicemail for the manager and will be visiting the store again tomorrow. I am not stopping until this girl is fired.
 
chris2k5 said:
Left a voicemail for the manager and will be visiting the store again tomorrow. I am not stopping until this girl is fired.
Click to expand...

Dude, you are losing my sympathies here (and I was the one telling you to please do talk to the manager and to follow up on what happens).

First of all, if they are decent managers, they aren't going to fire her over one customer's complaints unless she did something a lot worse than be lazy or this is not the first time they got a similar complaint about her. She will probably get written up (if they are decent managers) and lectured on how that is not acceptable, do not do it again.

Also, the more outrageous you get (and insisting she get fired or you will keep hounding them is pretty outrageus), the more they are going to start sympathizing with her and thinking that maybe you're just one of those customers that goes overboard on everything and decide you're probably over exaggerating what really happened. I'm starting to wonder that myself (Sorry, I work retail and any customer that goes in insisting some one be fired, unless the person stole from them or did something equally outrageuos, tends to just make themselves look like they make huger deals out of something than what it really is which leads one to believe that what you said happened may not be as bad as what you claim).

Also, don't go telling them that you aren't shopping there again while insisting she get fired. Cause why would they cave to you if they can't gain your business back anyways? I had a customer try that on me (she was pissed we wouldn't return something without a receipt). Stupidest tactic ever (Ok, so you're pissing me off cause you're yelling at me over a policy that I think is perfectly sensible and on top of that you are saying you are never shopping here again? First of all, please don't. Second of all, why the hell would I care about making you happy if we already lost your business anyways. You already stated you're not a potential customer anymore so we have no motivation to care about making you happy).

You haven't even given them a chance to respond and you're working yourself up into a frenzy. You're not going to do your cause any good (I take customers who are calm but can express their disappointment without going into a rage a lot more seriously than those coming in with "guns a blazing". In fact even if I might have sympathized with them it tends to make me lose my sympathy if they are insisting on being *******s about it).

So take my hint, treat the retail workers with some respect, even the idiot ones that annoyed you (and especially the ones that aren't the ones that have wronged you cause if you take your anger out on them, you'll get their sympathies more towards the employee that had to deal with you), and you might get better results.
 

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