Stormfront stores in the UK - thoughts?

[Zhaan]

I am looking at buying a new 27 inch iMac.

There are a chain of stores in the UK called Stormfront. They are an official Apple reseller and offer a 3 year guarantee as standard for no extra cost.

I phoned them asking about the iMac I was interested in but wanted larger memory on the graphics card, 4gb instead of the 2gb standard.

They told me I couldn't have it because it was incompatible with Fusion drives and would need to buy the SSD version to have the 4gb graphics.

I argued the fact stating I could buy one off Apple right now with the spec I wanted, they went away and checked.

After a few minutes I was told to come in store and order what I wanted and they would 'mark' the order and have it custom built in their Tech office.

I assumed they were just a conduit for Apple so would therefore order it from Apple.

Anyone had any experiences good or bad with Stormfront recently? I felt a little uneasy at the lack of Apple product knowledge by the staff technical or otherwise.

I have been in there once 2 years ago when my current iMac had a HD recall and they seemed ok at the time.

 

[Gav2k]

Personally I would go to apple. Storm front have a habit of treating there staff and customers like ****

 

[Zhaan]

Thanks Gav2k, its the 3 year guarantee thats pulling me in but thanks for your honest reply! I am wondering is it a battle claiming on the guarantee.

All that being said, I have had my current iMac for 6 years and it has never had a single problem.

 

[UKgaryb]

We use them for a work benefit, where we get a pot of money every year, then they offer us Apple products through Stormfront over 2 years interest free....

I ordered the new Retina iMac 5K 1TB SSD, 4GB Graphics, 32gb RAM.

They are a difficult company to deal with, they kindly upgraded me to the new spec machines as Apple announced it mid way through the order, but it was delayed by 4 weeks delivery and then they delivered the wrong machine (3TB Fusion instead of 1TB SSD!) Had to courier it back to them and wait for them to order a new one.

I had to escalate to a director the issue I was having and lack off communication and replies from them, they gave me a new 32GB Apple TV for my issues. which was pretty good.

IF i had the option, I would buy direct from Apple but I didn't so had to deal with them.

 

[sinar]

I called them regarding replacing a broken hard drive in an iMac, they said they would not do it and got really pushy trying to sell me a new iMac, they said mine would be too slow to be useful, even though it serves it purpose very well.

A local none Apple computer shop replaced the drive, iMac works great, I'd never use them, I'd rather buy from Apple and pay the extra for AppleCare.

 

[G4DPII]

We had an okay store in Plymouth. Sadly when Apple decided to open a retail space in the same shopping centre Stormfront had to close as Apple withdrew that shops Authorized Retailer status. The Apple store is not very good in comparison.

 

[Blidersen]

Stormfront is an attractive business with generally friendly and knowledge staff that clearly mimics an official Apple retail store. As a local and a loyal Apple customer, I've always enjoyed browsing and picking up odds and ends at the shop. As they have recently started carrying iPhones and Apple Watches, when it came time buy a Christmas gift for my wife, I went to Stormfront to buy the watch. They were friendly and helpful throughout the process- all very Apple like.

However, after Christmas, and having only taken it out of the box, my wife admitted she didn't want it and would never wear it. Oh well I thought, I'll be liable for the restocking fee as she opened it, but so be it.

Nope. Stormfront's policy (in small print on the receipt but not posted or communicated verbally) it that they don't take returns on any open products. None. No exceptions.

I am loyal to Apple not only because I like their products, but for their excellent customer service. I made the very poor assumption that a company that tries so hard to mimic the Apple experience would have the same commitment to customer service.

No matter what they want you to think, it's not an Apple store. Think hard about making a major purchase from them, or just make the dive to Reading and shop at the real thing.