Apple Clarendon — Attraction in Arlington

On Sunday August 17th I visited this location, Clarendon, to pick up an online order that I placed at 10:30 AM that morning. I was scheduled to pick up my order between 12:30 - 12:45pm. I arrive at 12:45 to give them that wiggle room. Upon arrival it was one person standing in line to be directed to an agent/rep. after 4 mins an agent walks over and asked all of us to follow him so he can begin assisting us(by now it was five people behind me). I was directed to an agent who was assisting a couple already. I patiently stood back and waited for him to acknowledge my needs. Once I was acknowledge I showed him my order number on my phone and VA state real ID credential. Without asking he attempted to grab my phone out of my hand. I kindly asked if he didn't do that as the order number was magnified on my phone as well as me stating it phonetically twice. From the start he was rude and aggressive. I extended him the benefit of doubt that he was possibly frustrated with the customers before me even though they appeared pleasant and elderly. At this point he said where is the QR code, I advised him that there wasn't a QR code and showed him the full email thread from originating the order to the scheduled pick up time that it was ready. He snapped well you need a QR code. I kindly stated I provided the order number and for whatever reason outside my control there wasn't a QR code. He then said contact apple for security notice about your order and let me know when you finish. I politely stepped to the side for him to turn back to the elder couple. After getting an Apple rep from online ordering on the line she asked what was the problem which I explained. The online rep said there wasn't a hold on their end and asked the rep to refresh his system. Before returning to the rep to advise I informed her that he needs a QR code that wasn't received. She stated "it was sent and the order was clear for pickup; please ask in-store rep to refresh". I turned to ask him and he had walked away as I walked toward him he turned his head and waived me away and begin assisting another customer. At which point I asked another rep to assist me. This rep gave me the same spill and started questioning the form of payment with no apparent reason to do so! At this time I begin advising them that I have a prior arrangement I'm required to be at by 2pm(it was now 1:20 pm and 30 mins of me simply trying to pick-up, no set-up, or any other support)! I showed the new rep my VA state ID, the email order, repeated the order number, and was quickly re-dialing and got an online Apple rep who repeatedly stated to the new in-store rep that there was no holds on the order on there side and payment had successfully cleared earlier this morning! At this point I begin stating the obvious with the optics around why I was personally being subjected to these actions by the in-store reps. I informed them I could no longer wait and asked how many days would it take my payment to be refunded as well as I wanted to make an official complaint.The in-store rep is now typing something on his handheld device. Well what do you know all of a sudden my order is ready and a different rep is bringing it from the back. At this point both reps (on-line & in-store) were stating it wasn't them causing the unnecessary security delay; hence profiling! I visited this same location before and purchased a device in store and experienced totally unnecessary security profiling. Get this the problem that time I was paying a large fee in cash! Dang if you do dang if you don't! The only reason I returned to this location firstly, for my convenience and secondly giving them the benefit of doubt that I maybe took it the wrong way. Now I know the optics was what it is and I will never return to this location. Now if I can convince my family to be done with Apple all together after these two...

I've been to the Clarendon Apple store numerous times, but will never return after my experience with lazy, rude, and unprofessional customer service this afternoon.

I came in the store today intending to buy a new iPhone. The greeter was very confused -- it took him many many questions to finally figure out that we just wanted to actually purchase something at the store. So then we were put on the list and told someone would come help us shortly. So we waited. After about 10 minutes, I went over to a customer service person who was loitering around chatting with coworkers who proceeded to unsuccessfully try to explain why there were at least 8 Apple employees with blue shirts just hanging around the store talking to one another but no one available to sell me an iPhone. Her explanation was non-sensical and told me to wait until I was called. I waited another 10 minutes -- just sitting there watching all the employees doing absolutely nothing -- and asked again if someone could please help us. The same person -- who must be in her early 20s and spoke very disrespectfully to me, a 61-year-old adult -- rudely reiterated that despite all the employees milling around with nothing to do I was to wait my turn. When I said that was poor customer service she feigned being insulted and told me I should "calm down or leave the store." I never raised my voice. She clearly doesn't know the difference between an unsatisfied customer and someone being unruly. She was extremely patronizing and lucky I didn't actually tell her that. I should have reminded her of the basic lessons of customer service: 1) the customer is almost always right, and 2) the customer's time is valuable and not to be wasted. She was WAY out of her league and extremely rude.

I then said that if Apple didn't want my business I would just go to the Verizon store 2 blocks away.

I left the store and went directly to the Verizon store. The staff there were attentive even when they were helping other customers. There was never a time when staff was just lingering around while customers were waiting for service. The Verizon staff were helpful, pleasant and professional. When 1 staff person became confused another immediately stepped in to help him and me out. The store is small, with a small staff, but they managed to serve multiple people in the same amount of time I wasted standing around waiting for service at the Apple Clarendon store. I ended up getting a much better deal purchasing an iPhone at Verizon and was impressed with the professionalism of the staff. Perhaps they should train the Apple store employees on effective customer service. From now on I will always go to Verizon, and...

Bill, the manager, makes this place everything that it is: personable, friendly, a real community.

I've had some exceptionally lackluster experiences with Apple Stores, particularly because Apple is WAY TOO LITIGIOUS for its own good, and way to quick to get argumentative and combative. I think some of that may be the culture of a bunch of math geeks (i.e. computer people) who can get rigid only too easily. But the other part of it is the trend amongst our california tech bros to reject responsibility utterly and completely, thinking they can merely paper their way to indemnity. (As a heads up to Apple: you can't. You're not entitled to consequence free human interactions, regardless of what your legal department may tell you. Humans will have expectations. Develop human skills and deal with it.)

And now Bill: Bill is wonderful. He exudes ease, sophistication in his store and his management, and a clear and convincing world view born of having been around the block before. He understands people. He understands how to build customer relationships. He continually counsels his employees (or at least so I have seen) to err on the side of preserving the relationship, building trust with his customer base, and being a true and trusted resource for people like me who have completely bought into the Apple ecosystem and need help from time to time.

Manuela is always quick to come right up to me and give me a hug whenever I'm in the store. She remembers her customers and makes sure that we always feel validated, welcome, and like we are amongst friends. She's the best of the best when it comes to a company like Apple: she builds long term customer relationships that engender loyalty and buy-in to Apple's continual product releases and services. Is it any surprise that an employee like this exists under the management of Bill? Of course not. Completely expected.

Jeffrey is always good humored. He knows his stuff has helped me on multiple occasions. He strikes me as someone who just really loves his job and brings that enthusiasm to his interactions. I really love how much product knowledge he has and how honest he is with me about what I do need and what I don't need. I also really love his ease and his calmness: he doesn't have that 'Apple Store Fake' that you can find from time to time. A good employee, a good person, and a friendly face every time I visit.

Thank you to Bill, to Manuela, and to Jeffrey, you make my experiences at the Apple Store Clarendon the reason I won't go to any other location if I...