Apple SouthPark — Attraction in Charlotte

Apple has no faith in their own products and you are just a dollar sign to them.

Last year, I bought a 2023 MacBook Pro M2 in hopes of having a powerful laptop for utility during the school year. Both the entire laptop and the trackpad stopped working one day out of nowhere.

I decided to take my Mac into the apple store at SouthPark because of apple's great reputation in the past about "making things right" and helping out people when they have a defective product. I can assure you though, Apple is no longer the company that they once prided themselves on being. I waited for a considerable amount of time past my appointment date to be helped by a gentlemen who seemed to have very little interest in actually helping me to resolve my problem. After explaining the issue, the employee took the laptop to the back for only a handful of minutes and said, "Sorry, it doesn't look like there is anything we can do to fix it." The employee told me that he turned it on, realized the keyboard and mouse weren't working as I stated, and claimed that he thought it was some sort of software issue that they couldn't fix. A little distraught, I asked if there was anything else in the machine that could be causing the issue relating to the hardware. I knew that this was not a software issue, but I was treated as an ignorant customer who was outside of his league when it came to tech knowledge. The employee went to the back to try something else and stated that he unplugged some of the cables and plugged them back in... and that did not fix the issue either.

When the employee returned after doing this, he told me that they could fix the problem, but it was going to cost around $750 because my machine was just barely out of warranty. He stated, that they could not just replace the keyboard and mouse, but rather they would have to replace the entire "top unit" because of the design... I asked the employee if there was any leeway on getting this repair under warranty due to it being of no fault of my own, the employee agreed, and we both came to the conclusion that this was some sort of "unicorn" incident where the hardware either had a fault from the beginning or had gone out prematurely.

If you ask me, I find it awfully convenient that my machine fails in a catastrophic way 2 months out of the standard warranty that apple offers without any damage being done to it by me...

Now, my frustration with this situation begins when I state to the employee that I am in college and I cannot pull together the funds to pay for such an expensive repair... and that i bought a MacBook in the first place because I always thought that they were the type of laptop to last years without any issues. I was certainly mistaken. When I told the employee this, another older gentlemen employee with a apple activity ring hat came by (He heard me just state that I cannot afford the repair) and said, "Take this guy (he did not use my name even though I just told him it and shook his hand) over there to the new MacBook airs so he can check out how fast they are!" I told the man, "That does not fix the issue of me not being able to pay that much and school starting in two weeks." The employee just shrugged his shoulders like he didn't care and walked off. This would be far more expensive than the repair itself and is not something I am capable to pay for.

You are nothing but a commission check for these employees and apple. They do not treat you like you are a human being and all they want to do is upsell, upsell, upsell, to line their pockets rather than standing behind their own product. I was treated like I was a bother the entire time and never felt like anyone genuinely cared about the fact that I bought one of their products, for the sole purpose of schoolwork and their faulty design broke prematurely... or rather it broke exactly when they wanted it to so they could sell me a another one and take more money out of the pocket of a broke college student. I still just want a repair in goodwill for a product that they claim...

I LOVE Apple products, but this is by far the worst Apple store I have ever been to. I have been three times now, and two out of the three times, I have not only received poor customer service, but the sales associates were downright rude. The first time I went in there, it was packed, so I waited in a line to speak to one of the sales associates. I'm not sure if my waiting in line rubbed him the wrong way, but after he finished helping the women in front of me, he completely skipped me and helped the man behind me. When I tried to find someone else to help me after I had been rudely skipped, no one would. I went in to buy a new phone and walked out incredibly disappointed and empty-handed.

The second time I went in the store, the associate I spoke to was very friendly and helpful, so I guess they're not all bad.

However, the third time I went into the store, I could not believe how rude the sales associate was to me. First, I went up to the front of the store to ask if they had any new iPhones in stock. The man rudely shoed me in the direction of the front of the store to a man whose name might have been Cliff? He was "the guy with the red iPad in the front of the store." When I approached him, he was helping another customer. I witnessed him rudely informing her it would be silly to come into the store "this late in the day" asking for any new products. Even after hearing this, I still thought I would just ask if they had any new phones in stock. Silly me, how stupid can I be? He simply scoffed at me. When I started to walk away, he told me I could order them online and get them sent to the store. I told him I had tried that, and the Apple Store had not given me an option to send the phone to the store. He rolled his eyes and told me that clearly meant they didn't have any in stock. As if only a moron wouldn't know. I tried to explain to him it didn't seem like a stocking problem as much as a website issue. At this point, the sales associate with whom I was speaking had apparently lost all patience with me, as I was clearly another uninformed, unintelligent customer wasting his time at the end of the day. He apparently dug deep down inside himself and pulled out the attitude of a 13-year-old girl when he told me to try the website again. I asked him to be a little bit nicer, and that was when he turned away from me and started helping someone else.

I know this might not sound bad as he was never outwardly mean to me. However, if I could convey his tone and facial expressions via Yelp, I believe most of you would have been horrified. If you work in customer service, I don't care how annoying the customers are, you need to learn to deal with them politely. And all I did was ask if they had any new phones in stock. I wasn't even asking him do to anything. All he has to say was, "No, sorry." I'm not asking for much. Just a little human decency. If you can't be a decent human being, you shouldn't be working in customer service, and definitely not at an Apple store, where many (uninformed) people come to you with their technological concerns. Two out of the three times I've been to this store, I have had to put up with an absurd amount of attitude from the associates. I am disgusted, and I will definitely never step foot in the South Park Mall Apple...

The iPhone 7plus purchased by me proceeded to stop working on June 15th, 2017. I called the Apple care center to get help and they could not help me. I drove an hour and a half to the Apple Store immediately to get the phone fixed. I received help from a rep in the store. The phone was unable to be fixed in the store and unable to be replaced. They proceeded to give me a loaner phone. As of today June 27, 2017 I proceeded to go back to the Apple Store because my phone was back so I could pick it up and return the loaner phone I have. Diego was helpful after waiting a while and got the phones swapped and explained to me that I could wait and restore my phone in store or I could go home and do it. I proceeded to wait because I needed a screen protector replacement because when I sent in my non working phone there was one on there that was not returned to me. Well in the process of waiting on a screen protector, a guy name Reed comes about. Reed proceeds to call me over and ask me questions about my replacement phone. I educated him that the customer care rep I spoke with said she would cover any of the repair cost for the phone so I would have no issues picking it up. Well Reed explains to me that he does not see any notation of the customer care rep stating that. I educate him he's more than welcome to call his company's customer care center or her extension I had and get verification. Well he declines and tells me numerous times, I can pay the $159 that's due and contact the rep to get my money back or I would not be able to leave with my phone. There became verbal confrontation between Reed, my fiancé, and I. Reed was very nasty and rude. He belittled us in front of other customers and employees as well. We laid the phone down so I could call customer care and get verification that the repair was paid for. Reed snatched the phone after asking me multiple times to pay for the repair and I declined every time and told Diego, he was not dealing with this and took MY phone I paid for and the loaner phone to the back. I became upset and Reed came back out and was very rude. Racial profiling at its finest took place. Reed talked to my fiancé and I as of we were his kids and not paying customers. He called security because he was upset because we were upset and refused to help us and still had my property. I sat on the phone for 48 minutes with customer care and they validated that my repair was paid for. I would like this sistuation to be addressed. I want the tape recordings pulled so Reeds behavior can be seen and handled. What is did is no way to treat a company. I requested he leave me alone multiple times and he would not move away from me. I am highly distraught, disrespected, and embarrassed. I work in customer service and what Reed did was no way to handle a situation. He kept my property when I requested it back and I had to spend until 10pm in the store to get my property back. I have submitted a BBB, FCC, and Attorney General complaint about...