Batteries Plus — Attraction in College Station

Poorly managed/owned franchise with terrible client communication, follow up, and customer service. The long and short of my experience was that I dropped off my iPad to be fixed there. I was told I could pick it up the next day. Now it's been nearly two months, and it was returned to me broken--after they promised to fix it free of charge.

Expecting to pickup my iPad, I dropped in the day after leaving it there. The manager, Max, informed me that the in house battery they had was defective, and that the iPad could be sent out but still returned that week (but nobody called to let me know; the iPad was just sitting there while three associates hung out chatting). Then after nearly two weeks of delays, excuses, and misinformation, I was promised that it'd be repaired for free when new batteries arrived. By then I'd bought a cheap chromebook to hold me over during my rotations, so I thought the wait would be worth the saving--even though I did and do regret going anywhere other than Apple.

Yesterday, I called expecting that I would finally receive my iPad back in working order and without a bill. Instead I found out that it had just been sitting at the store still broken. Despite having the patience of a saint throughout this debacle, and trusting the promises of the manager to remedy the situation, nothing was fixed, nobody called to update me as promised, AND IT'S STILL BROKEN.

Needless to say my patience ran out, and when I asked if there was a regional or district manager I could talk to, Lucas initially told there wasn't one and instead only gave me an email address for the owner. I later found out there is a regional manager but still have no idea how to contact him. The owner, Lara, eventually called and claimed that the battery had been replaced, even though the timeline between her and the employee don't add up. Also, I didn't receive any paperwork when I picked up the iPad and nothing has changed. I explained the situation to Lara. She cut me off numerous times and made it clear from the get go that she already paid freight twice and wasn't interested in doing more. When she attempted to rewrite what happened (even though she was never there), I was called a liar and yelled at for interjecting. Meanwhile she claimed she spent over $100 on the new battery that is allegedly in my broken iPad. The store doesn't even charge $100 for the battery and the repair; I've also managed an electronics store, and there is absolutely no way that's true.

Lara, the owner's, excuse for holding onto my iPad for so long without anyone ever calling me to let me know the change of plans was that her employee never should have accepted it to begin with. She was allegedly out of the country and failed to relay the message to the manager and employees that they aren't doing repairs anymore. Hilarious that she somehow thinks ghosting on your job without getting someone to cover for you is a good excuse. And despite weeks of no communication updating me on the situation, her excuse for nobody--including the associates--calling me to let me know my iPad was again just sitting there broken was that the manager was on vacation.

Save yourself the frustration of giving this place your time and money. If you need a light bulb, go to Home Depot where there's a culture of great customer service from the top to the bottom. And if you need an electronic repaired, go to Apple or...

See updated review below: Problem solved!!

Please save your money do no buy here!!! I have a battery that still has more than a year left on the warranty, they will not honor it saying “battery misuse”. May a dome light was left on. Are you kidding me? That is misuse???? OR - OR?, or just a way to get out of warranty. I’ve been driving for over 50 years. I’ve gone through a lot of batteries and this is the very first time I’ve had a company that did not honor their warranty. Please save your money and go to a different place to buy your battery if you need one. I will say that there was one very nice young man up there that was helping me his name was Jake up and he was awesome but the problem was above his pay grade nothing he could do to help me.

EDITED TO ADD UPDATE: As soon as I made this post in less than 10 minutes, the owner made a comment, and then the store reached out to me again, and told me that the Battery in question would be covered by them, so I am changing my one star to a five star based on the speed and the customer service that I was not expecting all the guys behind the counter were outstanding. They simply had a problem that they did not have the authority at the time to fix. I think the battery manufactures have figured out a way to limit certain warranties and certain requirements. Make sure you understand these limitations when you buy a battery, but I think that would be at any location not just batteries plus I have to say that based on the speed at which batteries plus reached out to me and fix this problem, I would definitely recommend shopping at this location And I cannot say that...

I needed some resistors for a project I'm working on, and since the Radioshack in town closed down, I had to check all sorts of unconventional places to find one because I didn't want to wait for one to be delivered if I ordered it online. I tried Sears which doesn't even have an electronics section anymore, I tried some electronics repair shops around town, and I eventually found myself in this Batteries Plus store. When I walked in, I was not greeted by a spirited "Hello!" or even a more corporate minded "Welcome to Batteries Plus Bulbs!" but rather a conversation between two employees. I would say "conversation" is a generous description because it sounded like more of a lecture the older gentleman was giving to the younger one (about gun maintenance or something). Fairly quickly, the older man asked what I needed and I told him I was looking for resistors. His response was, "We don't have any. We're rather resistant to sell them." After a moment of silence that this injustice to comedy deserved, I asked if they knew anywhere around town that sold what I was looking for, and the older gentleman sent me to what I later discovered was a call center. Long story short, don't come here for electronic components or their...