Apple Bay Street — Attraction in Emeryville

NIGHTMARE ON BAY STREET (O _ O)

After it took several hours across two days to replace a lost Air Pod, I don't know why I ever went back here, but I did. I had thought that THAT was the worst Apple experience I would ever have in over 20 years of being loyal to this brand (that now apparently HATES their customers). Today proved my past assumptions wrong: it can always get worse.

I was trying to take advantage of a limited time promotion, which Apple heavily advertised to me, and get a new MacBook Air to replace my old Pro. It took a bit to get any help, despite it being a weekday at noon and a lot of employees there not visibly helping anyone. Whatever, no big deal. Once I got someone, who seemed to know less about the product I wanted than I did, we went through the whole process, they checked out my trade, said it was worth $375, signed me up for 0% interest and apple care and it looked like everything was until I had to turn off Find My on my Pro.

I had forgotten my Apple ID password, because it is something I have only ever used while setting up new devices. The familliar password in my keychain was not it for some inexplicable reason. The attempt to do such a simple thing as reset the password, with my working laptop and iPhone in hand, quickly went south. The first employee was CLUELESS. Then another employee told me the only way to reset the password was to wait an hour, so I grudgingly did, and since I got there and did the hassle of parking already, I decided to just hang out and demo products. Well then THAT didn't work for no reason anyone could explain to me, the employee said they would get their supervisor and went to the back.

I waited HALF AN HOUR, someone else came up and asked if I needed help, and I said "YES". But he couldn't look up my transaction record and was saying I would need to start over. Then the employee from before came out of the back and looked like they were trying to avoid me by hanging out in a corner across the store. I went up and confronted him, he gave me some BS like "oh, I asked my supervisor to go help you, didn't they?" I said "No, so HELP ME!".

They had told me before, when I was trying to reset my password that, worst case scenario, it could take SEVERAL DAYS for the password to reset via Apple, but that I could still get the trade in credit if I turned my device in within 14 days. I had explained previously that I was going out of town for 10 days, starting in 2 days, so that was cutting it close. Moreover I wanted them to at least do me the courtesy of giving me the same $375 credit for my old laptop as I had been offered today. Not taking his word, I asked for it in writing, so he said he would get his manager to write something up to that effect, and disappeared for another 10 minutes.

Well, once again I was LIED to. But that snake tried to slip what the manager had written into the bag with my new laptop without me actually reading it, then tried to distract me by asking if I wanted to buy a case for my new laptop. When I read what the manager had written (see attached) I almost flipped out right there in the store. I choked down my fury long enough to complete the transaction. I dread going back there on the 7th, super jetlagged but on the last day to trade in my old computer for ANYTHING. My guess is, it will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $200.

I have had Macs since 2004, but after 130 excruciating minutes at Bay St. today, I have never in my life been closer to just finally giving up on Apple and becoming an Android user. Regardless, after I am done with what I am certain will be an infuriating tradein experience, I am swearing off Apple Bay Street for LIFE. WORST APPLE STORE I HAVE...

I recently bought a refurbished 27” with 16gb ram, & 1tb storage. It fit my budget, and the course I’m taking doesn’t allow the new m1 chip due to virtualization issues and the course requires high storage & ram to participate. So I bought this computer FOR THIS COURSE. Well, less than 3 weeks after buying it, the computer stops working. I am literally sitting down to sign into my first class(cybersecurity 6 months course) and the computer won’t power on. This course costs $16k and if I miss the first week, I get dropped from the course and have to wait another 6 months to finally start my life and career. I bring the computer in to the apple store and they tell me they need to take it in for 7 days to repair it. That’s not an option for me. I’ve already gotten a warning from advisors for missing first class and I HAVE to have a computer by the next class(in two days). I ask what my options are and am told 1)return it and buy a new one. EXCEPT THE NEW ONES THAT MATCH THE COMPUTERS SPECIFICATIONS ARE AT LEAST $1000 more and they would charge me the difference. So I would get the exact same computer, for $1000 more. The same computer that I bought for $1900 would cost me $3700 to replace with a new one. This is not fair. I purchased a certified product directly from Apple and it’s not my fault it stopped working the day my class starts. Apple should have replaced the computer no questions asked. That is what good customer service is. You don’t hold a poor student hostage for over $1200 to re-buy the exact same computer. They told me for the price I paid for the one that broke, I would have to DOWNGRADE and buy one that fit into the price I paid for the one I bought. Why? Why do I have to lose out on this? I bought this computer specifically because of its specs and screen size. I don’t WANT to downgrade. That’s not fair. I used to look up to Apple and I wanted to work for them some day. I felt like I could hold my head up high and feel proud to be an apple employee, but I would never work for a company that does this to its customers. As a Milennial, I’ve been loyal to Apple for my entire life and this experience has made me hate the company. I wouldn’t work with you people if you paid me millions if this is how you treat your most...

I’m giving this place 4 stars because the service was great from my tech, Perla. But let me elaborate as to what I really feel. First off, totally not Apples fault, but be prepared at this location b/c the meters out in front of the store only take coin!! No credit card, just coins-and they don’t make those coin machines easy to find! Second, I did have to wait like 10 minutes past my appointment time, but honestly, no big deal. I told my tech the problem and she ran a diagnostics test and it said my air pod pros were fine (green light). Um, no, they’re not, that’s why I drove 45 minutes to a store to fix them. My microphone wasn’t working, it works when I use Siri or make a call (sometimes) but not when receiving incoming calls-people cannot hear me. The tech did a hard reset and I made a couple of calls and used Siri in front of her and I thought my problems were solved. About 2 days later, I tried answering incoming multiple calls and nothing-people actually hung up on me b/c they thought the call dropped! I called Apple support and explained what happened and they told me that if I went back to the store and they ran diagnostics again and if it came back green lit, they wouldn’t assist, but since I called, they gave me the mail in option to fix/replace. Good to know. So I went that route b/c it really is a hassle spending at least a couple hours out of my day to get this issue somewhat resolved. Again, great service from the employees at the store, but not really impressed with what their solutions are in store. If you have the time and patience, call Apple support to get your issue fixed by...