Apple Upper West Side — Attraction in New York

Store Experience. NYC, Upper West Side Location.

Looking at Apple's Site I see so many references to Ethics, Respect, Integrity, Inviting and Welcoming.

This is not at all what I experienced at my visit to the NYC, Upper West Side Store.

Yesterday (Mar 30, 2022) I walked in to get help with an old phone that no longer kept a charge. It was difficult to get a representative’s attention to ask questions. Finally, a gentleman named Chris helped me find a phone and I was happy with the exchange. This is where the good experience stopped.

As my data was getting transferred from my old phone to my new phone, Chris had left. Which was a shame, because as I sat there an iPad had caught my eye and I wanted to make another purchase. I was left with a "Specialist" who was not only was unable to sell me an iPad, but also couldn’t tell me the difference of the iPad and the iPad Air. He literally said, “the Air had a new chip in it" and that is where his knowledge ended. Beyond that he really couldn’t tell me much about either one. When I decided, I was just going to get the iPad 64meg, he told me I had to make an appointment for the next day. That is right. I had to make an appointment for the following day to make a purchase. "All the specialists have gone home". This was around 6-7: pm. The Store closes at 9: pm. If he was correct, nobody was able to conduct a transaction for the last 2 hours of the stores opening.

I made the appointment with yet another employee who couldn't sell me an iPad, for 4Pm the next day. I was a little more than surprised.

The next day at 4:00pm (Mar 31, 2022) I arrive and checked in. I was told to wait by the iPads. I explained that I was only really here to just make a single purchase and knew exactly what I wanted. I was abruptly (and rudely) told "Yes. I know. Just wait your turn. There are people ahead of you in line", in a tone as if I had done something disrespectful or somehow aggressive. My mood changed at this exchange, and this was no longer a welcoming, respectful, or a pleasant experience.

As I waited, I counted over 13 employees on the floor, and only half (maybe 5-7) of them were helping customers. 3-4 employees were greeting. A Manager (black shirt) and 3 other employees were standing about 6' form me avoiding any sort of eye contact (which is what I experienced the day before until Chris stepped on the floor). The employees seemed annoyed with the customers. A lot of them were furiously typing into their phone and chatting pleasantly with themselves. I noticed a few other customers having a hard time getting any attention of the sales Reps... or "Specialists". This is when I started to count the employees and stopped at 13.

I waited 5-10 min past my 4:00 appointment (I arrived a bit early, so at this point I’ve been standing around for 15-20 min) to make a quick transaction. Again, I knew exactly what I wanted, I just wanted to make a simple purchase. I had to walk up to the Black Shirt and ask If I could just make a purchase. "Do you have an appointment?". I answered that I did and gave her my name again. She abruptly explained "You have 3 people ahead of you. You just have to wait your turn. It will about 5-10 min.". I walked back, waited for about 5 min and she walked past me. "Really, I just want to purchase this iPad right here." I explained again.

"You still have 1 person ahead of you. You are going to have to wait. Is that okay?" She pressed. "No, not really." I explained. "Excuse me? What did you say?" a bit aggressively. "I said, no. It's really not okay. I had to make an appointment to make a simple purchase and now I am waiting past my appointment." "You are just going to have to wait. You still have one other person ahead of you. Is that okay?" I answered, "No. It is not okay."

I left and walked down to the Best Buy 3 blocks away and purchased an iPad form a rather pleasant sales rep within 15 minutes.

I Mentioned that I had just come from the Apple store up the street, and she explained, "Yeah. We hear a lot about that...

Something NEEDS to be done about this location. I’ve had numerous poor experiences here but today was by far the worst. The new ios 18 update completely broke my phone to the point where the only option was to wipe my phone entirely and reset it. I have a fairly new iPhone 15 pro max with a terabyte of storage, so this never should have happened in the first place - needless to say! However it was the process of the so called “technicians” figuring out the issue that has led me to writing this review.

It is clear some of the employees lack the necessary skills and professionalism to do their jobs effectively. Some to even do their job at all.

This afternoon, I presented the issue of my phone not being able to turn on to one of the employees at the front, who Im fighting the urge to name because this situation likely would have been avoided had I simply bothered another employee to help me from the start. Emphasis on BOTHER, because it’s painfully clear these people do not want to be approached, which is funny considering that is what they are there for.

This employee was trying to get rid of me from the start. I told her I didn’t have an appointment (hence not being able to book one since I didn’t have a working phone) and was aware I was likely facing a wait. After explaining my issue, she came to the conclusion (somehow 🥱) without even looking at my phone that it was a hardware problem and I needed a repair. (Spoiler alert, WRONG!) She then tells me to not even bother getting on the 1.5 hour waitlist as I wouldn’t get my phone fixed in time. Granted this is just what I gathered from her blabber because she was talking in circles and contradicting her every word. I ended up revisiting her and asking once again why this wouldn’t be possible because the math just wasn’t mathing. She was telling me the wait was 1.5 hours and It would take an hour or two to fix, which seemed like something that could be accomplished well before closing. She then changed the story and said they wouldn’t have the necessary parts and they would have to be ordered , and that she had “checked” (later found from a senior advisor that this was essentially impossible because she couldn’t know the parts I would need - either stupidity or a lie she made up in a poor attempt to deter me from her presence) She also claimed she had checked other locations and that they were out of the parts as well and I would be phoneless for quite some time if I didn’t order an express replacement, which would cut my phoneless days down to 1-2. In another poor attempt to shun me, she then tells me to call apple support (as If I wasn’t literally at apple, but understand that’s an issue above her jurisdiction) She didn’t even offer me a phone to use until I reminded her I was there because I COULDNT use my phone.

I ended up using one of their phones and spoke with a wonderful senior advisor (can’t remember the name of his title but it was something like that) He basically told me he couldn’t believe how this had been handled and her blatant assumption that this was a hardware issue. After a long game of he said she said and being the middle man between this guy and the rest of the employees who were making me feel increasingly uncomfortable, they finally let me do a diagnostic test. Which showed the issue was in fact not something that could be physically repaired. At this point the employee who started this war was huffing and puffing and even ran away at one point (like.. actually.) I had this guy in my ear listening to what the employees were saying and being like “that’s wrong”, “please don’t tell me they just said that”, so on and so forth. For HOURS. The employees didn’t want to listen to him or do what he was suggesting and he ended up being right all along! I would have been phoneless for god only knows how long, and for no reason - if it wasn’t for the wonderful man on the phone. So shoutout to him.

Mind you this is a long story short - but I shouldn’t feel like i’ve just fought a war leaving the apple...

So my first interaction with this Apple location began when I came in to the store a week prior to purchase myself a new Apple Watch series 9 and to purchase one for my father as well. The size and color combo that my father wanted was not available so the associate that assisted me offered to place the order for me and ship the watch to his home. Sounded easy enough, we finished the transaction I paid and left the store. Shortly after I received an email confirmation for the order and noticed that the associate had ordered the wrong size watch and incorrect color that I had requested. I proceeded to reach out to customer service and ask if the order could be adjusted or canceled they said it was not possible and I would have to wait till I received it. I understood and simply placed an order online for the correct watch. Once my father received the correct watch, I came into the same location to return the incorrect size and to process a trade in for his old device. Initially there was a young associate that began to assist with the trade in, he was having trouble finding the serial number and finally figured it out and proceeded to finish the transaction. We were maybe 30 seconds away from completion when his “supervisor” whose name is MEGAN decided to tell him he needed to go on break. There was an another associate standing by that was asking me questions about my scooter. The supervisor decided that associate would finish my transaction. This associate looked at me straight in the face and said that she was not paying attention to the transaction nor did she know how to finish the transaction. She proceeded to consult this “Megan” for assistance and her supervisor told her very briefly how to finish the transaction but she still was unable to do it. The supervisor then proceeded to tell the associate she would assist whenever she was done with the current woman she was speaking to. I became upset and restless and walked over to the supervisor to ask for this transaction to simply be finished by someone who knew how and had already waited 30-40 minutes for this process to go on. She stood there disregarding me completely while the associate she left to assist me was helpless. Finally she said I’ll help whenever I’m done and gave me a dirty look. I couldn’t handle the blatant uncalled for disrespect and left the store. I have personally worked in retail for 15 years and I HAVE NEVER acted in such a manner. If you have no interest in actual “customer service” maybe you shouldn’t be put in that role. I can whole heartedly not recommend anyone come to this store for shopping or aftercare if you expect the bare minimum of customer service. Apple you...