Apple Village Pointe — Attraction in Omaha

This store is a joke. The staff are rude and treat you with a condescending manner. Most of the staff are actually shifted around from various locations in the country, so you will more than likely be helped by an out-of-state employee. What a difference that makes! First off, they will remind you that they know absolutely everything about your device and that nothing you think or ask is right or true. The only thing that is right or true is what they believe. I was in the store to get my $29 battery replacement and they tried their hardest to get me to change my mind and skip the battery replacement. Keep in mind that these batteries are strategically designed to last 2 years before they start to degrade your phone’s performance, as opposed to android devices whose batteries are designed to last 5 years and can easily be changed by the phone user, unlike the Apple battery which must be replaced by an Apple repair technician. My tech told me that I had went through 488 charge cycles and that the batteries are meant to go through approximately 515 before they start to degrade. She then stated that my battery life was at 94% and I wouldn’t need another battery for approximately a year and a half. Keep in mind that my battery was already 1 year 8 months old and these batteries are designed to last only 2 years. So I insisted that I wanted a battery replacement. The look of disdain this employee gave me was tangible and at this point she tried to usher me out of the store b/c I must not fit her ideal form of an Apple consumer; don’t ask questions because the Apple technicians are always right. She said “follow me over here so I can get you a repair sticker” as she motioned for me to come to the front of the store. Well I had work to do which is why I brought my laptop, so I wasn’t moving an inch. I told her to just print out the sticker and bring it to me and she turned, looked at me, hesitated b/c she didn’t want to help me anymore than she absolutely had to, thought about if she actually had to do what I requested, realized she did, feined a half-ass smile than realized she had no power to tell me what to do. This made her extremely angry and it was visibly evident in her facial expressions and body language. At this point I was fed up with the whole situation because I had to drive 45 minutes to this store which is strategically located as far away from the center of Omaha as possible. However, I still had work to do, so I looked for a comfortable place to sit and begin doing my work, all while being under the searing-glaze of this out-of-state employee who has no inkling of an idea on how to provide fast, friendly, courteous service. Well, Apple has made their stores uncomfortable places to be in. They obviously don’t want you lingering in their store because their business model is to build 1 store in the entire state to serve 750,000 customers, an example of their lack of caring in regards to the customer’s experience and the customer’s time. None of the chairs in the store have back support, let me repeat that NONE OF THE CHAIRS IN THE STORE HAVE BACK SUPPORT. So what did I do? I simply pushed three of their cube-chairs together to build an ample level of support and proceeded to sit on the ground using the chair cubes as my back support. This sent the tech, and now the other employees, into an obvious frenzy. They began making a point to walk over me back and forth although they had more efficient lines of walking available, all while giving me death stares as they paced back and forth, seemingly peeved at the fact that I simply wanted to support my back while I was sitting in their store. Such a weird and rude group of individuals; I have found this true of almost all Apple employees at the stores I have visited (5). When my 1.5 hour repair was completed, keep in mind they apparently can’t send you a email to let you know the repair is completed and you wait in-line again until one of their haute-taute employees decides they want to help you, I was finally able to escape this...

If you can avoid this store, for your own sanity please do so. I have been to Apple stores around the world, and not one has ever been this bad. I have had no less than four issues with this store. First, I paid this store $129 to replace a screen on my iPhone 6S. Then, when it needed a battery replaced this store wouldn’t fix it as they stated the screen wasn’t authentic Apple part. I paid this very Apple store to fix the screen, and never didn’t have my iPhone until went to get battery repaired. So basically they used an incorrect or fake Apple part to replace my screen then wouldn’t fix my battery.

It only gets worse from there. I went in with my iPhone X when it was the newest model. The iPhone wasn’t working properly. It was less than a year old. The technician tried to get me to buy a newer model iPhone. I had the newest model in my hands.

After speaking with the manager things only got worse. The manager refused to help out and backed his employee who was wrong for not repairing my malfunctioning iPhone and trying to sell me another. And then said it was okay the employee tried to sell me a new one. My iPhone looked flawless never got wet and wasn’t damaged externally in any way. But they still didn’t want to help me. They just wanted me to buy a new iPhone.

The next incident I had was in October 2019, I went in with my Son’s iPhone. The employee told me since the lightning port was bad we needed to pay the replacement $299 to get a “new” one. We got it but it was refurbished. After finding this out I wasn’t happy and tried to return it. They said that I had signed a document on their iPad that stated I couldn’t return this because it’s different than all their other products when you do an exchange replacement. You don’t get a full warranty only 90 days and you cannot return it.

The supposed manager wouldn’t budge on returning it. He said all sales are final. I am like nobody told me that I couldn’t return this like any other product in the store. He said I signed a document stating that. The thing I signed on the iPad according to the Apple “Genius” was just saying that they’re replacing my iPhone with a brand new one for a lesser price. Basically, they’re not acting with transparency. They’re always trying to up sell. It’s a money grab.

The final straw for me was when I went to buy an iPhone 11. They said I could get $600 trade in for my iPhone XS Max. So, I traded it in. The iPhone 11 just wasn’t a real improvement going from the XS Max to the iPhone 11. The next day I tried to return it. They said if I returned it they wouldn’t give me my iPhone XS Max back. I said okay, how about just store credit for that. The manager argued with me in front of other people and he said “I had signed a waiver releasing them from any liability of the trade in device when I signed the receipt on the iPad the day before.” I escalated this and the “regional” manager had been there listening to everything I said and he said he agreed the manager did everything according to Apple’s procedure. They could return the difference in the iPhone 11, but not the $600 trade in value under any circumstances not even if I used that towards a higher end iPhone 11 Pro or Pro Max. Really frustrating.

After living all around the country and world, I have never had worse Apple store experiences than the ones in Omaha Village Pointe Apple Store. From their “Geniuses” to their managers, they don’t care to be nice or polite. They don’t care to be fair or even agree that their store is the issue. From waiting over an hour and twenty minutes for an appointment, to not ever getting any flexibility from them, to being eleven minutes late one time and they canceled my appointment to get an iPhone repaired after waiting a week. And all thanks to terrible parking situations at the store at the time.

Do yourself a favor. Visit any other Apple Store and save your sanity. Buy from Amazon or Best Buy. Save yourself the frustration and ask about a million questions before you ever trust their “Geniusea.”...

Shiny store, almost always full. The customer service is truly hit or miss. I've come in with and without an appointment and have been treated both well and rudely...often in the same visit. This happens when I come in around 10 am, 3 pm, or 6 pm. Most employees can at least manage to be pleasant (but not usually friendly), and while there are some gems who go out of their way to help you, a good portion seem be annoyed by your presence (again, this occurs at all times of the day whether or not the store is busy with and without an appointment).

Today, I went in without an appointment to replace my MBP charger because it stopped working. It was 10:05 am and there were staff with various different colors of iPads (different duties) standing around. The guy standing around at the front told me to "go find a guy with a red iPad" so I started towards the middle where a female staff member holding a red iPad was helping another person, with a guy "in line" behind him. She looked up at me and said, "I can help you in a minute if you have an appointment." Then another guy (blond hair, longer up top, and short of the sides...wish I had caught his name so I could make a complaint to Apple) holding a red iPad came out from the back and walked to where we were. I made eye contact and smiled, then explained what I needed. I've received eye rolling and curtness from the store's staff before, but no one has given me poorer service there than him.

He stated that I needed an appointment, for them to help me and that is was "the responsibility of the customer to go online and make an appointment with their AppleID." I asked when the next available appointment was, and he said 11:45. I looked up and there were still two staff standing around doing nothing at this point. I asked if it was possible to fit me in if someone doesn't show up or something, and he restated that the next available appointment was 11:45. He then told me that if I wanted something done under warranty that I had to make an appointment, but I could purchase a new charger anytime I wanted and that I should then talk to the female staff member, who was still helping another customer. This all was accompanied by a churlish tone of voice and the "your'e an idiot" stare. Since it was, at this point 10:08 and their Genius Bar slots are every 15 minutes and there was no rush of people waiting around for the next slot, I could only assume that I wasn't being helped because he did not want to help me for some reason.So I left. There was no way I was going to pay $80 after being treated like that because their product had failed.

If he was on break, he had plenty of opportunities to say so. If he wasn't, the color of his iPad said that he had the capability to help me (according to the guy at the front). We were the only customers waiting around in the store, so I don't think it's odd of me to assume he headed toward us to provide service.

There have been times I've been early for an appointment, with the store has been 3x as full, and they've rearranged staff duties so I could be seen to more quickly (granted I had been handed off to 4 people before that happened, one of whom who was almost as rude as this blond guy). Not this time. My family has bought 4 Macs, an iPad, and an iPhone, so we go to the Apple Store a lot and have for almost a decade...This experience almost made me consider getting a PC next time around.

Ultimately, this store is under very poor management. You should receive at least pleasant service at all times. If someone is not able to help you, they should apologize. Instead, it ends up being a hot potato game where you get passed around from staff member to staff member and all you can do is pray you get caught by someone who...