Apple Chestnut Street — Attraction in San Francisco

Short story: If you’re not buying something, use Mobile Kangaroo. Apple takes longer, charges more, and in my experience, is less helpful. Mobile Kangaroo actually offered me great advice for buying in the future also.

Long story: I came here a couple years ago to have my battery replaced in my MacBook after the scandal and the lawsuit making Apple offer cheap battery replacements. I asked to replace my battery and was first discouraged from doing so. I had to insist that I wanted my battery replaced. Then, I was told I had to leave it for a few days to get it looked at. 2-3 days later they finally looked at my computer, called me, and told me there was apparent water damage inside. My 5 year old or so computer (which was working fine except for a battery warning) would have to be completely replaced at the cost of around $1,700-$1,800 in order to replace my battery, which because of a recent lawsuit about them strangling customers, would only cost $40 or something. “Wait, I thought we won the lawsuit against them exploiting customers?” So I went to the store and took back my computer without fixing the battery. The person I spoke to wasn’t even apologetic that she was telling me that my only option was to practically throw down enough money for a brand new MacBook to replace a five year old computer in working condition, just to get a new battery.

Fast forward to this year. I recently had a problem in my MacBook (the same one) and was faced with a one week wait time at this Apple Store or being seen the same day at Mobile Kangaroo. I gave them a shot. They ended up replacing my entire computer, everything Apple was going to replace, for half the price. Not only were they much cheaper, they were quicker, nicer, and gave me advice on how to purchase cheaper Apple products in the future.

A big part of the reason I’m willing to pay more up front for Apple products is reliability and support. I haven’t been getting that support. The products are reliable (usually), but visiting their stores, like this one, are terrible experiences. Support might be good when you get it, but it takes a really long time to get it, and it’s overpriced when you do. And sometimes it’s not great actually. Sometimes staff are impatient and rush you, and even come across as rude. I paid up front for quality and care and Apple really hasn’t been delivering. I’m strongly considering switching products...

ZERO SERVICE--WALKED OUT!

I knew exactly what I wanted to buy. I walked in the front door. There were no sales reps in the front area. So, I walked deep into the store to where my item was and looked for someone to assist me. It was not very busy. I saw around 6-7 reps walking around "doing nothing." Well, they seemed to all be "busy" avoiding customers. A group of three reps wandered over to the table where I was waiting. Finally, one of the three looked at me and asked if I needed help. I said I did and that I knew exactly what item I wanted to buy. She said, "Ok...did you check in at the front door?" I said I did not and that there was no one in the front of the store when I entered. She said I needed to do that in order to get service. Hummmm...but you are right here, I am holding the item I just want to pay for and there are 6 other reps wandering about doing nothing/talking amongst themselves. I looked towards the front of the store. There was no one identifiable as a rep I had to check in with. She points to a guy with an iPad who looks like all the other reps and says I need to speak to him. By the time I get to him, another customer has his attention. They begin to engage in what is a VERY prolonged discussion about his needs....not just "check in" then pass him to a rep on the floor. So, I stood and waited with no acknowledgement from the guy I am supposed to check in with while he counseled the other customer in depth on a number of issues. As I waited, I could still see around 6-7 reps wandering around do ing nothing. In fact, the one who told me to go check in was still chatting it up with two other reps who were also busy ignoring customers. They made it VERY clear that they did not want to be bothered with anyone. I left.

Note to store manager: Get control of your staff and instruct them to do their job. Or, put them on commission and watch them change their tune real fast! Like I am certain many others have done, I will order online and not deal with the insulting lack of customer service...

I'll start off by saying that I don't ever leave reviews so for me to actually write one, it had to be a really bad experience, and let me tell you, it was BEYOND BAD! I'm only leaving 1 star because zero isn't an option. First off, we stopped in because of the iPhone 6 Plus camera issue, which is a known issue for many people with the phones, so you would think Apple would have a streamlined process for this fix/replacement. Now, we did not have an apt so I understand having to wait a little, that makes perfect sense, but we timed our visit so it wouldn't be around a busy time of the day. It was a Monday, between 10-11, so we assumed, people are at work so as long as we avoid the lunch break rush, we should be good. So we get there and check in and they tell us it's up to a 3 hour wait! Weird because the store only has a few customers in it and there's a bunch of Apple techs standing around doing nothing. But she said it wouldn't be near that long, they just have to tell us up to 3 hours. She also stated that we would get a call letting us know when we were getting close to the top of the list as well as an additional call letting us know when they would take us in 15 minutes so we could hear back to the store. So we put our name down and said that we would find something to do for a bit outside along Chestnut. Well 2 hours and 52 minutes later, we haven't received ANY phone call updates yet so we walk back in and they say "yeah, go ahead and take a seat" and someone comes right out to help us. Glad we came back on our own because they obviously had people around to help customers. Who knows how much longer we would have waited for a phone call update letting us know we should come back in. Then, on top of the terrible wait to even get someone to help us, we still spent an additional 40 minutes in the store just for them to give us a replacement phone. What a joke. A 3 hour + wait on a Monday, mid-morning is ridiculous and Apple should be embarrassed. If you're looking for Apple support, this is NOT the location to visit....