Apple Third Street Promenade — Attraction in Santa Monica

After buying the new iphone 11 pro, asking specifically for theft and loss protection and confirming with the salesman ( I do not remember his name but after this experience of him rushing my purchase and lying to me while looking into my eyes about having loos and theft protection, which after having my phone stolen I found out I didn't have - if I owned the store I would fire him and the managers that also lied to me about trying to help my situation, not getting back to me when they said they would, numerous managers making promises to help fix the sales man mistake with no results but what they call a resolution of free AirPods, lol an item worth maybe 10% of my purchase). Let me back up. I do not recommend shopping here. What the first red flag was and looking back I should have stopped the sale right there and then - a fraud alert went off on the card I was using, causing us to have to redo the transaction. I am a loyal customer who has been purchasing high end Apple products for years to use for my personal business as a photographer. I asked specifically for full applecare coverage, damage, theft loss, the whole deal. The salesman promised me this is what I was getting and the first time around I checked that I was getting the coverage I asked for. When I'm spending around $1400 I expect that I'll be valued as a customer. This is the start of the sht show I experienced. After paying for everything, I looked the salesman in the eye and asked if I was covered for loss and theft and damages, he quickly replied yes. 3 weeks later my phone gets stolen at a festival. I reach out to Apple expecting I'll be able to get a replacement for a couple hundred dollars. Instead they tell me I'm not covered for loss and theft. I was blown away.... I should've checked my email receipt but I trusted what the salesman told me and being I thought I had purchased the correct coverage, and he confirmed it. I took this to Apple support, they sent me back to the apple store where a manager asked the salesman what he rememebered, of course nothing. This manager wanted to help so he said, thought he could find a creative solution to help us both and would call my father later that day or the next. 3 days later, no reply. So I call.... ( I had already spent atleast 4 hours on the phone with Apple and the only reply I was getting was that they could do nothing for me. They (a HUGE company) can't do anything when their employee made a mistake. Now, after telling everyone I talked to my phone was been stolen already another manager I was in contact with said that they would honor the agreement that I thought I had purchased. I call the number they give me only to find out that the manager thought the phone wasn't stolen when I had already told this person and about 6 others it was, and again, they can't do anything. Apple no care is now one of my favorite lines to describe this company. I was lied to by the salesman, managers, and after hours of negotiating something all they did is offer a pair of airpods. What the fck am I supposed to do with airpods without a phone. The store and company put all the fault on me, from my understanding the store manager could have under special circumstances offered me a discounted price for replacement, which they did not. Calling this a legality issue, when it was an issue of them making a mistake and not owning up to it. I call this the scum of the earth. Please avoid what happened to me and DO NOT SHOP HERE. Learn from my mistake, and dont trust what their salesman tell you. Read whats in writing as soon as you can, otherwise they will leave you with nothing like...

I went on the web and confirmed my iPhone battery was one with a bad battery and would be replaced if it was malfunctioning. The website had me make an appt at this apple store. I live in Santa Monica and I HATE the promenade. There is no parking, I hate the crowds and it is a pain in the butt to find any store in this outdoor orgy of consumerism. But my phone is only holding a charge for a few hours at this point so I figure I'll just have to suck it up. Get in and get out and it will be over quick. NOT!

I show up and am told to "squeeze in over there" and a finger is pointed toward a table which already has all the seats taken, at the back of the store with the word "genius" on it. So I wait, 10 minutes later a 20 something "genius" walks out and calls my name but cannot hear me because the place is massive and full of hipsters all talking and yelling over each other. I have to get up and go over to her to get her attention before she moves onto the next sucker, I mean customer. I tell her why I am there and she starts to tell me to do a back-up. I tell her I just did one. "Please replace my battery". She says she has to check it out first and spends about 2 minutes running a "test". She then tells me "yup your battery is bad and there are no other problems. We don't have it in stock. You'll have to come back in a couple of weeks as we have to order it." Seriously! This store is the size of a football field and you don't have the battery for the iPhone 5 in stock that you made me make an appointment to have changed? Its a defective battery, you sold it, and you know its gonna need replaced so you don't bother to have it available? 1,000 of them cannot take more room than box of copy paper!

This was the biggest waste of my time ever. I was a Mac user since 1986 and they have progressively gotten worse and worse and worse. I have given up on apple computers as they are now way overpriced, intended to be obsolete as fast as possible and a pain to get anything fixed or upgraded on. I bought the first iPhone and hated its unreliable and glitchy system. Within weeks I had to trade it in for a blackberry. I stayed away a LONG time. Finally, 18 months ago I decided to try another iPhone. They must have gotten it right finally or they wouldn't be so popular? I figured. Obviously WRONG!

I am sick of the jealous boyfriend called "iTunes" who won't let me talk to any other file management programs, and I am sick of their attitude that they are doing me a favor having me come into their hot, loud and crowded "store". NewsFlash Apple. I don't like spending time running errands to get my cell to work. I don't like the after school hangout spot you call the "applestore" and its not fun for me to visit it! My phone is not a toy or a hobby. Its a very expensive tool I use and count on. I cannot wait weeks to have a battery that functions. If you didn't want to have to deal with these types of problems than just make the damn battery user accessible. Oh, wait, I forgot, you don't want me to be able to talk to any other electronics manufacturers. There you go again you jealous ass! You don't own me!

Would I ever set foot in that hipster hangout called "The AppleStore"? Hell no! Will I be buying another apple product anytime...

To preface this review, here are a list of Apple products I've purchased: PowerMac 6100-60 PowerMac G4 533 PowerBook G4 667 MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo MacBook Air 2011 Mac Pro (the garbage can) 6 core which is a $7000 workstation I use for my job iPhone 3GS iPhone 4 iPhone 4S iPhone 5S iPod Touch 3G, 4G, 5G Apple Cinema Display 27" 2 Apple TVs Apple Time Capsule Probably many I'm forgetting

I've also worked at Apple for 3+ years as an Engineer in corporate. If you use an iPhone, you've used my software. Right now I'm the cofounder of a company that makes iOS games. So I'm pretty invested in Apple.

So I absolutely do not need to be treated like trash by the lackeys who work here, this location has been consistently disrespectful and rude. I've had genius bar issues, employees who lack product knowledge, and service slower than a race between Peter Griffin and Homer Simpson.

The final straw was today when I came to see (not buy) the iPhone 6. I'm trying to decide if the 6 or 6+ will work better given the size difference. I went in there and picked up one, and I'm grabbed by the security guard. He yells at me that I can't stand there. First, don't touch me, second it's an iPhone on display. He says if I want to watch the iPhone, look over "there" as he points off waywardly. Why the hell would I come to the Apple store to look at a picture of an iPhone? I have this tool called the Internet where I can pleasure myself to iPhone pics all day if I cared to.

I explained I'm looking at the iPhone on display which Apple has hooked up to some headphones, but he's insistent I'm not allowed to. What the hell? And employee finally comes over and says they're trying to setup a line there or something, and led me to a different iPhone. At this point I was pissed off and left. Then I went back in to try to speak to a manager who the original employee claimed he was. Nothing but derision as I explained they might want to train their security guards to be a bit more cordial to customers.

If I wasn't so invested in the Apple ecosystem, this experience would significantly sour me on the products, and if I were on the fence - I'd more seriously evaluate Android / Windows. Fortunately for Apple, my livelihood is dependent on them, so that simply means I won't go to this location anymore and will have to make the trek to Manhattan Beach or the Grove now.

But really, this location can be replaced by yet another Starbucks...