Apple University Village — Attraction in Seattle

Purchased brand new iPhone 15 ProMax in Feb 2024 from T-mobile’s Flagship downtown Seattle store.

In June my phone started showing SOS mode. The frequency of SOS episodes only increased as the summer unfolded.

By August I could no longer use my phone, text and calls do not work in SOS.

I read multiple articles stating this has become an increasingly enormous problem for iPhones users and the carriers are all blaming Apple and Apple is blaming all the carriers. And the iPhone users remain with out service with no one owning the issue and resolving it for the masses.

I went to T-mobile store who told me my IOS software was out of date and I had on VPN and problem solved.

WRONG.

They told me if there troubleshooting didn’t work then they wash their hands of it and it’s an Apple issue.

As soon as I left this store, SOS came right back on.

I brought the phone to Apple in University Village who required 2 “geniuses” to tell me I would need 80% of the hardware on the phone replaced and they referred to it as a “sideboard”.

I lost a good week from my phone which translated to $$$ as I’m a massage therapist and all my clients contact me via phone.

Apple made me schedule a future appointment (48 hours later) as they didn’t even have the parts on site at their flagship store.

Two days later I get my phone back from an Apple employee who throws the phone in my lap and said, it should start working in about 2 hours but if it doesn’t, “bring the phone back to T-mobile and demand your ticket is escalated to the highest engineer within T mobile as it’s an issue with how they programmed your lines (I have two, personal and business). We are done at this point.”

I asked if they were going to help me get back online as it was essentially like getting a whole new phone. They said “no, we are focusing on selling as many new products as possible and not handling defects and it’s not our issues it’s T-mobile’s. Please leave the store now.”

I walked the phone over to the University Village T-mobile to ask them to get me back up and running. Which they did and informed me I wasn’t getting full service and should bring the phone back to this store.

I brought the phone once again back to the T Mobile store and the manager on duty that day gave me a huge attitude and kept telling me “if you would just allowed to talk now! We aren’t going to replace your phone. That’s your issue.” I asked for a refund for service totaling one pay period as this went on for 3 months. They laughed at me and said; “we’ll give you a $40 credit max, now leave.”

Never received the credit on my account.

Funny how late stage capitalism works, we the customers would be cut off from service instantly if we don’t pay our bills. The provider?

They tell us to leave their store. Apple is focused on selling as many of those stupid head set pieces and Mac books while T mobile is more focused on up selling stupid accessories in addition to new mobile devices.

Absolute GARBAGE on both...

An architectural review of the University Village Apple store:

The Apple store in the University Village was until at least somewhat recently located across a tarmac of parked cars from the awkwardly-similarly-facaded Microsoft store, Microsoft being west and Apple being east, the old Apple store having served 10 million visitors. Visiting this area again when visiting from out of town, I rounded the corner and discovered that tarmac had been paved over and a new piece of architecture constructed where naught but cars used to be: it was unmistakably an Apple store, but also a deconstruction of architecture itself.

The approach to this Apple store is a bit dependent on which side you enter the University Village from -- the north entrances to the University Village are as ever seemingly deprioritized; the architecture and the moments within the mall make it clear you are meant to be navigating from the south towards the north. So, to assume you approach from the south first is the common outcome, but I want to focus on the approach from west or east, because this is where the building is most true to its core self: unremarkable in every way, yet undeniably monolithic in a thoroughly Modern way. You almost are struck with the twin senses of its monumentality and also its sheer ease of being almost ignorable, which is an extremely odd juxtaposition. If you have any experience in architecture, the rear view in particular, but to a lesser extent all views, strongly resemble architectural renders more than they do actual built constructions. This is either built straight from an early-in-production concept render, or a design that was stripped of everything possible at every stage through its design lifecycle. It's at this point in the review I should mention that I'm not really a fan of Apple's design aesthetics in general, which is going to color this entire review because for once I think we have a building that is very much aligned with the main identity of a company and you're either going to like it or ignore this building based on those preferences. In fact, I think that sums up this building in general; it's an extension of things you are already thinking about Apple, and for that alone, it might be the perfect structure, or one of the worst I've ever seen. And in how unassuming this structure might appear, appealing on the surface but discomforting and monolithic once you inspect it, I feel perhaps it should become an Amazon store instead. All this critique is padded considerably by a green roof, reportedly frequented by honeybees, which adds considerable favor to this reviewer's opinion.

With an emotional resonance that seems dependent on your view of Apple as a company, I give BJ Siegel's Apple store's design three and...

TLDR: Horrible experience. Inept employee. Doesn't understand the hardware. Made me waste my entire day.

So frustrating. Will avoid this Apple Store in the future. “Genuis” bar is full of idiots.

My Experience: I came into the store asking to repair the front and back of my phone after dropping a weight on it. I had the unfortunate experience of meeting the genius bar tech, Andrea. She said something about not being able to verify that the screen was broken along with the back glass?

Okay...? I don’t care. I am asking you to repair my phone and I am paying for it. What does it matter when it broke? Fix the front and the back.

Kept saying some BS about adding stuff to her notes. Kind of mumbling under her breath completely unclear what she is describing. Couldn’t explain WHY it mattered when the front screen broke relative to the back (even though once again, they broke on the same day).

Then eventually out of nowhere she goes, "there is a dent at the in the frame of the phone, you can feel it". No, actually, you can’t feel anything and there was no dent! The said "dent" was also on the complete opposite side from the point of impact... Continued to sit there for a bit and said the only option I have was to get a replacement phone for $700 or $800... NO. I am not getting a new phone when the hardware AND software in this one is completely fine. So horrible for the environment and completely unnecessary. I sat there for a second processing the BS that she just spewed my way and decided to just go to another repair shop.

Went to Best Buy, but since my screen didn’t work, they didn’t have the tools to authorize the repair. But, they agreed, no dent. I had to drive to Bellevue during rush hour to another Apple store. There I talked to a wonderful employee who worked with me and said "of course we can get this fixed for you. You want the front and back repaired?" EZ PZ. Not so hard after all. Got it fixed the same day and picked it up later that night with no data loss! Who would’ve thought?! Certainly not an Apple Store GENIUS!

The thing is, I had my meeting with Andrea at 1:30. Because of her incompetence, I had to drive around until 9:00 to get it fixed when I could’ve had it all done by 4. She wasted my day, and I know Apple is going to do nothing to make it right.

Horrible experience. Inept employee. Doesn't understand the hardware. Made me waste my entire day.

So frustrating. Will avoid this Apple Store in the future. “Genuis” bar is...