Apple Opéra — Local services in Paris

(Please note that the conversation was conducted in French, but the review is in English for the benefit of tourists. )

I recently had a very frustrating experience with my iPhone 14 Pro, where the screen became completely unresponsive, and I couldn’t turn it off or unlock it, even using the side buttons. I tried a method I found online, but it didn’t work. Since my phone is essential for my business and daily life, I started searching for help immediately.

The Apple Center in Paris had no available appointments until the next day, but I urgently needed my phone for tasks like getting on the metro (which required a passcode), processing orders for my company (two-factor authentication), and even ordering a taxi. Feeling desperate, I read that walk-ins were accepted without appointments, so I headed to the Apple Store around 11:45 AM.

After a 10-minute wait, I spoke with a staff member and explained my situation, also mentioning that I had AppleCare+ which I have a right to have an immediate replacement. Unfortunately, he told me the earliest available appointment to get the “immediate” replacement was at 4:35 PM. That meant I might have had to close my shop, losing customers. When I asked if there was any other option, he vaguely mentioned an iCare center nearby but didn’t provide clear directions but just a street name. I ended up having to stop at Starbucks to search for the place, only to discover that they no longer handle iPhones. Frustrated, I returned to the Apple Store which the back entrance was in front of the iCare…

I remembered the staff member had said that if I didn’t show up for my 4:35 PM appointment, it would be canceled, which got me thinking: If someone else doesn’t show up for their appointment, I might be able to take their spot. I returned to the store to wait and see if I could be squeezed in earlier.

This time, a different staff member tried the same technique I had attempted earlier (volume up, volume down, and holding the side button), but with more persistence, and finally, my phone restarted. It turned out to be a software bug, and he kindly explained how to properly shut down the phone in the future.

While I’m grateful for the second staff member’s help, the initial experience was very disappointing. The first person could have tried troubleshooting the issue instead of just scheduling an appointment hours later. His vague instructions about the iCare center caused me to waste time, and overall, the communication could have been much clearer.

I’m giving five stars to the second staff member for solving my problem, but barely one star for the first interaction. It makes me question the value of AppleCare+ when a lack of clear help and guidance could put my professional...

This was my worst experience visiting an Apple Store, and I’ve been to many of them in different countries since I travel a lot.

So, here’s what happened. This Apple Store has plenty of employees, but despite that, it takes anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes just to ask a simple question. Honestly, I think that’s unacceptable for a brand as big as Apple.

From my personal experience, my wife and I had to wait about half an hour just to let someone know we wanted to buy a phone. After that, we waited another 30 minutes for a salesperson to come over. Then, the process of actually purchasing the phone took around an hour and a half—I’m not joking. We needed to arrange a tax-free form, and that turned into a whole ordeal. It turned out that the salesperson helping us didn’t know how to do it, but they kept trying anyway, walking back and forth, disappearing and coming back, and then disappearing again. Eventually, they brought another salesperson and told us they’d handle it instead.

About 40 minutes later, we realized something still wasn’t right. When we asked what was going on, it turned out the first salesperson had explained things incorrectly, so the second one was doing something completely unrelated! It honestly felt like some kind of comedy show, except we weren’t laughing anymore. We finally left with the phone almost three hours later.

Another frustrating experience with this Apple Store was related to the screen protector we bought with the phone. They proudly told us it came with a lifetime warranty. Wow! We were impressed and happy about it. But unfortunately, the screen protector cracked after just three weeks. When we returned to the store, we had to wait again just to ask for help, and then wait again for someone to assist us. Eventually, we were sent to the service department, where the consultant told us this wasn’t their problem and that we’d need to contact Belkin—the company that made the screen protector—and deal with them directly. I even showed them the receipt proving I bought it there, but it didn’t help. They just refused to assist further.

This whole experience left us feeling really upset and disappointed, so I decided to share my story here to let you know what to expect if you visit...

The worst service ever. Only one exception the technician who finally dealt with us.

We had an appointment to change an iPhone screen. When we arrived at the genius bar entrance, the lady in charge of welcoming the customers was so pretentious and pretending to be over busy, not able to listen not even to a "bonjour"

We sat where she said to wait for our technician to come. After half an hour waiting past the appointment time, I returned to see the lady and asked her to check that everything was ok.

I was very polite and she almost insulted me "sir I know my job, no need to check, seat at your table and be quite”, I insisted that she checked all the same, she shouted "I know my job”, then, speaking loud to her colleague “THEY get so much on my nerves today”.

So I waited near her so that she finished to welcome some clients and she was not at all paying any attention to me.

Then out of nowhere, she said "you are to close wait down there” (I was like at 2 yards from her which is a respectful distance).

At the end I insisted and she finally checked, only to find out that my session was open and the technician was serving another customer instead of me.

Not a word of apology, except "go to your table, someone will come". Finally we were helped by the very kind technician I was talking about at the beginning of this post.

While leaving the bar I just said, "you see it was worthwhile checking, if not, we could have spent the whole afternoon waiting". She replied so rudely to me that my friends could not believe it! I never lost my temper and was very well educated all along, i underlined it to her, and she replied "maybe I was rude by words, but you are rude with your body, waiting too close to me" and she turned her back to me, rolling her eyes.

WORST EXPERIENCE OF SERVICE EVER, ALL BRANDS INCLUDED. WHE. LEAVING WE SAW MANY OTHER CUSTOMERS GOING OUT OF THE STORE SO SHOCKED BY THE STAFF ATTITUDE TOWARDS THEM TOO.

That was 28 April 2018 at 1 pm in case Apple management considered giving a proper re-training to their undignified staff, especially...