AT&T Store — Local services in Abilene

iPhone 12 I bought in May or June at NE Abilene AT&T store. They sold me a cover and a $30 quick charge (USBC) plug in. The iPhone came with, or the quick charger came with, a 3’ plug in cord. The cord is different from every other iPhone plug I own. As all iPhone Apple cords do, it no longer works. I called today the AT&T store I bought it, and the manager rudely told me I had to come in. I drove there. Two girls and him with no other customers in the store told me I could buy one but they do not warrant anything that is not an AT&T brand. (I would discover four hours later the lightening charger IS an AT&T product, not Apple.). Not the apple phone, not the apple accessories and basically and rudely said they only sell Apple, they don’t fix it or replace it, or warrant it. That when I buy them and walk out the door, they can’t and won’t help me. We do not have an Apple Store in Abilene and I’ve spent the past four hours frustratingly wading through countless Apple websites while waiting 45 more minutes for AT&T to call back, (my service provider). Long and short is that AT&T stores are owned and operated by individuals and AT&T has no control over what they do, what they sell or what they do or won’t warrant. Four hours later now, Apple (whose phone number I went through hell to find) is going to mail me a new USBC to iPhone cable for $19.00 and I’m to mail the old one back, and will get a refund later. I have a dozen USB to iPhone cords, but only one for the lightening charger. Just so you know, apparently every AT&T store is different from the next. All owned and operated individually and only put AT&T on the outside as a name each store owner buys. I actually asked the girl at AT&T why do they have brick and mortar stores if AT&T has nothing to do with them? She didn’t know. The local manager, Paul, was beyond rude and offered no help whatsoever beyond selling me another AT&T USBC charger. I wanted to report Paul to AT&T as an employee they do not need, but can’t; he doesn’t work for AT&T and neither does the store. But Apple makes a $1,000 phone and includes a cheap cord in it that everyone knows will not work beyond a couple months, and then authorizes AT&T to sell them. The cord was warranted for one year, and it’s because the local store charged me so much extra for a charger is why I wanted it to work for the year it was promised to work for. Completely lost all respect for Apple and AT&T over this. Yes, for $19.00 up front with an eventual refund, my problem is being fixed. As a Texas real estate broker I have a policy; do me a bad job, and I’ll tell everyone I know. Well, AT&T and Apple are about to get some more free advertising. Unhappy in Abilene Texas a week before Christmas 2022.

Update-of all the places I’ve contacted, only Apple is interested in helping me. I contacted several AT&T numbers but even they are not interested since this location is not associated with AT&T. This is an old Game store that changed its name to something respectable. What a joke...

There will almost always be a line and you will have to wait a little bit before getting a rep to help you. Some representatives know what they are doing, but some clearly have no clue about cell phone technology and just seem to guess a lot, while pushing buttons on your phone. One of them installed a newer iOS version to one of our phones WITHOUT our permission, which was upsetting, but he looked like he had just graduated from high school and had no clue how to address our original issue, so we weren’t all that surprised. We usually don’t install the newest iOS version to our phones until all the kinks and bugs are cleaned up and we were intentionally waiting a while before doing it. They seem to have a couple of pros up there and also a couple of young, super inexperienced high school or college kids trying to learn the ropes and it’s very obvious who is who in that department. I’d suggest you request to speak to one of the most experienced customer service reps to help you if you want things to go smoothly the first time around. Other than that, this is a clean store with a huge selection of cell phones… both iOS and Android phones (Apple iPhones and Samsung Galaxy phones) as well as every single accessory that you could ever think of. They will try to push their $40-$50 cell phone cases on you, but if your budget is tight after spending $1,300 on a new iPhone, you can get some pretty decent cases at the Five Below Store located right around the corner from AT&T. This goes for charging cords, too! Or you can find some excellent cases and chargers on Amazon for waaaay cheaper and just as reliable. The expensive $50 phone cases at this AT&T store are definitely pretty remarkable and extremely sturdy. They protect your new expensive phone very well. But not everyone wants to spend that much on a case. All in all, I give this store an A- for its few minor issues, yet awesome goodies. I’d definitely recommend their cell phone/mobile services, which are affordable and very reliable (so far). We bought 2 iPhone 12 Pro Max phones at the end of August 2021 (last year) and are very happy with our...

If I could give no stars, I would. When we entered the store, no sales staff. My husband had to go knock on a door before someone came out. When “Brenda”came we told her we wanted to purchase a phone outright (repeatedly) and continue our service as is. The main account is in my name (wife). After taking my ID, when she found out my husband is FirstNet she looked it up. She brought us the iPhone 16 Pro we asked for and helped briefly to get the transfer of the old iPhone to the new. But didn’t give us the PW for the internet. She was busy flitting between customers. We flagged her down for the password. She entered it then left without seeing it did not work. My husband networked off my phone. She did finally come get us on the internet. After over an hour, sent us home to finish the transfer. The printer was conveniently broken and we were told we could get into it thru our ATT account. When we tried we couldn’t bc my password no longer worked and neither did my husband’s. After 2 frustrating hours trying to get a human on the phone at ATT customer service- I learned several things she never shared: The account was now in my husband’s First Net account name and I could no longer access either account. Once we did get the receipt, we realized she had set it up as a payment plan!! Exactly opposite what we asked for. Went back to the store to ask her about why it was set up as a payment plan when we specifically told her we didn’t want that. She told us we could pay it off w the first payment. When asked if it would be unlocked, she told us “no” and that she couldn’t unlock it and that only customer service could (?!) Returning the phone today. But not...