Apple Domain NORTHSIDE — Local services in Austin

PART 1 Of my review

I would give an extra star, because I’m sure that not every single employee is like this. But I’m pretty sad right now, so ya just get the one star. BUT shout out to the manager Brie who did take the time to speak with me on the phone afterwards to hear my feedback. She was really nice to me, and assured me that feedback would be implemented into the work routines and further training of the employee. I did sit with this experience, and have decided to still post a review.

I went in because I had been getting the “iPhone storage full” notifications for about a month, and thought that I would have enough time to resolve the issue (ie: getting a new phone, buying more storage (which I actually did and didn’t realize that it doesn’t sink automatically) etc…) before things got worse, like I did with my old phone. But when I woke up that morning, the phone was not functioning and the apple icon was randomly blinking off and on. Plugged it in, waited for it to come back on, but it did not, so I went into the store.

A tech representative named JC was assigned to me. Without much information or even really asking me many questions, he did a factory reset without telling me that’s what he was going to do. Not really even inquiring if I had anything backed up or saved on my iCloud. After voicing that the phone was only a year old, and how surprising it is that it would even get to this point, (100% a design flaw by apple in order to force people to have to buy new product - that’s my personal hunch) JC decided that it was a good idea to let me know that “It was completely 100% my fault. Sorry I’m from New York and I just say it like it is. Don’t want to lie to you.” - I don’t know why, but I freaking laughed with him when he said that, and even said props for being honest. Freaking joke’s on me though, because what he proceeded to do, was restart the phone without further investigation, therefore deleting everything on it. Even if that was literally the last resort, and there was nothing else that could be done, I cared more about attempting to save the contents of the phone rather than the functionality of the device. I maybe would have taken the phone somewhere else if there was still a chance of saving its contents.

It kind of felt like the store’s main focus was “getting the device working again, and moving onto the next person”. It doesn’t feel good, having a major issue with the thing that we rely on almost more than anything else, and then being treated like a number that needs to be dealt with, and out the door. - Unless you’re buying something, of course.

I don’t care where you’re from, but treating people like they are stupid and then restarting a device (maybe unnecessarily so) thus deleting everything - is kinda bad. There is a nice way to say most things, even if it is constructive criticism. I completely despise people who treat you like an idiot, and then behave like the same thing wouldn’t affect them at all were it to happen to them. Truly insulting. And then after realizing that everything was gone, all he said was, “Is there anything else I can help you with today ma’am? No? Have great rest of your day.” Then he just walked away.

I felt rushed through the entire interaction, like I didn’t have time to even fully comprehend the overly technological verbiage that he was using. At one point he suggested that my phone might still fall under warranty for hard drive repairs. He didn’t even help me try to look in my iCloud to see what the purchase date was. I figured that out myself after the fact - and it was still under warranty. So there still maybe could’ve been a way that we could have saved my content. But because that wasn’t explored fully, now I’ll never know if that could’ve helped in some way.

Part 2 in a...

Went for out of warranty battery replacement on Sunday for 90$.

On pick up was told that battery is replaced, but face id is no longer working, though they told it will be fixed for free, just need to wait for part to arrive. I asked if there was a case id, was told that yes it exists. Just to be on the safe side came back in and asked if any email can be sent to me with referring that case and future repair.

Apple store concierge sent me an email, but it had a price of 170$ for repair, which I decided to not make a fuss about at that time.

Part arrived today and I dropped my phone for face id replacement, and at that moment I was asked if I am ok about 170$ cost. Went through explaining that apple tech two days ago told about it being free. Was told that it is their misunderstanding and yes, it is going to be free so phone went in for repair.

Got back on pick up time, was told phone ain’t ready. Went for a walk, got back, and it was not ready again, manager came out and said that diagnostics just cannot finish and was asked if I am alright with possible data loss because they will try to reset it. Agreed to that and was told that it will take 40 more minutes.

Got back after that, was told that phone is ready, signed the agreement and was greeted to a bill of almost 600$ for screen replacement and face id parts. Asked why, was told it is out of warranty. Explained that this was verbally offered to me as free repair. Support guy said he needs to check smth and went to consult his manager Dan. After waiting like good 3 minutes and tired of waiting asked his manager and him what’s up and was reassured repair is going to be free.

Still asked support guy whats his name, dude has not responded. Explained my frustration to the manager with the process of damaged face id during battery replacement and that everybody has been offering to repair it for free but only verbally and that receiving one email from the very beginning outlining that Apple Domain store is going to fix face id would have solved it from the beginning. Dan has agreed that process could have been better.

I am glad that I have received my phone back and fully fixed as of now, but if it was my wife or mom I bet that they would have just caved and paid for it. It is pretty hostile and scammy way of operating service center where Apple denies any kind of written responsibility of fixing their mistake and leaves it to the customer to prove that he is owed smth. I bet apple is cutting costs on everything now. Never going to purchase high cost apple items any more as their repair techs are terrible at servicing it and I doubt even apple care I pay on all my other devices will help much in case smth gets broken.

Purchase experience for iphone 15 pro max was alright here, previous review has been 5 stars from me,...

PLEASE READ BEFORE COMING TO THIS LOCATION!!!

By far, the worst customer service experience with Apple. We came to a pre-scheduled 230pm appt on a Saturday to fix my cousin’s Apple laptop, who was visiting me over the weekend. The technician confidently stated that it would take 30 minutes to fix and we would be on our way with it repaired laptop. After an hour passed by, we said that we wanted the laptop and we would fix it later. Technician stated that you could leave it overnight to pick it up Sunday, which worked well with their schedule. It turns out that Sunday that they were closed for Easter, which, either means the technician was unaware that they were closed, or simply lied that we can pick it up on Sunday.

My cousin flew back to Baltimore that Sunday evening, and so I stopped by Monday morning before work to pick up his laptop. This is where apples lack of customer service comes into play:

I asked to see if Apple Watch ship my cousins computer back to Baltimore because their technician told us that they were open on Easter Sunday when they weren’t. One lady said that she is sorry that this happened, but there’s nothing that they can do about this. I inquired about the technicians name that gave us misinformation, and she said “no”, but she would bring a manager over. I then explained the whole situation to the manager, and he said that the technician “definitely” knew that they were closed for Easter, and he would not lie about this. He stated that I must have misheard him as the technician could not have possibly said that we could pick up the laptop on Easter Sunday, when Apple was closed. After inquiring the managers name and the technicians name, the manager simply stated that it’s confidential information, and he cannot give out names of any employees that work there, including himself. I asked if they could compensate me for doing an overnight shipping through UPS because their technician made a mistake by telling us that we could pick it up on Easter Sunday. The managers just stated that Apple doesn’t offer any compensation for employee mistakes, and that we most likely misheard the initial technician. I understand if Apple does not have a compensation policy, but to blatantly say I misheard Apple’s technician shows This locations lack of concern and well being of their customers.

I am genuinely shocked at the customer service I received from the three Apple employees I interacted with at this location, and had to spend $150 on shipping my cousins laptop back to him because the Apple employees at this location are incompetent in knowing what days they are closed and lack any compensation for their employees’ mistakes. I highly recommend you find another place to repair any apple products to you have to save yourself...