Apple Burlington — Local services in Burlington

NEVER coming back to this store for business

I was at Apple store yesterday in Burlington, MA to get apple care on a MacBook Pro I got from my brother. I had been to a different apple store the day before and the staff told me that they needed to see the macbook in person. I told them I don’t have it since it was for my brother. He said I could just get the box to an apple store and they would be able to check the serial number and help me with the purchase. I should mention that I was planning on buying it in store so that I could get back to school pricing (I wasn’t able to get that to work online). Anyway, when I showed up to Burlington store, I was greeted by a staff member. I told her I am looking for apple care on my macbook pro and even before I could finish, she said I need to see the mac in person. I told her I got the box with me since I was told at Apple Store in Salem, NH that I could get it added after you looked up the serial number. I asked her if she could ask manager about it because I don’t get why I can buy it online but I need the mac in store for the purchase. She started spinning the story about how this is “back to school” time and there might be water damage on mac so they want to check for it before adding care. When I requested is she could ask the manager she told me she has been working there for 5 years. Firstly, I don’t care how long she has been working for and I didn’t appreciate the fact she was already hinting at accusing me of having water damage on a new mac. Also, when I asked her to go check with a manager I saw her talk to a male staff member and come back to me with the same response. I know he wasn’t the manager. How you may ask? When I went back to the same store the very same day with the mac I asked the staff member what was the name of the manager and it was definitely not him (since the manager is a lady). I got the macbook to the store the same day since my brother lives not too far away from the mall. The staff this time looked at it, superficially saw all sides (I don’t know what he was trying to see since the mac was in a case) and then he got the serial#. I mean if you needed the mac in person, atleast run the damn diagnostic! As a customer who has brought various apple products over many years, I wanted to know why I could buy the apple care online but I needed the mac in person to buy it in the store. I just needed an explanation before paying over $200 for a service. As much as I love apple products, I avoid going to an apple store because I absolutely hate dealing with the ‘geniuses’ throwing attitude at customers. I don’t mean to undermine the job they do but you have to understand that in such an industry, a single bad experience brings bad name not only to the company but the store. I don’t think I would ever go back to Burlington store after this experience. As a customer, I have a right to information and people you train to be working on genius bars should know better about how to deal with customers. Maybe there was a slight break in protocol and I was given wrong information by the staff in Nashua, I would much rather hear that and an apology from the staff member than schooling me about how I might have already damaged my 3 week old mac and now I need coverage or how they have been working there for 5 years and I should take their word for it. I feel Apple as a company should invest more in training and hiring staff fit for customer service type role. It’s not everybody’s cup of tea and one such employee can ruin the outlook of the...

Despite “Jane” referring to Andrew H as “the best,” my experience with Andrew left me feeling undervalued and shocked at the lack of professionalism.

Yes, it was not Andrew’s fault Kay (another “genius”) confirmed my appointment an hr before I arrived to get a replacement phone and after driving 45 minutes to get there I was told the phone wasn’t in stock. However, it was Andrew’s fault that I was suddenly treated like an irate brute despite my frustrations being extremely reasonable in the circumstances. In a store full of white employees, I felt like I couldn’t get a word in edgewise because I’m a black woman. I had never experienced such disregard for customer appreciation/respect in my life.

Trouble started when Andrew H. informed me that there were no phones in stock. I then asked how that could be when a manager just confirmed my appointment a few minutes ago and knew I was coming to get my phone replaced—the manager told me it would take 15 mins top and I’d leave with my new phone. Andrew went over to a coworker where they whispered that if I didn’t want to place an order and come back to pick up then “too bad.” I then found the name of the manager who had confirmed the appointment with me—Kay—and asked Andrew to speak with him so I could make a complaint. Andrew H. became irrationally hostile/defensive. He said May was “in the back but won’t come out here to speak with me so I could leave a message.” As I tried to relay the message Andrew became combative and refused to listen to me. I asked him if he was in fact Kay because of how defensive he suddenly became. He told me no, and I told him that he didn’t have to give a retort to each sentence in my message to Kay.

When it became clear Andrew wouldn’t be helpful or relay the message (if he even heard it since he over-spoke me every time I opened my mouth) I asked for Kay’s employee number so I could make a formal complaint to Apple. Andrew told me employees didn’t have I’d numbers and when I asked how do you identify employees he gave a snarky response. I then asked for Kay’s first initial of his last name. Andrew refused to give it to me. Then I asked for a manager which Andrew refused to let me speak to. All employees were looking on at this point so I asked “Jane” (another employee) for assistance. She also refused to get a supervisor for me and told me Andrew knew what he was doing. Finally, I asked Andrew for his last initial and he gave it to me, and I let him know I’d be reporting his behavior. Andrew H. gave me a sarcastic response and I left the store.

Andrew H. had asked me why I came to Burlington if there were closer Apple stores to me. I told him I drove 45 minutes out of my way because of the good customer service I experience at the Burlington Apple Store. With just one nasty experience with Andrew H. I am confident that I will NEVER be...

If I were writing this review a year ago, I would have given 5 stars. First of all, when you go into the store, there will be really long wait times. I'm personally fine with that, as it is a busy mall, and it's not really Apple's fault. My main issue is that some of the new employees are really rude. About 2 months ago, I went to the Apple store (with a Genius Bar appointment), and my MacBook, and I asked if they could install iLife '08. The Genius Bar employee that I talked to was really nice, and he worked hard by checking every single "free space" external hard drive that they had, until he found the disk image. He even asked if I wanted iWork '08 installed with it, and I said yes. At the end, he was nice enough to let me copy the installers to my hard drive, so I could install them on any computer I want. Overall good experience.

However, the next time I went (about a month ago), was much worse. I made a Genius Bar appointment again, this time to get iMovie '06 reinstalled, as it wasn't working properly. Keep in mind, this was an old version of iMovie, but the previous time I went, the nice employee showed me that he had every version of iLife and iWork since 2005. This time, when I went in, I checked in, and was greeted by a different employee. I asked him if he could reinstall it, and he said he could try. He pulled a free space hard drive, looked on it, and said it wasn't there. I asked if he could check another one, and he said, "If it's not on this one, it's not on the other ones." So I told him, "I came here less than a month ago, and I saw that it was on a different hard drive. Can you please check?" In response, he rolled his eyes, and in a sarcastic tone, said, "What, are you keeping track of what we have here?" I was kind of shocked that he was being so condescending to a customer like this, and the employees around him that heard looked surprised, too. I said, "I can see the drawer of free space drives behind you, can you please just check?" He replied by saying, "No, it's not on there." I realized that reasoning with this guy was a lost cause, so I packed up my computer and left.

This was an overall bad experience, and after reading the other reviews here, I don't know if I want to go back to this store. I'm a big fan of Apple products, and have been going to this store for about 6 years now, so I'm surprised that customers are allowed to be...