Apple Boise Towne Square — Local services in Garden City

I have had two experiences here, 1 good and 1 bad so I gave them 3 stars. A 2 star for my last visit and a 4 star for my first visited. I will tell you the good review first.

My first experience was for my iPhone 4 in which it was damaged somehow and it wouldn't recharge. They took it to the back to check for water damage, when they returned the explained that the iPhone has two water sensors and 1 of mine was activated. Since only 1 was activated they replace my phone free of charge but had 2 of them been activated they wouldn't have covered it and I understand that except for the fact my phone had never seen water, at the very most a little steam from the bathroom shower although I rarely brought it in with me. I now never take it in for fear of having both water indicators activate and not being able to replace my phone.

The second experience was the bad experience. We made an appointment for our 1st generation macbook air in which the battery had expanded and damaged the computer casing. My wife went in a day earlier to have the battery taken out before there was anymore damage and then I made an appointment after I did a little research on the Mac forums about this specific problem. We were hoping to get some kind of replacement battery or something but we got nothing. That isn't the problem though because things go bad and we understand that. The problem was the fact the store clerk was essentially trying to place the blame on us, telling us there should have been many indications the battery was going bad. Sure there could have been but in our case there wasn't. My wife doesn't use the computer everyday and its an older computer at that so if there was some latency in the touchpad she wouldn't have known it was the battery expanding. Also the clerk said that the battery indicator would show up as an X but even before she took it in with it expanded there was no X. My point is that the clerk was trying to place the blame on us for not seeing the defective battery which I had no idea would happen until I even googled the problem after the problem happened. If the clerk was more on our side and told us that I'm sorry this has happened but unfortunately we just don't cover it, or something instead of trying to tell us it was our fault by missing the indications we didn't know existed and we never recognized I would be giving it a better review. I rarely write bad reviews and am pretty understanding easy going guy. I know things go wrong, burn out, get old etcetera but don't pass the blame on me and my wife for your defective products!!!

I will continue going there for support but I am pretty technical myself and don't need the apple store for much more then warranty...

Most times I have interacted with the Staff they have seemed disinterested in my questions. I brought in a IPhone 6 Plus that I wasn’t sure why the touch had stopped working. They told me they couldn’t do anything i fix that phone because all iPhone 6 Plus have an issue over time of losing the touch due to something inside the phone that is not fixable. They told me I could trade the phone in and pay for the price of the screen repair to be repaired and have a new one sent to me or a $100 gift card towards the Apple store or a new device. I was trying to fix the phone since my mom wanted to move over to Apple. I went home to see what she would like to do went back and the deal was repeated to me as I had then went in due to see why my iPhone 7 Plus going into a never ending reboot cycle. This same phone had issues before with the volume icon not going away on the screen for 10 Plus minutes but i could still use the screen (was just irritating since you can’t see behind that icon). When I went to Apple to report the situation an associate told me it was all because of snapchat and to undownload it and everything would be solved (doesn’t make sense when Apple supports the app and you don’t have to jail break your phone to use it). So unpleased i returned home. Eventually the warranty wore out and the problem slowly stopped appearing as often so possibly could have been part of an update. The most recent time with the never ending reboot cycle the apple associate told me the phone was a loss and I could pay them $350 to give them that phone and have a new one sent to me. Without having the money at the moment I returned home and was able to fix it. I went back to trade the iPhone 6 Plus in for the gift card and was told it wasn’t in working condition and they wouldn’t do anything. This all happened within 2 weeks. I asked to speak to a supervisor and she just said doesn’t work nothing I can do. Although I had two devices (both not workin when brought in) that I was told I could trade in and pay a specific value to have a new one sent or trade for a gift card. I expressed my frustration with having been told completely different answers now not having a solution. The associate seemed uninterested and annoyed with me so I left. Not very good at giving consistent answers would recommend keeping notes on conversations you have with them since they now say they can’t find any of my appointments in regards to any issues so that when they say one thing they don’t switch up and tell you that would...

Latest Experience with this store:

I had to visit the Apple store a second time, because another brand new device I purchased online had dead pixels. I couldn't use their telephone and shipping service because I am about to travel quite a bit and I needed them to take care of the issue quick.

In the store they offered me to replace the display on my brand new iPhone which I unhappily agreed to (I was expecting a replacement of the phone with a new one since the one I brought into service was brand new but the only replacement phones they have are refurbished ones). The service people I dealt with were much friendlier than on my previous visits but nevertheless once I received my "repaired" device back they had scratched the body of the phone while doing the repair.

Please people be aware that this location does not take very good care of your valuables... Again I had several experiences with this particular location, which were pretty negative.

I thought about posting this second review since the Manager was very sorry about my issue and some employees there are extremely friendly, but that does not excuse the sloppy work that has been done there...

I believe that people (especially Apple Fans) should know about it in advance and I urge everyone with an issue to use the Corporate Support (telephone support with postal repair) - avoid this location if you can!

Other experience with the store:

Extremely unfriendly staff and careless employees when it comes to repairs! You might get it back with scratches and poorly repaired. (Dead Pixel on Replacement Screen - dust behind front camera lens)

When my MacBook needed a repair they returned it to me with a missing screw as well as the same issue as the laptop had before. I only got it repaired when I went to an Apple Store in San Jose, CA.

I believe that the employees in that particular store have been trained but since they are the only store in Idaho they have no competition so therefore don't care as much about quality of service.

I urge you to avoid this particular store and get your repairs through their Telephone Support, where they send you a replacement in the mail or where you send your device in for a repair.

Personally I have a lot to do with customer service and I can assure you that you won't receive that premium support you are promised from Apple at this...