Apple Saddle Creek — Local services in Germantown

"2011 17-inch MacbookPro of Death - An Ongoing Saga" ACT ONE: Purchased in August 2011, this machine has all the known issues of this dysfunctional model - Hard Freeze, Blue Screen of Death, Too Hot to Touch, Eternally Spinning Beach Ball, and (worst of all) it has eaten three hard drives in 18 months. I took it to the Genius Bar (again), and they sent it away for diagnosis and repair, despite my request for replacement. ACT TWO: I took the matter up with Apple Care, since it's still under warranty, they handed me off to the Apple Store for Education, and the Ed store referred me -- BACK to the Saddle Creek Apple Store! (Would I have called you if they had acted reasonably?) ACT THREE: A manager who did everything he said he would do re: investigating the problem, contacting me back, trying to resolve the issue, notified me that the store was going to replace the machine and asked me to make another Genius Bar appointment to discuss the replacement options, which I did. ACT FOUR: Upon arriving 5 minutes early for my appointment, I was kept waiting for twenty minutes past my scheduled time, whereupon a different manager (Chelli) appeared, told me they had replaced the hard drive and data cable and expected me to take the machine back. I explained to her that I had no confidence in this particular machine anymore (and that my confidence in the brand itself, which was already flagging, had just taken a massive bait & switch hit), but she continued to push for several minutes, repeating the same talking points over & over. Maybe that's her job; I don't know what kind of pressure she's under, but I do know that when I tried to hold them to what they promised via phone (in a voicemail :O I have the recording), she grew increasingly condescending and loud, including the "reverse Dale Carnegie" tactic of repeatedly using the customer's first name as a rebuke. “Tim, it just isn’t worth it anymore, Tim. Tim, we’re confident we’ve repaired this machine.” Chelli-- that's an old one, Chelli. Finally, she grudgingly agreed to replace the machine, but with what? They don't make the 17-inch version anymore, so now they want TWO MORE WEEKS to figure it out. (PLEASE don't come at me after two weeks with some refurb/rebuilt hunk of someone else's returned junk. I already have a machine like that.) I’m a teacher, and my time and energy on the job are finite commodities that need to be spent on better things than this. My own time is worth something, to me at least, and they continue to waste it over what any first-year tech could see is a non-starter for them. This machine is a write-off. Four hard drives in 18 months? That just isn't Mac. I've owned and worked on more of them than many people have even seen, including four fully-equipped Mac labs at two different high schools, and this is not acceptable, nor is this ongoing pitiable excuse for customer service. $3000+ for this? No. ACT FIVE: I’m sharing this experience everywhere I can in the meantime, including emailing Tim Cook. Will this end in tragedy or triumph for all concerned?...

3rd strike at this store

Strike 3 Update 2/1/2022: Purchased over $2600 US of Apple products (Apple phone 11, Apple phone 13 pro max, and Apple Watch SE) the Apple 11 and watch were for my 83 year old father. I setup an appointment 2pm to pickup phone and have it setup. Their website says instant turn in and credits on old phones (not true). After picking up my phones salesman said to go over to setup department for them to transfer the data from my 83 year old father's old phone and to turn in the the old phone after setup. Went to setup department and they said they were not doing setups due to limited staff and COVID protocols (store was mostly empty and 3 technicians had no customers). Told me I could do the setup online. Absolutely no customer service for customers paying premium price for the promised premium service. I am a frontline worker in South Asia in November I provided 14,000 families with 25kg of basic food items in 2 countries and 16 states with only 2 support staff within 45 days (purchase & delivery done by me) so I understand challenges of providing service with less staff but laziness in the name of COVID isn't acceptable. Any of the free staff could have easily taken 20-25 min to setup my 83 year old father's phone after I had paid out $2600 USD for their products. This is my 3rd bad experience at this store. If you are simply a pickup location then I could have had everything delivered to my house and saved the 1 hour of frustration and no service.

Strike 2 Update: 2nd trip to Apple store for my 83 father to try on Apple watches - had an appointment and arrived 30 min early. 45 min later we were still waiting but walk-ins were getting immediate service ahead of those scheduled with appointments. 2 other customers with scheduled appointments walked out when they saw what was happening. I had to ask for a stool to be provided for my 83 year old father to sit since no offered him a chair after he had been standing for over a half hour.

Strike 1 Had an appointment today for 4:45 PM Jan 13th heard from friend they had closed early even though I received no notification of this change. Called store and received recording of closure then called support to see what could be done. Re-sceduled for another 6 days from today - no priority re-schedule so I guess I will be waiting 2 weeks for another appointment even though cancellation was on Apple's...

When your Mac fails the geniuses treat you like you're lying. It turns into a full interrogation. Instead of believing me, the genius insisted on reproducing the problem. It took about 30 minutes. When the Mac froze, just like I told him it would, the genius was shocked. I had Apple Care so he agreed to replace the hard drive. When I brought it home, after the repair, my iMac was still freezing. So I had to go through the exact same process all over again. Finally, when the genius saw it freeze the second time, the genius told me he'd replace the motherboard. When I got it home, guess what? Yup still freezing. So after the third appointment with the geniuses they decided to replace the GPU. Keep in mind, each meeting with the geniuses was hours long and a huge interrogation. After they replaced the GPU I came in to pick it up and noticed the screen was crooked and scratched on the inside. Two different geniuses told me I was imagining things and the screen was fine. So I asked the guy next to me and he told the geniuses to stop trying to take advantage of me, because the screen was obviously crooked and scratched. At that point I asked to see a manager. The manager brought two other managers with him and they made a circle around me and accused me of trying to rip off their store. They told me there was nothing wrong with my Mac from the start and they weren't going to let me take advantage of them. They kept repeating themselves, saying my iMac was fine, until finally I just broke down and started crying. I grabbed my iMac and ran out of the store. When I told my husband what happened he was furious. He came in the next day, showed a genius that the iMac was still freezing and the screen was scratched on the inside. And then something amazing happened. The genius agreed. He said Apple had put us through a lot. Then he said he was going to give us a new iMac. We just stood there with our mouths open. After a month of Apple appointments and repairs, and after they scratched the inside of our screen, they suddenly agreed to give us a new iMac. It was one of the longest and most tumultuous experiences of my life. I was told later, that around that time, Apple fired the head of Apple retail and I must admit, since they hired Angela Arens the store has been a friendlier place. But I make my entire income with an Apple iMac so losing this month of work was devastating to me...