Apple Park City — Local services in Lancaster

I'm visiting from out of town and my MacBook Pro died a few nights ago. When I looked for service technicians for my computer, the Lancaster Apple Store turned up in my search. Then I read the reviews... and was concerned.

There seems to be two populations who write the reviews -- those who were completely satisfied and those who hated their experience.

I know that Apple products tend to polarize people -- it's a love/hate relationship, particularly with their computers. I also know that at this time there are many individuals who feel they are entitled to damn-near everything, including service personnel to drop everything and give them what they want --- NOW!

So, I took a chance and booked an appointment. I arrived early to a very busy store and was greeted as I entered. The concierge told me that he could book my arrival ten minutes before my appointment, so I took the opportunity to grab some lunch and then returned.

As promised, I was booked into my appointment when I returned and then offered a seat at the genius bar. I took the opportunity to people watch while I waited. The folks working the genius bar were quite busy, but remained calm, collected, and pleasant in every transaction I observed. An older man sat beside me -- two hours before his appointment. One of the technicians came by and asked him if he'd been helped. "I've been here for an hour waiting."

"What's your name sir?" a check of the docket followed... "You're appointment isn't until 4:30PM." But another tech came by and said "Although you're not up for a couple of hours, let me see if I can help you." I lost focus at that point because another technician called my name and our interview began.

The tech took my complaint and then tested my computer. As expected, there was a logic board failure. "On this model," he said, "if there is a very specific problem identified by the next test I run, then the manufacturer will pick up your repair cost." He reviewed the results of the Apple tests, then I explained that I had made a couple of changes to the system, including renewing the battery. That cleared up, he ran the final test and "Voila!" my repair would be covered.

He finished up his paperwork while we chatted. A new part will be installed in my MBP and I have no doubt all will be well.

Yes, I had to wait a few minutes (about 20 minutes after my appointment -- they were busy). But my experience was quite positive and they are taking care of my problem. I was prepared to pay for the repair -- I'm not ready to replace my MBP and it's long out of warranty. But I'm also glad I didn't have to cover the repair cost.

My experience was quite good. If one doesn't have unreasonable expectations, then I think you'll get better than acceptable service at this Apple Store. Read the other reviews, spend a little time reading between the lines, then make up...

Went in for what I thought would be an easy fix. The port to my iPhone 6 was missing one of the connectors or something (the little gold prongs) and was completely dead and would not charge. The phone could not be picked up by a computer and we tried moving the cable around and still no charge. I've been to Apple before and they've fixed many of my products with simple fixes. As someone that's been to Apple before at this location, I knew there was probably an hour or so wait. So we waited and got the message that we could go up to the Genius Bar and waited another half hour or so there until someone came up and reassured us that we weren't forgotten and someone will be over shortly. Finally someone came over and asked what the problem was. After telling them and showing that a piece was clearly missing, we tried a couple tricks and all of them failed. Okay, so replace the part. Apparently not. The employee told me that they only replace screens, batteries, and hardware. So now I'm a little mad because there's no way to get anything off the phone (contacts, pictures, etc) but they should replace the phone as its under a year old and that's covered under warranty? No. They said because the port was "damaged" and that something must have gotten in and broken it off, it wasn't covered under warranty and proceeded to quote me a new phone for $300. Keep in mind, my phone is always in an otterbox (defender) and has only been out of the case twice (once when I bought the phone, once at Apple) and I only use the apple charger. I left the store empty handed and very upset at this point as my job pretty much revolves around my phone. Started looking up to see if this has happened to anyone else with an iPhone and have learned you can buy the whole port and everything to replace it for about twenty dollars. So now I'm furious. Decided to stop on the way home at this place in the Galleria mall that is kind of sketch but they're known to fix cracked screens and stuff like that, I think it's called Cellfix or something. Either way, I went in and they replaced the part and had the phone on and running in under ten minutes. Waste of a two hour drive to Apple, waste of a two hour wait at Apple, waste of a half hour consultation of disappointment at Apple. Staff was very kind and I could tell he really didn't want to tell me it wasn't covered and they couldn't fix it and I completely understand that they probably couldn't say that the cellphone trolly right outside our store can fix that for about thirty dollars. But I think some things really need to be reevaluated at a whole at Apple because it honestly was an easy fix and I'm sure there are people like me that can't drop three hundred dollars on...

I was recently in the store for two hours and fifty minutes trying to pick up my new ipad. I came in when it was not busy, I was greeted right away but asked for product codes and numbers I was not told to provide on the confirmation email or the instructions in picking up my product. I was told I needed my id and instructions that I was going to pick it up. After the initial hurdle I met someone very nice named Vicki who set up my ipad but after the fifteen minute set up it took six different people, two of which were geniuses, two and a half hours to understand why my notes and pictures would not transfer from my iphone to my ipad. Besides Vicki and one other who stayed as long as her manager let her help, everyone could not wait to leave or would not come out from behind their desk to help. Eventually after two hours of reloading and fussing and skrewball ideas one of the geniuses decided to reback-up my phone to my computer but, because my computer was a Dell pc he could not touch it. They also wanted me to synch my phone to only what was on my computer, of which not all of my pictures were. So then they said I had to upload all of the pictures again, organize them, then synch my phone, then backup my phone then redownload my ipad. They also rushed me out of the store because that would take up too much of their space for me to stay another couple hours with a pc open on one of their tables. Nearly three hours and they could not fix my device yet no apologies, no itunes giftcards for my trouble, no offers to keep it and work on it, nothing but sending me home with a broken device. I left almost in tears because I wasted so much time to have absolutely nothing fixed. I went home and decided to make another appointment or I was returning the ipad when my very technologically challenged mother said, "You had problems with your pictures? They're workign now. She merely went into settings and turned on the bluetooth. Six apple people and they couldn't figure out that after one of the restore to factory settings and redownloading that the bluetooth might now be on???

Nearly three hours of frustration and rude behavior by all but Vicki and my mother fixed the problem. My family is not the fastest with technology and only felt comfortable getting an ipad after three years learning the iphone and friend swho help. Yet we outsmarted two apple geniuses. I am gravely disappointed in the store, company policy, and company attitudes. I had been in before with a problem and received rude and patronizing service before and last week was no different and in many...