Apple Del Monte — Local services in Monterey

I was going to provide feedback concerning an awful experience at the Del Monte Genius Bar directly to Apple, but apparently Apple doesn't provide feedback options (or it's hidden on their web site). So I'll provide feedback here on Google so everyone can see it. On the morning of 6/5/2025, my two year old iPhone 14 Pro would not power up. I made an appointment for 2:45 that afternoon with the Genius Bar at Del Monte Shopping Center in Monterey. I arrived promptly at 2:45 and was told to sit at the Genius Bar table and wait for assistance. There were several employees assisting other customers, and most seemed to be having idle conversations and not actually offering support. After about 15 minutes of waiting, an employee approached me, asked for my name, and told me someone would help me "in a minute." 15 more minutes passed and most of the Genius Bar employees had now retreated into the back room and I had still not been helped. Meanwhile two other customers came into the store, and like me they had a 2:45 appointment. They were late for their appointment and arrived at least 25 minutes after I had, and yet when a Genius Bar employee finally emerged from the back room, it was the party that arrived late that was helped. Recognizing my irritation, the customers who arrived late said they could wait and asked that I be helped first. So finally, 35 minutes after arriving at the store and checking in for my appointment, I was helped. After diagnosing my iPhone, the Genius Bar employee told me there was a hardware problem with my phone and I would have to pay $499 to get it fixed. Clearly I wasn't going to pay that much money to fix a 2 year old phone. And I wasn't about to pay full price to buy a new phone directly from Apple when I knew that cell phone companies were offering free iPhones, or deeply discounted iPhones, for switching to their company. And since I was not happy with my current carrier (Xfinity) I was willing to switch to a new one. When I asked the Apple employee which cell phone companies offered free iPhones or discounted iPhones, he told me that only Boost Mobile offered such deals if you didn't have a trade-in. He flat out stated that all of the other cell phone companies required a working phone be traded in if you wanted to get a new phone for free or at a discounted price. So I left Apple and went to the nearest Boost store. Their plans were confusing and they didn't even carry the phone I wanted (iPhone 16 Pro), so I went home not knowing what I would do and not having a working phone. I decided to do my own research online and found that T Mobile was offering free iPhone 16 Pros for signing up on one of their plans for two years - WITHOUT having to trade in a working phone. So I took their offer and will no longer believe what Apple employees tell me. In summary, I'm disappointed in Apple not just because my two year old iPhone failed, but more so because of the awful service I received at the genius bar (being ignored for 35 minutes and made to wait, even though I had an appointment, and then being told incorrect information about iPhone deals with cellular companies). I used to think that Apple was one of those rare companies that offered good customer support. Sadly, I no longer feel that way. If it wasn't for the fact that so much of my digital life is tied to Apple (phone, Mac, iCloud, music), I would dump Apple and...

One of the worst Apple Stores you can seek service in. I went there twice for technical assistance. One time I was there for two hours, an agent has started working on my phone to fix it and then he left for break without telling me anything. Another agent came by and never knew what the first person had done with my phone. That is why he had to start over. He too left to help others and left me waiting to continue resetting the phone on my own. The third agent just took the easy way for him by exchanging the phone for me, which might sound as an advantage but it was not at all as my old phone was a couple of month old, and after getting the new one, I found that I had lost all of my videos, data, pictures and important apps. AND after all the same issue was still there with my account as it seemed to be. I went again, they reset the new phone again but the same technical issue was never resolved. I lost much time, effort and money as I lost several work hours. Even the supervisor I had to talk to never seemed to be understanding or appreciating that I was customer with three expensive devices from Apple as I showed him. They unfortunately cause Apple to lose new devices by giving them out unnecessarily to people while this can be saved by paying attention to what customers say about their devices and having the skill to solve issues, besides their need to communicate with each other to help solve problems faster and save customers time, effort as well as the much hassle they experience there. Sorry for this store is being given the name of American Apple store. Update (Aug. 2104): I went there two more times for the same device, on that third time i was for something different, after I had found a solution to my telephone's older issue by myself and which I found was really simple by changing a little thing on the settings!!!, I noticed that one agent was just replacing an I Phone for another customer for exactly my same old issue, making Apple again lose money although it was not the device but the settings. i could not just interfere and embarrass him! on the fourth time, I was so lucky to meet the manager, Laura, who was of great help, patience and knowledge. She was efficient enough to take me through a review page to let me know about the true solution for a new issue that Apple was not responsible for but Straight-talk, my service provider, was. I then had to go back home and call that provider and tell them they were just misleading me by asking me to contact Apple while they knew well it was them who disabled some feature on my devise! Thanks, to Laura, the Apple Store manager in Del Monte, Monterey,...

As me and my family walk in the store with an appointment the Genius Bar was pretty busy the lady that approached us right off the bat was making things complicated she checked us in and did tell us to go to the Genius Bar but it seemed full and loud at the time so we decided to wait at an empty table away from the noise next to the Genius Bar i wouldn’t have thought it’ll be a problem because I’ve been helped at another table before so i don’t see why there would be any issues so the lady for some odd reason decided to walk across the store to correct us to not sit where we are sitting and told us to go to the other table when it was loud and packed, i mean did it really bother her to have us get up from where we were sitting when the little table was empty and the store was not very busy exept the bar table. So i found it rude so i told her can i grab another chair because there was only 2 chairs available and we were 3 people and she began to question me on why am i getting another chair while i explained. And she responds i guess in a very rude way. While i sit down i can see her gossiping about me to the security because apparently she didn’t like that i was being logical about me explaining to her so i felt the security boys glancing at me and once i walked out one of the little high school security guy decided to mean mug me while i walked about assuming I’ll be terrified. Very unprofessional from the lady to be gossiping creating tension and very disappointing from the security guard trying to stare me down while i walked out of the building. Teach your employees some respect and also the little security company maybe hire some real calm respectful men that know how to conduct themselves. Very...