Apple New Haven — Local services in New Haven

Went with a Apple Watch 3 December 28th which arrived brand new with battery issues and a known problem with a crack on the side of the screen. It should be noted that I paid for AppleCare immediately when I received the watch since Apple service is usually sparkling with it, and terrible without it. Service at the store was slow but pro, arrive late rather than early, they won't check you in more than 5 or 10 minutes early. The watch was immediately deemed to have a manufacturing defect - possibly the exploding battery problem - and was told I would have to wait up to a week for the replacement since the process would take place during new years eve and day. The stores do not repair or replace watches. On January 2nd Apple agreed it was a manufacturing defect and would send the store a new watch.

On January 7th I contacted Apple via chat. Three of the six total people I spoke to at Apple suggested that the store had the watch and I had to drive back down, speak to the manager, and demand my replacement. The text updates say they will ship me a replacement directly. One of the Apple phone operators called the store for me, twice (they would not answer the phone the first time... apparently it had just rang for 14 minutes strait) and found in a 18 minute conversation that the store didn't have one... Apple would have to send one. They will have one at my door in a matter of hours via courier if I wanted to buy another, but when I receive a brand new defective product they have no problem making me sit around for 2 weeks and just wonder. I chatted with Apple Support again on 1-8, and asked for a manager, who was supposed to call me at 730 PM (that never happened), but that was a courtesy (or a discourtesy... again they never called) as I had to... again... ask the local New Haven Apple Store manager where my watch is. When I asked Apple Chat- customer service I PAID for with my AppleCare + membership- if Apple Store New Haven was affiliated with Apple, they said of course they are. Why am I chasing this store and this company around to agree with each other? Considering, again, real customer service and warranties are charged for by Apple and I paid, should I really have to take more than the 2.5 hours I've spent online and on the phone with Apple and march down to this store tomorrow to find out when I can expect my watch back? I guess I have to.

How about insult to injury? If I had broke my apple watch, rather than apple having sold me a defective watch, they would have cross shipped a new one and I would have got it in 2 days. Part of the customer service Apple charges for... but only if you're clumsy, not applicable if you've been sold a bad product.

As a company, with the dropping of Touch ID, Force touch, the continued miserable Siri Remote, exploding watch batteries, failing MacBook keyboards, 2000% markups on styluses... and now terrible customer service... don't get too big for those britches, Apple. As a retail store, at least in the real world, customer service being by far the most popular function of your store is terrible for business. The fact that you have the free time to have someone drop a watch off at my door in a couple hours, yet don't have the time to resolve customer issues in a few weeks is a very bad sign... this is certainly not a sustainable...

Today I was killed in my most trusted Apple store

At noon today, my master said that I went to her most trusted Apple store because my current running speed was a little slow and my master wanted to adjust me to be faster. We were received by a female clerk. After she asked about the situation, she said that she wanted to reinstall the system. My data had been backed up before, so she started to reinstall. During the process, she said that because I was over 10 years old, it would take about an hour. She asked my master if she could wait? My master said no problem. After reinstalling for a while, she should be off work soon.She told me to wait here. After a while, another male clerk came to continue to follow up on my case. We did not see the two of them handing over my situation, and the male clerk did not ask about my situation. The male clerk saw that the program on my computer screen was not running, and it was about 90% completed, and then he pressed the restart button. During this process, the male clerk only asked for my master's contact information, that is, name and email address. As a result, the male clerk restarted and I could not run at all. When I came, it was fine, but it was slow. Now I was killed in this Apple store. I have been with my master for 10 years, accompanied my master through thousands of mountains and rivers, recorded her joys and sorrows in the past 10 years, and turned my master into an Apple fan in the past 10 years. As a result, I was killed by the Apple store she trusted the most today because I dared not come to my side. I came here fine, and I didn't even have other opportunities. I was killed in the Apple store. For 10 years, I have been inseparable from my master. Looking at the computer case and beautiful decorations in my home, my master was clearly sad. Why did the two clerks not hand over my important computer in person during the reinstallation process? The second one, the male clerk saw that the program had not been completed, asked about the situation and restarted it directly. Maybe it is a matter for them to deal with every day, but for my master, this ruined my master's 10 years of companionship. Therefore, my master complained about today's maintenance matters and...

I’ve been to this Apple location a few times, one time I had an excellent experience but every single time after that was underwhelming. My first experience was with an amazing lady who helped me to pick out the right MacBook for me and got me tons of discounts that I didn’t even know that I was eligible for, she was a true lifesaver. Every time after though I feel as if maybe they’ve gotten so busy that they didn’t realize that they’ve been serving each client as if they were the same person, some are super techie and some are just learning how to use a phone… there are different tiers of users so when you speak to everyone with the same tone it sometimes will either overwhelm someone or make the next person feel belittled. Definitely not how anyone looking to learn or make a big purchase should feel.

Personally I had an appointment and arrived 15 mins early, checked in and wasn’t attended to by “genius” till about 45 mins after my appointment, given the staff was super nice to me and I can’t complain about how they treated me while I was being helped but the inconvenience of such a long wait while having a standing appointment is ridiculous to me. I honestly almost just walked out because I seen people walk in after me and were attended to before me. I mean I showed up early to make sure I don’t waste my time or anyone else’s. Like I said before, it’s not my first time at this place and my first experience was fantastic but also every experience after was subpar. The reason I gave a 3star rating was because I don’t feel that they uphold the best standards of a luxury tech company, they have proper knowledge of the equipment that they sell but not a good grasp on customer service and the diversity of the customers that they “serve”, I’m sure at some point in the future I may go back but I highly doubt it as I can just order my products online. Who knows… maybe I may visit again and have a great experience and change my mind but for now they get a solid 3 from me. *store was super clean...