Apple El Paseo Village — Local services in Palm Desert

I am writing to express my profound disappointment and disbelief regarding the extremely poor service I received at the Apple Store in Palm Desert today. My experience has left me beyond frustrated and questioning the integrity of Apple's customer service. After today's experience, I find myself reconsidering being a supporter of Apple. I believe it is essential for a company of Apple's caliber to reflect on the quality of service provided at its stores and address the concerns raised by its loyal customers. I arrived at the Apple Store at 5:00 pm today because my iPhone unexpectedly went black, prompting a message that it needed to be restored . This sudden change took place overnight while charging and connected to Wi-Fi. This was perplexing as my phone had no physical damage, being securely housed in a case. The inconvenience of such a situation is already significant, but what transpired at the store today added insult to injury. The team at the store made me wait for an astounding 3 hours, finally addressing my concerns 20 minutes before the scheduled closing time of 7:00 pm. Meanwhile , I am waiting for answers for my phone while its in the back. I cant help but witness a Spanish speaking lady in distressed. She mentioned she had been there since 3:00pm and no one has tried to communicate with her regarding her phone. I was in disbelief , so I asked a staff member for her if there was any word on her phone. Mind you this lady had been there since 3:00pm and not one person acknowledged her. At least not in the time frame i was there 5-7:55pm. To my dismay, they informed me at 7:55pm that there was nothing they could do about my phone and recommended purchasing a new phone. This left me questioning the adequacy of resources and staff at such a prominent corporation like Apple. I cannot help but feel that the excessive wait time and the unhelpful response were acts of retaliation due to my earlier expression of dissatisfaction with the service provided to a Spanish-speaking customer who had been waiting since 3:00 pm. It is disheartening to see a lack of equal service for all paying customers. Adding to the frustration, the staff attempted to use me as an interpreter multiple times before finally bringing someone out at 7:50 pm to "explain and translate" for the poor lady. Regrettably, this attempt was far from satisfactory, and it was evident that the person had no grasp of the information he was trying to convey. Furthermore, I witnessed they admitted to not being able to fully connect her phone with her Apple ID due to the lateness of the hour, requiring her to return the next day. Mind you this was the third time she had traveled from Thermal. To make matters worse, she discovered a crack on her front screen protector , and the staff claimed they couldn't be held liable, despite her only being their for a back screen replacement. This inconsistency is baffling and unacceptable and to make matters worse they still had the nerve to ask her if she was paying for the $29 repair cost , card or cash as they have shut down their cash reports and can only accept card. In conclusion, my experience at the Apple Store in Palm Desert today has left me deeply dissatisfied and questioning the commitment of Apple to provide quality service to all its customers. I hope this feedback prompts a thorough review of the customer service practices at this location, ensuring that every customer is treated with the respect and efficiency they deserve. While I understand that technological issues can arise, it is crucial for Apple to address these concerns transparently and assure customers that their best interests are at the forefront. This experience has left me pondering whether Apple's frequent upgrades are a strategy to prompt users to invest in new devices, creating a cycle that seems more geared towards financial gain than genuine user experience improvement. If I could leave 0...

My goodness, what a joke. Like every review I have read regarding the customer service, my experience was terrible as well. The only positive experience I had was with my genius, Lisa, I believe that is her name. She was great. She helped me and was able to swap out my phone the same day with no hassle, helped with the backup and restoration of my iCloud. She is the ONLY reason why I give 3 stars. I was a little put off by the lack of customer service and dumbfounded look, I really was not in the mood for small talk. So I may have not seemed like I was in the best mood when she helped me. I just wanted to finish and go. First, I walk in an hour and half before my appointment time and I ask if I can be seen sooner than my appointment if they had any no shows or cancellations. They looked at me like I was asking for preferential treatment. If there were no cancellations, fine. I'd wait. The 'greeter' asked me why I was there. I let him know my issue and he radioed over to another guy standing in the middle of the store. I assumed he was letting him know the reasons why I was there, aside from having an appointment. He directs me over to this guy which asks me, "what are you here for today?" um... I just got done telling dude at the door why I was there and he seemed to speak to him for quite some time before I got to him so... what gives? So, I gave my spiel and he states that they may not be able to help me today due to the systems being down for an update or whatever and I would have to reschedule my appointment or everything would have to be done by hand on paper!! Oh no! Heaven forbid that technology goes down and we all have to remember what it is like to use a pen and paper again... He directs me over to another table where I wait for someone to assist me and this guy comes over and asks me the same thing that the first two guys asked me... "why are you here today?" WHAT?! do you not communicate with anyone else?? No genius communication?! At that point, all I could do is laugh. The guy tells me the issue and then directs me to the genius bar and I wait for my tech to come over. Like I said, she was great. She was quick and efficient and helped me to the fullest Now, your other employees that work there... rude. Absolutely rude. The stools at the genius bar happen to be a bit uncomfortable so I was standing up, momentarily, and as I am waiting for my tech to return with my swap, the employee brings a customer over and directs him to sit in my seat! No excuse me, thank you, pardon me, kiss my ass, nothing... Um OK. I thought I was just sitting there, obviously not. That happened twice!! Is that protocol? Do any of the qualifications to work at the Apple Store include having a lack of respect and no manners? I think that store needs to have some serious customer service training and by the looks of the other comments, I'm not the only one that feels that way. I would rather drive 45 min out of my way than to have to go to that store for...

Eric was professional and polite but he was not helpful. His manager (black hair, glasses, chubby, short-ish guy) was a jerk, rude and should not work for Apple. My phone was stolen so I bought a new phone from Apple online. When I went to pick up the new phone, they told me they couldn’t check me in bc I wasn’t on the list. They asked me to wait in the corner of the store. I waited for nearly 20 mins. I went back to the manager and he said I need to find my order number. They said they could not look me up with my email, phone number or any other way. After calling a friend and getting my order number, they found my order. They then told me to wait at the order pick up table. I waited at the table for another 15-20 mins. I asked again why I was waiting for so long and the manager said that there is an issue with my order and the payment address needed to be verified. He told me that I needed to call Apple Care to sort out the issue. When I told him that I have never had to call AppleCare as a customer inside of an Apple Store to pick up my order, he said that he will have Eric help me when he gets back from his break. I waited another 10 minutes and Eric came over and pleasantly greeted me. Eric called AppleCare and sorted out the issue (without asking me any questions). Eric said it would take another 5-10 minutes for my order to be “processed” (I ordered the phone online 5 hours before I went to the store to pick it up but it still wasn’t “processed”). About 10 minutes later, Eric came back and had my new phone. He said that it may or may not be connected to my wireless carrier, AT&T, even though I connected it to my AT&T account when I ordered the phone through Apple online. When he helped me set up the phone, he realized it was not connected to my wireless carrier. I also could not complete the set up on the phone bc I could not log into my Apple ID since I didn’t have my old phone to receive the verification code. Eric was basically useless. He offered no solutions other than to call AT&T when I get home. This was the absolute WORST experience I have ever had at an Apple Store. They made little to no effort to help me activate a phone that I spent over $1,000.00 for. Three months ago, I got a new phone from the Apple Store at The Grove in Beverly Hills and I picked up my phone and had it activated within 10 minutes without my old phone. When I explained this to Eric he said that there wasn’t anything he could do to help me. When I went home to call AT&T, they were unable to help me since I could not receive the verification code that was sent to my now stolen phone. This Apple Store is a joke. They don’t care about...