Apple Florida Mall — Local services in Pine Castle

I have been a happy Apple customer for 30 yrs and own about 20 apple products. I was on vacation from New York at Disney and had my iphone 12 promax 512gb phone not respond. As you know no iphone at Disney is a disaster and since the iphone 3 i never had a phone just fail. I went to the Florida mall apple store to get a new phone. This is wear the experience began its awful journey. On arrival i was checked in and waited about 10 minutes before a gentleman came and evaluated the phone. Diagnosis water damage… bummer and worse warranty expired 2 months ago …. Bummer so option 1 buy a new phone which is exciting or replace the out of warranty $599 I was not sure which new phone. The guy said I could get the replacement and return it for the new phone should I decide i said thats reasonable. He then said wait here. I waited an hr and then asked if there was a problem and they said oh you haven't been checked in. Let me check you in and 30 minutes later I went through the whole process again. Oh by the way while waiting for 3 hrs to get the phone I purchased the new apple watch $799. The store did not know how to enable the carrier service something I never heard from any apple store. So to this point nothing terrible other then waiting 4 hrs for something that usually would take maybe an hr and lack of knowledge. I return home to NY and bring my phone to my local store in Manahasset NY which is fantastic. They explain this is not policy to return replacement phones because they do not have my original phone to return. I explain I only want the money back $599 so I can them buy a new phone and give them $1400. They speak to the manager and everything is smoothed out. Great new phone no problem. Not so fast we did not realize you did this in Florida so we cannot help. Ok I will call corporate and get it resolved with the store. After 3 hrs on the phone with the store and apple care there is nothing that can be done unless I fly back to Florida to physically return the phone. My first and foremost complaint is I would never buy anything that I could not return. This is a complete anti patterns in todays retail. Second never ever ever go to the apple store in the Florida Mall. The service is terrible and the staff although nice very Unknowledgeable. Sadly first time in my life I have to say “buyer beware” when it comes to the...

So I call this store trying to speak to a real person. Impossible. Instead after a few minutes on hold with some dreadful music, I am connected to Letecia who tells me they do not actually work at the Florida Mall store. I explain to her that I am trying to call ahead of time to make sure that they can handle my situation. (My sister died over a year and a half ago and her IPAD and IPAD mini's have been sitting collection dust ever since. Someone told me that since I am a relative I can take them to an apple store with the death certificate and have them unlocked). When I explain this to Leticia she tells me that it would be suggested to make an appointment and that she can transfer me to the department that makes these appointments. When I ask her if this will connect me with a real person at the store, she told me no. Meanwhile I have been on hold for over 11 minutes so far waiting to speak to this appointment setter person. So while I am on hold I decided to write this very negative review. I have never been an apple person, I find their products to be overrated and overpriced. This lack of support and being able to speak to a real person only confirms my opinion. Why would they even have a number listed for the store at Florida mall if it only goes to an apple switchboard which is probably answered offshore by someone named "Leticia". I ask myself. Oh while I am waiting on hold, 15 minutes now so far, I am asked if I would like to hear music while I am on hold. This time, I am given a multiple choice... select 1 for Pop music, 2 for classical music, I forget what option 3 is because by this time I have totally zoned out. I do remember that option 4 is "To wait in silence". I select option 4. Why do companies like this think they can waste my valuable time? I ask myself. It must be because they do not value me as a customer, much less my time. This only reinforces that I'll be damned if I ever purchase an overprice overrated apple product of any kind. It's now almost 20 minutes on hold and I hear "All Apple advisors are busy at the moment. Please continue to hold". As I am about to hang up on them and continue with my life, I hope that somebody gets some value from my Google review and it spares them the same fate as myself who has wasted almost 30 minutes now on hold. Not a fan of Apple. Not...

This was a GREAT Apple Store experience... this was a post-holiday visit to the Genius Bar - I knew that 1) you need an appointment and 2) it was going to be crazy busy in this place. I cracked my new iPhone 6 screen and hoping to get seen without an appointment if I came to the store right as they opened. Here was my experience:

Prior to going in to the Florida Mall Apple Store, a few days before I called the Apple Support # and asked them to connect me to the store... they "say" they will connect you but they actually connect you with someone who is a liaison for the store - this person has NO CLUE what the process, protocols or how this place works because they NEVER work inside the store - they work for APPLE ONLY! I was hoping to get some feedback from the store staff on what my chances were to get seen by WAITING without an appointment. This will not happen - they will not connect you to a real person in the store... I think that is silly.

So my day of visit - I am there 20 minutes early and they ALREADY have Red Zone people standing outside answering questions and making appointments. I tell them that I want to "take my chances" and wait to be seen for a cracked screen on my iPhone. Of course, I get the speech about I should make an appointment but I can wait with no guarantee to be seen anytime soon. I tell them I will do as they ask me to do, but my schedule is free to WAIT for a few hours if I have to!

I was given a 1:10p appointment and I actually sat at the Genius Bar until 10:20am (a total of 20 minutes after the store opened) - a Red Zone person came over and asked if I was who I was and I said yes... he asked what he could help me with and I told him about my cracked screen. He reviewed the cost, said it shouldn't take more than an hour and maybe less because repairs were not stacked up yet!

My repair was done and with great customer service in less than an hour! I say - if you really don't want to wait days for an online appointment slot, you go in RIGHT WHEN THE STORE OPENS and take your chances! I obviously got squeezed in because of no-shows! THANK YOU FLORIDA MALL APPLE STORE! Hope my review helps someone that is in...