Apple Stoneridge Mall — Local services in Pleasanton

After going thru a overwhelmingly negative set of reviews I still chose to go to this store to repair my phone hoping my experience would be different. My phone’s limited warranty was also quickly coming to an end and hence I thought replacing the battery within the period would waive the charges for it which was also reaffirmed to me multiple times calling apple support and also their technicians. Some of my observations of this store based on my experience:

Most of the associates in the support team are very young and inexperienced - the first time I was late to my appointment and I was given a second chance to see the next available support technician within 15 minutes and I ended up spending half an hour and when I spoke to that person who assured me someone will see me in fifteen minutes, went thru the log and then stated that it will be longer since they were so backed up. Not sure why he couldn’t have told me this prior to me having to wait half hour there with no assurance anyone will show up.

The second time, a technician did see me and she told me that I will need to bring my phone and hand it over to them for the repair the next day since they were not taking in anymore work orders for the day. I was alright with that. I told her that I was on the last day of my warranty and that they should replace the battery with no cost to me as I was assured by apple support over the phone. She also confirmed that to be true and she showed me a page where the cost was indicated as zero dollars and asked for me to sign after reading the terms. Little did I know that she had also conflictingly stated that the battery replacement was to be charged since although I was under warranty, the battery report came out to be good and I insisted on replacing it anyway. The reason why I wanted the battery replaced was because it was draining very quickly even without me actively using the phone and I noticed this behavior after the latest OS upgrades.

The next day I went to give my phone for repair and the person that collected it also reconfirmed that I shall not be charged. All the whole they were entering a truly conflicting statement in their reports. When I went to collect the phone in the evening, the person that showed up with the phone insisted I pay for the battery and I refused stating that I have been told this is covered under warranty. Then the manager shows up with all the logs from the previous support folks clearly stating that the battery was to be charged while verbally they were telling me otherwise and getting me to sign the understanding that we had. The manager started making statements that this was a he said-she said thing and that the paperwork was clearly reflective of the cost associated with the new battery and legally am supposed to pay the fee.

I had been lied to multiple times in the store with multiple support staff claiming I don’t owe anything for the new battery while they have been entering a completely different thing in their notes. I paid for the battery and told the manager I will never come back to this store again. Even if I am crazy enough to buy another apple product it shall be online and for support I’d much rather go to the SF support centers.

Please avoid this store at all costs - or else read the fine print before you sign. These support staff are either too young and naive or grossly misleading not even knowing what assurances they are giving...

Multiple bad experiences with this store. Being an embedded software engineer myself, I can tell they BS a lot, at times dispensing false or useless information or advice. Imagine what it would be like for those who are not in the technology field.

I felt that the interaction with people there, if it did not lead to a purchase or repair, there would be no record. If you want to complain, there's no case number to refer to. You would just have to make general remark. Can't go back to the specific person I talked to. Hence, in many cases, there's no accountability. They just say whatever.

I replaced the iPhone 6 battery. It started to act up around 2 year. It may be true that the battery had reached end of life, and OS update did not play essential role, it's still a cost that people need to consider when purchasing a phone. Why not put a bigger battery for such premium phone? I think it's pretty universal at this point that, we don't need the phone to be any more thinner, and people want more battery, hence not only we have more battery life for daily use, the battery would also last longer.

When I signed off for the battery replacement, I did not know before hand that they said in the paper work that my phone has cosmetic damage. If I knew, I would certainly contest and ask for explaintion. This is they covering their rear end. I don't appreciate at all.

After I left my phone for battery replacement, I was told it would take 2 hours and they will email me, since they can't call me. I waited 2 and a half hours, and went back and checked, it was already done, but no email. I think for iPhone 6, it should be done for less than 30 minutes. I should have checked back earlier.

My iPhone 6 at one point showing battery stuck at 100%. I didn't know how much battery actually left and the phone could shut down any time. But when I described it people standing at the front, I was told, something to the effect that, "It's good, you never run out of battery".

One of the "Genius" there lacked the understanding of the "advices" she's giving out and didn't know what customer service is. She said my phone is low on storage that we could not do firmware upgrade. I said that's not true. The OS had been upgraded with the capability to uninstall apps in the background to free up space. I showed her that my iPad did just that.

She said a phone needed 20% or some crazy percentage of free space to operate properly. I asked her, if that's true for phones with 32GB storage and 128GB storage. It obviously doesn't make sense.

She asked me if I know what MB is. And she said the OS does not show the accurate free space left, and since I don't believe her, she asked me to add up the storage space used by all apps. Again, she asked a customer to add up the storage space used by all the apps! Is this what Apple is?

I asked if she could run some diagnostics, she declined, saying she could not.

At this point, she said she could not help me, and started the preparation for the next customer.

When I picked up my phone after the battery replacement, the same "genius" happened to be the person handing me the phone. Not sure she's not doing the genius work any more, or part of their responsibilities. Not sure if she remembered me, but she's giving out more false information, claiming the battery has 7000 charge cycles. I was just like, whatever. I thanked her, grabbed my phone and...

Yesterday, I walked into the Apple store at Stoneridge Mall. I recently took a hard fall while hiking and cracked my IPhone 13 Pro back display on impact that went to the front. The front display was completely black screened although the phone still worked and powered on. I just wanted to get my front display replaced since I didn't really care for the back. I had been paying for AppleCare Theft and Loss monthly for almost two years when I decided to stop it, it ended up being really inconvenient for me. When I worked at Apple Stanford before as a Product Specialist, the common rule is that if that if there is any damage to the back of the phone, you would have to repair the entire phone or get a new one. I was well aware that there is an option to repair only the front, paired with confirmation from my friend who is a genius at Palo Alto Apple. I was not given this option when I came to Stoneridge. The lady who helped me as ON POINT around 3:30pm turned me away pretty fast. I didn't happen to get her name but I wish I did. I understand that different environments carry different energies but the vibe I was getting felt really off. She told me that I would need to repair the whole phone. After checking with a technical specialist in the back, she took a look at my phone and told me that its not possible to repair the front without the back. I told her my situation but it seemed like there was only one option available. I quickly left the store after that interaction because I knew I was getting wronged. I drove to the Palo Alto Apple Store right after where I was taken in quickly and with much empathy. Perhaps the volume of traffic of Stoneridge is what affected the store. I can sense that the on-point lady at Stoneridge was burnt out. Regardless, the genius at Apple helped ease my troubles and told me that they will be able to remove my front screen only if I wanted to (which was what I wanted in the first place). The pricing was SO much better. It's crazy how different my experience was when I went from one store to the other. I felt listened to, and it seemed like they genuinely cared about the situation I was in. Overall, my experience at the Apple store at Stoneridge mall was not something I expected. I recommend to any customers to come in when there is less traffic, perhaps the experience can be better when its more focused. I will also say, don't give up! The fact that I refused to take the option presented to me at Stoneridge led to my very positive experience at Apple Palo Alto which also saved me a lot money. I recommend for any employees reading this, to strengthen general knowledge, especially for on-pointers who is the first face you see when you come in and determines how the interaction will proceed. I wouldn't let this interaction ultimately determine how I feel about the store. At the end of the day, it is a specific situation. I believe the next time I come into Stoneridge Apple, my experience...