Apple Pioneer Place — Local services in Portland

They added my name to their list when my mother (who is in a wheelchair) and I showed up to see the Genius Bar. I have called Apple many times the last several weeks when identity theft happened. They said they could not reset my previous Apple ID password due to a recovery key that was taken out July 10, 2025. I was unaware that the recovery key was the only way an account could be recovered. It may have been pulled out by other people who have stolen my identity just so I couldn’t access it anymore. But I don’t understand is why Apple doesn’t allow me, a human being with identity such as my drivers license, birth certificate, Social Security card, and passport to go into one of the stores to verify who I am. At that point, they should go ahead and reset everything for me and give me back my previous Apple ID. Instead, you’re probably some hackers who are able to enjoy all of my information that I have accumulated for many years being with Apple.

Anyhow, when they told me that it was time to check in for the visit, we probably left twenty to thirty minutes after it said so. When we arrived at the glass doors of the Apple Store, I received a message and noticed another one about six minutes before it saying we have not heard from you… Then the third message said “your place has been lost in line.”

it’s possible the hackers prevented the message from coming to me… But it was so inconvenient pushing my mom‘s wheelchair from the food court over at Pioneer Mall to the Apple store, which was very short. It wasn’t that far. When I went in and said I had an appointment based on the line, a young woman took me to a table and sat me down and even pulled out a chair for my mom‘s wheelchair so that was nice of her to do that.

We sat there for 15 minutes. Apple reps were running around doing nothing or talking to each other. They seemed busy but no one came to us. I have a feeling these hackers are trying to make me fight with people so I could be charged. They want to see me break. If my crazy idea is right, these hackers were able to infiltrate an Apple Store’s waiting list to not serve me.

My mom and I left after waiting 15 minutes.

The previous day, 10/7/25, I arrived at the Pioneer Square Apple Store at about 6:45 PM and they were already locked up. I can forgive that.

After being denied dinner from the city Grill over at the Pioneer Square, Mall because we had 50s and hundred dollar bills and then not being served at Apple. I’m going to consider suing them or at least blasting this horrible experience and as much social media as possible since I can’t afford attorney and they probably don’t accept cash anyway. And why do I have to use cash? Because who is that whoever has done this to me has hurt me so bad that my credit score went from 833 back in February to 524 today October 9, 2025. Don’t become an enemy of AI. Don’t become an enemy of Grok, don’t become an enemy of Apple. Don’t become an enemy of Verizon. Dont become an enemy of Costco. Don’t become an enemy of Zupan’s grocery, Starbuck’s Coffee, Google. These corporations are horrible.

The only ones that have treated me right are chipotle, The Yard House, and...

My journey to (NOT) getting my back camera fixed with a 6S plus and the battery replaced: I went to the apple store on Tuesday, March 6th to a genius bar appointment. I had a reasonable interaction and the parts were ordered. I was supposed to receive an e-mail when the camera came in, I did not. I called apple customer service after a week and asked if they could check on the part. They did, and I had a new genius bar reservation appointment made for March 25th. They said I could just take it in that day and it would get repaired. It did not, and my interaction with Paul was basically "We had lots of people drop off their phones today so we can't do same day. And you didn't need to make this appointment for your repair, they shouldn't have told you that." He didn't seem phased by the fact I'd been told all the incorrect information, and gave me a blank stare. I asked for a team lead and I received the same responses from them. "Oh.. they shouldn't have told you that.." How does that make a customer feel better that uber'd there on their day off, and was told all the incorrect information? I asked for some sort of fair resolution, but realizing I was going to get nowhere, I left, and decided to go back on another weekend. I called this morning at 11:20am, and I was told the camera parts were in and not to worry to just come by and drop off my phone and it would get repaired. I went to drop off my phone around 1pm and was told "oh we don't have that part.. let's order it for you." After my first interaction with the team lead and the lack of resolution I decided to go home. The frustration got to me though, so I called to complain, speaking to George first, in customer service. George, after looking up my repair authorization, stated "oh we don't repair cameras on these phones, that's why, I don't know why you were told this." I knew this was misinformation, but what if I was someone that just believed things at face value like an older customer? "Oh deary I'd better buy an iPhone X immediately!" I then pushed to be transferred to a team lead and I got to speak with Dan the store manager. I took the time to explain the situation and he gave me the good old "Oh that's awful, I'll train my staff so this doesn't happen again, oh and we ordered your part again so that's all we can do. Oh, you could go to the store in Tigard (Washington Square) they have the part." Uh what? So at this stage, you're not only going to do absolutely nothing for your customer to feel better, you're sending your customer somewhere else because you can't be bothered to help me yourself. After realizing I was being given the same cyclic responses and getting nowhere, I asked to speak to the regional manager Vincent. We'll see if I actually have someone reach out within 48 hours, if not, I'm sure Vincent monitors the online reviews like my regional does in...

Came to buy 3 phones for work (app development) from Seattle.

Arrive at apple store in downtown Portland, just tell them I wanna buy some phones, they say sure just order on a computer for pickup at the store, they should have some in stock. They don't. Apple employee helps me set pickup at location 20 minutes away (Bridgeport) because they have pickup available. Have to set a pickup time 3 hours later. Arrive 15 minutes before pickup time just in case, talk to Apple employee. They ask for my name and tell me to hang out and someone will find me when they're ready. Approx. 20 minute wait though. So I sit down near the front. 35 minutes later, no one has talked to me so I find the same customer service person and ask how much longer. They tell me they couldn't find me even though I didn't move... So 10 more minutes and they find me to talk to me. They tell me my order isn't ready for pickup and I have to call apple customer support. No one in the store is empowered to fulfill the order, the phone reps have more power than them. Call apple support and they say I have to wait another 4-6 hours before it'll go through the system and allow them to give me my order. I finally convince them to ship it to Seattle after another 10 minutes Bonus: next day get an email saying my order would be cancelled if I didn't call them back (this part only took 5 minutes)

...And that's how you buy an iPhone. Just as a note, I'm 1-starring the Apple shopping experience, not the store or its employees. The employees should be empowered to help the customer, but instead they are powerless to the stupid system that Apple has created.

Bonus update: As if the experience weren't bad enough... even though I paid before pick up, because they changed the address to Seattle, they re-charged me for tax which defeats the purpose of me buying the iPhones from Portland in the first place. They never sent me an updated invoice so the charge came as a complete surprise and made it extremely hard for me to expense at work (since I had the wrong invoice). My only option was to do a credit card charge back with the actual invoice I received. I then received a letter from my credit card company with Apple's rebuttal on the dispute with provable lies; the most blatant lie being that they claimed I purchased from Seattle IP (impossible since the customer service guy purchased at store through their computer in Portland). Get your stuff together, Apple. Not only am I never making an Apple purchase again, but I'm going to be swaying friends and family away from Apple products. This is...