Apple North Star — Local services in San Antonio

I made an appointment with Apple, La Cantera Mall for a technician to help me with iPhone storage issues. I was assigned to Madeline who did not help. I was in the store for hours while she bounced around helping others and, spending only a minute here and there with me, and provided incorrect information.

My complaint was that I have 256 GB of memory on my phone with less than 50 GB of storage used. Why did I have to buy more than 256 GB of iCloud backup storage. My complaint was that I purchased 50GB and the next day I needed to upgrade, I upgraded and the third day I still needed to upgrade again, so I left apple in 2024. Now with family calendar sharing I need my iCloud calendar, so I sought an explanation and help. Madeline was rude, arrogant, and actually lacked the time to sit and help me, very impatient and kept bouncing to other customers, which I watched her spend countless time with, yet very very little time with me. I should have been reassigned to a more capable technician who would help me as a client.

Madeline never addressed my issue fully. In fact, she recommended purchasing 50 GB of storage which was not sufficient. I am doubting here knowledge at this point since this is the issue that brought me to the store for expert assistance. I would not have purchased 50 GB since it did not work years ago, but she said it should be enough. First indication she was not knowledgeable, or did not care to assist me as a client.

I never received an understandable answer, however, a young tech who was not helping clients showed me his phone with 17GB of storage yet he said he was on the 2TB iCloud subscription package. He was the one of the better techs in the store. He was also respectful of his coworker and extremely courteous and I genuinely believed he cared about me and my issue, unlike Madeline who spent less than five minutes with me each of 2 or 3 times she attempted to assist. I wish I had received his name. He needs to be groomed for customer service. I never received a scientific explanation for my storage issues, but at that point was ready to purchase 2TB whenever Madeline returned. I had been in the store for over an hour now.

When Madeline finally returned over an hour later, while I just waited, I just purchased the 2TB plan. I asked her if I should do the backup now in the store and she said Yes, it would pick up where it left off. That is not true, it actually stopped and did not back up when I left the store. I did the backup that night which took hours. She never should have had me start the back-up in the store.

Sidebar: I just called Apple for help on this same issue, trying to restore my phone to pre-iCloud status and the second tech was outstanding, helping me to start using iCloud Calendar again and not Google Calendar.

I suggest Madeline receive customer service training. She is far too arrogant for her level of knowledge, or as I experienced, lack thereof. She claims my issue is not having an updated iPhone. Is that really why I needed to purchase 2TB of storage? She did not help me at all! I am very disappointed at the lack of customer service I received. I purchased the iCloud subscription. I backed up my phone. I have for the last few days researched how to reenable my iCloud subscription, back-ups, and iCloud Calendar. Two hours in the Apple Store and maybe a total of 15 minutes of service TOPS from Madeline, because she came back twice, so three interactions and less than 5 minutes each time. Fifteen minutes of service is what should be in the notes, if she is honest and integrity is not also an issue. Feel free...

I was greeted at the door and I told the associate I was there to pick up a macbook that was being repaired. [mind you I had called multiple times and was told my computer was "in Transit" even though the tracking number showed delivered and signed 3 days prior... the last time I called turned out my mac was sitting on a shelf untagged and forgotten] I was told to go by the iMacs and wait for assistance.

So as I sat there were associates walking back and forth not one acknowledged me or told me hello or asked if I was being help. At some point there was a group of 3 right next to me conversing amongst themselves about where they were in sales and what they were going to do. No one bothered to ask me if I needed anything. I noticed there were other customers who stood in line for quite awhile not being directed or asked anything and at some point they just turned around and left the store or found a seat to become a part of and just disappeared in the background as associates walked past them.

"It's like I didn't exist and if you didn't try to grab them or ask for assistance you were just an extension of the environment they shut out."

At some point a customer was standing right in front of an associate trying to get their attention for quite some time before the associate even looked up to say hello to them or assist them.

I was pretty much done at that point I found myself saying wow under my breath everytime I saw an Apple rep ignore a customer. 6 associates walked passed me without asking me if someone was helping me, The associate who told me to sit and wait passed me twice and did not ask me if the genius bar was assisting me in sorting out the matter.

I got up finally and went straight up to someone and asked if i could just get my computer went through the whole "it's in transit scenario" again before I explained how that was strange they went in the back to sort it out.

later they came out with my computer handed me the repair summary and point at what was replaced [didn't really explain why it had been replaced] and the total came out to $303.35

I paid and left. I did not want to be in that store any longer, every interaction I heard in that store was disheartening.

why? there was no heart just routine. Go here and there, wait, pay.

Where's the excitement in showing new product? checking on the customer, following through, and being genuine?

Instead it was unwillingness, routine, and an apology for telling me one thing when it was another.

The quickest part of the entire ordeal was paying for the repair...which I honestly think after the entire incident I should have argued not to pay. But at the end of the day that's not why I'm leaving this comment.

As a company you have to live up to expectation that you built for yourself. When people go to the apple store they go for the experience and what that entails is support and service. To be seen as a human being and treated as such. When a customer leaves the store they should either have learned something new about what is possible with your products or leave happy with a new product or repair. I should not have left with doubt and disappointment. I honestly will never go back to that location and after that experience it's really made me question if I would buy another product to begin with.

I love your products, but I hate your retail experience. Big issue fix the customer experience on the retail end and everything else should fall into place.

I'm sure I'm not the only person who felt this way.

hopefully this has been...

I have never been to a place where they said "it'll be 10 minutes" to get checked in before I have to talk to someone else about getting checked in again and 45 minutes later they are still saying "wait 10 more minutes" and the original 4 people in line ahead of me were still in line ahead of me and they too haven't been seen. Its lunch time on a Friday, and there is no one there available to talk to or help out. I don't understand how at prime time you are so understaffed and negligent. Some of the employees were kind and greeted me, but when I approached the person who they instructed me to talk to, that person was rude and dismissive and they never followed up. They simply left the building (guy in the green hat as he was referred to me as). There was no conscious effort to keep a specific time table. There was no official standing to see where a person was in the queue present and visible. There were only people standing around watching the walls or holding earbuds in their ears pretending to be occupied. And I know you don't hold your ear that long as if you're trying to hear something when you're in an isolated corner of the building and there is no noise around you. You aren't apart of the secret service here. In addition, you would think logically that there is a guarantee that someone (like me) is going to crack their screen. So it should make sense that you have a designated line for us to approach and get our stuff handled. I even offered to leave my phone there at 1 pm until I got off work at 5/5:30 pm and pay ahead of time without paperwork being filed and they told me "another 10 minutes and you'll be seen". Child's play of a place without clear organization. Whoever is manager, clearly either is in the back, at lunch, or incompetent and needs to be replaced. If you are buying a new product or getting information transferred to an updated piece of technology, I can understand the time it takes to get all that done and set-up; however, if it's my cracked screen and all you have to do is write paperwork and take my phone, and I come back at a later time the same day, that should be the most rudimentary thing in the world. Step 1: sign me in. Step 2: verify warranty Step 3: identify payment amount Step 4: take phone. Step 5: check to make sure there is no water damage. There is nothing complicated about that in my opinion. And yes, to all the keyboard warriors out there, I came without a reservation and yes I was a walk-in and yes this is the rant of an inconvenienced person, but still there is some level of truth in this. Who wouldn't have an express lane for cracked screens? Is the training for becoming an Apple Technician too complicated for people today? Are they not hiring enough people to work at any given moment? At least a restaurant gets the concept of rush hour = more employees need to be on hand to handle the "RUSH". Pardon the rant, it comes from a good place however I cannot stand unprofessional establishments. If you see people just sitting there for more than 20 minutes, then go check on them and ask if they are alright. Make my wait, in the slightest, less terrible. I should go back to...