Apple State Street — Local services in Santa Barbara

I had a 6S that was frozen in a restart loop and could not be restarted with only the phone. At the time, my iTunes version was not compatible with iOS 11, and I could not attempt to reset it that way. I made an appointment with a genius and took it in and told them (genius AND supervisor) what I told you. The genius hooked it up to an iPad and allegedly ran a diagnostic program which revealed that the “logic board” was “fried” and not repairable. I was offered a refurbished 6S for $250, plus I had to continue to make monthly payments on the phone. I asked if they could not attempt to hook it to iTunes and just attempt to reset to factory settings. They said they would, but the logic board was dead, so they were prohibited from even working on my phone. But they’d sell me one.

Out of dozens or hundrreds iof Apple hardware products that I have owned since Apple was born, I have had exactly ONE logicboard fail, and it was known to be from a faulty batch and was replaced free of charge out of warranty. I asked how, and was told this., by a supervisor, no less - and I kid you not - a “forced upgrade” likely “overloaded the logic board”. I was incredulous, as I don’t think those things are even related. One is hardware, one is software, and Apple is not known for making proprietary Apple software (iOS) that can terminally damage proprietary Apple hardware without at least offering a pop-up asking “Are you SURE you want to do that?” I voiced my concern and they suggested I contact Apple Corporate to voice my concerns. I left the store with the same frozen phone.

I went home, located a link on the Apple site for an El Capitan download, with the correct iTunes version. It was FREE and in the Apple App Store. I plugged in the iPhone, synced it, restored it to factory settings, installed iOS 11.1, and it works better now than before, battery excepted.

I feel that I got poor or predatory customer service at the Apple Store. Or none at all. I fixed the problem by doing what I asked them to do, but which they would not do. This is a far cry to my exorctation as an Apple guy since day one. Customer service was one reason to pay more for Apple products, that, and software more valuable than the hardware price.

Sorry, but I was appalled. And this is just...

Whether you like or dislike Apple, STAY AWAY FROM THIS STORE AT ALL COSTS!!! The WORST experience I have EVER had inside any tech store in the United States.

Matter of fact employees rudely confront you upon entrance and demand to know your intentions inside their store immediately, as if it’s some exclusive club or reservation-only establishment. After being directed to the genius bar to look into a Macbook pro malfunction, I was left sitting there alone for over 25 minutes while the employees chatted in small groups and stared at me, all doing nothing to help me or get the ball rolling on my appointment.

After finally being approached by 1 employee, another stepped in and interrupted as they awkwardly passed me off to the “genius” repair technician who was utterly useless in all ways except for constantly repeating the $500 price tag of the repair he insisted was necessary to ever use the computer again. Upon asking further questions to understand what had happened to my laptop that worked perfectly fine until that same morning, the young man became increasingly agitated and dismissive, trying only to sell me the newer model rather than helping me with the computer I was there to fix. Instead of explaining the issue to me or thinking of other repair options / ideas, he just kept angrily saying “that comes out to $500” again and again.

Having watched him pull the same thing on the family a few seats down from me and successfully talk them into buying a brand new computer, I was amazed how obvious it was that his only intention was to upsell and convince customers to spend unwarranted money.

A day later and the computer is miraculously back to normal functionality, despite being told yesterday that I would never be able to turn it back on without spending over $500 for repairs or over $1,000 for a new model.

Absolutely NO “genius” to be found here!! Only pretentious, cold-shouldered employees doing everything they can to scam you into spending another few paychecks on totally unnecessary repairs & products.

Do yourself a favor and steer clear unless you’re looking to spend thousands of dollars for no...

This review is based on other reviews I have read as well as the overall quality of the Apple product.

After reading about 25 reviews I've come to realize that this store has poor customer service. Most of their employees are SB University students. They're not long term employees. So, their knowledge on the products will be a bit lower then average UNLESS they've been around the product for a while.

They are young kids living out of their parents house for the first time and this MAY be their first job. Since they're students they could be under a lot of stress from their school work load. That being said, their customer service skills may be on the low side.

So, show a bit of patience and push out a convincing smile.

Most of these reviews seem to be written by spoiled, impatient brats that think the store needs to stop and cater to their every need. Get over yourself, because there is a store full of your type that is in line ahead of you.

Those who are so fed up with this store that you're going to swear off Apple products all together are out of your mind. Yes you pay a lot of money up front, but you save a lot of money in the long run. I've had my iMac for 4 years now and I've had absolutely no issues with it. It runs like the first day I bought it. If you're having issues its a strange occurrence, but can be easily fixed.

Other reviews I've read were people giving one or two stars based on other reviews. one stated, "I've never been to the store nor have I ever owned a Apple product." annnnnd that was it. another 1 star was, "Been in the store. I'll write a review later. Great store."

I've read a lot of review in my life and I've seen some odd ones, but I've never seen so many odd ones on one location.

I will never go to this store based on the customers that visit here. Good luck...