MacMedia, Inc. — Local services in Scottsdale

Our experience with Mac Media was horrendous. This review is long overdue but justified.

On 9/8/22, I brought my computer to Mac Media for a logic board repair. However, after receiving their repair timeline, I opted to explore other options and sought assistance from Apple to discuss further. Apple advised against proceeding with them to avoid data wipe, but informed me that they no longer recommend MacMedia due to reliability issues from past incidents. Despite the warning, I made the unfortunate decision to give MacMedia another chance, swayed by a sense of connection and trust that they would be reliable.

On 10/12/22, I received a call from Sam stating my computer was ready for pick-up. However, upon opening the computer, I was shocked to find someone else's name, indicating that another person's logic board had been mistakenly placed in my machine. Mac Media team had lost my original logic board during the process. I was promised that the manager, Stowman, would contact me the next morning to address the issue.

Unfortunately, Stowman failed to reach out, prompting me to take the initiative and contact him myself. He disclosed that my logic board had been found, but a third-party company they sent my computer to had broken an adapter, casting doubt on whether they could reinstall my logic board effectively.

I couldn’t comprehend how such a situation could occur and asked what measures would be taken to rectify it. Stowman tried to shift blame onto me, implying that I had brought the computer in damaged initially. However, I firmly refuted this, as the problem arose after their involvement with the third-party company.

Despite promises that they were making their best efforts to resolve the matter, Mac Media failed to uphold their word and never contacted me. Frustrated and distressed, I asked my significant other to handle communication with them due to their apparent harassment and habit of misrepresenting my words.

My significant other requested transparent communication and regular updates, but they failed to deliver. When the computer returned for the third time, it sat at their shop for three weeks before we were informed that they had forgotten to fix the broken part, necessitating yet another round of repairs. They continuously offered numerous excuses.

Nearly four months later, on 1/3/23, my computer remained in their shop with no discernible progress. They claimed to be awaiting information from "the board," without clarifying what that meant, and they refused to provide us with the owners' contact information. In an attempt to escalate the matter and reach out to the owners, we attempted to contact them through LinkedIn, but they did not respond. Consequently, I resorted to filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Finally, on 1/4/23, Brian, one of the owners, contacted me.

We again asked about their plan to rectify the broken component or compensate me for repairs elsewhere. Brian expressed discomfort with sending my system to the board partners, citing their search for new, more reliable partners. Strangely, less than an hour later, we received an email from them, gaslighting the situation, denying any of the previously mentioned issues, and demanding that I retrieve the computer in the condition they had left it. They conveniently omitted any reference to the fact that their repair attempts had further damaged the computer.

Despite our request for comprehensive notes and documentation from the past four months, they only provided the notes from the day the computer was initially dropped off, leaving us completely in the dark about the full extent of their actions and missteps.

On 2/5/23, we went to another service provider. They confirmed that my startup disk was no longer accessible and did not contain a functioning operating system, thereby validating the experience. Fortunately, the new provider displayed competence and successfully resolved the problem, effectively fixing my computer.

Steer clear...

I take these reviews seriously as I have two small businesses. I always try to look at both sides of a situation so here is what happened. It does not give me any pleasure rating a company this low, especially when I have been going to them for so many. years and had good experiences up until now. But it seems being a loyal customer doesn't mean much anymore. I took my iPhone 11 Pro in for a battery replacement. They tested it and all was good. They replaced it within a few hours and I was on my way. I noticed that it overheated during charging and that it was turning off part way through the day. The battery seemed to wear out super fast and when it got to 50% or so it would turn off. I returned. They were baffled but tested the phone and all was good so they replaced it saying it must have been a bad batch of batteries. Same thing kept happening. I returned. They tested. All good. I said I'd give it another try and hope it worked itself out. I let them know we were on a time crunch as I was leaving the country (for good). Finally, on my last day I returned. They refunded me but I didn't have time to have them swap my original iPhone battery back and figured I'd get it done in Mexico, where I live. They were not able to ensure me that they gave me my original battery. I was forced to buy a back up battery to charge my phone during the day after it turned off. That same day during my 3-day drive to my home in Mexico, the new charger port was obviously not functioning. I had to send that back with someone and have a family member return it. Nobody in Mexico will touch the phone because it's been opened. I finally found a specialty repair shop and sent my phone in. They return with a list of damaged parts including a problem with the logic board. It will cost me $300USD to repair including a new battery. I reach out to MacMedia to discuss this issue as I took them a fully functioning phone and they left me with a non-functioning phone. As I'm honest, I told them about the evaluation the phone had gone through. Well, now they tell me that since someone else has opened the phone, they can't take responsibility! They claim they don't do logic board repairs and in cases where the logic board is damaged, it's cheaper to replace the phone. I ask them if they would be willing to repair the phone and am told I could send it back for a free evaluation but any repair would be on me. Obviously, I'm quite disappointed in the service. I understand technology can be complicated but you can't be in business if you can't back up your work. I took them a working phone and was returned a non-functioning phone. Not only did I lose my investment, I had to replace that phone with a new one as I pretty much do 80% of my work on my phone. It's not a cheap replacement. So I'm sorry to say, I cannot recommend going to MacMedia in Scottsdale for...

I setup an appointment with MacMedia through the Apple website to repair a fully working, but cracked screen iPhone 6. After scheduling, I called them to confirm the appointment and to get a price. The guy on the phone was very nice and went through the specs of my phone with me, he even suggested to come in early since their appointment times weren't a big concern. As you can imagine, this was nice to hear. I got there right when they opened as the associate suggested to drop my phone off for repair, the associate checked me in and told me that the repair would take 2 hours after they told me it was usually done in an hour the day before. Fast forward to me picking up my phone two hours later, I come back to find out that the repair didn't happen because one of their replacement parts was bad and they didn't have a spare part. They told me that they had no way of contacting me, yet they had my email the entire time. The associate's answer was to come back when they had the part or to "Go to an Apple Store". After losing an entire morning, I didn't want to come back and left the store, only to realize that my phone was now flashing gray and black distortion lines like a bad TV. I went back to the store and asked for a manager, a technician came out and said they could put a white screen on my Space Gray phone within 30 minutes. They did the repair and the phone works, but I'm mostly upset that it took me coming back into the store for them to even offer this solution. Also, it would have been easy for them to email me to tell me they didn't have the part. All of this could have been a non-issue if they took the time to communicate and offer some simple customer service. They also charged me full price after wasting an entire morning. This will be the last time I use a non-apple store for things like this, it's just...