MacHQ -St. Louis Apple Authorized Repair & Sales — Local services in St. Louis

I can't say enough positive things about my (thankfully fairly brief) experience at MacHQ this morning. First, here's the lead up to what prompted the visit, in case anyone else has similar issues. On Thursday evening my iPhone XS prompted me to download the latest iOS onto it. I did so without thinking about it or looking into it, since I know at some point apps don't work unless you have the latest operating software. On Friday morning my phone kept having glitches like my gmail app don't opening, and so I turned off and restarted my phone. Then the phone nightmare started.. it never turned on, but rather showed me the white glowing apple logo and just slowly blinked on and off (called "Boot looping" I later learned). I tried restarting my phone numerous times throughout the day to no avail. Around 5pm on Friday, I took it to the AT&T store in Dellwood, and the store associate made it sound as though fixing my phone was hopeless and it'd be more expensive to fix it than to get a new phone. They wanted me to upgrade my plan to an unlimited data package to qualify for a new phone upgrade. It still meant I'd be paying for the phone ($730) over the next 3 years, plus paying $23 - 38/month for more data!) I was tempted to do it, just because I didn't want to be without a phone and didn't want to waste time troubleshooting it, but really hated the idea of being a sucker in the "planned obsolescence" consumer culture. So I stuck it out, and planned to make an appointment at the apple store. Around 6pm Friday: Thankfully, the Apple website listed MacHQ as the next available option for getting my phone looked at, on Saturday morning. 10:30am Saturday: I arrived at the Maplewood store, Mac HQ, found a close parking spot, and entered the quiet and clean store to be warmly greeted by Jim, who I later found out was the owner. Jim took down my necessary information, offered me a card for a dealer-price on my next computer purchase (which I will definitely use, but hopefully not for a while as I'd rather keep my current one working!), and let me know that the diagnostic fee would be $29.99, and it may take 30 minutes to an hour to restore my phone, so I could take a walk and come back if I'd like, or wait there on the couch. Thankfully all of my data was backed up to iCloud (which I highly recommend, btw! If you don't already have this set up, DO IT!), so it didn't matter that my phone was going to be wiped clean. After taking my phone to their back room tech, he said it may only take 15-20 minutes but I still decided to walk down the street for some fresh air and to grab a coffee. When I returned, it was just a few more minutes until my phone was ready, and get this - it was JUST FINE!!! At that point a nice young man Anthony was helping me. I paid the $30, and asked him a question about my chargers that I thought no longer worked, and he checked them out and said they seemed to be fine. As I left I noticed another nice young man cleaning the front door and windows (I'm guessing he was the owner's son), and complimented his work.

I can't tell you how refreshing it was to go into a place that is independently owned and owner-operated, extremely efficient and friendly, transparent and fairly-priced. For anyone out there dealing with Apple or iPhone issues, save yourself the headache of going to an Apple store in a mall, and go there instead!

Thank you Jim! You run a...

I've been a customer of MacHQ since the early 2000's when I worked in the commercial photo/design community. Until my most recent experience with them I'd never been anything but satisfied.

A couple weeks ago, on a Thursday, I went in to purchase a laptop. The sales rep directed me to a used 2020 MacBook Pro. I'd brought my old laptop to trade in, but it was a 2015 and no longer viable for any use. The sales rep made sure to tell me that I should expect to that any MacBook I purchased would be pretty much obsolete after 6 or 7 years. I paid for everything and left both laptops for my info to be transferred to the new machine (a 70.00 charge). The following day, Friday, I picked up the computer. Everything seemed just fine until a friend, who noticed my "new" pre-owned laptop, asked what I'd paid. When I told them they let me know that I could've gotten a new one for only a couple hundred dollars difference. This turned out to be the case. Apple was also offering 12 mos no interest financing and a 150.00 gift card with purchase. When I questioned MacHQ on why I hadn't been given the option to buy a new MacBook Pro to begin with they said the computer they sold me was "basically the same" even though it was pre owned and 3 years older. Having been told that the lifespan is about 6-7 years I wanted a new one to get the best return on my investment. They offered to take the old one back and order a new one for me, but that I could not do the free financing or the gift card. I told them I'd prefer to order from Apple to take advantage of those offers. So then I was told I'd have to pay a 15% restocking fee to return the computer I'd bought and had for 72 hours. They refused to budge on this and I was shocked having been a 20 year plus customer who'd bought many machines over the years- 3 of which I still use. Unfortunately that is the last time I'll do business with MacHQ. I'm a huge advocate of supporting small local businesses as an owner of one myself. But I also believe in being fair & understanding with my clients- this situation was not fair and could have been resolved...

This has been the single worst customer service experience I have ever had. The fault is shared equally between Mac HQ and Apple. On April 26th, I called Apple regarding a broken iPhone screen. They made me an appointment with Mac HQ to get the screen replaced on April 27th. At the time I arrived for my appointment, I was told they don't have the equipment on site to replace an iPhone screen, the phone would be shipped to Apple for repair. I was not given my SIM card, and the store later emailed me to ask me for my passcode to unlock my phone. Considering the amount of personal information I have on my phone, this made me extremely uncomfortable. According to the store, the repair was to take 3-5 days. I thought I would get it back Monday, Tuesday at the latest. I called for a status on Monday and was told it was actually 3-5 business days, their tech doesn't work on the weekend. This point makes zero sense since I was told the phone had to be shipped to Apple for repair. It should have been mailed on Friday April 28th. Instead, it wasn't shipped to the repair center until May 2. Apple repaired the phone and then sat on it until probably May 8th. The actual date of shipment is unclear because they claim to have no tracking information for it. The phone arrived back at Mac HQ on May 9th without my SIM card. Mac HQ said I'd just have to go to T-mobile to get a new one. I called Apple and was told Mac HQ should never have taken my SIM card in the first place, it should have been removed from the phone and given back to me. Since they sent it to Apple's repair center, it was supposedly destroyed, but I have no proof of that. Neither Mac HQ nor Apple has done anything to compensate me for the fact that I have been without a phone nearly 2 weeks now, other than to offer apologies. Apologies mean nothing. I will never use Mac HQ again, and I am extremely upset with...