The Apple Xchange — Local services in Tempe

My Experience:

Bought a previously used IMac, 27 Inch. A great deal and might I add the lowest price on that specific model I could find anywhere. They transferred all files over and merged everything flawlessly. I am a graphic designer and needed this computer specifically for 3D modeling and animation. I took the computer home and began to abuse it, rendering and creating 3D animation pushing the computer to the limits of the graphics and processor, sometimes running the computer 24 hours rendering graphics. One morning after running all night I noticed a miniscule dark line on the LCD and to be honest I was thinking, oh man here it comes, payback for not buying new. I shut the computer down and let it rest to find after start-up the screen was back to normal, same thing occurred a few days later after extended use. I began to do a bit of research and went through several forums to try and see what the problem could have been. I emailed Alan (after-hours) on a Wednesday and received and email back minutes later, asking me to bring it on in to take a look. I brought it in on Friday and being used to the way things are run at the Apple store I was skeptical about getting the computer back by Monday to get back to work on urgent projects but still mentioned that this was an urgent matter, I was going out of town and let them know I would be in first thing Monday morning to pick up. Monday came and again being used to the way Apple' Genius bar works, if you don't hear anything back the computer probably isn't ready and to find out anything, its a long process of phone transfers and messages being left to find out exactly that "your computer is not ready". I sent and email Monday night again after hours and received an email back within minutes letting me know that not only was the computer ready but they were expecting me first thing Monday morning (like I told them) and not only was it ready Monday morning but it was ready on Saturday which would be within 24 hours of drop off. These guys had a choice in fixing the computer, a way to cool off the computer with setting the fans to come on early and nip the problem in the bud before it gets hot or what they actually did was completely replace the screen. They did this amazingly all without a need for a complete back-up and re-install of OS ( what seems to be Genius Bar first attempt to fix any problem) Wow. I can't express enough the difference in experience from the Genius Bar to The Apple Xchange. Don't mean to slam the Genius Bar but these guys are certified Apple techs who obviously learned way more from hands on problem solving and thinking outside of the cooperate classroom. Not to mention the kind of attention you would expect from a friend. I don't regret for one second not buying new. And as my business grows I look forward dealing with the Apple Xchange exclusively....

I bought a used 2018 Mac Mini from The Apple Xchange in Tempe. August 2020. In full disclosure, I am a Master Electronics Technician with 20 years of experience, I can repair a PC along with many other more complex electronics, so upgraded the RAM in it myself, with 64GB of Crucial RAM.

The Mac Mini has been running powered on as a headless unit and running fine until the last week of February 2021. I went to remotely access it and could not. Went to the server rack in my home to check, no light in the front, mini was off. Turned it back on got the boot chime. Tried to get in again, no luck. Pulled the mini from the rack where it sits next to my other Mac mini and hooked it up to a monitor, Gives me the boot chime and the Prohibitory symbol. No go, I try and get it in to recovery that doesn't work either. Now I just get the file folder with a question mark.

Finally, I decide to bring it back to where I bought it since it has a 1 year warranty. After initially trying to charge me the diagnostics fee for the warranty repair and the kid at the counter acting like a snotty Genus Bar employee, I started to get a bad feeling about this shop. A couple days later Alan calls me to to tell me they are still trying to diagnose the issue. Four days pass, I get another call from Alan, he starts questioning me about the RAM upgrade and then starts to try to tell me the logic board is damaged from it. Lies... Then Alan tells me they are not going to repair it under warranty and that they have to send it to the real Apple anyway because they are incapable of doing so. All this to try and get out of their own one year warranty. If they don't want to honor what they say they shouldn't offer a warranty.

I still have yet to see proof of this damage even offered to me. This place is starting to sound more like a car dealership warranty to me.

So, I picked it up from the shop, said some very unkind words since now have a $1000 paperweight.

Got the Mini back home and trying to figure out how to get it repaired, I repeat my tests, Trying to run Apple diagnostics, or boot into internet recovery, I can't get the mini to join WiFi, well that was for sure working before Alan opened the chassis. So I went in for surgery, low and behold the connector for the WiFi antenna is not properly seated on the logic board... I don't know if this was intentional sabotage or an honest mistake. Called the shop back and spoke to Alan and told him they failed to connect the antenna properly. He starts going into a tyrant about how the connector was damaged when I brought it in. More lies...

(notice how I never said anything about damage and he starts throwing the "d" word around anyway)

The TL;DR of all this is go to buy a Mac or have it serviced somewhere else, Alan is a man of no integrity and neither is The...

I took my son in to replace his cracked iPhone 4 front screen and after 4 hours and three trips to the store we got a non-working iPhone 4 back!!! I son depends on his phone for work and when we first went in and they said they could replace it in an hour we thought GREAT!! So left the phone and came back in an hour and a half and paid for the screen replacement and luckily my son turned his phone on to check it because it showed "NO SERVICE". So they took it back and said they would replace the screen again as it's no uncommon that it could just be a bad screen. So in another 2 hours my son went back in to pick up his phone and he was told "Sorry, we've not sure why it doesn't work now but it could be some problem with the carrier". WRONG!! They wan't a problem before we brought it in!!!! So my son comes home to tell me the bad news and I make a trip back to the store to find out why is it that we took a phone that worked fine, just a crack in the screen, and now it doesn't work! The owner was too busy on another line! So I am still waiting for a call back. My point is at no time were we ever warned of any kind of problem that could occur while replacing the screen, if there were risk we would not have opted to fix the screen since it wasn't that big of a deal just cosmetics. Bad business to let a customer go back and forth and the owner not make an effort to resolve this matter while we stood waiting in the store!!!! "He is still on the other line" is what the worker told us. Well if this doesn't get resolved here by the end of the day it will be time to call 3 on Your Side, BBB, and all Social Media involved to protect other innocent customers. It's not like my son can just go out and buy a new iPhone for $500 because Apple Xchange screwed up when trying to replace his screen!!!! They should replace...