Apple Tysons Corner — Local services in Tysons

Very very very disappointed with my experience on Monday, May 27th 2024 at approximately 8pm with the incompetent and very unprofessional short Asian guy with the earring and you should avoid this Apple Store at all costs. My iPhone 15 Pro was not turning on at all or responding to charging attempts despite not being exposed to water damages or being dropped at all. The $1000 iPhone 15 Pro was not working and I explained the issue and he kept trying to plug my phone in to “perform diagnostics.” He claims to have tried 10 different cables to get my device’s serial number but I literally went to another Apple Store (Clarendon) and the technician pulled my serial number in 5 seconds. After 30 minutes wasted and zero progress due to his incompetence, he refused replacing the iPhone 15 Pro I bought for $1000 that was overheating (significant safety issue) and not turning on through no fault of my own. He kept insisting I go to another location to have it repaired because they didn’t have a component to repair it on the spot even though it’s a new and untampered with phone. Then he told me he was going to book me an appointment with another store and refused to book any appointment after another 10 minutes. Apple Management can view the store cameras to see how he behaved very unprofessionally and failed to perform his job responsibility and my request. It literally has a manufacturer warranty and I did nothing to mess it up. Mind you, I was very respectful to him the entire time. I literally called Apple Support after I got home and booked the appointment in 3min. He also decided to go in the middle of helping me to go help someone else despite all his coworkers being empty-handed, and was just trying to get rid of me because he’s a sleazy employee who just wants to get off at 9pm. 2 hours of my time wasted with zero progress, as if I never entered the Apple Store. Lastly, it was a brand new phone and it was already encountering issues, so a repair would not solve it because it will eventually have the same problems later on. It is a $1000 phone too, that’s a lot of money for people and for business owners like me, I need my phone to manage my businesses. Unfortunately I left this location with zero progress to my phone being fixed.

The next day, I go to the Apple Store in Clarendon for an appointment with the expectation of my phone being repaired and waiting 2 hours, and they simply replaced it in 10 minutes. How come the inept employee at this location could not do that? I was going to come here to spend another $2000 on a new MacBook as well, but I’ll instead give the sale to the Apple store in Clarendon. Now that the original, defective device is in possession by Apple, they can inspect the phone in any way they’d like to see there is no damage to the phone and it simply is not turning on at all due to a defect. As an Apple shareholder, I urge Apple Management to review the cameras and conduct an internal investigation due to this very poor customer service experience. It’s important because you will have loyal customers like me, who have purchased almost every Apple device in existence for the last 15 years, that will never come back to this store. Don’t let employees like this ruin your business and loyal customers’ experiences with Apple. Apple is the best and strongest corporation in the world, and I have never had any experience as bad as this one only great experiences. Go to literally any Apple Store...

How to destroy brand loyalty in 3 easy steps. A case study from the Apple Store in Tysons Corner, Virginia.

Provide false information Create a major problem based on this false information Do nothing to help resolve the issue

My family has been completely loyal to Apple since 2012. Since then we’ve owned at least 10 iPhones, 3 iPods, 4 iPads, 4 AirPods, a MacBook, 4 Apple Watches, an iMac, an Apple home pod. We didn’t even think to buy another brand until we encountered this store.

We are Americans working overseas. We get back to the U.S. once or twice a year. In October 2023, my wife was in DC and visited the Tysons Corner (Virginia) Apple Store to buy an iPhone 15 Pro for our daughter. She is very detail oriented and asks all necessary questions before making a purchase. When she learned that the iPhone 15 Pro has only eSim capability (i.e. no physical SIM) she asked “If our overseas carrier does not support eSim technology, can I return it to a store near where we live?” The sales assistant answered “Yes, it can be returned to any store”. With that information, my wife confidently bought the $1300+ phone”. When she got back to where we live (I’m leaving out names and places to protect PII), we learned that our carrier does not support eSim technology. As such we called the store (which is about 2 hours by car from our house) only to find that a phone bought in the US, can only be returned in the US.

We then called to the Tysons Corner store the explain the situation. We worked with a person (who I believe was the store manager) who was apologetic that the employee gave the wrong information, then proceeded to avoid doing anything to fix the situation, even to go as far as suggesting the we bother someone we know in the U.S., spend our money on FedEx to send to that person, so that they can spend their time returning the phone, all so she could avoid doing anything to help the situation that her employee caused. After our initial phone conversation, she said she would research it and get back to us. Over the next week, at least two of my emails went unanswered (not even an acknowledgement of receipt). She finally returned my email over a week later to attach a screenshot of a policy which didn’t even address the situation. “Standard Return Policy: … -Products can be returned only in the country or region in which they were originally purchased”. In my return email, I explained that we are trying to return it to Tysons Corner and we only need a pre-paid FedEx or DHL label to send it, which would have maybe cost $75 maximum. So, over a simple $75 she was willing to stick us with a $1300 phone which we could not use.

As such, I would like to introduce you to the newest part of our family communications: our daughter’s new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5. Well done, Tysons Corner, in not wanting to lift a finger to solve a major issue you caused . . . and, at the same time, destroying 10+ years of brand...

This my was umpteenth visit to the store. I wanted to get an iPad for my mom for her Birthday. I arrived at 3:55 PM on a Sunday afternoon and checked in with the person greeting shoppers near the entrance. I gave him my name and purpose for my visit. He asked me to hang around the iPad area and someone would help me in about 5 minutes. I had questions on the iPad model I wanted and wanted to someone help me decide too.

5 minutes became 10 and 10 became 20 and ultimately after 32 minutes of waiting, I was informed that someone would help me buy the iPad. I had the comparison screen open on on one of the iPads and I wanted his opinion on selecting the correct model. I asked if he could come over, but he stood where he was and asked my what iPad I wanted and he would go to the back and bring it out! This went on a couple of times, and having already waited over 34 minutes at this point, I just picked on and let hime know. I also asked him if he could recommend a cover for the iPad, to which he replied, I could walk over to the back of the store and pick out any cover I wanted!!! So I swallowed any remnants of my pride and walked to the back wall. "Luckily" I found an employee there and approached her to help me decide on a screen cover. She too, repeated the same thing - I was free to chose any cover I wanted!

By the time I got back to the place the where employee who was helping me with the iPad, he was already helping someone else and told me I had to wait until he was done with the new customers for him to check me out and complete the sales process.

I was going to avail myself of a corporate discount since I my wife (who was with me) works for a company that gets a certain percent off for Apple products. Upon hearing that, he started grilling my wife on the type of work she did for the company and if he could get a job there! I eventually reminded him that our 2 kids were getting antsy and irritated being strapped and stuck in the store for the past 40+ minutes and all I wanted was for him to complete the sales process. He sulked a it and eventually processed the payment and we finally were on our way!

From the time it took to meet with a sales person, to the arrogant attitude of the employee, and the non-friendly buying experience, I will buy apple products from third party (Best Buy) or online (Amazon) that stepping foot in an Apple store...