iCommand — Local services in Williamsburg

First of all, I own a home in Williamsburg, but I only visit Williamsburg during the Summer months because I teach outside of the mainland USA for 9 months out of the year.

So, I brought my Apple MacBook Pro here to have the speaker checked and replaced (if necessary) because the sound was really bad (jarbled). They said that they had to "order the part" so I had to wait a few days until the new speaker arrived (they allowed me to take the computer home until the new speaker arrived). I waited for about a week. They never called me back to tell me that they had the speaker, so I called them after a week of waiting and I was told to bring the computer in that day because they had the part. When I arrived at their store to drop off my computer, I asked if I could see the new speaker first (I wanted to ensure that it was a new speaker that they were installing). John looked angrily at me and became upset that I was asking him to see the "new" speaker they planned to install. Angrily, John said, "I can't believe you're asking me that!" (making me feel guilty that I didn't trust their work, i.e., that they were putting a used part in my computer). So, I apologized and "thought" I could trust them. This repair cost me just over $300.

Here I am now... just one month back at my job away from the mainland USA, and the speaker that ICommand installed is jarbled again. I'm pretty certain that they either (1) did not install an Apple speaker, and/or (2) installed a used speaker into my computer, costing me $300 that I can't get back. I should have trusted my instinct (that they were ripping me off) when John became upset that I asked him to see the speaker they planned to install, but I didn't... I trusted John instead (when he angrily refused to show me the new part), which turned out to be a...

The sales associate in the front of the store was condescending, insulting, and needs to go to customer service training as well as learn not to make fun of the military.

I brought my Mac in for hardware issues. During my interaction with the sales associate (young girl, long reddish hair), she made a questionable remark regarding a mom with two infants who were stopped outside the store. When I told her I have an infant at home, she tried to backtrack quickly, but did not apologize for her insensitive remark.

During the course of her taking my computer's information she asked why I didn't have my Mac repaired earlier and I stated I was stationed overseas with the military and couldn't get to an Apple store. The sales associate went into a diatribe about my boss and Commander in Chief, the President. She then slammed Vice President Pence and Secretary of State Pompeo. She then insulted the military. When I rebuked in shock at her remarks, she went into a condescending tone and started to talk down to me as if I was inerudite and naive. Her switch from nice to uncivil was immediate.

There is no reason the sales associate should have even brought up this subject up much less speak ill of the military, especially as there is a whole array of active and retired military in the Williamsburg area.

I had to take my Mac and leave the store. If this is the way Capitol Mac treats it's military and government workers in the area, I want NO part of it.

Capitol Mac is free to have their own personal opinions of the current administration, but if they want to verbal express them at their place of business they will...

Best Authorized Apple Service Provider (AASP) in the Richmond/Charlottesville/Williamsburg/Norfolk/VA Beach area! My business requires very frequent service of Macs and I've tried various AASP places, including the retail Apple stores.

Apple store has decent service but the wait times are long, appointments are only open if you schedule week or more in advance and sometimes you get a difficult agent.

iCommand walk in wait times are very reasonable, there is usually no more than 2-3 people waiting and you can get serviced in 10 mins or less usually. The staff is much more helpful and honest than in the Apple store and acknowledge various common issues that Apple Geniuses are circumspect about. Macs get repaired more efficiently than Apple and you still don't get charged if you're under AppleCare or servicing a recalled issue.

iCommand compares very favorably with Apple stores, but if you compare it with other AASPs it's almost no comparison, other ones are massively inferior from my experience. Some act like they only do Apple stuff on the side or only have a surface level understanding, as I've found with other AASP in Williamsburg. Others like in Charlottesville simply don't do certain stuff like free replacements under AppleCare. In Richmond where I live there isn't even an AASP.

In short, if you're in Richmond/Charlottesville/Williamsburg area, there is no place like iCommand for...