Worst Apple experience. Ever.
As someone who's been using Apple products for almost ten years, and has had great experiences with Apple Stores and Apple Support so far, the visit to the store in Sindelfingen was a slap in the face.
My colleague and I both have issues with our iPhones, and since the store is not easy to get to we partnered up and went there together by car. We were there about 10 minutes after the store had opened. There was a teaching course happening at one table, and there were about a dozen people in the store, milling around, mostly playing with the demo devices.
There was no one at the genius bar. No one greeted us when we came in. No one asked us if we needed help, until we went to talk to an Apple employee. We asked for service, pointing out that a) our guarantee was running out the same day and week-long attempts at securing a genius appointment online had been fruitless, forcing us to show up just like that and b) we had Apple Care Plus for the devices.
The Apple employee told us to either use the "convenient Express exchange service for 29€" which we could book online or simply visit another Apple Store.
The next Apple Store is a few hundred kilometers away. As if he didn't know that!!! For people without a car, how the heck are we supposed to get there?!?!?
He also forgot to mention that when you use the express exchange, the money for the value of the device being sent to you is frozen on your bank account, inaccessible to you until Apple receives your original device back. Funny thing that some people can't afford to have 1000 Euros held hostage.
Next, it was explained to us that Apple was under a lot of stress in regard to service right now because the holidays had ended and people were sending in their broken/waterdamaged phones, people were trying to get a replacement device so they could sell it for a higher price to get a new one... it felt very much like he was basically telling us that were trying to scam them. Considering that the store was basically empty, the story also had a false ring to it.
Also, the statement that they didn't have ANY resources to help us out on that day was a blatant lie. There were more than enough employees in the store, some even talking to each other, not servicing customers at all. So, having a chat on company time is more important than servicing paying customers?
Overall, a horrible experience with Apple Stores - the worst I ever had. I can not recommend the store in Sindelfingen - the employees are not interested to help, they give unqualified answers, they do not empathize with the customers who have an issue, and they just spew textbook answers at you instead of acknowledging the situation. If there would have been a robot telling us pre-determined replies, the outcome would have been the same.
Shame on you, Apple, for allowing such a poor presentation of yourself. If I wouldn't know better from past experiences, I'd stop being an Apple customer after this disappointing visit to the Apple Store Sindelfingen. read more
