Apple Towson Town Center

Reviews 3

A

A Private User

Heres a complaint I wrote to Apple: This comment has nothing to do with my MacBook, per se, but with the way Apple Stores are run when it comes to service. Recently, I made six trips to the Apple Store in Towsontowne Center in Towson, MD. The first three were because of a faulty track pad on my MacBookPro purchased with Applecare in January 2009. The next three were because of the keyboards failure to illuminate, a problem caused by Apple technicians doing the first repair. Each time I needed to wait a long time before my service, and along the way Apple Store employees did things that utterly baffle me. There may be good reasons for their behavior, but none seem to do with efficient customer service. 1. Why limit appointments to the Genius Bar to only the coming three days? I had to visit the site three times before I could get an appointment. A waste of my time. 2. Why require customers to make three trips? Trip one: diagnostic. Trip Two: Drop off Mac. Trip Three: Pick up Mac. When my car doesnt work, the mechanics diagnose and repair in one trip. They keep parts on hand. 3. Why, when I drop off the Mac, must I wait while an orange T-shirt runs into the backroom to collect the parts and then returns to show them to me? That happened both times, took about five minutes each time, and was an utter waste of my time. If you say you have the parts, I believe you. You dont have to show me to prove it. 4. Watch the employee training. Multi-tasking doesnt always work, nor does wearing a shirt that says "I know people" prove that one knows people. A concierge asked me my business, which I told her, she swept her fingers across an iPhone, mumbled into a headset and then started talking to the person behind me. Hello? Werent we having a conversation? I waited until she finished with the person behind me, who was making a purchase, and when I asked "Werent we talking? DIdnt you just walk away from me?" she told me that we were waiting for someone to go get my laptop. Nice of her to tell me. FIFTEEN minutes later, someone finally fetched my laptop. It was another fifteen minutes before a tech could tell me what had been wrong with it: your own techs had dislodged a cable. And yet no one figured this out when I first brought the machine in? Clearly, the diagnosis process isnt thorough enough. 5. Earlier, when I first brought the laptop in for diagnosis on the tech-caused error, I arrived five minutes early for my noon appointment. THIRTY minutes later, it was my turn. 6. Maybe your concierges should not wear flip flops. Dirty hairy toes are best seen in Middle Earth or at the beach. 7. You can tell that Im aggravated at all that waiting if Im complaining about flip flops. 8. What do I get for all the time I wasted trying to get a problem fixed that your techs caused? Zilch. Look, I love my Apple computers and music players. Ive owned Apple computers since 1993. Ive got two laptops, a desktop, and an iPod in my household. You make great stuff, very usable, very human friendly. So why is the Apple Store not so human friendly? Thanks for listening. I know this isnt necessarily the proper forum for talking about the Apple Store, but I hope youll send this message on to wherever that forum might be. Have a happy day.

A

A Private User

I took my MacBook to the Apple Store in Towson because the display screen was showing a vertical bar down the center of the screen and my power cord was fried, literally. Friendly Apple employee Dane immediately replaced my power cord for free and sent me home with it and I turned my computer over to him. My smart boyfriend bought me icare when he bought me the MacBook. I am so glad he did because we ended up needing it. If you buy a computer there, definitely pay extra for icare, you will be glad later that you did. Because of icare, all of my repairs were free, free, free! So I come back a week later to pick up the repaired computer and it would not power on. But I think it was a preexisting problem because the computer had been running really hot and making a loud noise like a fan running sort of sound. Their fantastic employee Dashe told me that it seemed my data was still intact on the hard drive and he would do everything he could to save everything on my hard drive for me because stupid me did not back up anything on my computer ever. From now on I will. So my awesome boyfriend who bought me this computer a few years ago and I went to lunch and left the computer in the hands of Dashe. While we were gone, Dashe got permission from his manager to give me a free external hard drive to backup my hard drive and he replaced the hard drive in my computer then reloaded everything from the external hard drive onto the new one. Apple totally came through for me. I have a computer that is working like brand new again. Keep in mind that when you go to the Apple Store you will be there a long time because it is always massively crowded. So figure that into your plans for the day. If you are going in with a computer problem, call ahead to schedule an appointment with the genius bar. Plan on still waiting despite having an appointment. But despite how busy they are, the staff there has always been exceptionally friendly. If you are reclusive, the crowds will probably make you nervous and you might want to try to get there earlier in the day. But if you are a people person like me, it is actually a blast to be there. The store has a great vibe.

A

A Private User

Worst retail experience Ive seen in my life. I wandered in enthusiastic and ready to make a major purchase. 90 minutes later I walked out telling Tim the manager and two particularly egregious employees that they should be fired and ashamed of their work. In the middle, I wasnt able to speak usefully with a single person--all conversations attempts directed me toward their broken queue system. The story was busy; I understand that, and that I needed to make a "reservation" and wait in their electronic line. But the software managing the line stopped working, and I sat in the same position ("you are 3rd in line") for an hour, going 20 minutes after the official store close even. At no time did anyone who worked in the store say a useful word to me. They knew the normal queue was broken, but there was no scanning to see who was left stranded the way any functional retail store would do. No, instead of checking on me and the angry couple I realized were stuck in the same boat, the pretentious hipster douchebags who work at this store all started talking to each other, adjusting stock, and otherwise going about their day. Even 15 minutes after the normal store close, when youd think they would be trying to get everyone out of there, not a single person among the ones merrily filing by me to chat with their fellow employees acknowledged I was there. I was trapped in a broken queue and no one cared at all. Imagine sitting in a store that sells items for thousands of dollars for an hour, looking increasing angry and frustrated, and having a dozen employees walk by you without a single one asking (or caring) if anyone could help you? And when you ask, youre only pointed at a line that half the people there know doesnt move anymore? Thats exactly the sort of treatment I saw at the Towson Apple Store. The employees are just too cool to worry about their customers, and its a shame their products are popular enough that they stay in business anyway. If youre interested in an Apple product, any other way you could obtain it would be better than a visit to this store.