Apple Store

You will never find me in an apple store to browse. The lighting, décor, ambience and crowd really bothers my senses. I find it surreal, dream-​like and creepy. Anyways. I did need to go in recently and despite the crowd was quickly approached and experienced very friendly and efficient customer service. I appreciated that since my aim is to get in and outta there fast!

Got my very first ever iPhone here. It was a great experience although it’s always quite the wait even with so much staff. This place is always a gong show even on weekdays! I’ve come here in the past to buy accessories not related to Apple and they’ve always been great. I had issues with my iPhone 6S+ and decided to come in to have it looked at. They made an appointment for me to come see someone at their Genius Bar. The wait time was about half hour but they texted me so I could walk around the mall while I waited. Turns out I didn’t really have an issue at all. The tech showed my what to do and I was on my way. Friendly staff with lots of knowledge. It’s much much appreciated from someone coming from a Samsung background. I’m glad I switched over to the dark side. ;)

Worst customer service of any Apple Store I’ve been to. The lady checking people in was so obnoxious, not just to me but to the customer before me too, I just left. Will go to a different location that they’re more pleasant at.

I made a walk in appointment today to get my charger looked at and was told I had to wait 35 minutes. I waited for an hour and asked the lady what place in line I was and she told me to wait another 25 minutes. I am usually very pleased with apples customer service but today was ridiculous. Extremely frustrated, you would think they have their wait queue times accurate. Brutal.

I have been buying Apple products for almost 15 years, unfortunately had very bad service at this store today and was told my iPhone 5, which is at about 30% by lunchtime and only 1 year old, is «just fine». I explained that I have had ongoing issues and it was my 2^nd visit to the store and spent 2 hours on phone with Apple Care. Girl argued with me about how good the product is rather than offering any solutions, I finally gave up and left! Thinking it’s time to switch to a Samsung):

Always great service.
Colour theme today is red shirts, interesting to see their staff change it up every so often.
As usual, it’s mayhem here, and why not, they’ve got the best products ;) Yet the only Apple product I don’t have is the phone, how ironic lol.
Located ground level at Chinook Mall by Harry Rosen.

Great products. The worst customer «service» I have ever experienced (and yes I have shopped at Best Buy). Their funneling of customers takes any 5 minute problem and makes it anywhere from a 2 hour problem to a next day problem. Great store design.
Just pray to St. Jobs that your gear doesn’t have issues.

The «Geniuses» need to be taken down a few pegs, Doctors and accountants make appointments, not you nerds! Told I needed an appointment fix an issue with my iPhone, told the nerd nope, help me now I’m next in line! He complied, got another nerd, told me there was nothing he could do, and tried to up sell me a iPhone 5 for «only» $ 300, went home googled my problem, found a solution. 5 mins a Qtip and some hand sanitiser was all it took. Saved $ 300 for my android purchase! :D
Oh and Steve Jobs was not the second coming of Christ. So shut up making him and Apple into something they aren’t!

You will be hard-​pressed to find an Apple Store that is not packed to the rafters and a complete gong show. But, being a bit of an Apple Addict myself, I find myself in the store trying out or buying the latest gadget. Fortunately, the stores are generally well-​staffed, so I’ve never really had to wait that long for service, and their staff have always been very knowledgeable in my experience.

Oops! Had a bad day. Smacked my iPad screen accidently and cracked the glass front. Uh oh! Off to Apple I go. I thought they could replace just the glass front but wasn’t sure how long it would take.
The Chinook Store was pretty busy but I was able to find a staff member and showed him my iPad. He looked up my serial number and lucky for me Applecare would cover a new iPad. They don’t just replace the glass. He started a backup and asked me to come back in 20 minutes for my Genius appointment. He said that it would just take 10 — 15 minutes to switch out my old iPad for a new one.
I killed 20 minutes in the mall and was back in 1 minute early. I sat and waited for almost 10 minutes before Genius 1 came over to help. He also looked up my serial number and then went to the back and got my new iPad.
The first thing he does is to remove all of my information from the old iPad. Of course then he fires up the new iPad and tries to do a restore. My backup isn’t there. Why we erase everything first and then attempt a restore I don’t know! Then he says that the iPad has been sitting around for a while and the software is old. We will upgrade the software first. It will only be another 10 — 15 minutes. He wanders off while I wait. Again.
I get another Genius who starts the restore and says it will be another 10 — 15 minutes. About 10 minutes in the restore crashes and give me an error message about not being able to complete the restore. I wave and try to make eye contact with the Genius with no luck. I keep rereading the error message and start to panic. I wave at him a few more times and now he is ignoring me on purpose while he chats to anther staff member. 10 more minutes go by and now I am pissed off. I ask a different Genius to get me some help.
Finally I get some help. The first thing he does is click ok which removes the error message and says ok you are all done. I told him «No the error message said that it had not completed.» He argued with me and said that the message said that it was done. I was sitting here reading the error message for 10 minutes and he barely glanced at it before clicking it away. I told him what the error message said and the Genius said that he had never heard of that error message. (Oh OK then it must not exist!) I showed him the iPad which clearly was not restored. He argued and tried to tell me that there was nothing missing. There was no music, no photos, no contacts and only one of my calendars. Most of my apps hadn’t even downloaded yet. But hey that’s the same! Useless twit!
He suggested that I go home and call Applecare or try to do a restore from iTunes. Well I had done an iCloud backup not an iTunes backup so how was an iTunes restore going to help? What a waste of an afternoon!
If these «Genius» types don’t know what they are doing I wish they would just not screw with my stuff. Or why not ask for help if he wasn’t smart enough to figure it out? Such arrogant jerks! I bought Applecare and had brought in a smashed iPad. I got a replacement for $ 50. I should have walked out of there happy as a clam. Instead I had to go home and spend the next few hours restoring my own system.
Thanks for nothing Applestore Chinook!

So I just got back from one of my more frequent visits to this locale. Again I am astounded at the help I get there. I am a fairly new apple and therefore not very savvy. Not once did anyone make me feel in adequate. I went in and was met by a very nice associate who asked how they could help. I told him what i needed, he then escorted me to where I needed to be for my appointment. He then set up my computer for service, asked what the issues were then went and got the gentleman who was to help me. This man then kindly took over the appointment, showed me how to fix the issue i was having, then showed me around their website. This was very helpful
The only down side to my visit was the parking lot. INSANE… full of stupid.
And that was in the evening… one would think there would be less… incorrect.

I have a total love-​hate relationship with the Apple Store. And by that I mean that for logic-​based reasons, I want to hate it… but on an emotional level, I can’t help but love it.
I’ll attempt to explain by running through this in the order in which these thoughts normally occur to me when I realize I’m going to have to go to the Apple Store, so I’ll start with the hate…
I dispise Apple as a company. I hate the fact that they make all of their products so proprietary that the only way to get anything fixed or replaced is to go to them, which in turn allows them to drive prices up through the roof. I hate how incompatable their products are with software from anywhere else. I’ve hated every experience I’ve ever had using a Mac computer… in general, I just don’t like them. Every time I’ve had to go to the Apple Store my mind is immediately filled with objections about how I don’t want to feed into their corperate machine, or about how that basic charging cable or wall adapter I need for my phone, which would probably cost $ 20 from any other company is bound to be at least $ 40 – 50 there. This pisses me off so much that, by the time I walk in the doors of the mall, I’m seething with anger.
Then I see the store, and almost have to fight down a smile. The whole place just stands out against the rest of the mall. Everything’s so meticulously kept up, so smooth, so clean, so shiny it just looks gorgeous. It’s a treat for the eyes. The products are so well laid out that they manage to display more than they really should in a small ammount of space, which in turn helps the store not seem crowded at all (by products at least, people is a whole other story.) And the staff… god, where do I start on the staff? They must build these people in a factory somewhere, cause I don’t think I’ve ever seen one have so much as a strand of hair out of place. They seem as scrubbed over and meticulous as the rest of the store. I swear if their computers were half as hip, useful and visually appealing as their store or their people, I’d buy into the hype. I also have to applaud them on their use of the technology they sell. Every employee seems to practically be a mobile checkout station with iPads to find products, and ability to punch through transactions on seemingly any of the various computers in the store. Very cool.
If only they could stop finding a way to charge 3 times the real value for everything, and make their computers half as good as their phones… but they definitely have visuals, business efficiency and hiring down to an absolute science.
(#7 of 100 for the Unilocal 100 Challenge!)

I am Canadian, and proud of Canada’s «finest» service and «attention» to customers as part of the culture. Add Apple’s sales culture, I was expecting a 5 star experience. Well the reality is, the service was not even a 1 star experience. All Apple Stores have greeters, this one did not. That’s fine, I’m not too picky about this kind of stuff. Where things go really wrong is my iphone 4s was running out of power, so I went to a customer rep. He was busy, but he could have pointed me in the right direction, except he said «Sorry bud, can’t help you» and ran off. The next rep said «You have the old pin connector — not sure what I can do». I respond «excuse me?» He says «not my problem, you can buy a converter». Just ridiculous.
Perhaps oil money has over fueled the economy to a point where it’s «easy come, easy go». Really unfortunate.

I bought my iphone here, I had a couple of things go wrong with it and they help out. One time they even replaced it. I find the customer service is really good. I’ll definatly be getting my next Apple thin here. Gotta just save up for the new iPad now.

You know what’s great about this Apple Store? It’s quiet in here. While the Market Mall location has equally amiable staff; you can walk in here on a non-​new-​release day and browse without feeling like you momentarily stepped in to a busy commuter train packed with sweaty, desperate hoi polloi that have just knocked back some Apple Koolaid.
Minus one star because they told me they would call me in the evening and actually called 2 days later. After I called to remind them to call. We’re not dating, Apple Store. No need to give me the runaround.

A large portion of Walter Isaacson’s bio on Steve Jobs talks about Jobs’ «reality distortion field», the magnetic effect he had on other people where his enthusiasm and passion for a new idea or an existing product would manifest in the other person’s wholesale purchase of said idea, no matter if it was unfeasible or «impossible». A good example was when he purchased a glass company to make the glass for the new iPhone — it was a 60s prototype called Gorilla glass, and it hadn’t been manufactured since its inception due to a lack of need. Jobs told the factory to revamp itself and start creating nothing but Gorilla glass within six months, a formidable task. They did it in five months.
An Apple store is a work of art, a vision that Jobs had that was again derided as excessive and doomed to fail: a (then-​niche) tech company’s lone-​standing store. His extreme perfectionism manifests itself in this place: the floor is from a family-​owned sandstone quarry in Florence, and each tile is perfectly integrated with the others around it to create seamless flow; the open space and crisp lines; the uncluttered ceiling and lack of a cash register; the dozen stations dedicated to a single product, with plenty of user interaction. It is one of the best stores to kill time at, and although I haven’t had a consultation about product, I have heard good things about the staff’s knowledge and promptness. It is always crazy in here (I bought a Christmas iPad 2 after a short half-​hour queue), but always fun.
²⁶⁄₃₀

What to say!
went here to buy 2 ipad 2’s and i gotta be honest it was just when they came out, so the place was a zoo.
They could have had more people on the floor to help the customers and keep up with demand.
But over all it was not to bad.
The kid who helped me was a young guy that must have eat, sleeps, drink and poops APPLE. he knew his stuff. He was friendly and was honest about what would be suit me and did not try to up sell at all.
I walked out the place with what i intended to buy and nothing more, but the bird at the counter did keep asking if i wanted to extend the warranty! kinda pee’s me off as i already said NO 3 times!
Great place

Do you like Apples?
The battery in my wifes iPone went dead so she had to buy a new battery for $ 89.00 …which comes with a NEW iPhone…
How do you like them Apples?
Last Friday night, my wife’s iPhone 3GS (14 month old phone) runs out of battery power. We plugged it into the charger as one normally would.
The next morning — the iPone, having been plugged in all night, had not taken a charge. Weird — this hasn’t happened before.
We go online to Apple’s Chinook Centre website and book a Genius appointment which is a essentially a free 15 minute consult with a really smart Apple employee. We didn’t have time to go on Saturday so we booked a convenient time for us on Sunday.
When we arrived, we were seen within a minute of our time slot starting — that’s fast service. The «Genius» plugged in the phone to the store’s power supply… nothing. «Your iPhone has a dead battery. For $ 89 you can buy a new battery»
Now, for those NOT in the know, the iPhone battery is not user changeable — it’s a part of the phone. So, when you buy a new battery, you’re getting an entirely new phone in the process. Cool eh?
Before the 15 minute consult was up, we were already out the door — new battery, new phone and happy as a clam (by way, where did the saying, Happy as a Clam come from?)
When we got home, my wife plugged her new iPhone into her MacBook, turned on iTunes… and within a few minutes, were back in business… MobileMe holds all her data (address book, calendar, apps, etc) …all of this and a new iPhone!
The Apple brand and Apple staff make it so easy to do business. It’s a painless process! They make it about ME, the consumer… or in this case, my wife, a consumer who has bragged about her experience to everyone around her over the last few days.
Like Apples? How do you like THEM Apples?
It pays to please!
By the way, a friend of mine… she’s having problems with her BlackBerry. She took her BB into a Rogers retail store… they didn’t know what was wrong with her BB so they gave her a «loaner» phone (nice) with no timeline of returning her (broken) fixed phone (not nice).
So, yes, she has a phone… but without any of her contacts, email, calendar, etc, on it…
How do you like those Apples?
Apple has a Raving Fan and Rogers & BlackBerry have what… other than a frustrated customer with no real solution in sight.

Don’t visit Chinook Mall without stopping in here. This is the pinnacle of technology meets design. Despite the fact that every Apple Retail rep that I know hates their job, it doesn’t seem to show through at the store. Staffers are typically friendly if not that knowledgeable about the true workings of their products and the buying experience is head and shoulders above the Sony Store, Source, Futureshop or Best Buy. You won’t get more Starbucks cred than kicking back with a Macbook Pro.

I was extremely shocked when I walked past this brand new store and it wasn’t overflowing with people. Even other Apple stores that have been open for years are impossible to get through because of the mass of people playing with all the toys Apple has to offer.
Because of the light load of people I actually found it quite an enjoyable shopping experience in here. My only complaint is that they don’t really have a selection of iPhone 4 cases/​bumpers for sale yet. They only seem to stock the models that you could have gotten fro free until the end of September.