JUST A SHOWROOM ! DON'T BUY ANYTHING THERE.

Reviewed by petri71 on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 07:41
petri71's picture petri71
petri71
Joined: May 12, 2006
Posts: 10
Review of Apple Flagship Store
1

The customer service is so bad there.
I went there to repair my imac. Have you already seen the box of an iMac 27' ? It's not that easy to carry around. When I arrived at the so called "Genius bar", they asked me to grab a ticket and to wait. I waited 90min and I left, furious. You pay for Apple Care, you pay for a product that is much more expensive than any other, so you're expecting a quality service, except you end up waiting with a ticket in your hand just like in the bank and being served by people who are far away from geniuses and who are making no difference between someone who needs help installing Angry Birds on their iPad and those with real hardware problems.
I finally went to an unofficial store in BuyNow where I got served in English in 1 minute and my problem was solved in 25min.

Comments

sean55's picture sean55 Submitted by Guest on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 10:49

Isn't there the option of booking an appointment online in advance so you don't have all this waiting? And I don't know if you can really say they aren't good at their job, you didn't even give them your computer in the first place.

matt10's picture matt10 Submitted by Guest on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 11:35

The Sanlitun store is certainly crowded. I've had a couple of things repaired through apple care in the last year. Your mileage may vary, but the apple staff have been pretty helpful with me (even repairing a time capsule at no cost that was out of warranty).

The wait to get to the counter can be excessive and definitely don't go without an appointment. I made that mistake once while carrying a similarly sized iMac. Never again.

Going to the store for support is my option of last resort. Try the toll free support number for apple care first. There is an option for english language help and you will get connected to someone in Australia. I've found the phone support guys to be very knowledgable. Don't even bother with the store unless you are 99% sure you've got a hardware failure that needs to be replaced.

EnduranceAthlete's picture EnduranceAthlete Submitted by Guest on Wed, 09/28/2011 - 19:18

Agree with the last post: go to the Apple Store in Sanlitun at last resort, call the hotline in advance. Making an appointment online was not feasible for me at one point because my issue was that I couldn't get my freakin' MacBook online and the China Unicom guys were clueless. Phone support with a real native English speaker couldn't figure it out either, but he did have the courtesy to book me an appointment with a case id# to give to the Apple store people once I had arrived.

I also once went without an appointment to pick up a new charger for the one that had died and ended up waiting behind a million people (mostly people with trivial issues like what the OP said) and then getting interrogated for wanting a new charger, even after they plugged it in and clearly saw it was not properly charging. I was a bit surprised I had to fight for that, not only because the charger was less than a year old, but after hearing all those people in front of me get help for minor iPhone issues or asking questions about how to use various kinds of software. There should be a separate help area for those of us with the hardware issues.

polansky's picture polansky Submitted by Guest on Thu, 09/29/2011 - 11:09

Whats the issue? Apple offers pickup for a fee for iMac customers:

http://www.apple.com/support/imac/service/

How much will my in-warranty service be?
Warranty service for eligible repairs is available at no charge for twelve months from the date of purchase. However, you will be responsible for all expenses incurred in transporting the iMac to Apple, an AASP or Apple retail store.

I've only had the best service at the Chinese apple stores, even giving me a battery when my old one failed even outside of warranty service. I can't imagine carting an iMac to the apple store...

As falls Witchita so falls Witchita Falls.

matt10's picture matt10 Submitted by Guest on Thu, 09/29/2011 - 19:00

The pickup thing is an issue if you've got a heavy iMac. According to the Apple Care terms, pickup should be free if you live within x distance from the store. The sales rep also mentioned free pickup when bought my iMac, with Apple Care, in Sanlitun. The Sanlitun store is right down the street so this shouldn't have been a problem.

But when I tried to arrange for a pickup through their customer service line, I was told Apple doesn't do pickup in China. Sad

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