Apple Store

Malfunctioning iphone in warranty. Over an hour in at&t store and they couldnt get it to work after trying all the Apple recommended things. Chat with Apple tech support. Nothing they can do. Take it to the Apple store. Warned to make an appointment as the wait is very long. Next appointment is in THREE DAYS. Go in to walk in appointment. The store is an hour drive away. There is at least a THREE HOUR wait to be seen. Told this is normal. This malfunctioning Apple iPhone has cost me almost an entire day of work in an attempt to get it repaired. Take those billions of dollars in sales and HIRE MORE STAFF.

Great Store. It is really nice. Clean.
Good vibe from the people that greet you. Fast service!

I have had mixed experiences at this store but more good than bad.
I had one experience where I had to wait over an hour after my scheduled appointment time to have a phone issue addressed.
Most of the time appointments have been on time or after a minimal wait.

I hate Apple. Just told in the one and only store in bham I i have 2 wait 2 hours. The basketball game starts in 2 hours. I just did this 2 weeks ago in hville just to have phone replaced which is what theyll do today. All of 15 mins. If not done today i have to drive home tonight just to get up and go to huntsville again for another 2 hour wait. I have watch my child cheer at at 4. Don’t have time for this nonsense.

Just called to make an appt. The machine refused to connect me to a person, sent me to another machine and cut me off. That’s service!

I made an appointment to have my broken IPad replaced. After waiting a week for the appointment and driving 60 miles to the store I was told they did not have my replacement and to come back the following week. I wanted to choke my Genius but I realized killing him would be doing him to big of a favor. When I came back the second time to pick up the replacement no one wanted to take the time to assist me to make sure it was working properly. I had to stop at Verizon for them to get it to work.
Customer service at Apple does not exist. How sad.

Terrible ! Had me wait 12 hrs to tell me my phone randomly shut off due to water damage when it’s never been by water and then tell me there’s nothing you can do. They have 50 people people in there and 30 of them just stand on the wall???

Been to Apple stores all over the U.S. Never heard of the policy where they stop selling phones an hour before closing. Obviously this store makes so much money they can turn ppl away who wants to buy iPhones. The manager said it was a judgement call of his, not Apple.
Needless to say, I and everyone I know in that area will avoid this place of business!

I went inside store just to ask why a certain app was locking up. She (Maggy) tried to help by resetting my iPhone which didn’t work. So no problem all was good. As I was about to leave she took it and reset EVERYTHANG!!! I lost phone calls because it was reset to a tone I can’t hear. All this was done without my permission. Last time I looked, she was hightailing it back to the shop so I couldn’t catch her.
Not Happy

I can only say good things about this Apple Store location. Recently, I stopped by for an appointment after my Ipad mini would not power on. The Apple team got me checked in quickly despite the store being packed with customers on a Saturday afternoon. Honestly, within 20 minutes my device was sent through technical triage and I was informed that my battery had unfortunately fried. My rep gave me a list of device replacement options based upon my eligibility and I walked out with a new replacement within the hour. Overall, this location balances quick deportment of technical trouble-​shooting and friendly customer service!

All of my devices are Apple, so I’ve spent plenty of time in this store. I honestly don’t have a bad thing to say about it. Sure it gets crowded, but never so crowded that I wasn’t helped in a reasonable manner or skipped over.
My favorite part is the system to book appointments. For me, it’s always insured my place in line with no problems. Once my name is called, the one on one attention and service I’ve received has been top notch.
Beyond that, I love that you can pay the person that’s helping you right there on the spot. Forget that whole system of being helped, picking something out, then having to wait in line to pay for it.
I can’t speak for everyone else’s experiences, but mine have always been great.

what is it about certain establishments that entitles kids to treat people like absolute idiots? I live in CA and have owned apple products longer than most of these yo yos at this store have had a wet dream, yet every time I come here and spend more money on a charger than they probably make in day, they feel the need to treat each customer like cattle, and patronize us as if we’ve just heard of this new invention of a laptop… get over yourselves. you’re in retail. you’re no better than the guy greeting folks at walmart.
‘ll remember the next time I come home for the holidays in need of an accessory and the ipad I was going to buy as a gift, to order online if I can’t wait to get back home. And yes, the condescending help who assumed I didn’t know wifi from a hole in the ground needs a dose of a reality check… you work at a store, thank god for online shopping– pretty soon your job will be obsolete. mine, however is not.
good luck with that attitude.

This place is always cramed every time I visit over the past few years! The staff aren’t always competent when it comes to their own store policies! For example my wife’s phone was diagnosed with having a bad battery, which Apple stores all tests ran on your phone in a database where all stores can see what tests were run! My wife was told they had to retest her phone and was later told her battery was okay! She gave the code to the lady that Apple gave her to have her battery changed for free and the Apple employee didn’t know what to do with the code, but eventually they changed it! Smh. … come on Apple!

I am a Mac/​Apple die hard fan. When I travel, I tend to find a Apple Store and visit it. Clean great store and with the usual friendly staff. I purchased an extra charging cable and it is always nice to have the receipt emailed to me.

Great experience for a first time Mac buyer.

It has come from BAD to WORSE.
So I bought my girlfriend and I the new then iPhone 4S factory UNLOCKED almost a year ago in Fresno, CA while I was out there visiting. phone $ 649 + $ 99 Applecare + Tax = $ 799.76 EA (Great Customer Service) out there.
Fast forward to Birmingham. Just less than two weeks ago I reserved a genius bar appointment after my phone kept crashing since February of this year. So after testing it and all they replaced it with another. While there I bought 2 Apple Tvs since they don’t update the software of the first generation Apple Tv which I also own…
Anywhoo, the new replacement I got, worked fine for afew days and then the WIFI stopped working. I tried resetting my network settings and all settings but non worked. So I reserved another appointment for last night April 24^th at 8:50pm. Out of coincidence, the same guy that assisted me on my previous visit was the same guy that assisted me last night I think Beadle was his name. So he looked at the phone which was iOS 6.0.1 and asked me if he could update it because it might be a software issue. Apparently even after the update to the new iOS 6.1.3 the WIFI still did not work!
He eventually replaced it with another. Got home, set up the phone as new. Then later backed it up from my previous backup and by this time it was late so I went to sleep. Woke up this morning, business as usual. A few phone calls here and there and then I noticed that the new iPhone had a lot of static. I eventually called this Apple at the Summit and the customer service rep confirmed that he could actually hear the static on the phone as well. It was kind of hard to communicate but he eventually got me an appointment at the same store for 12:40 pm which was a little earlier today. To add to the issues with the phone, every time I set a new ringtone to ring when receiving calls it did not work but instead default ringtone the «Miramba» rung.
This time a guy called Cam was the technician that assisted me. Now this was the most stereotype/​difficult guy i’ve ever come across. I raised my only 2 issues that had brought me back to the store and he didn’t seem to believe either of them. He even called my phone back to back over 10 times to see if my ringtone would work but the default ringtone still went off instead. I even had a personal phone call ring while he was there trying to figure it out. Second issue was the static, so he called my phone and handed it to one of his co-​worker and claimed there was no static. As noisy as the store was, you want to tell me you can hear the static over the noise in the store? Walk outside or something!
He eventually disappeared to the back of the store for 3 or more minutes. Came back reset my phone. Changed the ringtone and it worked. Claimed that the static is coming from my mobile service provider, handed the phone back to me, made some note on his iPad then he said «I don’t see any other issues with your phone, have a nice day»
Where is the customer service??? Those were 3 trips to the apple store in less two weeks and still gave them more of my business. I was even ready for a downgrade. Exchange the 4S for the 4 since it seems like the 4S will never work well. I just spent eight hundred dollars on a single phone and this is what I get?
All Apple Stores are not the same don’t get me wrong. I have had GOOD customer service at other Apple stores around the nation for example 2 apple stores in Houston, Tx, Fresno, Ca and others. The one at the Summit falls way short of good customer service in my opinion they have the LEAST if not the WORST customer service. Maybe its because its the only one in the Birmingham area… I’ve bought 3 Apple Tvs, 2 Macbook Pros, 1 iPad and accessories at this location. I am done with this store!!!

It’s an Apple Store, I’ll give you 5-​star givers that. But I’m gonna have to go with my friend Alden, here. I don’t diss, unless it’s bad.
The PROS
It’s an Apple store and has Apple products.
The CONS
This one is too small and I always feel like they’re herding cats in there. It’s the only store I «time» my visit to because it’s so crowded all the time. The vibe with that feels off. Nothing about an Apple should feel «off».
This store doesn’t beam «cool» — it beams «unnecessarily busy» — I guess it’s all the employees milling around.
They’ve got TONS of accessories — every case for every product you could imagine. But the accessories always look a little worn — ripped boxes, dirty covers, etc.
In a total of 5 visits, I had one really, really good tech — Victor. However, Mr SS9’s MBP was acting up and it took them three days to figure it out, never called to tell us it was ready, and guess what — it’s still not fixed.
I, too, dislike the idea of the appointments just to take a look at something and when you call they are less than helpful on the phone, asking you to make an appointment at the G Bar. But that is an Apple culture thing. So unless you go to an independent that is what you’ll get.
I’m into the idea of flagship stores — MY company has a great one on Michigan Ave in Chicago that is cool and fun and neat-​o … Apple is proud of their stores — but I bet if Mr Jobs (iRIP) were alive and came to the Ham to see his store, he’d be a little disappointed.

I haven’t had a whole lot of computer trouble in the past, and I love my Mac for that, but recently when something’s acted up or I’ve needed simple information on what I need to do or buy to fix a problem, I’ve felt let down by the service at this Apple store. It’s not been any one employee’s fault, it’s the overall pushiness from the swarm of employees throughout the store to buy only the newest and only «the best» products they have available (most of which they still won’t physically have in-​store, so you have to do everything yourself online anyway). I get that they’re all trying to make sales, but it’s not an atmosphere I’m okay with, being passed from one employee to another to another, across a small and over-​crowded store, just to be told that it would be «better» for me to just buy a newer laptop. Instead, I went online and bought the update I had been asking about and installed everything myself.
The time and frustration I’ve felt in-​store must be part of a well-​maneuvered attempt to keep customers going to their screens for help instead of a person, and while I generally prefer to handle problems myself anyway, I’m still unnerved at the lack of individual customer service that I feel like Apple customers deserve.

I know I sound like a total hater here, but seriously, 5 stars everyone? The Apple Store is cool (ish), because it’s an Apple Store. But this particular one at The Summit is sub-​par if you’ve ever been to, say, the Apple Store in Covent Garden in London (it has 3 – 4 floors, is spacious, brick-​walled, and dare I say elegant).
Always crowded, I get jostled every time I step in the front door, even if it is only crowded with busy-​looking employees. The fact that I am required to make an appointment to have someone quickly check an issue with my iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro, etc, makes me unhappy. I like prompt, personal service. I really like that level of service at a place that will remember my name.
I always feel awkward and a little un-​cool at this Apple Store, which is strange considering I am absolutely obsessed with Apple, its products, its founders, etc. I even worked at an independently owned Apple Store (Perry Computer) and was certified to help people with their Apple stuff. But, I feel like the employees here always want to show off their knowledge of the products instead of tailoring their soundbites to what each individual customer needs to know. My grandmother doesn’t need to know about the processing speed and the ability to wirelessly print– she needs to know that if she turns it on, it won’t blow up. (seriously, I’ve had this talk with many grandmothers).
Anywho… I do still run into this store from time to time to pick up an accessory I cannot get elsewhere, or if I have to have my iPhone replaced because the button gets stuck, but if I have a choice, I always shop local, or at least run to Best Buy to get the accessories I need.
Support Local Birminghamians!!!

The best place on earth. At least if you are a Mac fanatic like I am. I always get great service and help at the Genius Bar. I wish more stores had that kind of customer service and a product I got excited about! I love this whole shopping center, very upscale.