- STORE REVIEWS
- PRODUCT REVIEWS
2019-09-22
1/5
Customer service
"I purchased a new iPhone 11 at Apple online for my daughter to pickup at the Santa Barbara store on my way through town to move her in to college since the Apple Store said that the had it in stock at that location. I made an appointment at the time to pick it up.
When we got there the store said we could not pick it up because Apple had flagged our account with some what I will call a ghost notification stating that some other person was being designated to pick up. We were told at the store that we had to call Apple online to resolve this even though we had not designated anyone else and this was Apple's error. The clerk informed us the phone was there so, just work it through with Apple online first.Sounded like Apple had a security error on the privacy of the transaction with some 3rd party trying to pickup our phone. We ended up calling three times, getting disconnected twice and getting 3 different stories.
One was that they did not know why the flag was there and couldn't figure it out. One was that there really was no reason we could not pick up our phone. The third reason was that eve though we had set the appointment to pick it up, an received the confirming reciept of transaction there was some mysterious second email that we were supposed to wait on stating the order was now ready to pick up. The third person at the Apple online store became incensed at the store for not releasing our phone to us, but because the second Apple online service agent had given him the second notification excuse he claimed that he was not able to release our phone to us.
In the end, the excuses prevailed and they refused to give us our bought and paid for phone until the mystery notification came thrigh and then we could come back and wait in their 30 minute line again.
This did nothing to get us the phone for my daughter that we were dropping off at school that day, and we were from out of town, only at that store because they had it in stock. I then tried to buy the phone from the retail store in a separate transaction since they had it in stock there. That store then changed to they don't even have one. It also turns out that the store reported this is not the first time that they have had to inconvience a customer with this ghost notification that they don't really understand what it came.
As a result I cancelled the transaction in hopes of picking the phone up somewhere else for her. Unfortunately I was not able to do that and had to leave her on her own at college without the phone. This was in addition to losing about an hour and a half that day dealing with the beauracracy.
This, and several other experience with Apple has caused me to conclude that Apples whole system is so full of controls and complicated that they don't even know what they are doing. Apple has created a system that even its own employees sometimes can't find their way around it. I, for one will never buy another Apple product for myself. They creat too much confusion and frustration. I am sure my wife and kids will eventually feel this way too as they face the daunting task of dealing with Apple directly."
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