Apple UTC

Apple is getting worse and worse. Our family has always been loyal fans and we own many of their products. For the first time, we experienced an issue where an iPad’s touchscreen stopped responding in less than three months. This is clearly a lemon product.

I purchased it last Thanksgiving during a Walmart sale as a Christmas gift for my child. When I went to the UTC Apple Store, they said they couldn’t fix it on the spot because it wasn’t a software issue and the hardware needed to be inspected. Since it comes with a one-year warranty, I casually asked whether the repair would be free—I just wanted to confirm. However, the female employee looked at me with disdain and said, “Since you’re talking about free, you should have purchased insurance,” and then started aggressively trying to sell AppleCare.

Do I look like an idiot? Your product has quality issues, and now I’m supposed to pay extra for insurance to maintain it? Under normal circumstances, shouldn’t it just be replaced with a new one? She said that because I bought it from Walmart, she couldn’t directly replace it. But it’s still an Apple product, isn’t it? Is she indirectly telling me not to buy discounted products, and that Apple provides no protection for items purchased from other retailers—even though it’s the same iPad?

She then said the iPad would need to be sent in for repair and would take about ten days. If they found any water damage or hardware damage inside, I would have to pay $299. She gave me a look as if my son must have broken it. That is absolutely not possible—there was no accidental damage. The iPad has always been in a protective case and shows no external damage. The touchscreen simply stopped working while it was being used.

The iPad cost $326.17. Would she be willing to pay that herself? I am extremely disappointed with the after-sales service at the UTC Apple Store. In the past, Apple products lasted for many years. Overall, I’m starting to lose confidence in their products.

I am genuinely surprised this location has a 3.6-star rating because my experience was well beyond five stars. I would choose Apple UTC over the Fashion Valley location any day!
I worked with a manager (I believe her name was Samantha or Savannah) who was absolutely wonderful. I was having a difficult time with a pair of headphones that were physically painful and dropping calls constantly. Instead of being dismissive or making me feel undermined, she approached the situation with incredible grace and empathy.
She truly listened to my concerns and handled the situation with a level of professionalism that is hard to find. Because of her kindness and the way she values customers, I will definitely be returning to this specific store for my next Apple purchase. If you want to feel heard and respected, this is the store to go to!

not too crowded Friday night. picked up my new phone, quick n easy

We were put on the waiting list and told to wait 20 minutes as there are 4 people before and someone would come to us. We waited for 45 minutes and nobody came to us. I asked an assistant how long we have to wait and he told us that we were not on the wait list. He then helped us but then we were told that the new iPhone doesn't support physical SIM cards anymore. The assistant helped us immediately hence the 2 stars not 1. Apple products are becoming really impractical and are limiting your personal choices.

I was only in support of my daughter as she was buying. From what I gathered, it is a busy place, but the system that they have seems to work

Great store to explore the products. Located in the best shopping mall of the city. Very friendly Apple assistants inside.

Great products and support. They need to staff so appointments are not needed.

Muy buena atención, si no pueden solucionar un desperfecto de manera rápida, canalizan al cliente a otra sucursal que si pueda ayudar

Apple UTC is a great, large store. Open, tons of workers to help, and just overall great place. And it’s located in the best shopping center in all of San Diego county. This isn’t a reflection of Apple, but because the parking lots are gated and the immensely BAD lines in/out of this mall - this is the one thing that would make me consider going to a different Apple Store. It’s TERRIBLE with the lines of cars in and out of that place.

Underwhelmed with my recent visit: I recently scheduled an appointment for an iphone screen repair (covered under Apple Care) which normally should take 30 minutes for is completion; I never received any notification prior to the established date and time for the requested service about the necessity to leave the phone at the store for a screen repair without the possibility of lending a temporary phone in order to not being left without any means of communication. Apple really loves their money, but when it comes to screwing over the user, they sure are into it. I've already filed a complaint directly with Apple and I'll take all the necessary steps to "give it a sick burn"

The employees are rude. I came here at 8:00 they don’t have the natural titanium or the white they don’t have 256gb. I really regret coming seeing rude faces not welcoming they ruined my beautiful early morning.

Staff doesn’t really know their job and give wrong information. Just a total time waste to go to this Apple store at UTC.

The experience was very bad. I lost my Iphone 12 on Tuesday evening at the beach , around 6 pm and I was in the APLE UTC store at 7 :10 pm.
First I was asked to wait in the line for general issues, then I was moved to the line for the appointments, it took almost half hour in the 2 lineups. Finally I got sales person M* who seemed knowledgeable, and I picked the new Iphone 15 in 5 minutes, but she could not get AT&T connection to activate the phone because the internet in the store was too slow. Store closing was at 8 pm and we were trying our best to connect to AT&T with another Apple device: an IPad we brought with us, but with slow WiFi website was frozen. So she told me to come the next morning to finish the purchase and in the meantime call AT&T to stop the service. I did all this, stopped the service from AT&T and came the next morning at 10:45 am and I am sent again to the 2 lineups because M* did not reserve the timeslot and phone for me last night to continue. Again in the 2 lineups, in the meantime and after 45 minutes of waiting and constant waving “You are next, you are next”, I was approached by another sales person. After I purchased the same phone from last night in 10 minutes max, I was taken to the desk at the back to install latest OS before she calls AT&T to activate the phone.
Then she called another worker to download the latest OS 17.01, this was with the cable form his laptop and it took 35 minutes for 8GB. And it was useless because that morning Apple came up with 17.02 and when we tried to boot the phone it starts automatically downloading the latest OS. Another 30 minutes was spent on uploading the 17.02 although there was 17.01 already installed on the phone, this does not make any sense btw. The guy was overwhelmed with customers, it was 3 of us at that table who he was helping, and he called another worker to help. This was mature lady and she was the only one who knew. She did restore my backup in 20 minutes, and explained to me that in the case of the lost phone I need to go to the provider to see me in person for security reasons. We left the Apple store around 12:15 pm, and went to AT&T where we finally activated the phone in 10 minutes.
My case was the case of lost phone I need for work, it was emergency situation and nobody there cared. I am for health reasons not able to stand in long lineups for 45 minutes, but around me were many elderly people treated similarly, only offered a chair to sit and wait for hours.
The case that store technical member does not have the latest OS on his laptop, is another pointer about complete disorganization in this store, I don’t blame the workers, they are just swimming the best they can with goals that are set upon them. From yapping of the guy at the entrance “We sold more than ever, numbers are excellent, we achieved best numbers!!!!” it seems that goals are greed, greed, greed.
I am never coming to this store again, and are very disappointed in Apple as a company.

I was in the “appointment line” they guy outside signing people in completely disregarded the 3 clients waiting for 20 mins.
The guy then said if your picking up an item you had to go into the other line on the far left. Stood there for another 15 mins. The guy at the desk “checked me in” then sent me to the waiting area, moments later he clocked out left the store with his skateboard and a coworker.
Special shout out to the Sales girl Vivian who noticed I was waiting for a very long time, she had the courtesy to review where I was in line. Turned out, I was never checked in by anyone. I arrived to the store at 4:30pm left the store at 6:45pm, I had to pick up my Beats Studio earphones.
The management needs to coordinate the employees and prioritize customers by their situation.

Helpful. Friendly staff. Wish they could activate Verizon in store and help transfer from Android. Ended up going to the Verizon store a few blocks up and they did both.