I don't own any Mac computers or handheld devices. I hadn't really used any up until I came to work for the company I work for now, and everyone has either an iMac or a MacMini on their desk. I've used them before so I wasn't a layman, but I hadn't used them much and found myself pleasantly surprised That was...until I had to take one of the computers in to the Mac Store as a favor to my boss. Holy crap....I will never, EVER buy an Apple product based upon my experience in this store. Ever. The phone support that I experienced with Apple was far and away the best I think I have ever experienced with any sort of help desk/customer support line i've ever called. Specifically, James Chen was the person that I worked with and he was fantastic. Unfortunately, we weren't able to resolve the problem, which meant that I had to bring it to the store in person and have them look at it. First off, the person who I met initially when bringing the computer in couldn't have cared less about what was wrong with it, or the fact that I just spent the last week with tech support and not even the Level 2 person I worked with, nor one of their software engineers could figure out why the software was doing what it was doing. He would barely even look at me, and seemed be distracted by whatever the short guy with the iPad was doing that he thought was funny. All the techs were talking in to mic's that they had on, but at whisper levels. Truly, a professional place. He turns the computer on, gets it to the desktop and says, "Yeah, I don't see anything wrong." "Yeah, I know that. It's because a large group of files just went missing and I watched the computer freeze up and literally collapse all the folders upon themselves and delete them. That's the problem, not that the computer won't turn on." "Yeah, well, I don't see nothin'. We'll have one of our tech take a look at it, but we will probably just wipe the hard drive. " "But he's going to at least look at it before he does that? This thing is only a couple months old and it shouldn't be having all the connection issues we've had with it, or all the weird freeze-ups." "Well, i'll make a note to make sure he looks at it. But we'll probably just wipe it and start it over." After that thrilling exchange, he plugs a keyboard and mouse in to it, runs the diagnostic tools built in to the machine, and says, "Yeah, see, all this...this all looks good. So, I don't know what would be wrong." This dude was really useless. Whatever, they take it back, they wipe it (shockingly), and let me know I can come back and get the next day. So, my fiancé head over there with the intension of walking in and picking the computer up. Well, turns out they are REALLY busy. No matter. They said I can just come in at any time and pick it up. So...that's what we did. What I didn't know was that it would take me 45 minutes!!! During this time, my fiancé and I were witness to staff horsing around, talking on their mic's and laughing at this or that. A ton of tech's walking in to the back room behind the bar and walking out. Only to look around at the crowd and walk back behind the scenes again. Joking around and general unprofessional behavior was rampant. And when we finally DID get the computer, they brought it out to me and said, "Sorry about the wait," and leave. They didn't even turn it on and made sure it worked! What the hell took so long that you couldn't have just given it to me? You knew I was there! It would have been one thing if there was something you needed to show me, but...you just handed it over with a, "Sorry" and walk away? Alas, I sit here at my desk typing this on the very same apple, still plagued with problems and issues, and no one seems to know or care why. Apple products are good, no question about that. But the people they hire, especially at the Santa Rosa store, are absolutely dreadful and they should replace the entire lot of them. read more

Thanks to the tech team that got my daughter's MacBook Air free and clear of the lock that hackers put on it. The no charge service was greatly appreciated read more

If you read this review and the others like it you should stay away from this store, I am ALL APPLE'D UP!!! myself my fiancé our kids, we have it all! and when I go in for one problem it becomes a huge issue for the support staff at this store. I had problems with my Mac Air, a 2k laptop that I really love, still user warranty and the track pad has issues the cursor runs amuck I can t get any work done. So I take it to the Santa Barbara Apple store because I am down there working and they tell me "no problem this happens and we can fix it your still user warranty" I tell them I am going home up North and they say ok we will make notes and you can take it to your local store. I go into Santa Rosa Plaza and they tell me the same thing! no problem we can fix it its under warranty and this happens a lot" ok so I leave it and they tell me its going to be a week, I need my laptop to work and asked if they could expedite it and they tell me the part needs to be ordered and it should only take a few weeks THEY WILL CALL. a week and a half later no call, nothing, so I call them and they say "oh ya the part didn't come in it should be here Monday and we will call you to come get your laptop. Monday NO CALL then three days late i get THE call, "your laptop has water damage its not under warranty and it will cost $1200.00 to fix" I say well I have never spilled any water on it so I don't understand, I mean if it got wet wouldn't is break right away? SO HERE IS WHERE IT GETS GOOD, the service manager says "its your fault I have pictures and if you don't want it fixed then come get your computer we are very busy" LOL so I go there and he shows me a picture of something up in the left top corner of the computer NO WHERE NEAR THE TACK PAD and again says its my fault and in a regular tone i say "thats bullshit" he then tells me "I will call security and have you removed if you swear" I said what? you have to be kidding? he then called a manager over and the manager said basically the same thing. long frustrating story later I had to go to apple care and they said each store has its own policy, I said REALLY so each store can treat customers like CRAP and get away with it? finally I received a voucher to take it to an independent apple certified repair place, it was a faulty track pad like they said in the beginning however the independent said that Apple trains there repair staff to say NO and try an d up sell to a new model, thats what they did to me, no water damage found, just a faulty track pad. I WILL NEVER GO TO THIS STORE AGAIN, my previous review/ IGNORE IT. read more

Terrible service. You walk in and no one will come up to you to ask if you need help. I went there and it took 2 and a half hours to fix a camera which should take an hour they said but most of my time being there I had to stand around because no one is helpful there. Do not recommend to go there at all. read more

I came in to get my phone fixed and ask about MacBooks for audio editing. I waited for 40 minutes to get an appointment for 4 hours later. I'll get this defective piece of crap fixed at a normal cell place, and won't be buying any more apple products again. Good job, Apple! Edit: I gave Apple one last shot and went to a place down in SoCal. It's still at the Mercy of Apple's corporate flaws against customer service, but these guys fixed my phone quickly, and without extra charge. That's probably another 3 grand in products (my next phone, and my production laptop) that Century City managed to keep from my business that was almost lost forever due to how useless the Santa Rosa store is. read more

Hate going to this store. The wait times are unacceptable, even with an appointment. Even though you paid extra for applecare or one-to-one service. You have to get in line to talk to the 'point' person, then another line for the guy with the green iPad, then you wait and wait and wait, until they finally get to you. You can't go in and just buy anything in the store either without a hassle and more waiting. Poorly managed, poor customer service. If there was another option I would go in a minute. read more

I went in to have my iPhone repaired because of malfunctioning speaker and was told it would be 2 1/2 hour... Ok not super great but it was somewhat busy. They ask me if I'll wait. I tell them ok. And he offers to text me when I'm up so I don't have to wait in the store. Great I can go get lunch and maybe waste another hour roaming around. Whatever at least I'll get my phone fixed. End up waiting around and never get notified for fixing my phone. Great service. It would've probably been at least an hour to fix my phone anyway. Could of at least told me I wouldn't see anyone today. Not mad just disappointed. read more

My faith in Apple has been reduced plummeted and destroyed it is so hard to get any help with their products from the"smart employees" customer service is the worst I have ever experienced. read more

The absolute worse service I have ever had! I had an appointment, waited for over 2 hours, when they had just opened AND when I was told they could fix my computer the guy told me they couldn't fix it. So frustrating! So I just wasted all of that time for nothing! read more

I continually am frustrated with how the store is ran. Tonight I went in to simply purchase a new battery for my phone and ask them to pop it in for me. I feel like that should be a quick easy thing in and out under 10 minutes. I was told to check in with the girl and she informed me that it was almost an hour wait for a tech to see me. I'm sorry, what??? Just to buy a battery and pop it in I have to sit there an hour and wait? I don't understand this. Yet again it makes me want to sell off ALL my apple products and go with ANYTHING ELSE. Am I wrong to feel that they should have people out on the floor to handle quick purchases and such? I get making appts for tech issues but I don't consider my particular instance a "tech" thing. read more

Great customer service at the store. Gavin was very patient and solved the issues that could be solved. The negative side is getting an appointment. The company forces you to go through necessary hoops and basically lies to you aobutwhere they are sending you. I would call it un Apple but evidently not anymore. Thank you Mr. Cook. But as I said when I finally got into the store (25 mile drive) they were great Mr. OOK, TAKE A LOOK AT GAVIN. IF YOU STILL HAVE A SOUL. read more

This apple store is the worst I have ever been to. Maybe because its in ghetto Santa Rosa and the employee's they find are incompetent. They couldn't even give me a proper quote time. I came in at 10:40. He gave me a 40 minute quote time. It is now 12:00 and they said there are "quite" a few people ahead of me and it will be another 20-30 minutes. My iPhone simply had a broken microphone that needed replacement. I am extremely frustrated with this store and I will not be purchasing from Apple in the Future. I will get a Nexus phone. I will not be getting my family apple products any longer. The workers here are ridiculously slow and are no help. read more

This store is becoming notoriously unhelpful. On two separate occasions, I have encountered terrible service from two different Geniuses after I upgraded my MacBook Pro to Lion. (Big mistake, upgrading.) Is it because Steve is out of the picture? Is Apple an empire rotten at its core? Or is it just this store that is a problem? First problem with this Apple Store: Genius blames Microsoft for MS Word 2011 problem rendering fonts properly after upgrading Lion and fails to research other possible causes. I took my machine home, started researching solutions, found out the first thing you should do if font problems arise is remove the font cache. I did this, and instantly MS Word worked as advertised. The Genius should have known this, but I guess it's easier to blame Microsoft for everything than actually use your brain and do your job. What a big time-waster this guy was. Second problem with this Apple Store: Genius sends me to Apple's Enterprise Support group to pay for support after Lion upgrade breaks the development environment, and has no clue that the solution to my problem is to download the Lion-compatible tool for free from the App Store. Oh, on one occasion I went into this Apple Store to buy an iPad, the business sales guy in the black shirt sold it to me. As it turned out, I mentioned that I use a Mac at work and that all the executives do too. When he heard that, it was like watching a cat attack a bag of catnip. He got really intense with me and insisted that I have my company's IT department call him. I told him that the IT people at work have their own sources for Macs and that I wasn't going to get involved with IT. He wouldn't take no for an answer. For ten minutes I tried to politely break off his intense sales pitch to get him inside my company to sell us Macs, and I couldn't. So I walked out of the store without any warning and didn't look back to see if I had hurt his feelings. When I called the store to talk to the manager, I got his voicemail. Obviously this store's problem delivering any sort of customer service comes right from the top. read more

I am giving this Apple Store 5 stars because they obviously hire really great employees. Shane was the one who helped me out yesterday and he was one of the kindest customer service people I have ever had the pleasure of being helped by. He was so kind, confident in what he was doing, helpful and extremely patient with me. He had the best attitude and a smile on his face the whole time. It's so refreshing to have that kind of experience. Thanks, Apple! Keep that guy around! read more

Recently had two experiences here that were professional, relatively fast (though they were quite busy), and friendly.

Today my new i phone 7 plus arrived I was super excited after activation, I decided to buy a new i phone case. As soon as I started walking around the store I noticed an employee falling me and talking on his walkie talkie. Originally I paid no attention to him, however after I checked out and headed towards the exit I over heard him say into his walkie talkie "security clearance". Are you serious Apple I spend a lot of money and to be treated like I'm a thief is "WRONG", please STOP racial profiling and corporate definitely needs to pay a visit because Apple is known to treat their customers GREAT! All my experiences in every other Apple store has been superb but it never fails every time I shop at Apple Santa Rosa (five plus) I have a bad experience, their customer service is horrible. Unfortunately Apple Santa Rosa is the closest store to me, APPLE CORPORATE PLEASE HELP? read more

I usually try to stay away from the Apple Store because it is always so crowded, and I am not in the market for anything new. Unfortunately, I cracked my iPhone 6S screen at the bottom of the button, and someone suggested I come into the Apple Store. Having gotten a quote from a 3rd party mobile repair vendor, I'm happy I came into Apple to get my screen fixed because they were much cheaper, staff was super quick, friendly, and helpful, and once you get your phone fixed outside Apple, it is no longer covered under warranty. The entire experience with Apple was very pleasant - from being greeted at the door, to checking in for service, to receiving my text that they were ready to meet me, meeting with that person, to picking up my phone at the Genius Bar- everything moved very seamlessly and swiftly. SO HAPPY! read more

Well where do I start!! The 1st person that helped us was great!! Then having to go to AT&T to get a copy of our agreement.. We went back into the apple store.. That's when the nightmare started!!! The kid that was suppose to help US decided to help us and everyone else too.. WTH happened to helping the customer that your supposed to help and stay with until they are satisfied!!! Crappy customer service on his part!!! read more

Worst service ever at an Apple store. Employees didn't acknowledge customers, avoided eye contact, and had to be hunted down to even answer questions. read more

The store was crazy busy today with holiday shoppers spilling out around the entrance. Two girls immediately greeted me and helped get my information. They set me up for tech support. Pru in tech support took me early. He was professional, flexible and appropriate. My visit was easy. Totally impressed. Great service backing up great products. read more

Apple stores have always staffed really good people, however on my last visit I was helped by an amazing associate. After a long discussion with Ky Duran about a new iPhone I felt like I had the knowledge to make an informed decision, and there was no pressure to buy. I decided to wait until the press release on sep 9th before buying an iPhone 6 based off of everything Ky had told me. I am truly grateful for his mindset of making my needs and concerns top priority. This is why I always buy my apple devices directly from the Apple Store and not an independent retailer. Keep up the good work guys! read more

We came to this Apple Store because our Mac suddenly decided to not work - right in the middle of the school semester. Everyone here was helpful and friendly. At the Genius Bar Sean R. assisted us. Like I said, middle of the semester and we were a touch worried (read 'freaking out' here). Sean R. made the process easy and helped us to stay calm. Having to leave our computer with him for the next week was traumatic, and yet knowing it is in Sean's capable hands makes it okay. We're definitely coming back, and not just to pick up the computer! read more

Won't service phone for battery change because of slight bend. Disappointed, don't think I'll buy anymore apple products anytime soon.

Terrible. Uneducated on their service. Was told the brand new apple phone we bought may not work... couldn't access our account... I ended up accessing the account on my own with internet research under five minutes. Should have done this originally. Sad they don't know how to help with simple problems. The rep at the store was at least nice and kind. read more

I went in to the Apple store to restore my iPhone. It only took 5min to do so. They are friendly people there with no bad attitudes! The person who helped me out said there was lint in my iPhone USB port. I could not believe it. He got a special tool one that I don't have and he took care of it. Thank you Apple! Blair. read more

Can I give them less than one star??? I am glad I am not the only one who is aware of the horrible customer service at this store. "Genius bar"?? I think they really believe it. Never again will I buy from this store. Are all Mac stores like this now?? I remember when Mac employees were friendly -- just like the guy in the commercial. read more

First of all I want to express my previous appreciation for most things apple. Had the old 2e back in the day. For this apple store I find it necessary to get on yelp and express disbelief in the lack of customer service. Rude, unhelpful, uncaring, and arrogant are just a few of the adjective's that I can use while attempting to censor myself. I highly recommend trying another store. read more

Had the most rude and disturbing customer service - I left the store vowing never to go back. After asking the sales associate a question about the new iPhone and if I could see the colors and if there was a demo version, he stared at me blankly and actually said 'I'm feeling some hostility toward you - I've already answered your question about when the iPhone comes out'. I am still in shock/dumbfounded.. Who talks to a customer like that?? Apple - you really need to vet your sales force - I'm a long time customer but that was such a turn off that I may not stay one. read more

Worry customer service. I went to get a battery replacement on my iPhone 6 and this genius stupid told me they won't perform a repair on my phone because my phone look little bend and that's why my screen is sitting little up from the frame. I clearly see no bend , I see screen little up and what do u expect from a 4 years old phone. I think they just don't want to do it because they have to do it just for $29. If they had to do it for $79 they would happily do it. read more

Had an appointment to have my Iphone 4s fixed (the sleep button stopped working) Came in before the mall opened, so it was just actual customers needing help. Was greeted by two very friendly Apple clerks and within minutes my phone was looked at and replaced (No out of pocket money on my end, as I was within my warranty) Before checking out, they walked me through deleting my old phone so I can leave knowing none of my information would be tampered with. It was the easiest transaction I have had anywhere. If you ever feel like buying an apple product, I suggest you make an appointment early in the morning when there is not a child in sight. read more

Genius Bar replaced iPhone 7 Battery last week. Placed phone on the charger last night and when I picked up the phone this morning it was dead. Tried three different chargers and cables and couldn't get the iPhone to take a charge. Decided to go into Apple store on July 4th expecting to be told I would need a new phone. Upon entering the Apple Store, It only took five minutes before I was in front of a tech. Apple Employee gave me a rundown with the possibility of needing a new phone. Apple Employee tried various diagnostics, and the phone kept crashing. After 45 minutes, I asked if I could be reimbursed for the battery since it had been less than a week old. Tech informed me that Apple said, "give him a new iPhone 7 since we don't know what's wrong with it, and it's the right thing to do." I left the Apple store better than when I entered, ​and it didn't cost me a dime. read more

Zero Customer Service. I called ahead as the new IPhone was just released (I wanted a watch). I was told I only needed an appointment for a phone. Upon arriving I was told to come back in an hour and a half. When I said I only wanted a watch and you already have the order on your pad, she said you will have to come back later. The "manager" then was called. He ask me what he could help me with. When I explained he did not hear a word of what I said and just repeated I would have to wait. I asked to speak to the store manager, I was told he was unavailable. I then called to speak to him and the same person I just talked to came on the phone. Very condescending and zero customer service capability. If I need an Apple product I will never go into this store again. read more

I realized my power/sleep button was having some issues, was hard to actually turn off/on so I decided to go to the apple store, had an appt today with the genius bar ended up being greeted by 4 clerks there, very nice, saw 1 tech named Will, he said "We'd like to replace your phone with a new one." I was literally crossing my fingers under the table, when he came back and said I didn't have to pay the fee, I was a few days past my warranty, I was so happy! I didn't have a bad experience here, thanks Apple! Thanks Will! read more

It's time Apple started acting like the real retailer it wants to be: waiting several days for help with a computer problem makes me wish I had saved money and just bought a Dell. read more

Be very careful about your expectations for having a repair of your I phone here, they are not motivated to fix your problem especially if your phone is an I 6 or 7, the technicians are trained to try to sell you a new phone, total bait and switch. Also, staff really are not customer friendly ie they really don't give a s--t. read more

For all the money society dumps into this place you would think that they can afford better customer service. I tell the girl at the check in area that I wanna add more memory on my iPad. She says I have to delete some stuff as i can't add more memory. But if I wanna stand in the line of 20 people I can get a list of tech support places. I have to stand in line for an hour for a list?? But it only takes apple 5 seconds to run my card for downloads or other purchases. Hummm something is seriously wrong with that company. read more

I am so grateful that I took my computer in when I had a problem with the macbookpro retina screen. They not only diagnosed the issue as a repair Apple would cover but had my computer ready for me in 24 hours. The Apple shop I took it too previously wanted $750 to fix it, but luckily for me, their service failed to meet the customer service standard care. I have found my Apple service people now and I whole heartedly recommend this friendly group of beautiful needs to everyone. read more

I have been working with Apple Care for weeks on an issue with my new 5K monitor, I finally decided to pack up my laptop and head back to the store where I purchased my computer. I asked for a manager and Robert came to the rescue. He listened patiently as I explained (whined) for 10-15 minutes and said let's work on a resolution. He tapped into other resources at the store as needed and I walked out with my problems solved and once again a happy customer of my many Apple product(s). read more

This is the worst apple store! Either on the phone or in person, they are very rude and hang up even before having addressed all your questions. The people helping out in the store are waiting to rush you out without even having walked you through their products, very bad customer focus rather none. I would rather drive 100 miles and go to SF than ever go to this store again read more

I was sent for a small device . I had never been to the apple store before, not so bad. after a 10 min wait a clerk handled my business quick and easy. I am a fan. read more