Just don't do it. The service is awful. The number of technicians to the number of sales people is way off. Two hour wait to factory reset a phone. The sign in process is crazy. The website is not user friendly to making a Genius Bar appointment. They might be good but they don't have the best phones or service. If I did not need this phone for work I would not have bought an Apple. read more

Crowded on weekends....almost like a 1980s used car lot where they only care about sales and skip the details. Tech support is slow. Be prepared ro spend 2-4 hours waiting for support. read more

As a physician on call, my phone becomes critical. When it was malfunctioning, I called and spoke to Apple support. We could not resolve the problem over the phone. They could not get me an appointment until well into next week. It was recommended I walk in and take the next available walk in appointment. What followed was some of the worst customer service that I've experienced in years. I left the hospital, and went immediately to the store. After checking in, I was told it would be between an hour to an hour and a half. I waited. I then received a text telling me to come back at a certain time because it looked like I might go a few minutes early. When I went back to the scheduler, I was told they made a mistake and it would be another half hour at least. After waiting two hours and being told several times that it would still be another half hour, I gave up and had to return to the hospital. No one ever did it look at my phone and no actual assistance was offered. Two 'managers' listened politely but simply said sorry, nothing we can do about it. Many Apple stores are busy and I've been to a few of them. I've always had excellent service. This particular store left me frustrated and without any resolution of my problem. Moreover their time estimates and their generalized apathetic approach to trying to solve the problem or to be responsible for their lack of accuracy left me feeling like I would not return to any Apple Store let alone this one. I will of course need to get my phone fixed and I will return to Apple. But I will never return to this store. I should've listen to the other online reviews the rated it very poorly in terms of customer service. Overall my experience was less than one star but that's the lowest I could give it. For those who read this, there are other nearby stores at Annapolis and Towson. Avoid this one. read more

The iPhone is SHIT. Like bro why the FUCK is settings calling my girlfriend???? And texting her too smh like she keeps getting constant calls and texts and like leave her alone??? She always blushes when I ask her about it so it's gotta be really stressful and hurting her a lot. I will not stand for this ABUSE!!!!! read more

I had 1 simple question., but first I was subjected to a barrage of questions to direct my call. I don't need to Play 20 questions with a machine before I can ask my 1 question. I ended up on hold for over eight minutes before I hung up. This is no way to run a business. It was Saturday afternoon and I'm sure you were busy,but that's no excuse to not answer the phone. read more

This is the worst Apple Store. If I must use this location to base my experience with the Apple Store in its entirety, I would say that it is the one place I can expect zero customer service and basic consideration for people's time. This is the closest store to me with little traffic and I have to deal with subpar treatment. I wish Apple had some sort of mystery shopper to appear here regularly because it is the absolute worst place I would ever want to go. I literally dread coming here and have reconsidered purchasing a Droid not to deal with it. I would give this place zero stars if possible. Avoid it at all costs if you are able. read more

Rude technicians who seem incapable of listening to customers and are very defensive about product issues. If something is wrong with your device, it's automatically assumed to be your fault. Attitude is negative - "customer is always wrong" and doesn't make me want to buy Apple devices in the future. Not sure the name of the short, female, acne scarred tech is, but she has no sense of how to do customer service and should be retrained. read more

I recently went to the iPhone store my SE had touch screen problems they told me they had to send it to he hub I asked should I back up my contacts they told me I don't have to that I won't lose anything and then when I go receive my phone it's completely whipped I lost all my contacts and information I had work contacts. Don't believe what they tell you back up your contacts. They tried to do a google sync but it didn't work I paid money form the App Store to retrieve my contacts it was a waste of 3o dollars I tried to apps read more

Not one person asked me if I needed help after being there 10 minutes. Almost all of the employees are talking to each other. That is a shame considering everything in the store is over $400 read more

Susan should seriously introduce herself before touching a persons phone & watch. I was being helped by another gentlemen when she decided to but in without even offering a name or asking the issue. Susan has a serious attitude problem. & Apple is not the company for bitter women who think they know everything. read more

This location is slightly ok. The Apple store is extremely nice, but always crowded. The service is horrible. You literally have to wait 3 or 4 hours to talk to somebody. When you come in they ask you what you are here for and then they put you on a list and you just sit and wait and wait and wait. Not sure why there is always so many issues with apple products. I just hate that no one will talk to you while you are waiting until you get seen. And then you wait all these hours for them to tell you that you have 2 replace your phone or electronic device. I wanted to get my beats headphones checked out and they told me that I had to make a appointment 1 week later to get them seen. read more

Horrible. I'm only 15 and I know more about my MacBook Pro than these dumb employees. My Mac LCD screen got Very dim all of the sudden and my dad drove me here so they could fix it. We gave it to them and they said they have to replace something. So I was like okay, and we left. When I come back and take it home after I couple days it gets slow as fuck and then we bring it back. They say the motherboard is broken and that they need to replace it. So again I'm like okay, and we leave. A couple days later it shows up at our house, hard drive completely wiped out, all my school work and projects gone.. But I guess that was my fault, seeing as I didn't have an external hard drive at the time. When I open it up its still very slow and the disk drive doesn't work. I take it back and we request a refund of the 1,400 my Mac costs, and they call the manager. She asks me the most ridiculous questions just because she thinks I know shit about computers. "Did you have a lot of applications open?" "What were you doing?" "Were you playing a game?" They took it back and repaired it once again. This time everything was alright. Good thing it was on warranty, otherwise this would have cost my dad 2 pc's.. I'm never bringing my Mac to these losers again, I'm pretty sure I know 100x more than these idiots combined. read more

It's impossible to get an appointment to get anything repaired. When paying $1500+ for a computer, I expect reasonable service when it stops working in less than six months. Needless to say, that IS NOT what I have gotten so far. read more

II know and love my apple products. I've been visiting Apple Stores every time I visit CA, since the first one opened. I see the stores as the coolest places for apple geeks like me - we can play with the stuff, ask questions and seriously damage our credit cards :). When the apple store opened in Towson, I regularly dragged my friends and family over there. I was THRILLED when the store in Columbia opened. So now, why the one star review? Well, it's about the staff. I've been in there five times. I've purchased two ipods, an iphone, software, and taken in my laptop (under warranty) because a recalled battery damaged it. Five out of five times, I've had one or more of the following experiences: been ignored, talked down to, had a mac "genius" give me total misinformation, even after I told him he was wrong he kept at it, but mostly I've been kept waiting, waiting and waiting, while these so-called geniuses talk to their buddies, and to each other and ignore paying customers standing, apple products in hand, trying to give them credit cards. When trying to buy software, which should have taken me about five minutes, I actually left the store after 20 minutes waiting for someone to even acknowledge my presence, met my husband (15 minutes late) and asked him to try and get the attention of one of the staff and buy it. He came out 5 minutes later with the purchase completed. I don't say this lightly but I think the fact that staff are mostly young guys makes a huge difference. The testosterone level in there is pretty high. Three out of the five times I've been (eventually) helped it's been by a much older (sweeter) guy. When he and the guy taking my credit card both told me they had no 16GB phones in stock and I was just done with my purchase of an 8GB phone, the only female employee I have ever seen in there leaned over and told the credit card taking guy that actually they did have 16GBs in stock. This guy, obviously keen to avoid exchange paperwork, tried to talk me into spending $100 less (are you listening apple?) by telling me why the 8GB was the way to go while the woman raised her eyebrows in the background.Like seriously, how does he know from looking at me how many music/video/photo gigs I need to store on my phone? He tells me 8 GB is actually too many for the average user like me. I did make him change it. I also had a run around experience trying to get them to repair under warranty the damage the battery meltdown caused to my laptop (it was warped from heat which is a known issue, discussed on the user groups, but since the "genius" had never heard of it, and there was no manager " there's nothing we can do" was the attitude. Towson, of course, took care of it). Look, I don't want to buy into any election year gender stuff in this review but seriously, I hear it from my friends and neighbors too, the guys in the apple store in Columbia are all about each other, and not much for the customers. Five out of five of my own experiences have been awful. I go to Towson now because in Columbia, it's just too disappointing to be surrounded by all the coolest things, and a bunch of employees who think so little of the products, they'll say anything just so they don't have to do an exchange, AND they don't know the products. I had one guy totally tell me the wrong thing about a car adapter, insisting he, not the writing on the box, was right (I checked amazon reviews, he was wrong). In Towson, I get the knowledgeable polite behavior I've always had in CA, and the employees seem like a responsive bunch of people who are about the products, not their egos. read more

I've been a mac owner for 18 years now and for the first time I had a computer issue that I could not resolve myself. My iMac began freezing a few weeks ago and I ran every diagnostic test and mac trick in the book. I then reverted back to a time machine back up with still the same issues. After weeks of frustration, I decided to take it to the Apple store in Columbia. They had it for 6 days before they told me it need a new hard drive. Picked up my iMac on day 7 and as soon as I started it up (fresh clean re-installed Snow leopard) it froze up within 5 minutes. I didn't even transfer any files or apps yet! It was a clean machine! What the hell did they do? They charged my $350 and now it is worse than before. Terrible first experience with Apple service. Thinking of buying a PC tonight. I only gave them 1 star because the system makes you give at least one. read more

My AirPod pros' transparency and noise cancellation mode stopped working so I talked to an Apple girl on the phone and she told me I had 2 options: send AirPods in to get repaired or go into apple store. I told her I wanna send them in cause the closest apple store is over an hour from my house. She told me "going into the store will be the fastest and easiest option." Then proceeded to make an appointment at Apple Columbia after I told her I just wanted to send them in. We go an hour away to the apple store and they tell us "we don't have the replacements in stock so we'll order them and you can come back in a couple days." Couple days later, i get an email saying the replacements are in and to come back in at anytime to pick them up. We were informed that they had to run a diagnostic that would take an hour so we prepared for that. We get to apple store at 5pm and they tell us "you needed an appointment (they never told us that before) and the closest appointment is at 7:30." We already drove all the way out there twice so we said sure, and we waited the 2.5 hours. We go back in at 7:20 and they say "we're running late so we pushing your appointment back to 8:00." So again, we sit and wait. Until 8:45, 15 minutes before they close, someone finally talks to us. The girl is holding the replacement Airpods with my name on them in her hand but she tells me she needs to run the diagnostic. So they do. 9:05 they come back out and tell us "your AirPods passes all the tests, we can't do anything, sorry!" We left with the broken AirPods and 8 hours lost from waiting/driving. read more

Standard experience for a place that doesn't seem to understand that they need to take more time to help older consumers understand concepts, software and equipment. They act like they only want younger customers sometimes and can be very off putting. Oh well guess they don't need me as a customer. read more

HORRIBLE HORRIBLE SERVICE! had the worst apple experience here. My iphone 4s that is less then a year old has been acting up with the camera freezing constantly and locking my phone. This was a big hassle when i was traveling since every time i went to take a picture it would lock and i would have to hard shut off my phone and reboot it. Luckily it doesn't happen every time but about 50% of the time. So i made an appointment for the genius bar...i arrived 5 minutes early but wasn't helped until about 30 minutes after. Then after explaining the problem the guy says "what do you expect me to do about it- you have to be clear as to what you want." umm...FIX IT!!! Isn't it YOUR job to tell me what you can do for me? He was SO rude I almost wanted to boycott all apple products. Ugh. I wish i got his name so that i could call in a complaint! read more

Poor customer service! Came in on a Sunday for a repair and told I would need an appointment and there were none available that day. Made an appointment for Thursday and when I arrived Thursday on time was told my name was not on the list of appointments, but if I wanted to wait around for 40 minutes, someone should be available to fit me in then. I think not!!! read more

So, I dropped my iPhone and cracked the screen (the first time EVER!) And of course, like most people who can't live without their phones, I called my phone company right away to see what my options were. T-Mobile expressed that I had Apple Care and could visit the Columbia or Towson Apple Store to repair my phones cracked screen. The next morning, I woke up and dashed right to the Columbia location; I arrived as soon as the mall opened and was at the store by 10:08am, the store already had a line of people waiting. I was assisted within 5 minutes and given information on the repair, the technician wasn't scheduled to arrive to the store until11:00am, I waited and received a text when they arrived. Everything in this store is current so I received a text for everything and once my phone was taken I was given an arrival time to come back when the phone should've been done. All in all, it took the technician 2 hours to complete the job and I left the store at almost 2pm in the afternoon. Super contemporary location, nice staff, just a super long wait time and busy location. read more

I made an appointment for 2:25 pm and arrived at 2:15 pm. I was told I could not check in until 2:20 pm. I checked in and watched people who came in after me, be helped. 15 minutes passed, many store employees walking around aimlessly yet still no one addressed me. 20 minutes later, still sitting there unacknowledged, I went back up to the girl I checked in with to check the delay. She looked at me like she had never seen me before. I asked how much longer the wait would be and she said she would put my name at the top of the list so I would be next in line. Not sure why this wasn't already done but ok, I waited. Going on 30 minutes remaining unacknowledged, I asked for a manager. I explain my situation and am told the employees must be "cherry picking" and that is why I was being ignored. She proceeds to tell me that they work on commission and since I have Apple Care and the employee knows this, they skip over me to help someone that will yield them more commission. She then tells me she will put my name at the top of the list and lock it in so no one can bypass me again. I wait another 10 minutes watching more people be served before me. Finally, at 3:10 pm (45 minutes after my scheduled appointment time) I am approached. I am told it will take them 2 hours and 30 minutes to fix my phone. I come back and am told they could not fix my phone so they were just going to give me a new one. I waited almost 3 hours for them to tell me this? They could've taken a phone number for me and called me as soon as they new that so I wouldn't have to wait 2 hours. This was a horrible experience from start to finish. If I wasn't in such a need for their services, I would have walked out. read more

The manger I deal with tonight was really rude ..... The fact that they actually thought I stole my brothers phone is ridiculous. Service sucks here. I usually get great service but not today read more

Long line just to speak with the check-in lady "Green iPad" for a Genius Bar appointment a few days ago. The man took my MacBook to the back to "run diagnostics" and returned by telling me that I needed to pay $750 to fix my MacBook over some liquid damage. W.T.F? Way too much money. I ended up going to SimplyMac (Apple Specialists) in Bowie, MD. They opened my MacBook right in front of me and it appeared to look super clean. Since I have an insurance (CareSquared - liquid and handling damage is protected) I got my MacBook sent to be fixed at the same Apple repair but for FREE! I can't believe these thieves tried to swindle me out of my money. read more

A good place to buy apple products with a knowledgeable staff.

God help you if you need help from the Genius Bar. I had to come back 3 times because I just didn't have 3 hours to wait for help. I finally took off from work to come midweek at 3pm. I still had to wait 2 hours though the store was half empty read more

I can't even begin to tell you how bad this store is but I will tell you that if I was running this store I would fire the whole staff! I can't believe that Steve Jobs would want these people working for Apple. I am done! If I very buy another Apple product well I will never Samsung here I come oh yea they are not even a 1 star store go somewhere else! read more

Make an appointment to get a faulty battery replaced. Get there, and wait, and wait, and wait. So this is what hell is like.

Absolutely horrible service. Rude sales people who feel that selling Apple products entitles them to talk down to people. Apple is making it very easy for me to walk away from my iPhone at my next upgrade. read more

I entered the Columbia mall location about a month ago not knowing a single thing about my iPad mini which I received as a gift on a weekday evening which I would assume to be a peak time of day given the amount traffic which came thru while I was being helped. I initially just wanted to purchase a case for my new gift when Gloria Azucena was assigned to help me. After a brief discussion she realized i had no concept of the tool I held in my hands and proceeded to take almost an hour in giving me a crash course on my gift. She was most knowledgable and went beyond what I believe to be amazing customer service to the point of providing me with pen and paper to write down my passwords, she must have repeated herself 100 times to make sure that I understood the answers to the questions I was asking with enthusiasm I might add. So... If your new to apple products and need a patient, fun teacher Gloria is the one to speak to. Hers is a business card I won't allow to get lost amongst the pile I receive while shopping. Justin Spicknall read more

I went there the week before Thanksgiving to have my iPhone 7 looked at since with the update it knocked my phone off the cellular network so basically became a useless phone if I wasn't on Wi-Fi. Even with the high traffic volume in the store they were able to get to me in a reasonable time. The two people who helped me were extremely friendly, personable and very patient as it took some time trying to contact my cellular network after they gave me a loaner phone to use. I always appreciate how Apple takes responsibility for their products and offers to replace it free of charge if there's a default issue. Years ago I had a different issue where they replaced it free of charge as well. read more

Worst customer service ever!! We came in to ask a few questions and the guy seemed like we were bothering him and he would rather just stand there. I really wanted a unlocked iphone and was willing to spend the money to get it for when I travel, but now im gonna save my money and get an android phone. read more

I came in knowing exactly what I wanted, checked in and they quoted me a 30-40 minute wait. I was helped in less than 20 minutes. Don't get me wrong, the store was a madhouse considering it was 1:30 on a Wednesday, but they definitely seemed to have an efficient system in place to help customers. The employee who assisted me never seemed even remotely frazzled by how packed they were. Completely cool, calm and collected. I also learned that Apple has a military/federal employee discount. Not gonna complain about $100 off of my new MacBook Pro even if I did have to buy all new adapters (which he brought to me). He was very knowledgeable and accommodating. I'm glad to have found my new go-to Apple store for all of my technological needs. read more

I went to this store about one week ago due to Macbook hard drive issues. The worker (an Indian male) was friendly when he found out that I am Deaf. He respectfully communicated and typed on iPad note; he understood when I explained about hard drive issues. He immediately tried to transfer my old files to back up files (but it did not work because it was completely dead). He explained that his crew will fix it for free because my Macbook was only 6 months old. Two days later, they emailed and notified me to pick my Macbook. I did not get the chance to meet the same worker, I was assigned to another worker (a female with orange/reddish curly hair). She was friendly and explained what she did to my Macbook. She communicated to me by iPhone note. I would have to pay $220 for everything, but they did it for free! Apple rocks! read more

Was really quick service. Recommend going during the week if you can. Michael was super nice and helpful and was in and out in a total of 35 min. read more

Terrible. Had they told me my wait for their "Genius" bar was going to be over an hour and a half I would have walked away. For some reason they have to text you three times before they'll even see you. I suggest going to a different location. Service is slow and their "genius" management decided to have a staff meeting while the wait was extremely long. Left after an hour and 25 minutes while still waiting for their second text. No thanks, no wonder this store has such bad reviews. read more

The only thing good I have to say is that they were friendly. However they were not useful. With over, 7 employees sitting around, or just talking casually I couldn't understand why no one could inspect my laptop. Told me that I would have to wait up to 6 hrs. Other places not til Wednesday. Apple should evaluate a new way to help their customers with repairs. read more

Worst apple customer service, trying to fix my phone all they say sorry men we try help you out .

No stars for Apple. My 6 month old iPhone 6S, died suddenly went to the store apparently they found out (when they went behind closed doors) that Chinese consumer group discovered a bad battery. The manager (Nick) told sales person to give me a new phone. However because of the upcoming recall they could not override the Apple system to allow that. They let me walk out without a working phone. When I saw report about batteries being bad, I called the store they acted like they didn't know what I was talking about. I decided I was done with Apple forever. Will not be brainwashed by them. Went back to Android, Google Pixel XL..couldn't be happier. My first & last iPhone will remind me to never go there. The store is like a zoo, they don't even look at you. So uncomfortable..sales people try to help 5 people at once. Worst experience in a store ever #appleisalemon read more

This place rocks! Their salespeople are all very helpful and will willingly admit when they don't know the answer to something while pointing to someone who does or suggesting a place to get the problem solved. The price is a little high, but that goes with the Apple name. I and my family have bought two computers, two printers, 4 Nanos and various other accessories for the iPods. If you have never tried an Apple computer go there! If you have and you don't understand them, go there. If you like Apples, I don't have to tell you- you'll go on your own. This place is so helpful and fun to be at that I sometimes find myself inventing excuses to got there! read more

The apple store is always jam packed no matter what time of the day you go and most of the "customers" are just playing around with devices with no intention of actually buying anything. As annoying as this may be, I've never had an issue getting repairs to my phone or computer and I almost always go without an appointment. Even during the time when the newest iPhone comes out, I'm always promptly greeted and accommodated. There have been times I've had to wait but they just let me know what time I can get my device checked out and I shop a little and grab something to eat in the meantime. The person who comes to do my repairs is always upbeat and professional which helps calm me down because I'm usually nervous wreck because I rely heavily on my phone and laptop. The best part is being able to use the devices on display to check emails, social media, etc. while I wait. The point is, you have to be prepared to walk into a little bit of chaos and a possibly a long wait if you don't have an appointment for service or a repair. I left off one star because I wish they did a better job of policing those who stand around for hours fooling with equipment and don't buy anything. Other than that, I have complaints about the apple store and they have a customer for life. read more