My recent experience with Wireless Advocates was a complete emotional, time-wasting nightmare, not so much because of the kiosk's staff, but because of the company themselves. Here's what happened: After extensive research online, I decided that the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G was the ideal phone for me and my budget. I went to the kiosk in the Costco - Eastvale, CA store, but was told they had none in stock and did not expect to get any in the future. (Bummer!) However, there were 30+ in stock at the Chino Hills, CA store, and a similar quantity in the Montclair store. (YAY!) I arrived at the Chino Hills kiosk (#473) about 2 hours later where "Christian" confirmed the inventory and quoted me a great price of $529. (YAY!) Then he gave me the bad news: "Our system is down so I can't sell it to you right now." (Bummer!) I asked him when he expected it to be back up, but he told me it had been down a long time and he really didn't know, but he took my number to call me when it came back online. So I shopped for about 45mins and checked back at the kiosk before leaving. (System was still down.) (Bummer!) Christian confirmed that he had my number and would call me when the system was back up, hopefully the next morning. The next day I got no call, so I called them in the afternoon, and was told the system was still down. (Bummer!) I'm thinking, 'How can a business, a 'technical retail business', function this way? I'm a customer with the money, you're a business with the available product in your hands, but 'you can't sell me anything?' Now, I've never been to college, and I'm no business expert but, what's wrong with this business model? I got to wondering if this was something peculiar to the Chino Hills kiosk, so I called the Wireless Advocates corporate offices. I was told that, indeed, they were having nationwide system software issues over a period of several days. She asked which state and city's kiosk I was dealing with, and confirmed that it was still down but they were working on it. (Bummer!) I called the kiosk the next morning and was told that their system was up and working again! (That's funny; no one called to let me know that, but: YAY, it's up! This is it! Soon I will have a new phone without a broken screen, no more annoying notices that I need to free up memory on my 32GB LG G6, no more disabled lock because the fingerprint reader no longer works to unlock it! This is exciting!!!) An hour later I arrive at the kiosk and wait 20 minutes for an available salesperson. Finally, I direct the lady's attention to their Samsung S20 FE 5G display and say "I'll take one of those, please!" She says, "Let me see if we have any of those.", to which I replied confidently, "You have at least 30 in stock." She then pulls out some product printout sheet and shows me a line indicating that it's no longer available. She confirms this with her manager who proceeds to tell me that "They were 'pulled' this morning." WHAT?????? What do you mean "They were pulled this morning?" (This is no longer just a BUMMER. Now I'm LIVID!) I'll cut to the chase: My dear wife got Marc, the Costco store manager, involved. He agreed to meet me at the kiosk, (since I wasn't 'packing heat'.) He did everything in his power; checked to see if the phones had actually left the building yet, and if there was somehow a way to get one to ring up for me. (That didn't work.) He then called the Montclair kiosk to see if they still had their reported inventory, (which they did; it hadn't been pulled yet. - YAY!). He then asked their staff to actually go through the motions of 'ringing one up', so that if I went there they could sell it to me. They tried, but the system would not allow it. Marc was great!!! He empathetically did all he could do within his (Costco's) power. But this was a Wireless Advocate problem. It was their inventory, not Costco's, so his hands were tied. (Final BUMMER!!!) Summary: We had purchased several other phones from this location in the past, and our experiences were okay. But this fiasco revealed to me what a poor excuse for a technology retailer looks like. How they ever won the contract to place their kiosks that occupy the highly-esteemed retail floorspace in Costco warehouses across the nation is a mystery to me. My vote would be to replace Wireless Advocates' kiosks with those of a company that treats its customers like Costco treats theirs. read more

Wireless Advocates - Photo of their display taken HOURS AFTER they could no longer sell them. - Electronics Near Me - Chino Hills, California

FIVE Stars for this Verizon Kiosk which is inside the Costco @ Chino Hills. I originally came in on Saturday 9/16 and pre-ordered the iPhone XS Max in space grey 256 GB Amber assisted me with the order and was so nice, she originally informed me 2-3 weeks. To my pleasant surprise the phone came in a couple days ago but due to my busy work schedule I did not pick up until early this morning. I would suggest going in the morning prior to 11 AM, less people shopping at this hour and you may not have to wait as long to be assisted. After all this is a very busy Costco location. So if you gotta wait don't blame the employees here, it's not their fault. Today while picking up I was assisted by Karen & Tina who were so nice and patient with me. They even helped get my new phone partially set up and going for me. I would highly recommended getting the iPhone insurance which is only $.38 cents per day, well worth the price when you consider what the cost is to repair these phones. Thanks again for your patience and help on my two visits. Loving my new phone which I finished setting up a short while ago. Another plus is I will be getting a $30 Costco gift card shortly in the mail which will off set the $30 upgrade fee Joe H. read more

Wireless Advocates - Electronics Near Me - Chino Hills, California

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